Excerpts from our latest publication

I believe that imagination is stronger than knowledge - myth is more potent than history - dreams are more powerful than facts - hope always triumphs over experience - laughter is the cure for grief - love is stronger than death.

- Robert Fulghum

From the minister

Reeling in the Year

Is it just me, or has 2012 lurched in with more than usual confusion?

This is supposed to be a very big one. Not only are the Olympic Games looming, but we have also to expect much fanfare as the Queen celebrates her 60th year in the royal box. Already there are fears that the one will outshine the other, so some fond royalists want to give her a new royal yacht to even things out. Football fans are all on tenterhooks about the European championships. Americans are fully engaged in that orgy of spending and name-calling they call the U.S. presidential elections. And to add to the fun, this is, according to some, the last year of Planet Earth.

The Mayan calendar, now some 5125 years old, runs out in December. This has interestingly coincided with some ancient predictions from Europe. St Malachi in the 11th century prophesied that the world would end during the reign of the 112th Pope. The one we have now is the 111th, and he’s in his eighties. Now we hear from some science boffins that the Earth’s magnetic field is getting too weak to protect us from cosmic rays just as the Sun gets tetchy and produces some mighty solar storms.

When my friend Steven Appleby and I wrote our book, we thought that the tongue-in-cheek nature of the title (The Coffee Table Book of Doom) made it clear that we were taking the, er, Mickey out of the Apocalyptic forecasts. I went on the radio three times in a single day, hoping to make that clear, but then I got a phone call from a BBC television programme called The Big Questions. This is aired on Sunday morning, so of course I’ve never seen it. At first I thought, Oh Boy — this is a great opportunity for publicity! They offered to take me to Manchester, put me up in a hotel and drive me to and from the studio. A researcher said she’d ring me back with details. I had my best suit dry cleaned and practised in front of the mirror. When the phone call finally came, her first question was, "You’re a Unitarian minister, right?" I confirmed it. Then she said, "Do you believe humanity needs to repent to avoid the Doom that’s coming in 2012?"

My plans dissolved within seconds. I realised that they were looking for a religious loony who would spice up the debate. I started a complicated ramble about Unitarianism, and why such things were impossible. She faded away rapidly, with a vague promise to ring me back.

It was disappointing, but also depressing to realise that they had no idea who or what Unitarians are. And not only did the clever oxymoron of the book title not work, but we liberal, forward-looking religionists were lumped with the Bible decoders and Internet paranoids.

Oh well. It’s only February. The year still has time to improve.

- Art Lester