Unitarian Changes and Weekend Miscellany

Last weekend witnessed two short sessions on strategic planning for the future of the Melbourne Unitarian Church. Over the past two years there have been some substantial improvements; weekly attendance has increased from around 28 to over 40, and full membership has increased from 47 to just under 100 - all within the targets I argued for just over a year ago. The limits of the existing organisational distribution of power, is however beginning to show some strain. There is also the issue of an increasing number of newer (and even youthful) members joining which has caused concerns with some of the establishment. Organisational changes are, of course, utterly inevitable. Societies change, technologies change, and our knowledge changes. If an organisation does not adapt to such changes, and adapt at least equal to the rate of change, it will inevitably decline. As Heraclitus remarked: "Nothing endures but change."

Prior to the Sunday session however was a very well-attended address by Rev. Peter Ferguson, a former Anglican, who spoke on heresy, specifically Michael Servetus, but also on the ethical toleration of Sebastian Castellio, whom he considered the first modern Unitarian. After that participated in a game of Diaspora and finished reading Hall's annotated Beowulf, which does belong to a very intersting point of historical literature combining both Christian and old pagan influences.