18 - Sunday, September 9, 1990 - North Shore News SPIRITUALLY SPEAKING Unitarian church offers a humanistic approach UNITARIANS ARE ac- customed to receiving puzzled looks when they talk about their church. Even if their audience has heard of Unitarianism be- fore, the chances are they’ve confused it with the United Church or some other similar-scunding, but philosophically different, religion. By Peggy Trendell-Whittaker News Reporter Rev. Harold Rosen of the 170-member North Shore Unitarian Church agrees that his denomination has, to date, kept a low religious profile. “We don’t evangelize in’ the door-to-door sense,"" he said. “*We're shy about that because so many of us came from traditions where beliefs were forced on us." But he says the Unitarian Church — first established in Canada in 1842 — now believes the time has come to let people know that a liberal, humanistic spiritual tradition exists and has much to offer people struggling with current-day questions and concerns. Perhaps the most noteworthy aspect of the Unitarian philosophy is its emphasis on the uniqueness of each individual's spiritual journey and the different experi- ences and beliefs that cach member will bring to his or her church community. “Truth, not blind authority, is the sole criterion by which articles of faith are judged,” reads one Unitarian publication, ‘‘Each in- dividual is expected to develop his or her own exacting, enriching Eatons Woolco Save-On-Foods > friday Watch for our Bay > sunday Shoppers Drug Mart SuperValu Safeway * Zellers Consumers Hf you miss any of these flyers call North Shore News Distribution 986-1337 * detivered to selected areas only wn OV IS peer ae "an eS »> wednesday Real Estate Home Sectian creed according to the dictates of his or her own mind and con- science. A church-imposed, infles- ible creed would eliminate that freedom to differ which religious democracy and the unhampered pursuit of new truths require.’ Within the North Shore Unitarian Church, for example, HEV. HAROLD Rosen...justice, compassion and respect for other beings. peacefully co-exist people with widely divergent’: views on the concept of a supreme spiritual authority. A few believe in the Christian God of the Bible, says Rosen, while on the other end of the spectrum there are those who are anti-theistic and believe that the very idea of a ‘‘God"’ is danger- ous because it encourages human passivity, The vast majority, he guesses, have ‘‘some notion of the divine,” but do not adhere to a particular religion's portrayal of that divine. {t could be asked, then, what North America’s nearly 200.000 Woedwards Lumberland shore| SUNDAY - WEDNESOAY - SODA Unitarians do hold in common, if they do not subseribe to a shared dogmatic creed. This question was addressed — and answered ~— at the Unitarian Universalist Association General Assemblies of 1984+ and 1988S, where the state- ment of principles Gbown on page 19) was adopted as 4 byw. “We're proud of this) state- ment," said Rosen of the bylaw, which emphasizes justice, compis- sion and respect both for other beings and the natural world. "ht shows we have something positive to share."* The North Shore church is in- volved in issues such as ene viconmentalism, mutticulturalism and inter-faith dialogue. Recent Sunday services have sanged from discussions of feminist theory to comparisons oof Christian and THE CORPORATION OF THE DISTRICT OF WEST VANCOUVER Public Information Meeting Cypress Ridge Golf Course Thursday, Sept. 13, 1990 7:30 p.m. West Vancouver Secondary School Theatre 1750 Mathers Ave. You are invited to a public information meeting to review the terms of the proposed tease for Cypress Ridge Golf Course. 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