The people are informed that in accordance with a Proclamation from the Executive of the United States, all slaves are free. This involves an absolute equality of personal rights and rights of property, between former masters and slaves, and the connection heretofore existing between them, become that between employer and hired labor. The freed are advised to remain at their present homes, and work for wages. They are informed that they will not be allowed to collect at military posts; and that they will not be supported in idleness either there or elsewhere.
— General Gordon Granger, “General Order No. 3“, June 19, 1865, Galveston, Texas
It seems to me that one of the happiest lessons in the gospel is that of love. We are told to love one another and to show that love by giving. And that love becomes more like that of God when we see Jesus Himself in those around us, as the apostles did… He taught them about love, about loving. The prodigal son, the sick, the lepers, the privileged, the tax-gatherers, the sinners, those in prison — in other words, loving the unlovable. Love is the reason for it all
— Dorothy Day, an undated entry in her diary, The Duty of Delight: The Diaries of Dorothy Day, edited by Robert Ellsberg (2008)
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One of the first conditions of happiness is that the link between man and nature shall not be severed, that is, that he shall be able to see the sky above him, and that he shall be able to enjoy the sunshine, the pure air, the fields with their verdure, their multitudinous life. Men have always regarded it as a great unhappiness to be deprived of all these things.
— Leo Tolstoy, My Religion, translated by Huntington Smith (1885)
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If we want there to be peace in the world, we have to be brave enough to soften what is rigid in our hearts, to find the soft spot and stay with it. We have to have that kind of courage and take that kind of responsibility. That’s the true practice of peace.
— Pema Chödrön, Practicing Peace in Times of War
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Hope is not the same thing as optimism. It is not the conviction that something will turn out well, but the certainty that something makes sense, regardless of how it turns out.
— Václav Havel, Disturbing the Peace: A Conversation with Karel Hvížďala, translated by Paul Wilson (1990)
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No matter which side you supported, no matter how you feel about the result of the election, one must remember that in this world nothing is permanent, change is inevitable.
Some words of encouragement and consolation for those who need them:
On this date, 27 October 1553, Michael Servetus, physician and theologian, was burned at the stake in Geneva, Switzerland, for the crime of rejecting the doctrine of the Trinity. He was the first European to describe pulmonary circulation. The description, unnoticed by any of the heretic hunters who examined Servetus’ books, was hidden in the book that Calvin ordered to be burned along with Servetus himself.
A useful summary of Servetus’ life, works, and death, as well as a list of his works, can be found at the Michael Servetus Institute web site. Fuller descriptions of Servetus’ life, works, trial, and execution can be found in Lawrence and Nancy Goldstone, Out of the Flames: The Remarkable Story of a Fearless Scholar, a Fatal Heresy, and One of the Rarest Books in the World, or Roland H. Bainton, Hunted Heretic: The Life and Death of Michael Servetus, 1511-1553.
… celebrations in most countries outside of India and South Africa have been, at best, muted.
Perhaps that is because the Non-Violence promoted by the commemoration is not just a sort of vague warm fuzzy pacifism, but an active strategy for social change.
“Dávid Ferenc” (@unitariandavidferenc) posted this earlier today (6 January 2024) on Facebook:
456 years ago today:
On this date, January 6, in 1568 king John Sigismund assembled a Diet to be held in the town Torda (today Turda in Romania). At this Diet our Bishop Francis David inspired the delegates to later approve the first toleration edict of freedom of faith among the Christian religions.
This was a new and revolutionary idea of freedom of religion at that time, and therefore January 6 1568 also is considered by tradition to be the birth of The Unitarian Church.
Persons identified in the famous painting by Aladár Körösfői-Kriesch showing Bishop Francis David at the Diet of Torda 1568.
West Fork Unitarian Universalists 