Friendly Humanist

Three interesting things happened to me today.

1. The summer solstice happened early this morning. At this northern latitude, that’s a big deal. I’m actually looking forward to a bit more night. (I think the early dawn and late sunset may be why Kaia seems to sleep so little. I ask the more experienced parents out there not to disillusion me.)
2. It was my second Father’s Day as a father. I got a delightful little card with a cute little red hand print on it from Kaia. I’ll spare you my cheesy gushing. For now.
3. Deena and I officially became members of the Edinburgh Unitarian Church.

We have been attending for some months now. (Excessively-attentive readers may have noticed Unitarianism popping up occasionally – here, here, here, and here). What began (for me) as a little research into community-building – research I hope to apply to the humanist community – turned into an enriching experience of being part of a supportive community.

It is late, and I don’t want to wax on at too great a length. Let me just say a couple of things to make sure my readers don’t misunderstand.

I am not going to start blogging as the Friendly Unitarian now (and not just because of the unfortunate acronym). I still consider myself a humanist. (There’s a sign on the outside of the Unitarian church that says something along the lines of “What do a Christian, an Agnostic, a Humanist, and a Buddhist have in common? They might all be Unitarians.”)

I still consider myself a part of the humanist community in Scotland, and at my university. And online, of course.

I will blog another time about the natural connections between Unitarians and humanists. But for now, I recommend you read this address by Dale McGowan to a Unitarian congregation in the States.

I put it to all those humanists out there who identify with Harry (read Dale’s full address to get the reference): we need to understand Sally better for humanism to grow into its full potential. Unitarians understand Sally very well indeed.

This entry was posted on 2009/06/21 at 22:30 and is filed under anecdote, community, personal. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.