THE MAN WHO BECAME the father of Confucius was called Kung the Tall because he towered head and shoulders above everyone else in his village. Kung the Tall lived in China a very long time ago. Kung the Tall was living in China when Buddha was born in India.
When this story begins Kung the Tall was an old man. As he thought back over the years of his long life he knew he ought to feel contented. He had been honored for his bravery as a soldier. He had been ruler of the people of his district. He had a faithful wife and a large family of nine children. He had enough money so that he could live comfortably, and he was highly respected by all who knew him.Yet Kung the Tall was a disappointed man.
His one most important wish had never come true.Kung was not happy. This was because all his nine children were girls, and Kung the Tall had no son to be company for him or to carry on the family name after his death.
But now the old man had a new wife beautiful and young. Perhaps even yet Kung the Tall might have a boy child. He had not given up hope. And all his neighbors sad all his friends were also hoping.
"If Kung the Tall does have a son, that child will someday be a great man" this was what everybody was saying. This was what everybody was wishing for, and none wished harder than Kung’s young wife.
Every day she made a wish for a boy child, and day by day she did what she could to make her wish come true. But she believed that somehow a child is always a gift for, the Creator of all Life. So Kung’s wife made her wish into a prayer to God. She even climbed to the top of a high mountain to make her prayer. Perhaps she felt nearer to the Creator when she could stand and look up at the wide, blue sky above and then look down on the broad, green earth below.
Kung’s wife returned home and waited patiently week after week. Before long she could feel the baby moving inside her body, and she was happy.
One evening as she was sitting alone in her garden in the dimness of the moonlight, she had a surprising dream. Seesaw a little animal coming towards her. It was not a goat, nor was it a sheep or a dog. The animals’ body shone in the moonlight. Its tail spread out like a fan and on its head was one turned-up horns Could it really be a Unicorn Surely only in storybooks was such an animal ever seen!
Kung’s wife threw a small silk scarf over the animal’s one horn just to see if it were really there. Yes, it was there, and it had in its mouth a long piece of jade. Kung’s wife wondered.
The Unicorn came closer until Kung’s wife could reach out her hand and take the stone tablet from its mouth. Her hands trembled as she tried to read the words that had been carved into the jade:
"A son of the Great Spirit is to be born. Someday he shall rule the land of Chou as a good and wise King."
Kung’s wife was frightened. She looked up to ask the Unicorn what the words might mean, but the strange animal was gone. Rung’s wife was left alone in her garden in the moonlight. She awoke trembling with wonder at what she had seen.
Not many weeks after this the longed-for day came. It was evening. Rung the Tall and his young wife were waiting for the final moment when their child would be born.In the garden outside the little cottage some of their friends were also waiting and hoping, moment by moment, for the good news.
Then they, too, had a surprise. High above them they saw two great dragons curling their long snake like bodies in and out among the clouds. Their fiery eyes turned this way and that as if they were watching the people on the earth. Said one of the waiting friends:
"Surely these good dragons are keeping guard over the blessed mother and over the child about to be born."
And beside the two long, fiery-eyed dragons, five old but wonderous men appeared in the sky, walking upon the clouds. Said one of the waiting friends:
"These five old men of the sky are the five immortals who never, never die. They have come down from the five planets to celebrate the birth of this great child."
And beside the two long, fiery-eyed dragons, and beside the five old men from the five planets, there appeared also in the sky among the soft clouds five musicians with pipes and harps in their hands, playing wondrous music and singing as they played. The words came down from the sky like the clear ringing of a bell:
"This night a child is born. He shall be a great King, who shall make good laws and shall help people to do the right."
When the young mother in the little Chinese home down below heard the sweet strains of the music, the piping and the singing, her waiting ended. Her boy child was born! To her it had all seemed much like a dream until she heard the voice of her husband:
"A son at last, my good wife. Now my happiness is full!" He lifted his newborn boy child and proudly laid him down in his mother’s arms.
For a long while he sat by his wife’s bed as the two of them looked in silence on the face of their young son. It was a homely face. But this did not matter to his happy parents. In their eyes he was a wonder child.
Presently, as they were fondling him, a strange writing seemed to show on the child’s breast. Five Chinese characters! What could they mean?
Wiser ones than Kung the Tall were called into the room to read the writing. They were amazed when they saw the characters, for the words on the child’s body were those of the heavenly song:
"This night a child is born. He shall be a great King who shall make good laws and shall help people to do the right."
So this is the very old story of the birth of Confucius. Kung-fu-tze, the Chinese say, meaning Kung the Master, or Kung the Teacher. We say Confucius for short.
But this Chinese boy child of long ago did not become a King. Instead he taught other men how to rule their people wisely. Confucius also taught that being able to rule oneself is more important than ruling others. So Confucius had wise words for everybody, big and little, rich and poor. Even after more than two thousand years millions of Chinese still honor Confucius and follow his teachings. All over the world he is regarded as one of the wisest and greatest teachers who has ever lived.
Charles! What have you brought home THIS timer 18-year-old Caroline asked. Charles, who was ten, showed her a cocoon, two pebbles, a piece of fern, and a dead beetle. He was a great collector. He loved to be out In woods and fields. His sharp eyes found butterflies, plants, stones, and other things.
When Charles was nine, he was sent to Dr.Butler’s boarding school. But the school was only about a mile away, so he ran home and back easily.At school, he was taught Latin, Creek, and mathematics, none of which he liked. He worked hard at school, but he didn’t get good marks and often disappointed his father. Dr. Darwin thought Charles needed to know Latin and Creek and mathematics to be successful. He didn’t think Charles’s interest in nature would amount to anything.
When Charles was 16, his father decided that he should go to Edinburgh to study medicine. But after two years the sight of blood made Charles sick, so Dr. Darwin sent him to Cambridge University to become a minister. Charles didn’t much want to be a minister either, but he did want to please his father, so off he went.
Charles didn’t study very hard, though he passed his exams. Instead he became a very enthusiastic beetle collector and was always looking for rare and new kinds. Once when he tore off some old bark from a tree, he found two very special beetles which he instantly grabbed, one in each hand. Then much to his excitement, he saw a third. How to catch it too? He popped the beetle from his right hand in his mouth, and then had to quickly spit it out, for it ejected some really awful tasting liquid which burned his tongue. He lost it, and the other one disappeared.
At that time, the British government was sending Captain Robert Fitzroy around the world to make some new maps of coastlines. A naturalist was needed on the Beagle to gather specimens of plants and animals. Charles Darwin was recommended and was very excited, but his father thought it would be a waste of time. He said, "If you can find any man of common sense who advises you to go, I will give my consent." Josiah Wedgwood II, Charles’s uncle, thought it a splendid opportunity and convinced Dr. Darwin.
Charles sailed from England on December 26,1831, on a five-year adventure that changed his ideas and those of many people In the world.
When Charles set sail, almost everyone in the Christian world believed, as it says in the Bible, that everything looked as it had in the very beginning . . . dogs, cats, worms, butterflies, people, everything. Charles thought so too, but what he saw in the places where the Beagle landed gradually changed his mind.
In Argentina, he found the fossil bones of giant prehistoric beasts that looked like animals he knew, only much larger. One was a giant ground sloth that looked very much like the sloths he saw hanging head down from the branches of trees. Had the giant sloths all died out, or could they be the ancestors of the smaller ones he was seeing?
He spent five weeks on the Galapagos Islands and could hardly believe what he saw: lizards looked like dragons; tortoises required six men to lift them; plants, insects, and birds were like none he’d ever seen. Darwin studied everything. He noticed that the tortoises were different on each island. He saw that the beaks of the finches, which were not the same on each island, seemed to depend on what they found to eat. Those that ate berries had different beaks from those that caught insects. He thought a lot about this. Why was it so, when they were all finches? Was it possible that living things changed in some way when their surroundings changed?
Charles Darwin thought about this through-out his journey. He collected plants and animals and sent them to England. When he returned home, he studied them, performed experiments,and wrote and rewrote what: he discovered. After many years, he published a book, The Origin of the Species. He said living things — like flowers, dogs, butterflies, and all other kinds — have been on earth for thousands and thousands of years, and that they have gradually changed through the generations to be able to live in different kinds of places. The clergy disagreed because what he said didn’t agree with the Bible; some called him the most dangerous man in England! Some scientists disagreed with him, because they believed that whatever they discovered had to fit with the Bible.A few clergy and scientists thought he had made important discoveries, though, and they persuaded others. Later, Charles Darwin was given the Copley medal of the Royal Society of London, the most important science award in England.
Seven years after he was given the medal, Darwin’s book about the origin and evolution of people was published. It was called The Descent of Man People were outraged; "Mr. Darwin suggests we’ve descended from monkeys!" they said. But Charles didn’t say that. He said that thousands and thousands of years ago, there was another creature. Both people and monkeys evolved from that animal, like two different branches growing from the same tree.
Charles Darwin was a very kind and loving man. He and his wife Emma had ten children with whom Charles spent a lot of time playing and talking. In one way this was easy because Charles had inherited money and didn’t have to go to work to earn a living. But it was also hard, for he was often ill.
The Darwins lived in the country in a big house with lots of rooms, a garden, and a greenhouse. Two hours a day were "holy time" when Charles worked on his experiments and writings; no one interrupted him. The rest of his time he shared with his family and friends if he was well enough.
Charles was a collector all of his life and the house was full of all kinds of specimens. On the Beagle, he had begun to collect and study barnacles and he kept this up for many years. Once when one of his children was visiting a friend, he asked, "Where does your father keep his barnacles?" He thought all fathers collected them.
There was a Unitarian Church in Shrewsbury that Charles sometimes attended with his Uncle Erasmus. Not all Unitarians agreed with Charles’s ideas about evolution when the books were published, for most of them, too, thought the Bible was literally true. But the search for truth has always been important to Unitarians and Universalists,and new scientific discoveries changed people’s minds. Darwin’s theories were accepted. Some of his theories have been changed over the years, but that would have been all right with him, for he was always willing to change his opinions if he were proven wrong. He sought the truth, and believed it could be found only with love. He said that prejudice and hate "hinder and blind [people] to truth. A scientist must only love."
Goal:
To hear stories from other cultures, and our own, about death and the feelings of grief. To learn that the physical death of a person or pet does not necessarily end the emotional or spiritual relationship with the deceased.
Preparation:
Read the Background from Lessons of Loss
Review the following book choices at your local library and select one that appeals to you.
Nadia the Willful, by Sue Alexander
Some of the Pieces, by Melissa Madenski
Pearls Marigolds for Grandpa, by Jane Breskin Zalben
Print these two stories from Long Ago and Many Lands:
The Mustard Seed Medicine
The Road to Olelpanti
Activities:
Read your choice of stories, depending on the level of questions and interest of your children. You might do this lesson in several sittings: read the ancient stories first and then the more modern ones. Use the following questions to engage discussion.:
"The Mustard Seed Medicine"
Why did Buddha send Kisa Gotami to find the mustard seed?
How did Kisa Gotami learn to comfort herself?
"The Road to Olelpanti"
What would the world be like if nobody died? Or animals never died? Or trees and plants never died?
What did Olebis mean when he said that through the gladness of birth and the sorrow of death people will come to love?
"Nadia the Willful"
How does Nadia react to the disappearance of her brother?
How does her father react?
What does he demand of the Bedouin people?
What happens to Nadia as she keeps silent?
How does Nadia begin talking of her brother?
What happens to her feelings as she speaks of Hamed?
How does her father react when he hears the shepherd mention Hameds name?
Why does Nadia get so angry with her father?
What do you think Nadia teaches her father about losing someone you love? What do you learn from Nadia?
How will Nadias father act differently in the future?
"Some of the Pieces"
Why do Bubbo and his family share so many stories about Dad?
How does Bubbo feel after sharing these memories?
How did Bubbo feel in the days after his fathers death?
Other than sharing stories, how else does the family remember Dad?
What does Bubbo mean when he says, Theres a part of Dad in us, too.?
"Pearls Marigolds for Grandpa"
What does Pearl worry about after her grandfather dies?
What does her father suggest that she do?
How does this help her remember her grandfather?
What does her grandmother tell her at the end of the story? Do you agree?
Goal:
To hear the story of childrens involvement in the Civil Rights movement and to consider how to work for social change.
Activities:
Read: The Childrens Crusade, by Kate Rohde
Discuss:
Why do you think the adults finally agreed to let the children march?
Why did Sheriff Connor act the way he did?
How might your life be different if you had been born of another race?
How would you define fairness?
Social Action:
Read 10 Tips for Taking Social Action. As a family, brainstorm problems that you would like to work to resolve. Use the blank forms to fill in your ideas and come up with a plan.
Goal:
To learn how Unitarianism and Universalism evolved from Protestantism and to visit area churches to see differences today.
Background:
Read Our Christian Heritage
Activities:
Find area churches in the your local Yellow Pages and plan visits.
You might like to borrow How To Be a Perfect Stranger from your local library. This excellent resource tells you all about protocol and what to expect in different places of worship.
Michael Servetus
Frances David & King Sigismund
UUism Comes to America
George deBenneville
John Murray
Joseph Priestley
Growth & Change
Michael Servetus (1511 – 1553)
Servetus was one of the first people to write down his ideas about Unitarianism in a book. It was called On the Errors of the Trinity. The Trinity is the Christian belief that God is made up of three parts: God the father, God the son (Jesus) and God the Holy Spirit. In the 1500s the rulers of many countries were Christians who believed in this 3-part God and REQUIRED all people in those countries to believe the same thing. (QUESTION: Do you think a person can be required to believe something?) Michael Servetus believed that Christians should look to the Bible, not their rulers, for answers about God, and he could find no words in the Bible to support this idea of God in three parts. (Uni is a prefix meaning one, so the word Unitarian means belief in the oneness of God.) His book made many people angry and scared. Soon after it was published Servetus changed his name and went into hiding. He became a very good doctor and lived for quite awhile in peace and quiet. But he couldnt hold back his strong religious feelings. He began writing again and when his real identity was revealed, he was arrested and eventually burned at the stake. Michael Servetus was a Unitarian martyr. His death led to increased interest in the debate about the nature of God and religious freedom.
Francis David (1510 – 1579) and King John Sigismund (1540 – 1571)
In the 1500s Unitarian believers were scattered in many different countries. At one point they were a majority in Poland! In Transylvania (a country which no longer exists but included the area now known as Hungary and Romania), Francis David converted the Transylvanian King John Sigismund to Unitarianism. In 1568, King John declared total religious freedom in Transylvania. This meant that the government would not interfere with what people believed. Although this idea seems normal to us today, this was the only country at that time to allow religious freedom. Despite a lot of anger and abuse, even death threats, King John held fast to his ideas, and religious liberty remained the law of the land until his death in 1571. King Johns successors were Catholic, not Unitarian. Francis David was fired from his position as Court Preacher. This did not silence him, however, and he continued to preach around the country. Like Servetus, Francis David was eventually arrested for heresy (religious ideas that are different from those approved of by the official church or government) and died while in jail on that charge.
Unitarianism and Universalism Come to America
All three of the men most responsible for bringing Unitarianism and Universalism to America were raised in England during the time when the ideas of John Calvin were popular. Calvinism taught that God decided before you were even born whether, when you died, you would be saved and go to heaven, or go to hell to be tortured forever. According to the church, very few were chosen to go to heaven. People were told that if they go to church and if they work hard and make a good living that might be a sign that God had chosen them to go to heaven. This way of thinking made many people very nervous, especially in times of trouble. When bad things happened that might also be a signa sign that you were not chosen by God.
Calvinism was a very stern and harsh religion, and eventually people began to question it. They refused to believe that God would be so mean. They said, God is loving and wants to save everyone in heaven. They said, God does not make people do good or bad things; people choose this themselves! These people came to be called Universalists because they believed in universal (meaning everyone) salvation.
George deBenneville (1703-1793)
When George deBenneville was born, his mother died. Queen Anne of England, a good friend of his mothers, took George into her home as an infant and raised him as a prince. As a young man George enjoyed the wealthy social life of London, and worried little about his own future. In fact, he felt superior to most people. Then, on a trip to Africa, he had an experience which would change him forever. He saw native peoples not acting as savages (a common view at the time) but with such kindness and brotherly love that they seemed more true to the teachings of Jesus than many so-called Christians back in England! He saw people putting faith in a loving God who wanted to save all creatures, great and small. George returned home feeling very sad about his old life. He had a terrible dream that he was burning in hell and for many months his friends thought he would never be happy again. Then one day he decided two things which would stay with him all his life: 1. that good and evil are things that start deep inside each person, not by Gods choosing, and 2. that Gods love is for everyone, not just a chosen few.
With these new ideas George got well again, became a doctor, and began traveling; doctoring and preaching his new faith. In France he was arrested for heresy, and because of his noble upbringing, just narrowly escaped beheading! From France he traveled to Germany and Holland and then finally to America in search of a place where he could think and speak freely about his religion. In America deBenneville made friends with the Native American Indians. He made a dictionary of Indian, German and English words so the colonists and natives could talk to each other. The Native Americans taught him about healing through plants. During the Revolutionary War, deBenneville doctored both the British and American soldiers. He died at the age of 90 having truly lived his Universalist principles of the loving kindness of God and the preciousness of every human life.
John Murray (1741 -1815)
Like George deBenneville, John Murray grew up in a Calvinist family. He tried hard to please his father and mother, to study and pray and do well in everything, to prove that God had chosen him to be saved and to go to heaven. As a married man, John and his wife Eliza became interested in the Universalist ideas which a small group of people were preaching in London. Together they studied the new ideas of a loving God and soon decided to join the Universalists. Although this caused them to lose many old friends, they found hope instead of stern judgement in their new religion. It brought them new friends and great happiness. Murray even preached from time to time in their small church.
Then tragedy struck. The next year both Eliza and their one-year old son got sick and died. Devastated by this loss and hoping to leave his old life behind, Murray sailed to America in1770. The ship struck a sandbar off the coast of New Jersey and while they waited for the tide to rise, John went ashore to get supplies. Standing beside the first cabin he came to was a small church. The farmer who owned the church, Thomas Potter, invited John to stay the night. That evening Potter told him how he had built the little church and was waiting for someone to come who would preach about a loving God who saves all people, not just a chosen few. Potter told John that when he saw the ship on the sandbar a small voice inside him said, There, in that ship may be the preacher you are expecting. He was right! Though Murray had intended never to preach again, he agreed to preach the next Sunday. That was the beginning of the Universalist Church in America! Murray settled in Gloucester, Massachusetts where despite angry protests from some, he preached to a growing number of people as the good news of Universalism began to spread.
Joseph Priestley (1733 – 1804)
You are more likely to hear the name Joseph Priestley in a science class than in most Sunday Schools in America. Thats because he is best known as the scientist who discovered oxygen. But he also started the first Unitarain Church in America!
As a young man Priestley studied ministry in England. Because he did not agree with the idea of the Trinity, the only churches which would hire him were small and poor and generally not very successful. For a livelihood, he turned to teaching and developed a fascination with scientific experimentation. He continued his interest in religion too, writing books and preaching in a Unitarian church in England. Then at age 58 Priestley was accused of being a traitor to England because he supported the idea of equality of all people and thought the laws should be changed to allow religious freedom. One night an angry mob burned both the Unitarian Church where Priestley spoke and Priestleys home and beloved laboratory in Birmingham. He and his wife fled to London (about 100 miles away), traveling only at night so as not to be caught. But life in London was still very hard for the Priestleys. Many people would not associate with them. They decided to go to America. When they arrived in Philadelphia, George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and John Adams all sent letters of welcome, because of Priestleys fame as a scientist. Free to speak about his Unitarian beliefs, Priestley established the First Unitarian Church in Philadelphia in 1776. It was the first official Unitarian church in America.
Growth and Change
Unitarian Universalists today honor the courage of these three men and their families. Many others followed in their footsteps as Unitarianism and Universalism grew, first in the New England states and then across the country with the pioneering ministry of many Unitarian and Universalist women. In 1961 the Unitarians and Universalists joined together to become one organization. More and more people join our churches every year. As we grow in numbers, so too do we grow as a religion, always responding to new ideas and changes in the world. Ours is a living tradition with a long history and a bright future!
Goal:
To think about possession and ownership as it relates to things that are essential to life and natural resources. To introduce the concept of stewardship.
Preparation:
If you choose to act out the story, you will need:
Copies of the script for each reader
Puppets for each animal character – puppet parts and body pattern
Clay or playdoh for making coils to be the well
Activites:
Read: The Chief of the Well, or
Act out the dramatic skit of this story in We Believe
Discuss:
Did the lizard, placed in charge of the well, own the water supply? Can you think of people who have the idea that they own something when they are placed in charge of it?
Why didnt the lizard want the other animals to share the water? Did he want it it all for himself? Did he enjoy exerting power? Are people this way sometimes? What is the meaning of the expression drunk with power.
Is it possible, on the other hand, that the lizard was so concerned about his responsibility that he was too careful? Do you know of anyone who is this way?
Social Action:
Introduction: This story says that the water (and air and the earth) belong to God, that these belong to everyone. The earth is owned not by the biggest or the smartest or the richest, but by all who live on it, from the tiniest insect to the tallest tree. Whats more, we are all connected in ways we dont even understand. People who study these connections between living things are called ecologists. One way to think about the earth and the air surrounding it is as an ark, like Noahs. A man named Buckminster Fuller used a more modern image, the spaceship. Spaceship Earth was the title he used to describe the notion that we are like travelers on a spaceship. We can only carry so much of the things we need to survive, just like Noah on the Ark. Our life support system, so to speak, is limited. What do we need to survive? Food (plants and animals), clean air, clean water. On our Spaceship Earth we only have limited supplies of these necessary things. So, what do we need to do? Be careful not to wst, not to use them up, not to spoil them. We need to be good stewards of our spaceship. (A steward is one who manages or takes care of anothers property.)
Make a list of things you do, or could start doing, in your family to be good stewards. There are big things like recycling or boycotting potentially dangerous products and little things like conserving paper by using both sides, not letting the water run while you brush your teeth, and turning off the lights when youre not using them.
Ask each member of the family to make a commitment to do at least one new thing to be a good steward of Spaceship Earth. Share with each other what youre going to do. Decide on a group project that you could all work on together. Check out your local library (and the Resources section of this website) for ideas.
Goal: To experience, as a family, the Jewish Passover ritual of asking questions to gain a UU understanding of Easter.
Materials: A Spring Haggadah, by Joan Goodwin
Goal:
To explore the meaning of friend and enemy and how it feels to be a friend, to have a friend, to be an enemy and to have and enemy.
Activity:
Read My Friend the Monster
Questions for discussion:
Why were Hal and Humbert enemies?
What made them friends?
Think about people who are really different from you. How are they different? How does this make you feel about them?
Discuss how often people feel afraid or hostile around people who are different from them. Try to help you child make this connection in his or her own life. How could you feel less afraid? How did Hal and Humbert overcome their fear and prejudice?
Think about the word enemy. Make a list of things you think an enemy does and is. If your child has ever had a personal enemy, talk about how that came to be. If not, use an example from the world today. Discuss: do you think there are natural enemies among human beings in the world? (Predators and prey might be considered natural enemies.) Or are enemies something we create? How does someone or some group become an enemy?
Four hundred years ago, there was a little country tucked in among the high mountains of Hungary called Transylvania, or "The Land Through the Forest." The King of that land was John Sigismund. Crowned king when he was only 21 years old, he was already brave and thoughtful–and he needed to be, for he and his little country had some big troubles.
King John’s father died of an illness when King John was a baby, so he had to make his way without a father to guide him. As a boy, John was never very strong or healthy; he often felt dizzy and weak or had a stomach ache, but he did not give in to these feelings any more than he could help. He learned to play all the sports that other young men at his court enjoyed, such as sword fighting, horseback riding and deer bunting in the forest.
King John’s country was right next to two large, powerful countries that fought with each other a lot. King John worried because he did not want his little country to get into their quarrel. But even worse than that–King John’s own people often fought each other in "The Land Through the Forest." They fought because they belonged to four different kinds of churches. The churches were Roman Catholic, Lutheran, Calvinist, and Unitarian. The people in each church said, "Our ideas about God, and Jesus, and what a church should be like, are the only true ideas." "Everyone," they thought, "should believe what our church tells them to believe." People only wanted to believe in the teachings of their own church.
Sometimes the people fought with words– arguing and saying bad things about each other, whether they were true or not. Other times, the church that had members in government fought by taking people’s jobs away, or people’s money. Often people were put in prison or even put to death. When times were at their worst, people even tried to kill King John himself, because they hoped a new king might make their church the one, true church. Actually, this kind of fighting about churches happened in a lot of countries in that part of the world. King John thought for a long time and then he made a decision. He called the best speaker from each church to come to a place called Torda for a debate instead of a fight. A debate is an argument with rules: each person takes a turn to speak about his or her ideas. There is no quarreling because only one person speaks at a time. A judge decides who has the best ideas. The debate began each day at five in the morning and it lasted 10 days.
The speaker from the Unitarian church was a man named Francis David. He argued that no one has the right to force people to believe anything about God.
After 10 days, King John ordered the debate to end. But he did not announce a winner; he did not say that any of the four churches was the best. This probably surprised many people. King John did listen to the argument of Francis David though, that no one should be forced to believe in any religion but should be able to choose for himself or herself. Then, King John made an important announcement that was called the Edict of Torda. The edict told the people that from that time on, his subjects could debate about their ideas of religion, but they must not fight, punish, or kill each other about religion. Every church and every person would be free to follow their own beliefs. This was a new and strange idea for those times, and many people were angry with King John for this law, but he stuck to it. Unitarians especially remember King John, because his law made it safe for them to be Unitarians.
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