When I do a wedding, the template I provide for the couple includes a sample of a good non-scriptural text. It was written by the remarkable Unitarian divine, Arthur Powell Davies, better known as A. Powell Davies. One of the relatively few contemporary UU clergy to warrant a substantial article at Wikipedia.
The Reverend Mr Davies was born on this day in 1902, just outside of Liverpool. Raised and then ordained a Methodist, he came to Unitarianism when serving a Methodist church in Portland, Maine.
While serving as minister of All Soul’s Unitarian in Washington, D.C., he rose to national attention as a spokesperson for religious liberalism and social progressivism. As an example while he was critical of Communism, nonetheless he spoke out vigorously against the excesses of the House of UnAmerican Activities. His preaching was widely influential, there are those who say he was particularly an influence on Supreme Court Justice Hugo Black.
He also was a committed evangelist, creating with others a Greater Washington Association of Unitarian Universalist Churches, a ring of congregations around Washington, many of which started by piping in his sermons via phone lines. Most survive to this day.
He was a prolific writer. Wikipedia collects a few quotes:
“The religions of the creeds are obsolescent… the basis of their claims expired with yesterday.”
“It (liberalism) causes us to put our trust in the free exertions of our own minds instead of in the dogmas of the long established churches.”
“This ancient God of miracles and interventions… is really dead. There is no longer any kindness in letting anyone cling to such a fantasy. For if that is where we put our faith, our dependence, or reliance, we shall be wiped off the face of the earth.”
“There is no God in the sky. God is in the heart that loves the sky’s blueness. There is no army of angels, no hosts of seraphim and no celestial hierarchy. All this is man’s imaginings.”
And, I would throw in the “reading” I recommend at weddings.
“When two individuals meet, so do two private worlds. None of our private worlds is big enough for us to live a wholesome life in. We need the wider world of joy and wonder, of purpose and venture, of toil and tears. What are we, any of us, but strangers and sojourners forlornly wandering through the nighttime, until we draw together and find the meaning of our lives in one another, dissolving our fears in each other’s courage, making music together, and lighting torches to guide us through the dark? We belong together. Love is what we need. To love and be loved.”
His was a rational religion, but one who also understood the human heart. In many ways I see him as a forerunner of our emerging liberal religious spirituality, grounded in this world, but finding here an ecstatic vision of interdependence. And out of that vision, finding a call to the work of justice.
Someone to remember…
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