t h e
F L A M E
The Newsletter of Richmond and Putney Unitarians
June 2016
CREATING A COVENANT
There is, as you may be aware, an existing RPUC ‘aims and purposes’ document drawn up
in the time when the Rev. Linda Hart was your minister. Last December many of you came
along to the small group sessions to discuss how we might build on this to create a covenant
expressing the common values of our congregation. As a non-creedal and non-dogmatic
religion we use a covenant, which is a living statement, albeit sometimes aspirational, to
remind us of who we are as a community. The discussions in December raised some very
interesting points as people shared what they would like to see in a RPUC covenant. There
is no way that anyone will be 100 per cent happy with any covenant presented, so what I
am seeking is a general consensus. Please take a look at the covenant statement below
which is the best attempt so far to amalgamate all the suggestions from the December
sessions. This is meant to be a continuing conversation. so please feel free to feed back
your comments to me at [email protected].
We commit to the way of open hearts and open minds.
We celebrate our common values, especially freedom of thought and belief, but also
support each other as we find and follow our own spiritual path.
We commit to working with each other as a community, while respecting our
differences and valuing our diversity. We commit to compassion, understanding
and honesty as the touchstones in our dealings with each other.
We seek to develop our church and its service in our world. We recognise our
heritage and act as stewards for those who come after us.
Simon
Our website : www.rpuc.o rg.uk
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RPUC: The Movie
Help with the Newsletter
Mary will be unavailable to send out the July edition of
the newsletter, and we are looking for a volunteer to
help us out. The task involves picking up the printed
copies of the Flame from the printers in or around the
last week in June, sending out copies to our mail subscribers (address labels and envelopes will be provided)
and bringing the remaining newsletters into church to
be handed out to new visitors. The printers are based in
Sunbury, and the mailout is not a huge task, as most of
our subscribers now receive the newsletter via email. If
you are able to help out, please speak to me or drop a
lone to the newsletter email.
RPUC made its first foray on to the silver screen last
month. More precisely – and prosaically – we made
our first YouTube video – a twenty-minute film of
Simon’s sermon on ‘Imagination, spirituality and scifi’. Shot on a low-resolution, inferior laptop webcam
(we really need some better kit – but even Spielberg
started small), the video lacks the sumptuous visual
polish of such films such Blade Runner and 2001: A
Space Odyssey, but at least both films are namechecked in the course of Simon’s address. Intrigued?
Then check it out for yourself by going to the
‘Sermons’ page of our website at
www.rpuc.org/sermons and following the link.
Mary’s unavailability covers her coffee rota duties in June
and July too. If you are able to help out with our postservice coffee, whether on a short-term or permanent basis, please speak to one of our existing baristas in church.
David Watson
YOUR RPUC
An Inclusive Community
On that website page you’ll also find there a small
selection of sermons in downloadable text format, as
well as an audio recording. We hope to gradually build
up this facility to offer interested people an insight into
our style of worship as well as existing congregation
members a chance to catch up on missed sermons
(RPUC iPlayer?) when they are unable (or too lazy?) to
make it on any given Sunday. (Who knows, we might
one day try out the YouTube live streaming tool, so you
can enjoy Sunday services from the comfort of your
own home!)
At RPUC we aim to be open and inclusive to
everyone who walks through our doors, and
transparent in our governance. Any member of
the congregation is entitled to attend our church
management committee meetings, which usually
take place on the first Sunday of the month, after
the service. We also circulate the minutes from
these meetings to anyone who requests to see
them. If you wish to be included on the mailing
list for management committee minutes please
contact us via the newsletter email:
[email protected].
Do have a look at our brand spanking new website and
offer feedback and suggestions for any other content
we might include there. The Development Group is not
holding formal meetings at present, but development
work continues, and we are open to all ideas, large or
small, for raising the profile of our congregation and
engaging a wider range of people in our community. If
you have any bright ideas, speak to me or Simon in
church or send an email to the newsletter address.
To infinity and beyond . . .
Newsletter
If you have picked up this newsletter in church
and would like to receive it every month by email,
please contact: [email protected].
David Watson
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Services in JUNE
All services by Rev. Simon Ramsay, unless otherwise indicated
Sunday 5 June 11 am
Preacher: Lindsay Stevens
Organist: Margaret Lord
Coffee: joint effort
(Management Committee meeting after the service - all are welcome to attend)
Sunday 12 June, 11 am
Preacher: Lindsay Stevens
Organist: Margaret Lord
Coffee: David Knight
Sunday 19 June, 11 am
Voluntary simplicity: Increasingly in life I want to shed all the clutter! And it is my experience that by making
my needs more simple that life becomes more joyful. In this service I will look at some of the well-respected
advocates of voluntary simplicity and some simple measures of how we might incorporate the values of simple
living in to our daily lives.
Organist: Margaret Lord
(Choir practice after the service)
Coffee: joint effort
Sunday 26 June, 11 am
Living in harmony with life: It is Choir Sunday, and our choir, augmented by visiting accomplished singers,
will be singing three songs, including 'O for the wings of a dove', during the service. It seemed apt, therefore,
to look at the theme of harmony and how we might be able to become more harmonious in our personal and
communal lives.
Organist: Margaret Lord
Coffee: joint effort
(Bring-and-share lunch after the service. Please bring enough food for yourself and some extra for visitors to
the church.)
You are welcome to join us for coffee and fellowship after the Sunday service
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Vineyard Lunch
In April we hosted the Vineyard lunch, which aims to provide a good Sunday meal for those in need. On this
particular Sunday we saw many of our numbers, along with the local humanist group, rolling up our sleeves to
give a hand. It really was a light-hearted and wonderful occasion. It is the perfect example of how we may
manifest our spiritual ideals in action. Following the Vineyard lunch we were invited by Ian and Tina (humanists)
to go and have lunch ourselves where we were, in turn, looked after and provided for! I would like to extend a
heartfelt thanks for their hospitality!
Simon
What is the collective noun for a group of Unitarian
ministers?
Answers on a postcard, please …
Minister’s holiday
I will be on annual leave from 1st of June until 14th
June. During this time I will be unavailable to deal
with church issues but in case of an emergency please
call my number which is printed on the back of the
Flame.
Lindsay will taking the first two service in June. There
will be no meditation for the first two weeks in June.
Simon
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Calendar for JUNE
Every Wednesday, 2–3 pm
(No sessions on 1 June and 8 June)
Coffee with the minister
Simon will be available tat Tide tables near Richmond
Bridge if you wish to drop by for a chat. One-to-one
pastoral sessions are also bookable during this time or
at any other time needed.
Contact: Rev. Simon Ramsay
Every Wednesday, 7–8 pm
(No sessions on 1 June and 8 June)
Meditation
With readings, music and lots of silence, this is a
chance to find an inner stillness and peace. The sessions
are suitable for absolute beginners and are open to all,
though we ask for a voluntary contribution of £2 per
session (free to church members).
Contact: Rev. Simon Ramsay
Wednesday 1 June, 1–3 pm (Holland Room)
Stitches and Stories
Our craft and storytelling group meets to knit, crochet
or sew items to be donated to charity. Good company
and good causes make for a lovely afternoon.
Contact: Margaret Lord
Sunday 18 October, 12.30 pm
Choir practice
A small choir, led by our director of music, Margaret
Lord, practises on the third Sunday of each month, also
introducing an unfamiliar song during the service on
that day. Periodically they have a Choir Sunday, when
with numbers swelled by visiting accomplished singers,
they sing three or four songs during the service.
New voices of all music abilities will be made most
welcome.
Contact: Margaret Lord
Friday 3 June, 7.30–9 pm
Creative Journaling
The journaling group, all warmly welcomed, shares
silence, a check-in, takes time for writing or reflection,
some time for sharing as wished. Sometimes we work
with a theme and sometimes the theme emerges out of
our check-in.
Contact: Kitty Lloyd-Lawrence, Helen Nicholls
Sunday 26 June, 12.30 pm
Bring and share lunch
A congregational lunch after the service. Please make a
dish that is enough for you and maybe one other to
ensure that everyone will be fed!
Contact:: Simon Ramsay
Saturday 4 June, 10 am–1 am
Gardening Club
Come for a short time or a longer time – any help or
moral support is welcome. There is a jungle to cut
down, where you can't do anything wrong!!
Contact: Margaret Lord
Sunday 5 June, 12.30–2 pm
Management Committee Meeting
As is our tradition, these are open to all to attend, unless
a sensitive agenda item is tabled.
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There was also the rectangular Curtain, of which some
four-foot-high walls have recently been excavated. As
archaeologist Julian Bowsher says, ‘It now seems clear
that the playhouse was a conversion of an earlier tenement – a block of flats – later converted back into a tenement again’ (Guardian, 18 May 2016).
Favourite
Places
Yet another theatre was the Rose. Since Kingston is our
nearest town, I was happy to support fund-raising
events for the Rose Theatre finally built there about
nine years ago. I wasn’t surprised to learn that the
twenty-first-century architect based his designs on the
1587 Rose Theatre on the South Bank.
To return to the Elizabethan theatre, James Burbage, an
actor-manager, obtained a twenty-one-year lease with
permission to build the first playhouse. Before this time
plays were mostly performed in inn-yards. Theatres
built in the City of London were subject to various regulations. Twenty-one years later the troupe failed to
agree new terms, and the Chamberlain’s Men, as they
were now called, were forced to move to the Curtain.
However, Burbage found a clause in their former lease
allowing them to dismantle Theatre.
Interesting places to visit,
on and off the beaten track
Shakespeare’s Globe
Shakespeare’s Globe was recreated on the South Bank
in the 1990s, thanks to an American, Sam Wanamaker,
and later his daughter Zoë. I booked early for a performance that first season and have continued to patronise it
most years. Most recently we visited the new indoor
theatre nearby called the Sam Wanamaker Theatre.
The work of dismantling Theatre and transporting the
timber across the River Thames to Southwark was undertaken by the acting troupe themselves. (I think it
was under cover of darkness, but perhaps the tale got
embroidered in the telling). They had ideas for improvements, so it wasn’t just reassembled. This new
building, erected in 1597–9, in which Shakespeare had
a financial stake, became the Globe. This theatre could
hold well over a thousand people, and because it was
situated on the South Bank of the Thames was not subject to the City regulations.
When I began secondary school, the headmistress took
all the new girls for ‘Speech’ once a week so that she
got to know the sixty-six pupils new. I remember little
beyond that fact that she once told us why it was so essential to learn poems and Shakespearean passages of
verse by heart. Apparently this ultra-respectable lady
had once been locked out of Newnham College, Cambridge, because she returned after lights out. She sought
refuge on the netball court, where she spent the entire
night reciting Shakespeare out loud.
There are a number of sketches and prints of London
showing the architecture of the Globe Theatre; there are
even contemporary maps showing it; but there is no picture of the interior of that Globe. However, an interior
view of another theatre, the Swan, has survived. Thus,
twentieth-century architects used the interior of the Swan
theatre as a guide when constructing the new Globe..
Taking Drama as a subsidiary subject at university, I
shouldn’t have been surprised in those academic times
that Drama didn’t consist of acting. Only those taking
Honours Drama were invited to do that! However, we
certainly learned the History of Drama. One snippet of
information that I’ve managed to show off occasionally
is the fact that the first purpose-built theatre in London
was not the Globe; it was called Theatre and was in
Shoreditch. Armed with such knowledge, no wonder a
school friend and I met up in Stratford to commemorate
400 years since Shakespeare’s birth – and here we are
now celebrating 400 years since his death.
We have a pretty good idea of the props they used. We
know, for instance, that they fired a real cannon, and
used fireworks and smoke effects for battle scenes. The
stage floor had trap-doors allowing for surprising
incidents. Music was a new addition to the Globe
productions. Those who have visited the present-day
Shakespeare’s Globe will remember that virtually every
play finds an excuse for music and dancing – indeed
each Elizabethan play there seems to end with a dance.
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Performances were, of course, held in the afternoon,
because there was no artificial lighting. Sometimes theatre patrons were quite rowdy, and apparently upperclass women would wear a mask to disguise their identity. The groundlings (the ordinary folk) would pay
their one penny to stand in the ‘pit’ of the theatre, but
the gentry would pay to sit in the galleries, often using
cushions for comfort. (Modern theatregoers also find
the wooden seats very hard, and almost everyone seems
to hire a cushion!) Rich nobles would watch the play
from a chair set on the side of the Globe stage itself.
Those of you who have visited the Rose theatre in
Kingston will know that a number of people bring or
hire a cushion to sit in front of the seats in the stalls, i.e.
where the Elizabethan pit would have been.
The SpiritualPULSE is the District’s podcast (online
radio programme) and was launched a couple of years
ago by Rev. David Usher. After a hiatus, regular
episodes are back up and running again, beginning with
a special broadcast (funded by the Hibbert Trust) of
Alan Ruston’s article on ‘Unitarian Attitudes towards
WWI’. Claire MacDonald and Kate Dean will be
producing monthly episodes, which will alternate
between a magazine programme of articles and
interviews one month, and a more meditative podcast
of words and music the next. We want your
submissions!
The success of the Elizabethan theatres, including the
Globe, was such that other forms of Elizabethan entertainment were being seriously affected. At one point,
the growing popularity of theatres led to a law closing
all theatres on Thursdays so that the bull and bear baiting activities would not be neglected!
Do you have something to contribute? We would love
to hear from you, so send us your ideas:
• Tell us about an interesting person to interview
• Send in your articles on spiritual or social justice
themes (max 700 words)
• Record or submit text for poetry, prayers and
meditations
• Suggest suitable sources for Unitarian or royalty-free
music.
Initially Shakespeare was an actor, but the writing of
plays soon took over. There was a constant demand for
new material. Rival theatre companies would send their
members to attend plays so they could produce unauthorised copies of the plays – copyright did not exist.
For a glove-maker’s son educated in the grammar
school in Stratford upon Avon, Shakespeare had an
amazing knowledge, not just of the Bible, Psalms, classical and medieval history, but also of herbs and plants,
as is apparent in his comedies, histories and tragedies.
Perhaps that is what led to suggestions that an aristocrat
or university graduate must have written these plays.
still believe it was the man from Stratford.
For more information, please contact Claire
MacDonald, [email protected], or Kate Dean,
[email protected].
How to listen
You can stream, download or subscribe to future
podcasts by searching for ‘spiritual pulse’ in iTunes
Store, or by subscribing to: www.ldpa.podbean.com.
Pamela Scott
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RICHMOND AND PUTNEY UNITARIANS
We are a radically inclusive community
of open hearts and open minds, where
individuals are free to trust their
conscience in matters of spiritual
inquiry, and the inherent worth and
dignity of all humankind is celebrated,
irrespective of race, social status,
gender or sexual orientation.
Ormond Road, Richmond, Surrey TW10 6TH
www.rpuc.org.uk
Facebook: richmondandputneyunitarianchurch
Twitter: RPUnitarian
Find us …
We are ten minutes’ walk from Richmond Station
(Southwest Trains, London Overground and
District Line) and two minutes’ walk from the bus
station. Cars can enter Ormond Road one way
only (from the Richmond Bridge end).
Contacts
Minister
Rev. Simon Ramsay
07915 618549
[email protected]
Newsletter editor
David Watson
[email protected]
General inquiries
[email protected]
020 8332 9675 (answering machine)
Lettings inquiries
[email protected]
Postal correspondence to the church address in
the first instance.
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