Our ServicesSundays: morning Worship Service 10:45

evening Sacred Contemplation 6:00Wednesdays: midday Meditation 1:15Thursdays: evening Sacred Contemplation 6:15

First Sunday of the month: Bring and Share Lunch in the Priestley Hall

ContactsWebsite: www.millhillchapel.orgMinister Revd. Jo James 0113 243 3845 email jojames.email@gmail.com tweet @jojames_ Facilities Manager/Lettings: c/o Chapel 0113 243 3845 Chairman of the Congregation Alan Hawkins: alan.c.hawkins@btinternet.com Director of Music Anthony Norcliffe : anthony.norcliffe1@homecall.co.uk The Record Editor Email millhillrecord@gmail.com @millhillchapel

charity number: 1081978

One of the oldest and most distinguished of the denominations to arise from the Protestant

reformation Unitarianism is an open theological tradition which emphasises freedom of conscience,

affirms the inherent worth of all humans and acknowledges the validity of all religious approaches

to the Divine.

THE RECORD AUGUST 2015Mill Hill Unitarian Chapel

City Square, Leeds A PLACE OF SPIRITUAL SANCTUARY FOR ALL

Liberation: Inspiration: Compassion

From Our Minister

Summer is here, although it may be hard to recognise in these grey, inclement days, but the holiday season is upon us, school term has broken up and many of us will be taking breaks and holidays, either far afield or nearer to home, so the theme of Julys services - Transformation, shifts to Augusts Journeys and we will consider the journey as a spiritual metaphor as well as a real event.

I would like to offer congratulations here in print to members of our congregation who have achieved something really spectacular:

Russell Allen completed the Cyclists fighting Cancer Etap de Yorkshire bike ride. This ride replicated the previous year's first stage of the Tour de France which was a 126 mile circular route setting off from Harewood House and taking in the Dales. Russell also recently completed the Unitarian Lay Leaders Worship Studies Step - (I wonder which was the harder climb?)

And Ed Penny who completed his Open University degree in June has discovered that he has passed it with flying colours - a really good 2.1 result. Not only that but Eds first book a memoir entitled Butterfly and Me is due to be published in paper format (its already out on Kindle).

Im sure youll join in offering congratulations to both.

Jo

This months cover is the window of the good Samaritan located to the right and high above when facing the sanctuary door.

Outside the ChapelWe are already in collaboration with the Vegan Interfaith Alliance hosting a food sharing evening after the service on the 3rd Thursday of each month at 7.00 pm in the Priestley Hall. Anyone is welcome to attend, either to help out with cooking, cleaning or washing up or simply to share food and fellowship.

Do you want to participate in recycling or other environmental activities? Would an Ecological Group interest you? Alan wants to hear from you. See him at chapel or email: alan.c.hawkins@btinternet.comThe Spiritual Reading Group will on meet on the last Tuesday of the month, 25th of August at 6:30. We will be discussing The Trinity, Chapter 9 from The Man They Called the Christ by David Doel. Copies will be available in Priestly Hall. Please tell Jo or email: MillHillRecord@gmail.com if you have suggestions for reading material.

The Walking Group will meet the last Thursday of August, the 27th. Please see Alan or email: alan.c.hawkins@btinternet.com

The Unitarian Renewal Group is having a day-gathering about Handling Our Diversity at Sheffields Upper Chapel. There will be speakers and discussion. Bring your lunch. Email: Celia Midgley at CeliaMidgley@hotmail.com for more information and RSVP.

NO bring and share lunch on the 2nd August because well be joining the Pride parade. The next lunch will be the 6th of September.

SAVE THIS DATE!Mill Hills Annual General Meeting will be on the

11th of October.

Prayers

God of our hearts, be near to us in our uncertainty.

Make Your Self known to our hearts and our innermost spirit, make your power felt in forgiveness; make Your presence clear in compassion; make Your virtue clear in truth.

As we are able to recognise our own weakness and the faults of our ways; and the mistakes that we have made become clearer to us here, so we ask to understand the power of Your love as forgiveness may we feel Your forgiveness and compassion.

May we understand ourselves, forgive ourselves and move on transforming our weakness by your strength, and may we begin this transformation by beginning to forgive others.

Amen

We pray for the health of all those members of our community, we pray for those who struggle daily with anxiety, worry, depression and unease. It is rightly said that in a fractured society being well adjusted is no sign of health. Let us remember those whose ill health reflects the chaos of the world around us the world that we have, in part, made so. Let us determine to find peace so that we can advocate peace, let us come to acceptance so that we can accept the way things are, let us begin to find peace with uncertainty and acceptance of unknowing.

On the 16th of August Anthony Dawson is our guest worship leader.

2015-2016 Worship Themes August: JourneysSeptember: ReturningOctober: WisdomNovember: TranscendenceDecember: WonderJanuary: HopeFebruary: Resilience March: RebirthApril: Growth

We are still looking for a chapel administrator/caretaker. Our Chair of Trustees Roy Coggan has been overseeing the car parking and lettings, but we are in need of people to help keep our house of worship in good order. Before the service. perhaps you could remove litter from the churchyard. Or make sure everything is tidy after services. Please help keep the Chapel looking its best. Call or email Jo to volunteer.

Tony and Lee will be married at the Chapel

on the 29th of August at 215pm. All are invited.

Poem

Try to praise the mutilated world. Remember June's long days, and wild strawberries, drops of wine, the dew. The nettles that methodically overgrow the abandoned homesteads of exiles. You must praise the mutilated world. You watched the stylish yachts and ships; one of them had a long trip ahead of it, while salty oblivion awaited others. You've seen the refugees heading nowhere, you've heard the executioners sing joyfully. You should praise the mutilated world. Remember the moments when we were together in a white room and the curtain fluttered. Return in thought to the concert where music flared. You gathered acorns in the park in autumn and leaves eddied over the earth's scars. Praise the mutilated world and the grey feather a thrush lost, and the gentle light that strays and vanishes and returns.

Adam Zagajewski

translated by Clare Cavanagh and published in 'Without End; new and selected poems ' 2003, Farrar, Straus and Giroux.

The following is an extract printed with the permission of its author the Rev. Andy Pakula from the recent GA booklet, A Vision for Our Future. If you d like to read more go to http://unitarianandfreechristianvision.blogspot.co.uk/

Every single one of us knows that we must change. This is true for individual and institutions. Whether we like it or not, realities change around us and if we don't change in response, we become ineffective in relating to our world. We become irrelevant except to the other few who have not changed.Although we know well about this need to change, we also know how often institutions and individuals fail to make change a reality. One of my favourite examples was the New England ice harvesting and storage industry. For many years, the ice they harvested in winter and sold in the warmer months was the only way to keep fresh food from spoiling quickly. They were successful. This industry created numerous jobs and generated wealth for the owners. And then some darned fool had to ruin it all by inventing mechanical refrigeration!The way the ice-making industry responded to the threat of innovation is instructive. They worked harder and harder at harvesting ice and keeping it from melting. They even made real technological advances in their harvesting and storage processes.

Although they got more creative about harvesting and storing ice, these companies seemed completely unable to look objectively at the challenging technology of refrigeration. If they had, they might have seen the nature of the threat. Instead, they disparaged the new invention as it slowly improved to challenge them more and more - and eventually destroyed them entirely. They never adopted refrigeration. They disappeared.

Our congregations, in particular, often fail to change to meet the ways of the changing world. Why?

Chapel Flowers August2nd In loving memory of Florrie, Harry, Vera & Jim

Cowling9th Chapel Flowers & Hunslet Memorial Flowers In loving

memory of Dorothy Yeates16th Flower Fund23rd In memory of Mr Bill Norcliffe30th Flower FundIf anyone would like to make a donation to provide flowers in memory of a loved one, to celebrate anniversaries or remember a birthday, then please contact Joan Perry or Susan Coggan (Flower Secretary). Some dates are available. If you already have a subscription for flowers please check that this is kept up to date - Flower secretary

Music at Mill HillInterlude Organ Music During August

2nd Quiet Thoughts C. Armstrong Gibbs

9th Petit Prelude Joseph Jongen16th Chorale Prelude on Deck thyself,

O my soul Johannes Brahms23rd Second movt.(Largo e spiccato) of

Concerto in D minor, after Vivaldi J. S. Bach

30th Prelude on the hymn-tune, St. Peter Harold Drake

Organ Concerts the Grand Summer Series of 12 Organ Concerts will have come to an end, after another very successful season.During August, however, there will be the two Charity Organ Concerts, by Anthony Norcliffe, which are annual fixtures:-Tuesday Aug. 4th in conjunction with Leeds Rotary ClubTuesday Aug. 11th to raise funds for Chapel Allerton Hospital Radio. As usual, these will be at 1pm and all are warmly welcome to attend.

Like the ice-harvesting industry, we have also been successful in the past. The grand Unitarian chapels distributed around this land bear testament to the great success of the mid 19th century. The great names we reverently utter remind us too of a glorious heritage. It is hard to change when the past looks so bright and the dream of the return of those times remains so enticing. Like the ice industry, we can have a narrow view of our purpose. Is it to put on a service on Sundays with some hymns, readings, and a sermon? Is it to keep a building in good shape? What if we understood our purpose more broadly as, for example, "transforming lives for the better in community" or "teaching peace, justice, and love"? How differently might we begin to act?

Change is hard.

And change sometimes does happen. When it does, it is because of leaders who are able to tolerate pain - their own and that of others close to them - in order to follow a greater vision.The late rabbi, therapist, and leadership advisor Edwin Friedmans revolutionary thinking about leadership is elucidated in his two books Generation to Generation and A Failure of Nerve Friedman introduces such leaders and calls them self-differentiated. They are great leaders not because of special skills, but because of their ability to be the non-anxious, firm, resolute, presence in an anxious community system.And strong they must be! As Friedman explains, any self-differentiated leader successfully taking a community forward will be subject to sabotage and great resistance. As clergy in congregational contexts, doing the right thing for the institution they love rather than keeping people happy in the moment may well cost them their jobs.Making change happen. The answer is leadership - not specific skills, but specific ways of being that are borne of an inner strength, confidence, and adherence to a vision that is more compelling than our very natural desire to avoid discomfort.We dont need tacticswe need congregations willing to allow a leader to emerge and to lead.

Rev. Andy Pakula

When Roy and I came to Mill Hill we took part in many events. We had strawberry teas outside in the chapel grounds to raise money for the Chapel. we were both involved with the dramatic society, Roy as house manager for plays and pantomimes while, I was in the dressing room helping with the dress changes. I was flower secretary for a number of years. Using a monthly rota, we had coffee mornings on Saturdays for shoppers. The team also sold clothing, secondhand and some new, which made a considerable amount of money over the years. Mill Hill also had a dance club and we learned sequence dancing. We had many happy hours at all these events but times have changed now, but we hope new people will come with new ideas to make this a thriving chapel once again.

Introducing Ourselves: We Share Our Biographies Roy and Joan Perry

When we both left school at 14 years old I lived in Huntslet it and Joan lived in Beeston. Joan went to Hunslet Unitarian church which was on Joseph Street. I met her when we both attended the Youth Club. So you might say we were childhood sweethearts, both about 13 or 14 years old. I was called up for national service in the Royal Army Medical Corps and 18 where I trained as an army nurse. I was stationed at Mombasa in East Africa for two years and every day I wrote to my sweetheart. We got married 6th of September in 1952 at Hunslet Unitarian Church. I worked in upholstering until I was 21 and then worked on the trams two years. I left the trams and went into printing at EJ Arnolds where I stayed for 42 years until they closed down. We came to Mill Hill Chapel when Hunslet closed in 1966. We are probably the oldest members of Mill Hill except for Fred Gamble. I was the welcomer at the door until I had a fall. After speaking with the Minister, we thought it might be better if I didn't stand for so long. So I very reluctantly retired. That's the end for my little entry now I will leave it to Joan.

When I left school at 14 I went into the clothing factory dispatch part department where I continued to work until we married and had a family. We have two daughters Janet and Susan, who are both married with their own families now. We also have one great grandson Oliver who is two-and-half-years-old.

Together for 63 years next month!We would like to get to know you! To contribute your story to the Introducing Ourselves column speak to

Rosemary or email: millhillrecord@gmail.com