Depending on their beliefs some people are now expecting either the: “End of the World” or “Ascension” to a higher reality by December 21, 2012! Other prophetic movements have made similar claims before. All have proven wrong: Christ did not come. The world did not end!

The Bible warns of such: “false prophets”, and with good reason. According to: 1 Corinthians 13: 1-8, spiritual truth is not defined by prophetic beliefs. Real spirituality is about the value of Love in our lives, and how we externalise that through compassion and kindness every moment that we live. If we are not rooted in Love we simply have no meaningful spirituality. It does not matter which faith we belong to, or even if we have no religious conviction: as human beings we are each on our own unique spiritual journey.

Individuation is the gift of God. It is what we do with it that counts: in the end it is not about belief but about the quality of our own being.

Each of us is unique: like pebbles on a beach, at a distance we may all look the same, but close up, not one of us is identical. We have each been individually shaped by the ocean of life! Unitarians recognise the inherent value of individual spirituality: of shared values; compassion, open-mindedness, liberty!

This is practical spirituality: the real gifts of the spirit, helping us to live compassionately: to build bridges of understanding in this world instead of walls of division.

  • John Pickering, Kendal Unitarians