Newcastle Unitarians

The Calendar

Sunday Meeting at 11am

All welcome

April – May 2020

www.newcastleunitarians.org.uk facebook.com/NewcastleuponTyneUnitarians

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Contents

Page Item

2 Church News

11 Letter from Roger Tarbuck

17 Upcoming Events

20 Recent Service Highlights

23 History of the Church: Robert W. Cairns

30 Herbert Barnes and the Scapa Flow Museum

33 Latest Management Committee Notes and update

34 Sunday Services Suspension – Notice and Update

35 Flower Dedications

A member Congregation of the General Assembly of Unitarian and Free Christian Churches

Ellison Place, Newcastle upon Tyne NE1 8XG

Front cover photo credit: Tibor Fazakas, freeimages.com Calendar printed by Metro Repro: metrorepro.co.uk/

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Church News

Hello from the Chairperson Spring 2020

Well, this isn’t how I intended this hello would go! The first part is the most important - services at our church building are suspended from 22 March 2020.

There will be no services at the church building until we receive advice from the Government that services can resume. This isn't an easy decision, but the management committee feels that we must make it to help keep everyone safe and well.

We'll be putting any further update notices on Facebook and on our website, and will be calling people who are not online to let them know (there will be a poster displayed at the church building as well). We are deciding what to do about the church AGM scheduled for 26 April and I'll let everyone know about this as soon as I can.

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We will be keeping our community going! In future, we might try online services using Zoom - watch this space while we work out how this could be done! For people who are not online, we'll look at what best meets everyone's needs, such as phone conversations, letters and so forth. You can call us on: 07506 255 731 or write to us at: Newcastle Unitarian Church, Ellison Place, Newcastle upon Tyne, Tyne and Wear, NE1 8XG.

National meetings like the General Assembly in April and all events at the Nightingale Centre are also cancelled. A lot of people are working very hard to think about how we sustain our Unitarian movement in these times.

Please, everyone, stay calm, stay safe, and stay in touch. We are here for all our members and will support everyone as best we can! Please do let me know what works best for you. Love and blessings,

- Louise Reeve

Newcastle upon Tyne Unitarians

Chairperson

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Becoming a Church Member As our church Annual General Meeting approaches, we’d like to ask everyone who regularly attends our meetings to consider becoming a member of Newcastle upon Tyne Unitarians. This means that you have a vote in decisions that affect how we are run. For example, the recent decisions to sell our building, and who to sell it to, were agreed by a vote of all members. Our official definition of membership is: “Rule 1. A Member is anyone over 18 years of age who has intimated their desire to become a member to the Minister, to the Secretary or to the Treasurer, and, having been accepted as a Member by the Management Committee, enters into fellowship with other members, and regularly subscribes to Funds by pledging annually in writing in advance, to the Church Treasurer, a regular prescribed weekly amount through: (a) Donation in the collection plate; or (b) Weekly, Monthly or Annual subscription; or

(c) Covenanted or Gift Aid subscription Any such prescribed amounts may be paid by bank standing order.

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Acceptance of Rule 1 in full constitutes full membership with voting rights.” We do not have a set amount that you need to contribute, this is at your discretion (though you should be aware that we pay a small fixed amount to the national movement, the General Assembly, on behalf of each member). There is a simple form we ask people to sign to confirm that you wish to be a member. Whether you want to have a public membership ceremony is up to you! This is not formal and it’s not required for membership, but is a simple, short ceremony during a service in which the worship leader formally invites you to become a member, you pledge your membership and the congregation welcomes you. We would love to have more members joining us to shape our future. If you have questions, please speak to a member of the committee.

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National Unitarian Fellowship

People might like to consider joining the National Unitarian Fellowship: "a nationwide Unitarian network, for the exchange of ideas, opinions and news, and a point of contact for all with similar ideas, whether they belong to a

church or not". nufonline.org.uk

A note of thanks for a recent gift:

Our grateful thanks to Rev Andrew M Hill of York for his gift to us of “The James Losh Diaries, 1802-1833” by Deborah Smith. James Losh was a barrister from Cumbria and a member of our Hanover Square congregation. The book is primarily concerned with Losh’s observations of the weather in Newcastle, but the book also contains some interesting personal biographical details. I shall be writing about James Losh later in the year and the book will be a great help!

- Maurice Large

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We have received a letter from Ipswich Unitarians:

Dear Supporter,

Last autumn you were kind enough to write an email of support for our Restoration Project to save and repair our Grade 1 listed Unitarian Meeting House in Ipswich.

We wanted to share with you the good news that work on the building is going to start in mid-February. We have been lucky enough to attract support from Historic England to the tune of up to £421,000, £10,000 from Suffolk

The stunning interior of Ipswich Unitarian Meeting

House

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Historic Churches Trust, £5,000 from the Gregson Trust and from our own efforts we have raised £20,000. There are still a few grant applications in the pipeline from which we await (hopefully) more good news, but we have enough promised to be able to make a start. We are also planning to add access to the building for people with a disability and a toilet so we still have some fundraising to do.

Your support was vital in convincing the bodies awarding grants that restoring our Meeting House is a worthy cause. Thank you.

If you would like to stay in contact with our Project, please keep an eye on our website – www.unitarianipswich.com , where we aim to add updates and photos as the work progresses. If you would like to stay in closer touch, let me know and I will add your email address to our monthly newsletter mailing list.

Thank you again,

Tessa Forsdike

On behalf of the Congregation of the Ipswich Unitarian Meeting House

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Reading Group – SUSPENDED IN THE BUILDING

But a virtual reading group by email will start on 29 March – the first extracts will go out to everyone on the current mailing list.

The Daily Uplift: Diana is also sending out short daily emails aimed to uplift you, help you smile and keep us all in contact every day.

If you would like to be on the mailing list for the reading group or the Daily uplift, please send Diana a Facebook message at facebook.com/NewcastleuponTyneUnitarians

or email her at newcastleunitarianchurch@hotmail.co.uk

Charity Collection for Joseph Cowen Centre for Homeless Men

Newcastle upon Tyne Unitarians recently attended an open day at the local Joseph Cowen Health Care Centre, to mark the refurbishment of their building and celebrate

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our ongoing support for them. The Centre is named for Joseph Cowen, who was the Liberal MP for Newcastle upon Tyne between 1874-1886, a radical political reformer who attended the Church of the Divine Unity (now commonly known as Newcastle upon Tyne Unitarians). Because of this link, for five years the congregation has supported the church by collecting clothes, toiletries and hot drink supplies for the homeless men who use the Centre's services. We were very happy to be invited to see their refurbished building and meet some of the centre's users, and look forward to continuing to support them in future!

Images show:

- Our collection table

- Louise Reeve

(congregation secretary)

at the open day

presentations.

- The outside of the centre

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Letter from Roger Tarbuck

Dear Friends,

What are religious people looking for? I don’t

care who they are, they’re looking for

something they can cling to, for order, for

guidance and for comfort.

The raw material of life presents itself to us

seemingly without arrangement, and we need

help to find order. We have rules of the road

to help us to travel safely; our code of laws to

give structure to life; social rules, because

these oil the wheels of society; scientific rules,

etc. By using guidelines, we gain skills and

knowledge that help us to cope with the world

that we live in. We teach each other to

discover the laws of nature and the beauty

that these create. Think of sound - raw sound

- the way it was long ago, before there was

life. All the potential of harmony and melody

were there, but it was unformed and unheard.

After a very long time, humans came along

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and sang in their joy

and their sorrow,

eventually starting to

analyse sound, to

discover its patterns

and rhythms, to

explore its exciting

variations, so that the

elements that made

the roar of a volcano,

or the crashing of the sea may be used,

through human genius, to create a Bach

cantata or the strains of a gentle lullaby.

These patterns were not made by humans,

but were discovered and formalised by them:

they were there since time began.

Religion poses a big question, but just as our

physical perception may reach through our

eyes to the infinity above, so may our inner

perception open itself to the infinity of the

unconscious both at a personal level and at

what Jung called the collective unconscious.

Soundwaves

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The subconscious is what Jung called the

parts of the unconscious that are about to rise

into consciousness, and the unconscious is so

huge, so powerful and full of everything, from

frightening things to wisdom and perfection,

that we need something to help us to put all

this into imaginable form.

Some might now ask: “Are you saying that

God is the unconscious?” By no means. The

older I get, the harder it is to say that God is

this, or God is not that, though I must admit

that I do say that God is love and not some

dreadful situation, person or thing, but how

precise can I be? How can I deal with a

subject that is without ultimate definition?

Even God himself, when asked by Moses for

his name, coyly gives no more information

than: “I am that I am.” If we accept this story,

God knows that by choosing a “proper” name

he would immediately limit himself to an

infinite number of interpretations of that name.

Knowing how people think and react, we can

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say with certainty that God did the right thing.

So, in the Bible, until Jesus comes along

happily using the word “Father”, or even

“Daddy”, God remains pretty much as God, or

the Lord, or the Lord God.

I’m using the masculine pronoun here. I could

say, he, she or it, or them - even themself.

(My computer really tried to correct that one!)

But whatever I choose, it will be imperfect, so

I’ll stick to the pronoun that I grew up with, as

others will choose for themselves.

All names and reasoning concerning any

perceived thing,

including God, are

manufactured,

consciously or

unconsciously, with

different points of

view and prejudices

built in, so I find it The human brain and perception

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helpful to mention a straightforward fact

concerning human perception. It’s natural for

the brain to make sense of the conditions in

which it finds itself: for example, if you wear

an apparatus over the eyes, that turns what

you see upside down, after a while your brain

will correct your vision, and you will see

normally. It’s a natural function of the brain to

make sense of our perceptions; and religion -

a part of the process - helps us to

comprehend the seemingly incomprehensible,

both in the conscious world, which can be

frightening enough, and with products of the

unconscious, which can be worse and which

may affect or create anything we see, think or

do, from perfect love to Auschwitz.

Religion helps us by

using familiar forms

to cope with the

tremendous forces

that affect us: God

the Father and A dove

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Creator; the Devil for evil, Jesus Christ for

good; Mars for war, a dove for peace. From

deep in the unconscious there are patterns

that register as the Wise Old Man, the Great

Mother, the Child the Hero and a host of

others, ranging from good to evil. And these

representations filter through myth and legend

to the great sweeping sagas that have always

moved us.

Religion reaches over areas of the deepest

darkness up to the ultimate God of a thousand

names, over whom parts of humankind have

butchered each other ever since our story

began. In this complex tapestry, spread from

evil to good, we choose the path of

righteousness, compassion and love, which

good religion shows us. But the choice is

always ours.

Yours sincerely, Roger Tarbuck

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Rev. Roger Tarbuck was our minister at Newcastle upon Tyne Unitarian Church between September 1977 to 1994. He studied first at Unitarian College Manchester, then at Manchester College Oxford, and was appointed minister at

Newcastle upon Tyne from September 1977, where he stayed until retiring in 1994. In 1996, Rev. Tarbuck came back as Pastor at Newcastle and stayed until 2004, when he retired. He is a Spanish speaker and learned to play the guitar, although modestly has never claimed any proficiency at it. His regular letters to the church are always much appreciated!

Events Updates

GA CANCELLED

The General Assembly of Unitarian and Free Christian Churches have decided to cancel the GA Meeting in April. Please speak to Louise if you have any questions about this.

See their statement below:

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Dear colleague,

It is with regret that we are cancelling the Annual Meetings in April. In considering the coronavirus pandemic, the Executive Committee agreed that the possibility of putting our community and others at risk means that we should not go ahead as we planned.

We will be in touch soon to let you know how we will manage the process of refunding registration fees.

Our intention is that we will find ways to offer some of the Annual Meetings experience in other ways, as it seems more important than ever that we find ways to connect with each other while we are unable to gather in person in the same way.

Our priority is to do what we can to help our members and the wider community be well in body, spirit, and mind during the uncertainty and challenging conditions that have arisen due to this pandemic.

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We will provide more information shortly. We are anticipating many of the queries that might arise, and so we would be grateful if you would await our next communication on the practicalities around the Annual Meeting before getting in touch with the office – hopefully we will be answering your question very soon anyway. As you can imagine, there is a lot to consider as we re-plan our approach.

As not everyone is on email, and there are always some messages that do not get delivered due to spam filters, old or incorrect email addresses etc, we will also be sending this message out by post.

Wishing you peace and good health,

Liz and the GA team

NIGHTINGALE CENTRE, DERBYSHIRE

The Centre is also cancelling events. Please email them with any enquiries at:

info@thenightingalecentre.org.uk

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Service Highlights

26 January – Louse van der Hoeven

Louise delivered a service on the topic of

“Hope and Optimism”, inspired by her visit to

Plymouth and how the city rebuilt itself after

heavy bombing in

WW2. With

readings from a

variety of sources

and a responsive

prayer from

Stephen Shick.

2 February – Chris Pilkington

Chris joined us from Wakefield to deliver a

service on the topic of ‘Charity’. With a story

about King Midas and a

reading from the book

of James.

Charity

Hope

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9 February – Anne Mills – Vice President

of the GA

Anne joined us from Bury Unitarians to deliver

a service on Freedom and Truth. With a story

about an Animal School and an address on

the topic of Russia, the death of Rasputin and

the freedom of Nelson Mandela.

16 February – Elizabeth Faiers

Elizabeth joined us from York Saint

Saviourgate Chapel for a service on the topic

of Home. With readings from Kathleen

McTigue and Warsan Shire, a prayer from

Charles Grady and music from Ewan MacColl.

23 February – Diana Bebby

Diana presented a café church

service on the subject of Waking

Up – mindfulness and atheist

spirituality. With readings and

podcasts from Sam Harris.

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1 March – Elizabeth

Faiers

Elizabeth joined us from

York to present a service

on Why We Pray. With

readings from John

Midgley and Jim Corrigall and prayers from

Stephanie Ramage and Eurebius.

8 March – Louise Reeve

Louise presented a Café Church service

compiled by Diana. With an episode of

Something Understood on the subject of

‘Abstinence’ and poetry by Rumi.

15 March – Leslie

Hartley

Leslie joined us from St Mark’s in Edinburgh, for a service on the theme of ‘Be Kind to the

Earth’. With music from Vaughan Williams and Elgar and readings from Greta Thunberg.

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History of the Church: ROBERT W CAIRNS

If you go into the main church and down to the

front you will see to the right a display cabinet.

It contains our Book of Remembrance and our

Robinson Book. The case bears a brass plate

commemorating Robert Cairns. But who was

Robert Cairns? And what was his connection

to the church? It wasn’t a name I’d previously

known, so I set off to find out.

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Our Register of

Deaths records the

death of Robert W

Cairns on 12th June

1941 and records his

address as Chain

Bridge House,

Horncliffe on Tweed.

The funeral was

conducted by Rev

Herbert Barnes, and

his ashes were buried in Berwick.

I found, in the souvenir brochure published on

the opening of the church, that the list of

contractors involved in the building of the

church included Cairns (Newcastle) Ltd as the

plumbing, lighting and heating contractors.

A search on the internet located a website for

Masonic Lodge Temperance 2557 in Byker,

which carries a full biography of Cairns, with

particular reference to his service in World

War I in the Royal Flying Corps and RAF. It

also led me to other sources, as well as

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enabling me to contact the Lodge and update

their website with details of his connection to

the church.

Robert Weatherston Cairns was born in

Berwick on 13th May 1881, the son of John

Inglis Cairns, a Master Baker, and his wife

Alice. John had three shops in the centre of

Berwick, a confectioner’s and a baker’s on

Marygate, and another on Castlegate. Robert

was their second of five children, and in due

course he became a plumber’s apprentice.

The Berwickshire News and General

Advertiser for 15th July 1902 records that he

passed his final practical examination in

connection with the Worshipful Company of

Plumbers held at Durham College of Science

in Newcastle, and gained the first prize in the

competition.

By 1911 Robert had moved to Newcastle and

set up his own business as a plumber and

electrical engineer in Bath Lane.

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When the war

intervened

Robert enlisted

in February 1916

in the army and

was assigned to

the RFC as an

air mechanic,

being transferred

into the newly

created RAF on 1st

April 1918. He married Jessie Kennedy in the

March before being deployed to France in

May 1918, where his squadron was involved

in action until the armistice was signed on 11th

November. He remained in France with the

squadron until February 1919, when he

returned to civilian life in Newcastle.

He developed a large and successful

business and in 1928 moved the business to

23 Picton Place with a flat above which they

named Tweedholme. Picton Place no longer

exists, but if you turn right out of the church

Robert and Jessie Cairns (the couple at front right) at the Tyne

Commission Quay

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and walk along to the end you will be standing

on the corner of Ellison Place and Picton

Place. If you were to turn right onto Picton

Place then No 23 would be on your right – it

would be abutting the (remaining) corner

house. 1928 must have been a successful

year because the Cairns also bought Chain

Bridge House in Horncliffe, which they also

named Tweedholme, adjacent to the Grade 1

listed Union Chain Bridge over the River

Tweed. The house is now a B & B and is next

door to the Chain Bridge Honey Farm.

Robert continued to prosper during 1928,

becoming President of the National

Federation of Plumbers and Domestic

Engineers and later in the same year he was

admitted into the Worshipful Company of

Plumbers and became a Freeman of the City

of London.

His fortunes continued to improve and at the

outbreak of World War II he won the contract

for the plumbing of an army camp near Bishop

Auckland. In 1940 he received the ultimate

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accolade on being elected Master of the

Worshipful Company of Plumbers.

Sadly he did not live long to enjoy his

success. The Berwick Advertiser reported his

death on 12th June 1941 and listed the

appointments which he had held. He had

been President of the Newcastle branch of the

Electrical Contractors Association, the

Newcastle Association of Master Plumbers

and Durham Master Plumbers Association.

He had also been elected a Fellow of the

Royal Society of Arts, and a Fellow of the

Royal Sanitary Institution. He was an

enthusiastic golfer and an ex-President of

Newcastle City Golf Club. Spending many of

his weekends at Chain Bridge House, he had

been able to indulge his passion for salmon

and trout fishing on the River Tweed. As a

measure of his success, the National Probate

Calendar shows he left £23,775, the

equivalent of well over £1,000,000 today.

The brass plate on the display cabinet refers

to the names of the subscribers to the

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memorial cabinet being recorded in the record

book of the church. That book is in the

matching display case at the left hand side of

the church. Those subscribers include Herbert

Barnes, members of the church and also the

architects and contractors who had created

the building in which the display cabinet is

sited.

As a postscript, Jessie Cairns complained

about the dust in Picton Place when the Blyth

& Tyne Railway terminus was converted to a

coal depot. Whether connected or not, they at

one time lived at Lilac Lodge, 1 Elmfield

Grove in Gosforth. Jack Green, the seaman

whose wedding photo Louise saw at Scapa

Flow, lived at 17 Otterburn Avenue. Both

Elmfield Grove and Otterburn Avenue run off

Ashburton Road. (Curiously, I’ve also lived in

both streets.) It would be interesting to know if

Robert Cairns and Jack Green knew each

other as near neighbours and/or as church

members.

- Maurice Large

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Herbert Barnes and the Scapa Flow Museum

Though many people might not associate ‘north of Scotland’ with ‘world-class scuba diving’, Scapa Flow in the Orkney Islands is famous throughout the scuba world as one of the world’s top wreck diving sites. The German High Seas Fleet was scuttled here in 1919, a deliberate act of sabotage to prevent the British being able to use the captured German warships (among the most advanced in the world at the time) as war prizes. It is one of few places in the world where WWI wrecks are (relatively) accessible to most scuba divers, and somewhere every serious British diver probably intends to visit at least once.

You may imagine then, that I was somewhat surprised when, in 2017, I called by the Scapa Flow Museum in Lyness during a week-long scuba diving trip to read about the history of the wrecks, and was confronted by a photograph of a familiar pair of gates. The nearby members of staff may have been surprised to hear someone pointing at a cabinet and shouting: “That’s my church!”

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The gates in question are the entrance gates of our own Church of the Divine Unity (the pillars are clearly visible) with a wedding party standing before them, and the text accompanying the photograph explains why they appear in an Orcadian museum:

“Wedding photograph of Jack and Marjory Green, with a copy of a telegram sent from

Murmansk by his shipmates.

They were married just after Jack returned home on leave from Russia. A provisional date had been set for the wedding, which Jack confirmed by a secret message in a telegram – the magic phrase was ‘I hope

Barnes is well’. Mr Barnes was the priest* at the Unitarian church in Newcastle where they were to be married, and the message meant that Jack would be returning home in time.”

I never met Rev. Herbert Barnes, whose ministry ended in 1951, but one of the senior members of our church was able to locate the marriage entry in the church registry – it can be seen in the photo below, and shows their full names: John Gordon Green, and Marjory Gibson.

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A fascinating and unexpected part of our history! * A copy of this article has been dispatched to the Orkney Museum, although with the photograph of the marriage registry entry, and a note that Unitarian congregations have ministers, not priests!

- Louise Reeve

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February-March Management Committee Notes

Sale and Use of the Building: The sale is ongoing. Robbie Kalbraier attended the March meeting to update us on the current repairs and on his plans for the building – he provided architectural plans and artist’s impressions.

AGM: We intend to hold our AGM on 26 April – an update will be forthcoming.

Summer Trips: The NUA Whitby trip will be Sunday 19 July – we will advertise this nearer the time. We are considering a future trip to Kendal Unitarians as well.

NUA: Brian Robson and Ben MacLeod attend NUA meetings, Ben giving reporting on our church activities as our representative.

Blue Ridge Partnership: Our formal relationship with the Blue Ridge UU’s in Virginia has ended, but they are still keen to match penpals with us (Diana is our contact).

Publicity: We intend to produce large laminated posters from the GA to place around and outside the church. We continue to update the Facebook page regularly. Brian

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Johnson has drafted a new website for us (not yet live). We are not currently intending to take part in the 2020 Heritage Open Days.

Standard items: We discussed the treasurer’s and secretary’s reports, pulpit supply, correspondence and the reading group.

Management committee meetings at the church building are now

suspended until further notice.

Sunday Services

DUE TO THE CORONA VIRUS, SUNDAY SERVICES IN THE CHURCH

HAVE NOW BEEN SUSPENDED

WE ARE OFFERING ONLINE SERVICES ON OUR FACEBOOK PAGE

AND YOUTUBE CHANNEL. PLEASE SEE OUR WEBSITE AND FACEBOOK PAGE FOR

REGULAR UPDATES OR CALL US ON 07506 255 731

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Flower Dedications

Our regular flower display will be suspended while the church is closed.

If you would still like to dedicate some flowers to a loved one in the future,

please email newcastleunitarianchurch@hotmail.co.uk

Many thanks go to Sheila and Joan for the flowers we have enjoyed so far this year.

We intend to still produce a June-July calendar - articles for the next calendar to be submitted no later, please, than Sunday 24 May 2020. Thanks to Rev. Roger Tarbuck,

Louise Reeve, Maurice Large and Ben MacLeod for their contributions to this

calendar.

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Newcastle upon Tyne Unitarians

All are welcome here

We are a free religious faith and affirm the unity

of the human family, regardless of race, creed, class, orientation or sex. We believe that peace, compassion and justice should be the hallmarks of a truly spiritual

society, pursued in a spirit of freedom, reason and tolerance.

The Unitarian Community in this city traces its history back to 1662, when Dr. Richard Gilpin

and Rev. William Durant started separate Nonconformist meetings after the Act of

Uniformity. Under the Rev. Herbert Barnes, our current building in Ellison Place

opened on Sunday 21 January 1940.

Calendar editor: Diana Bebby

Email: newcastleunitarianchurch@hotmail.co.uk

Telephone: 07506 255 731 Facebook: facebook.com/NewcastleuponTyneUnitarians