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The

SUN

The Unitarian Church in NSW

PO Box 355, Darlinghurst NSW 1300

15 Francis Street, East Sydney

(near Museum Station)

Tel: (02) 9360 2038

www.sydneyunitarianchurch.org

Sydney Unitarian News Editor: M.R. McPhee

April/May 2013

THE NEW WORLD RELIGION

The Bahá'í Faith has much in common with Unitarianism and Universalism, so it‟s strange that most of us know little or nothing about it. Like ourselves, the Bahá'ís believe that all religions have the same ultimate goal and that their various holy books contain words of wisdom that all people can benefit from. Con-sequently, they promote religious tolerance and mutual understanding between people of different faiths. This year, as those of the Faith celebrate the sesquicentenary of its foundation, let us redress our neglect and hear what they have to say. Their story begins in Persia, where Siyyid `Alí-Muhammad was born to a merchant family in Shíráz in 1819. He was brought up by his maternal uncle, who claimed descent on both sides of his family from Mohammed and his grandson, Imam Husayn, icon of the Shi‟ite branch of Islam. As a young man, Siyyid took a great interest in the study of his religion and, in about 1840, he made a pilgrimage to Karbala in present-day Iraq, where Husayn had died in battle in 680 CE. There he fell in with a sect that proclaimed the imminent return of the Mahdi, an Islamic end-times figure equivalent to the Messiah. When the sect‟s leader died in 1843, his disciples went in search of the Mahdi and one of them determined that Siyyid was the man they sought. The latter took the name, „the Báb (Gate)‟, saying he was the gateway to Truth and the initiator of a new prophetic cycle. He travelled to Mecca to proclaim his mission, then back to Persia, where he continued to gain adherents and the Islamic clergy demanded his arrest. In 1847, the Shah summoned him to Tehran but, before they could meet, he was banished to a series of prisons on the northern border. Everywhere the Báb went, his jailers became converts, so he was put on trial in Tabriz in 1848. The authorities were reluctant to execute him, due to his popularity, but the prime minister gave the order in 1850 after a number of Bábi uprisings were crushed. A firing squad of Christians only managed to sever the rope he was suspended from and he disappeared in the smoke. While some thought it was a miracle, he was soon found and successfully shot by a Muslim squad. His remains were dumped outside the town gates to be eaten by animals but his followers covertly retrieved and hid them. Over time, they were secretly moved via Baghdad, Damascus and Beirut to Acre in Palestine, where they were entombed in 1899. One of the Báb‟s most active followers, Mírzá Ḥusayn-`Alí Núrí, was born in Tehran in 1817 and joined the movement in 1844. He took part in a Bábi conference in 1848 that debated whether to retain Islamic law or regard the Báb‟s message as beginning a new dispensation – with his help, the latter position was adopted. He was briefly imprisoned in that year and again in 1852, that time in the Síyáh-Chál (Black Pit) dungeon in

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Tehran. There he had several mystical experiences, including a vision of a „maiden from God‟ who told him he was the Messenger of God whose arrival the Báb had foretold. Mírzá was released after four months and ordered to leave Persia, so he and his family went to Baghdad in

1853. Many of the surviving Bábis followed and, over the years, he became their foremost leader as well as

gaining support from the local authorities and Sunni clerics. An alarmed Persian government demanded his

extradition in 1863 but the Ottomans moved him to Constantinople instead. Before his party left, they spent

twelve days in the stately Najibiyyah Gardens, where Mírzá revealed his mission to them and took the name

of Bahá'u'lláh (Glory of God). Bahá'ís celebrate the days of 21 April to 02 May as the Festival of Ridván

(Paradise) and see the 1863 event as the beginning of their religion. Bahá'u'lláh and his large party of followers arrived in Constantinople three months later. If the Ottomans had hoped to gain some political advantage from Bahá'u'lláh‟s presence, they were disappointed and soon moved him to Adrianople (now Edirne) in Turkish Thrace. His community relocated there and he sent messages to Bábis in Iraq and Persia to let them know. He publicly announced his program to unite the world and all of its religions, claiming to be the future leader that faiths as diverse as Zorastrianism and Christianity believe will come, one day. He wrote extensively about the tenets of the Faith, one of which is that the Buddha, Zoroaster, Moses, Jesus and Mohammed were earlier Messengers of God, each telling the world what it was ready to learn at that stage of human development. This was too much for the Ottoman government and, in 1868, the Adrianople community was dispersed to every corner of the Empire. Bahá'u'lláh and his family were sent to Acre, near Haifa in present-day Israel, and con-fined in the citadel. As time went by, he obtained sufficient respect and trust that he was allowed outside of the city and eventually to live in a comfortable mansion. It was there that he wrote his most important books while his eldest son, `Abdu'l-Bahá, attended to administrative matters. He died in 1892 and his shrine is just outside the mansion. By this time, Bahá'í literature had spread to the West and, in 1898, the first pilgrims arrived in Acre from the UK, the US and France to meet `Abdu'l-Bahá. He corresponded with supporters all over the world until 1908, when the Young Turk revolution freed all political prisoners in the Empire. After that, he travelled widely in Europe and North America, supporting local groups and giving public lectures. Like his father, he was a prolific writer and the Faith was well established when he died in 1920. His grandson, Shogi Effendi, served as Guardian of the Faith until his death in 1957, during which time he translated the sacred writings and established the Bahá'í World Centre at Haifa. There are now as many as six million Bahá'ís in 200 countries and territories around the world. Their supreme body is the Universal House of Justice in Haifa. It came into operation at the first World Congress, held at the Royal Albert Hall to commemorate the centenary of Faith. Bahá'í symbols include the nine-pointed star, which represents completeness and the nine great religions, and ringstone symbol, a stylised version of „Bahá (Glory)‟ between two stars representing the Báb and Bahá'u'lláh.

SERVICE DIARY

Meetings every Sunday from 10.30 – 11.30 a.m. (followed by coffee, tea and food)

[Please check the church website (www.sydneyunitarianchurch.org) for updates. The program for the month of June will be available from the beginning of May.]

Date Presenter Topic

7th April Allan Clarke More on Thorium

14th April Peter Crawford Machiavelli and The Prince

21st April Kaine Hayward Music Service

28th April Peter Crawford Mithraism in the Roman Empire

5th May Patrick Bernard Nihilism

12th

May Peter Crawford The Triumph of Christianity

19th

May Bill Markham The Mysterious Etruscans

26th May Peter Crawford The History of the Popes

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Embraser le monde

danser avec cette flamme toujours rallumée

la revoir briller dans nos yeux quand nous nous

recueillions ensemble

l'espérer dans d'autres regards, pas encore croisés,

afin qu'aucun être ne manque à son appel.

Résister à l'ennui, au découragement,

à la litanie de nos propres manquements et des

injustices du monde

et transfigurer le monde au fond de nos cœurs

afin d'en percevoir la beauté à sa lumiere.

Setting the world ablaze

dancing along with the ever rekindled flame

I can still see it in our eyes as we were sharing our

prayers

and hope to see it shining in new eyes, yet unknown

that no being may be missing.

Let us resist despondency and boredom

and the litany of our own failures and of the injustices

of the world

and transfigure the world inside of our hearts

that we may perceive its beauty in its light.

Submitted by the Francophone Unitarian Church; no names provided for the author or translator.

Olemme kokoontuneet tänne sytyttämään liekin, joka symboloi vapautta - ilmaisun, uskonnon ja

muita yksilön perusvapauksia. Liekki, joka tuo valoa, auttaa näkemään ja poistaa pimeyden.

Liekki, joka lämmittää kun on kylmä joko ulkona tai sydämessämme. We have gathered here to light the chalice with a flame that symbolizes freedom - of expression,

faith and other individual liberties. Flame that brings light, helps us to see and fends off the

darkness. Flame that warms us up when it is cold, either outside or in our hearts.

Submitted by the Unitarian Universalist Society of Finland, again with no names provided.

U Blei u dei u tynrai jong ki jingtip baroh. Ai ba ka

jingnang jingstad kan weng noh ia ka jingdum bad

ai ba ngin sngewthuh ba ka jingnang jingstad ka

dei ka spah ba hapoh u briew, kaba lah ban pynioh

ia u ia ki jingjop bashabar jong u. Da kaba thang

ia ka sharak ai ba ngin pyndem ialade ha ka

jingnang jingstad kum ka spah bakhraw tam.

Ka jingnang jingstad ka kyrshan ia ki kam jongngi,

la ki babha lane ki basniew. Namarkata, ngi thang

ia kane ka sharak kum ka jingsakhi ia ki jingmut

jingpyrkhat bad ki kam ki jongngi. Ka ding ha ka

sharak ka meh shalor; ha kajuh ka rukom, ngi dei

ban pdiang ia ka jaid jingstad ka ban kyntiew ia ki

jingthrang jingangnud jongngi shajrong. Haba

kynthah da ka jingstad ba kynja mynsiem,baroh ki

jingling basniew jongngi ki briew ki ing noh suki

suki, bad ka malade ruh ka jah noh.

Ka jingnang jingstad kam duna haba ngi iasam ia

ka bad kiwei pat; ha ka jingshisha, ka pynmyntoi ia

baroh ar—ia u nongsam bad ia u nongiohpdiang.

God is the Knowledge Principle. May knowledge

remove ignorance and may we realize that knowledge

is a lasting inner wealth by which all outer

achievements can be accomplished. By lighting the

chalice may we bow down to knowledge as the

greatest of all forms of wealth.

Knowledge backs our actions, whether good or bad.

We therefore light this chalice as a witness to our

thoughts and actions. The flame of the chalice burns

upwards; similarly, we should acquire such

knowledge as to take us towards higher ideals. When

lit by spiritual knowledge, the negative tendencies in a

human being get slowly exhausted, and the ego too

finally perishes.

Knowledge does not lessen when shared; on the

contrary, it benefits both the giver and the receiver.

Submitted by the Indian Council of Unitarian Churches; no names provided for the author of the Khasi

words or the translator.

[These are the Chalice Lightings from the International Council of Unitarians and Universalists for the

months of February, March and April. Please see last page for more information.]

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BIG CATS

By Peter Crawford

In caves in southern France there are ancient paintings of lions, leopards and other big cats – paintings that

are thousands of years old. Images of lions appear on vessels from ancient Greece and lions were also said to

have inspired the Great Sphinx of Egypt. As late as 1890, British officials believed that tigers were on the

increase on the island of Singapore. The last tiger in Hong Kong was shot in 1903. Lions, tigers, leopards,

cheetahs and jaguars once roamed the world, yet today their numbers are in steep decline.

Scientists fear for their future – Derek and Beverley Joubert, the two most famous living big cat conser-

vationists, predict that some could die out within a generation. There were an estimated 450,000 lions in

1950; today there are just 20,000 in the wild. Joubert told the Independent newspaper that the position of

other big cats is even more perilous. The omnipresent leopard, whose range spreads from southern Africa to

Japan, has experienced a drop in numbers from 700,000 to 50,000 since 1950. Cheetahs have declined from

45,000 to 12,000 over the same period. Most seriously, tigers are down from 50,000 to just 3,000.

The United Nations Environment Program is calling for much greater protection of the big cats. ”Do we

want to live in a world without lions in the wild?” says Duke University biologist, Luke Dollar of the

National Geographic-sponsored Big Cats Initiative, which seeks emergency conservation steps worldwide.

“That is the choice that we are facing.”

Habitat loss, hunting and the absence of effective captive breeding programs are blamed for the massive

population decline of the big cats. Worldwide deforestation is destroying their habitats at an alarming rate.

About half of the forests which covered the Earth are gone and, each year, another 16,000,000 hectares dis-

appear. The World Resources Institute estimates that only about 22% of the world‟s old-growth forest

remains „intact‟. The big cats have also been greatly affected by the human population explosion. An eight-

fold increase in population from one to eight billion has seen a concomitant decline in big cat numbers.

Derek Joubert says: “we‟re expecting mass extinctions of Big Cats in the wild within 10 or 15 years unless

something is done about it.”

The seriousness of the situation is well illustrated by the plight of the tiger. It seems extraordinary that such a

magnificent creature is facing extinction in the wild. As the World Wildlife Fund has reported: “For over a

million years „the King of the jungle‟ lorded over a territory that extended from eastern Turkey to the

Russian Far East and from Siberia to Bali. But, by the end of the last century, Caspian, Balinese and

Javanese tigers were extinct.” The rest may soon follow.

The World Wildlife Fund says there remain six sub-species – the Amur, Bengal, Indo-Chinese, Malayan,

Sumatran and South China tigers. All are in trouble. Scientists report that tiger numbers have fallen by 95%

over the last century. The handful remaining have experienced their natural habitat decline by 40% over the

last ten years. According to recent estimates, there maybe only 2,000 tigers left in the wild.

The big cat most at risk is the Iberian lynx. There are fewer than 100 wild specimens left in Spain and

Portugal, down from 4000 about fifty years ago. The Iberian lynx is listed as critically endangered and may

die out in the wild within a decade. Unless something is done, the Iberian lynx may be the first big cat to

plummet to extinction since the smilidon (sabre-toothed tiger), which became extinct in North America about

10,000 years ago – just after the arrival of the first human beings on the continent.

The jaguar is the third-largest cat after the tiger and lion. While not as endangered as the Iberian lynx or the

tiger, they are not as numerous as their smaller cousins, the ocelots, whose numbers have plummeted in

Central and South American due to habitat destruction.

The situation regarding the various sub-species of leopard is extremely worrying. The number of snow

leopards is dwindling rapidly and there are now only 3,000 in the wild, mostly in Central Asia. The plight of

the East Asian snow leopard is even more dire, with only about thirty left in the wild. Clouded leopards are

also at risk, although there are more left at this stage. The Irimote Leopard (which comes from the Japanese

island of the same name) is seriously endangered. They are unique in that they are living fossils, physically

identical to their ancestors from time immemorial.

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The numbers of lions, the only social big cats, have also dwindled rapidly in recent years. They could once

be found all over the Eurasian and African regions but, as human populations increased, their numbers have

dwindled. At one time, lions could be found all over Spain and Portugal, as well as India and Africa. Lions

today, apart from a peaceful little tribe of about 300 which survive in India‟s Girr Forest, are restricted to

ever-diminishing haunts on the African veldt and in woodlands. There are now about thirty thousand left in

the wild in Africa.

The puma, also known as the cougar, panther or mountain lion, is not facing extinction although it was

decimated as a species 100 years ago. Scientists say the puma still has relatively stable populations surviving

from the Yukon Territory in Canada to the mountains of Chile. However, the future of the puma is far from

secure as rising human populations put the survival of the creature at risk.

Sadly, in North America, a subspecies of the cougar called the Florida panther holds out in very small

numbers in the Everglades. According to reports in 2003, there were only 87 of these interesting cats left.

More recent surveys have seen them decline to about twenty individuals. Scientists have introduced females

from a related population in Texas in an attempt to boost the numbers in Florida but it is feared that they will

be extinct within twenty years.

The same depressing situation is evident with the cheetah, famous for being the fastest animal on land –it is

capable of speeds of over 120 kilometres per hour for periods of three seconds. The cheetah has almost

completely vanished from Asia, where there are believed to be only about 50 left in Iran. In Africa, their

numbers are declining rapidly and there are believed to be only 10,000 of them left. Destruction of their

habitat and their own mating practices have led to considerable inbreeding, which has caused a number of

birth defects, including cramped teeth, curled tails and bent limbs. Biologists fear for their future.

Hunting big cats is a major problem, says Beverley Joubert. ”Every year 600 male lions are taken legally in

Safari hunts in Tanzania, Zimbabwe, South Africa, Namibia and Zambia – five countries in total,” Joubert

says “and by the way you can hunt leopards too and 2,000 a year become legally obtained hunting trophies.”

It will be very difficult saving the big cats, as breeding them in captivity will not be adequate. Ian Robinson

of the International Fund for Animal Welfare in Yarmouth Point, Massachussets, says: “Captive Big Cats

will breed but they‟ve lost their genetic characteristics suitable to their home environments.” He told USA

Today: “It would be a huge loss if tigers, lions and other Big Cats disappeared from the wild. You can‟t put a

money figure on it – they are part of the World‟s heritage.”

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BALLAD OF SIGMUND FREUD

Well, it started in Vienna not so many years ago

When not enough folks were getting sick.

A starving young physician tried to better his position

By discovering what made his patients tick.

He forgot about sclerosis and invented the psychosis

And a hundred ways that sex could be enjoyed.

He adopted as his credo “Down, repression! Up, libido!”

And that was the start of Doctor Sigmund Freud.

(Chorus)

Oh, Doctor Freud, Doctor Freud,

How we wish you had been differently employed.

But the set of circumstances

Still enhances the finances

Of the followers of Doctor Sigmund Freud

Well, he analyzed the dreams

Of the teens and libertines;

And he substituted monologue for pills.

He drew crowds just like Will Sadler

When along came Jung and Adler

And they said: “By God, there‟s gold in them thar ills!”

They encountered no resistance

When they served as Freud‟s assistants,

As with ego and with id they deftly toyed.

But instead of toting bedpans

They bore analytic deadpans,

Those ambitious doctors Adler, Jung and Freud!

Now the Big Three have departed

But not so the code the started.

No, it‟s being carried on by a goodly band

And to trauma, shock and war shock

Someone‟s gone and added Rorschach

And the whole thing‟s got completely out of hand!

So old boys with double chinseys

And a thousand would-be Kinseys,

They discuss it at the drop of a repression.

And I wouldn‟t be complaining

But for all the loot I‟m paying

Just to lie on someone‟s couch and say confession!

While this offering may well be seen as a reflection on my current mental state, I simply remember hearing it

in my teens at a UU Summer Conference in Bremerton, Washington. As far as I can determine, it began life

as a poem that David Lazar (possibly a law student at the time) read in a coffee house in Chicago in 1952.

Two physics students, Larry Glasser and Bob March, were there and they decided to add some verses and

put it to music. Glasser and March performed the resulting song in student circles and the three of them

copyrighted it when certain bands wanted to use it. (Sorry, I can‟t find out who Will Sadler was.)

The song was subsequently recorded by the Gateway Singers and performed by the Chad Mitchell Trio, Pete

Seeger and the Limelighters, and you can hear it by searching the title on YouTube (www.youtube.com). It

appears that none of the three writers had any further involvement with music but Larry Glasser was teaching

at Clarkson University in New York State as recently as 2007, while Bob March worked at the University of

Wisconsin but retired ten years earlier than that. David Lazar is said to have disappeared in 1963 while

working for the US government in Peru.

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THE JEWEL IN THE LOTUS

Sing to the jewel in the lotus, sing in the temple of love.

Sing to the beauty he gives us, sing to the children above.

Hearts filled with gladness, overflowing in adoration, raise our voices

to the glory.

Sing to the new creation, praise with our hearts full of love.

Sing to the jewel in the lotus, praise to the Kingdom above.

Listen, oh people, thou art in safety. Thine is the sovereignty,

Ancient, imperishable and everlasting love.

Dawning place of the mention of God, dawning place of the mention of God.

Lift up our hearts to the [billions of stars?].

Sing, sing, sing…

Sing to the jewel in the lotus, sing in the temple of love.

Sing to the beauty he gives us, sing to the children above.

Hearts filled with gladness, overflowing in adoration,

Spirit will lift us, bless us, everlasting love.

Hand by hand the water is brought, heart to heart through deed and by thought

Age to age the servants have toiled, sacrificed, they raise from the soil

The Temple of God, Temple of God, Temple of God.

And now behold with eyes that are solaced

the light that is shining from the jewel in the lotus.

Sing to the new creation, praise with our hearts full of love.

Sing to the jewel in the lotus, praise to the Kingdom above.

Listen, oh people, thou art in safety. Thine is the sovereignty,

Ancient, imperishable and everlasting love.

Sing for the earth is one country, sing in the springtime of love.

Sing for all the religions, sing to the glory of God.

Sing, sing, sing!

James Seals and Jack Lenz (1987)

The lyrics of this song were written by James Seals and include words from the writings of Bahá'u'lláh and

`Abdu'l-Bahá, while the music was composed by Jack Lenz. You can hear it sung by Dash Crofts and the

„Best Singers in Toronto‟ choir on: www.bahaisongspoems.blogspot.com.au (scroll down to the fifth entry,

noting the pictures as you do so).

Seals and Crofts are both Texans who played with Glen Campbell and other bands from the mid-1950s until

1969. In that year, they became Bahá'ís and formed their own group, which enjoyed considerable success

until they retired in 1980. They had reunion tours in 1991–1992 and 2004, also appearing at several Bahá'í

gatherings. (1992 was the year of the second Bahá'í World Congress in New York City.)

Jack Lenz is a Canadian composer and musician who joined the Seals and Crofts group, playing key-board

and flute. He went on to become a prolific music producer for record albums, films, stage and television,

including musical scores for the Canadian children‟s program, Nanalan’, and Mel Gibson‟s The Passion of

the Christ. Lenz later founded Live Unity Enterprises, an organisation for producing musical and dramatic

resources for the Bahá'í community, and wrote the opening music for the second World Congress.

The picture above shows the Bahá'í House of Worship near New Dellhi, also called the Lotus Temple.

Opened in 1986, it was designed and built by the Iranian architect, Fariborz Shaba, to the specifications that

govern all Houses of Worship. Thus, it has a circular base and nine sides, each with a door and made up of

three marble-clad „petals‟. The building stands on 10.5 hectares of grounds and is surrounded by nine

ornamental ponds and gardens – please see Google Images for an overhead view of its stunning floral

appearance and pictures of the interior, which can seat 1500 worshippers with room for another 1000. The

Temple receives four million visitors a year – more than the Taj Mahal – and is open to all. As in all Houses

of Worship, readings, chants and songs from any faith can be conducted but no sermons, ritualistic

ceremonies or musical instruments are permitted.

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THE APARTMENT (Part 1)

By Patrick Bernard

Behind the veneer of respectability and affluence of any bourgeois family, the joys and pains of the human condition remain the same. Every family has its secrets, its myths, its quirks and its follies that reappear from one generation to the next and Maurice‟s family was no exception to this state of affairs. For him, the „Villa Across the Street‟

1 was the gateway to an infinite universe full of unlimited possibilities. By contrast, his

family‟s apartment, although spacious by Parisian standards, was a closed claustrophobic world, where nothing seemed possible outside the confines of rigid house regulations reminiscent of penal institutions. Successive changes and crises in the outside world had little impact on his staid old-fashioned household, where the slightly nauseous odour of naphthalene blended with the vapours of beeswax. In this fortress of stability, Maurice‟s mother reined supreme, attending to every detail with military precision and crushing predictability. Conformism and strict obedience to the most arbitrary rules, no matter how subtle and sophisticated these may appear to be, are essential to the cultural survival of any tribe, the bourgeoisie being no exception to these sociological requirements. Its beliefs may be presented as universal and eternal but the bourgeoisie‟s resistance to change makes it more vulnerable than many other socioeconomic groups which, in reaction, drives it to be even more protective of its rigidly codified lifestyles, clinging desperately onto its remnants of privileges as one would to straws in a tempest. Hence, unable to reform, they hurl themselves into the last stages of a cycle of decline common to all civilisations. There is an inherent contradiction in the fact that, in order to survive, members of any cohesive group of human beings feel that, on one hand, it has a moral obligation to conserve its traditions and protect itself from external forces or influences perceived as hostile but, on the other hand, that same group must also adapt to changing circumstances in order to survive. When it cannot find a satisfactory equilibrium between those two opposite needs, the said group will either perish altogether or it will be absorbed into other tribes and thus lose its identity. In this moribund society, a young boy would find joy wherever he could, even in Maurice‟s case, with the commonest of birds. His only memento from The Villa Across the Street was Pierrot, an injured small Parisian sparrow he had picked up in the enchanted garden before the latter had been bulldozed to make room for a concrete-and-steel office building. Someone had slung a pellet at the poor bird that was lucky to have survived this attack. Maurice decided it was a male, baptised it „Pierrot‟ and took it back home to nurse it for several weeks, turning a cardboard shoebox lined with cotton wool into a makeshift hospital bed. Miraculously, Pierrot made a full recovery and became Maurice‟s best companion. Maurice, who detested zoos and thought cages were cruel places to keep animals in captivity, demanded that Pierrot be allowed to fly freely throughout the apartment. To pacify him, his parents accepted this arrangement for a while. Maurice was so besotted by this ordinary bird that, even when he was at school, he was thinking about it, couldn‟t wait to see it again, and he even wrote sentimental odes to Pierrot. This somewhat excessive affection concerned both his parents and his teachers, who began to suspect that he was hypersensitive and might even be a slightly unbalanced child. At mealtimes, Pierrot stood on the dining room table right next to Maurice‟s plate, ever ready to collect breadcrumbs and other bits of food gently passed to him. When Maurice retired to his room to read, play or do his homework, the loyal sparrow would perch himself on the boy‟s head or shoulders and would stay there for hours, apparently content. Predictably, one day Pierrot finally flew out into the winter sky through a toilet window that had been left open inadvertently, or so he was told, but he very much doubted that version of events although he pretended to. Thus, seeds of distrust and resentment were sown. To be fair, besides having to clean up bird‟s droppings all over the place, Maurice‟s parents probably could not stand anymore being unable to open windows to let fresh air into their apartment. Maurice was inconsolable for days and even now, more than sixty years later, he can still remember this incident with a heavy heart. What became evident then to everyone, including himself, was that he was a very emotional child and he would subsequently spend decades trying to correct or at least conceal this alleged weakness, which never totally left him, beneath a thin veneer of unconvincing machismo and he kept carting it around like an old unwanted friend with its excess baggage of hypersensitivity.

1 This was the title and subject of Chapter 2 of this book.

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Such apparently insignificant incidents, sometimes described as having „The Butterfly Effect‟, which is the

“notion that a butterfly stirring the air in Peking can transform storm systems next month in New York…”2,

can unleash an uncontrollable chain of events which will alter the entire course of someone‟s existence. As

the allegorical „Red Balloon‟ in Albert Lamorisse‟s enchanted 1956 short film of the same name, that little

sparrow symbolised Maurice‟s childhood as it flew out of a toilet window into an unwelcoming world, never

to return. Pierrot‟s escape led Maurice to reflect prematurely on the concept of freedom. In his child‟s mind

he understood that, although Pierrot had foregone comfort, safety, warmth and love, he had regained the one

thing that mattered most to him regardless of the cost: his freedom. It was an easy choice for a bird to make

but it would be a much harder one for a human being. Unwittingly, that most common Parisian bird had put

these unsettling lofty considerations into Maurice‟s head at an age when he should have been content to play

with toy trains.

That toilet, which had become Pierrot‟s gateway to freedom was also Maurice‟s antechamber of liberty

because it was the only room in the apartment where he could sit undisturbed reading, writing, drawing and

even playing his guitar, which sounded better there than anywhere else as the tiled floor amplified music

most agreeably. But even in the apparently safe seclusion of this water closet he could not completely escape

unpleasant links to reality, for indeed, hanging behind the toilet door and staring at him ominously as he sat

on the throne, there was one of these whips one could readily purchase in hardware stores in those distant

days. The said whip, used liberally to discipline Maurice and his brother, had an ornate wooden handle to

which were attached about a dozen forty-centimetre long leather straps with little beads hanging at the ends

to inflict maximum pain when used on a child‟s bottom. As a pre-emptive measure, when he was about ten

years old, Maurice cut the dreaded straps in half to minimize the intended effect and, strangely, he was not

punished for this act of sabotage.

As adults and as parents, Maurice‟s father and mother had the privilege of virtually unlimited power and the

illusion of inherent wisdom, which they both asserted at every opportunity. Central to this Ancien Régime

mindset was the belief that children were empty vessels waiting to be filled. It was sincerely thought that

“children were meant to be seen but not heard” and they were therefore neither expected to disagree or argue

on any issue, nor were they allowed to express an opinion on anything unless invited to do so, which was

usually at dinner time and only when there were no guests.

Parents‟ authority was absolute and no challenge of any sort was tolerated. Any breach would automatically

incur swift and severe retributions, the range of which we shall discuss later. As in William Golding‟s 1954

haunting novel, Lord of the Flies, children were considered fundamentally anti-social creatures, if not

savages, who could only be kept under control and „civilised‟ through an unforgiving regime of fear and

punishments. Nowadays, of course, this pedagogy is not only outmoded and discredited but it is also

condemned as „child abuse‟, in which case most children of Maurice‟s generation were the victims of this

„abuse‟ and therefore their parents were all criminals who, like ex-Nazis, should be hunted down and

dragged out of retirement to face serious charges and serve long sentences behind bars. This is obviously

ludicrous and we can‟t retrospectively condemn an entire generation who were merely the products of their

times. Back in the 1950s, this was the standard fare for most children in most French families but, once

again, „we shouldn‟t judge the past by the standards of the present‟ for, as L. P. Hartley put it in the opening

line of his 1953 novel, The Go-Between: “The past is a foreign country, they do things differently there.”

At the other end of this spectrum, it appears that today we are confronted with the opposite situation, where

children have neither fear of nor respect for parents, teachers, figures of authority or any adult, unless of

course they come from Hollywood and one may wonder if this is really such an improvement. The

overwhelming evidence being that, in many cases, children are now the oppressors and maybe they too

should, in fifty years time, be dragged out of retirement and punished for having in their distant youth

tormented adults and parents. The reductio ad absurdum of this Kafkaesque logic is that there would be no

statute of limitation and, in the end, everyone should go to jail for something they have done at some stage in

their lives and claims of innocence could only aggravate your case.

The advent of television could have been a happy event in Maurice‟s childhood, but his father loathed this

new technology as an evil invention he predicted would destroy family life, our ability to think and the film

industry. When people asked him why he did not have a television set, he would invariably answer with the

question: “Why would I want to have an open sewer in my lounge room?” Reluctantly, after months of

2 James Gleick "Chaos: Making a New Science"

10

intense social pressures and long after everyone else, he finally conceded to buy a television set, merely so

that he could say he had one and this would stop people from pestering him about it. This did not mean he

had any intention of using this demonic machine, which was brought into the family apartment without joy

and under prohibitive conditions. Many years later, Maurice would grow immensely grateful that access and

exposure to this vapid medium was denied to him in child-hood, although he very much resented this

censorship at the time. Instead of being overly absorbed in someone else‟s fantasies, vision and

interpretations of the classics, Maurice and his brother had to create their own imaginary worlds, chiefly

through compulsory reading, which soon became compulsive habits. On the Persian carpet of his bedroom,

Maurice recreated with toy soldiers some of the great battles of history and often turned those into

meticulous drawings with casts of thousands. In his spare time, he kept meticulous diaries and learned to

play the classical guitar, these activities being after all not bad substitutes for passive television watching.

The television set itself came in a monumental but lockable mahogany cabinet, which was itself locked in

Stéphane‟s inaccessible wood panelled library. As he did for his wine cellar and his car, Maurice‟s father

kept all these keys securely in his pocket. By unilateral parental decree, Maurice and his brother were only

allowed to watch the Sunday afternoon movie, which was usually an excellent adaptation of a masterpiece of

world literature directed by an inspired gentleman called Claude Santelli, who had conceptualised a program

titled Le Théâtre de la Jeunesse (translatable poorly as „The Youth Theatre‟). In these pioneering days of

television, Santelli passionately believed that this new medium should and could enrich us culturally and

morally although, considering the appalling deterioration in the quality of televised offerings more than half

a century later, Santelli‟s expectations seem now rather naïve.

Exceptionally, the said television cabinet would also be unlocked and the family was summoned to watch a

very special event, such as a speech by Général de Gaulle or Winston Churchill‟s funeral on the 30th of

January 1965, one day after Maurice‟s birthday. Little did anyone know at the time that this spectacular

pageantry was the last blaze of glory of the British Empire. In retrospect, it was like watching the distant

afterglow of a star that had already exploded and died eons before. A similar declining splendour would

follow Général de Gaulle‟s memorial service in Paris‟ Notre Dame Cathedral. The sense of loss was

emphasised in both cases by Stéphane‟s war experience and his un-wavering gratitude to Great Britain for

her support of De Gaulle and the Free French Forces during that conflict.

The family was also invited to look at news on the Soviet launching of „Sputnik‟, the first artificial satellite,

on the 4th of October 1957, which announced the beginning of the Space Age and triggered the Space Race.

Similarly, on the 12th of April 1961, the family watched in awe a rapturous report on the successful

launching and return of Yuri Gagarin, the first human being to travel to outer space and orbit our planet.

With his boyish smile, Gagarin won hundreds of millions of hearts around the world – he became one of the

great mythical heroes of the time and literally fired the imagination of many in Maurice‟s generation. This

was a great propaganda coup for the Soviet Union but it also accelerated the Cold War. It seemed that Russia

had become a superpower to equal and even surpass the United States and, for a while then, spacemen were

known as „cosmonauts‟ before they were renamed „astronauts‟. In the course of these two extraordinary

events, one sensed that Maurice‟s mother, who was a devout anti-Communist, was nevertheless secretly

proud of her former compatriots‟ achievements.

Spared from the numbing effects of television, Maurice‟s family sat together for dinner to discuss the events

of the day. It was only in this small family circle that the children were invited to express them-selves

relatively freely. Conversation, like everything else, was highly regulated. It was, for instance, considered

improper, if not indecent, to talk about oneself at length. Only brief references to oneself were tolerated and,

even then, these self-indulgent lapses would most likely raise a few disapproving parental eyebrows. One

could talk about almost anything as long as one was not the central subject of conversation. The underlying

philosophy being that if a group of people talked about a novel, for example, each individual expressing his

own opinion about the chosen book would be indirectly revealing something about himself anyway, which

would be sufficient exposure and would still allow the discussion to remain on open ground, leaving enough

mental and emotional space for others to make their own contributions on equal terms. By contrast it was

understood that, if one talked about oneself without restraint, there would be nothing left for others to do but

listen passively and pretend to be interested. A polite nod of indifferent approval or a distant gaze would be

all one could offer in response to an egocentric monologist.

11

This strict etiquette had a lasting effect on Maurice, insofar as he has never liked to talk about himself at

great lengths or in great detail, which made him very popular with those who like to ramble on about

themselves endlessly. Uncomfortable with unwanted attention, he became adept in the art of pretending to be

interested in other people‟s self-obsessions. In fact, he often did become genuinely interested, not so much in

what other people said, but in trying to understand what motivated them to say what they were saying. In

doing so, he was not judging others from a position of moral superiority but as a perplexed observer trying to

understand his fellow human beings, and therefore himself, a little better – curiosity and perplexity being

central to the quest for meaning in everyone‟s existence.

.

The apparent freedom of those family dinner time conversations was nevertheless a minefield fraught with

many dangers and one had to tread carefully. To Maurice‟s chagrin, the only taboo subjects were Russia,

Russians and anything related, particularly to Tatyana‟s own background. Any vague reference to those

would first incur a deathly silence, followed by her wrath, tears and days of incurable melancholia. Apart

from that, all topics were allowed within the strict confines of formal rhetorical conventions. There was, for

example, an acceptable pitch for speaking, loud enough to be audible but not so loud as to become a

nuisance. One was expected to project one‟s voice through chest and throat but absolutely not through the

nose, which was considered execrable and vulgar. Elocution had to be unambiguous and, to avoid mumbling

incomprehensibly, one had to move one‟s lips deftly to pronounce every syllable and each word with utter

clarity.

To achieve a perfect elocution, the brothers were constantly given ridiculous tongue-twisters to repeat, such

as “Les chaussettes de l‟Archiduchesse, sont elles sèches et archi-sèches?” which translates absurdly into

“Are the Archduchess‟s socks dry and archi-dry?” Each sentence had to be delivered without syncopation or

hesitation. Words had to flow together elegantly without repetitions, without grating expletives such as

“…er…”, “you know”, “you see” or “like” to replace punctuation, or other discourse markers. Any lapses

would reveal the speaker‟s uncertainty, underconfidence, sloppy reasoning and poor command of language.

Sighing, raising eyes to the ceiling or responding to disagreement with a patronising “whatever” was

considered a major offence which would be rewarded with a slap in the face, thus ending all discussions. The

boys would be corrected if they said “I think that…” or “I believe that…” or “in my opinion…”, because it

was assumed that any opinion expressed was one‟s own anyway, unless otherwise mentioned, and therefore

such introductions were superfluous. In spite of all these constraints, conversation had to appear effortless

and, with enough coercion, corrections and repetitions, it could indeed become second nature. Maurice‟s

mother would say: “to learn how to express yourself properly is like learning how to play a musical

instrument” but then, to further confuse Maurice, she would add a contradictory message: “Spoken words are

silver, unspoken words are gold”, which was also ironical considering this was a quote from Leo Tolstoy,

who had him-self written and said so much.

The most important rhetorical consideration in Maurice‟s family and in much of French society was not so

much who won an argument based on evidence and logic but who had argued best. In Parisian circles,

Protagoras always won over Socrates. Maurice did not understand why style should be more important than

substance and this would further alienate him from his compatriots. In any case, unlike his brother, Maurice

was a slow debater and he could only think of brilliant repartees long after a discussion was over.

In this rigorous environment, Maurice was trying with great difficulty to learn and adjust to all these rules as

best as he could while his brother, Nicholas, seemed to embrace them with total ease. One of these house

rules, like the strict ten o‟clock curfew imposed every night, seemed to be yet another abuse of parental

authority as he looked so much forward to escape into literature once his homework had been completed and

scrutinised by the uncompromising Tatyana. His mother would occasionally patrol the apartment in the

middle of the night to ensure that all lights remained switched off. Maurice had found a sneaky solution to

this oppression and he thus became a clandestine reader, which added spice to his nocturnal escapades into

literary fiction. Using a long wooden ruler as a pole to lift his top sheet and blanket he converted his bed into

an ersatz one-man tent, which gave him the illusion of camping out in the wilderness where many of his

favourite novels were set. With a small electric torch lamp, he would then read into the night, undetected, as

long as his eyes stayed open. He thus travelled far and wide into the great unknown. Books became his truest

friends and most trusted advisors, and would remain so for the rest of his life. With these loyal undercover

companions, from the confined space of his bed, Maurice explored unlimited worlds. [This is Patrick‟s latest instalment of his book-in-progress, Perennity. Chapter 2 appeared in the June/July edition of last year. He assures us that Part 2 of „The Apartment‟ will appear in the next issue.]

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FOOTNOTES

With the Chalice Lightings on p. 3, we wrote about the Khasi Hills Unitarians in the last issue. The

Francophone Unitarian Church is the on-line arm of the Council of French Unitarians and Universalists,

which sees its purview as extending to French-speaking communities elsewhere in Europe (e.g., Belgium,

Switzerland, Monaco and Andorra), in North America (Québec, Acadia, Louisiana and Philadelpia) and

Africa (Burundi, the two Congos and Togo). If you use a search engine to access their website (http://eglise.

unitarienne. francophone.over-blog.fr), you can obtain an English translation of it.

The UU Society of Finland (Suomen Unitaariuniversalistinen Seura) has been a Full Member of the ICUU

since 2003, despite having only a single lay-led Fellowship in Helsinki and smaller groups were formed in

the cities of Turku and Kuopio. Despite their small numbers, they have produced two books in Finnish, as

well as translations of two other U*U sources. Recently, some materials were discovered in North America

that were written or translated by ministers of Finnish immigrant congregations in the 19th and early 20

th

Centuries, which they also mean to publish.

COMMITTEE NEWS

Our new colour printer is now up-and-running and anyone who has attended church in recent weeks will

have seen what it is capable of doing. Anyone who hasn‟t should definitely come and see.

The Annual General Meeting will be held after the service on Sunday, 28 April 2013. Nominations for the

Committee must be lodged not later than 21 April.

The next Committee meeting will be held on Tuesday, 09 April 2013. If members have any matters which

they would like to be placed on the agenda for discussion, they should contact the Secretary on 0423 393 364

or email: michael_j_spicer@yahoo.com.au.

Membership renewals for 2013 are due before the Annual General Meeting. Those wishing to join our

church can use this form by way of application but should not send payment until their membership is

accepted.

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MEMBERSHIP/RENEWAL FORM

I, (name) ___________________________________________________

of (address) _________________________________________________

________________________________ Postcode _________

Phone(s): (home) __________________ (other) ___________________

Email: ______________________________________________________

I apply to join/renew membership in (delete one) the Sydney Unitarian Church and agree to abide by the

rules as set down by the Constitution and management of the church.

Signature: ________________________________ Fee enclosed: $_____*

Cheques should be made payable to: Treasurer, Sydney Unitarian Church. Membership will be valid for the

calendar year 2012.

* Annual membership is $20 and includes the SUN journal; subscription to the SUN only is $15.