TagRobert Wedderburn

Ordinary/Extraordinary; an ordination sermon for J Sylvan

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as preached February 26, 2023 at Bay Area Unitarian Universalist Church, Houston, Texas There is much in the ordinary life of a religious professional that more secular people find extraordinary. A friend recently reminded of this over dinner. A word about my friend, he is a well-known writer and war correspondent. Most of us would probably describe his life as extraordinary. He has reported from...

London Libraries

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Since my purpose in visiting London was to conduct research, it only seems reasonable that I offer a blog post about the city’s libraries. I spent time at only a fraction of them. There’s probably well over a half dozen libraries that I could have made use of if I had had more time. But, because I was in the city for only two weeks of archival research, I focused my time on two places, the...

Manchester

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I am in Manchester for a little less than two weeks. The city was historically the heart of British Unitarianism–and I am told that even now about half of the Unitarians in the United Kingdom live within 50 miles of the city center–and the University of Manchester has one of the largest collections of Unitarian books and archival materials in the world. They actually have two separate...

Libraries and Restaurants in Oxford

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Friday was my final day in Oxford. And so, consummate foodie and lover of books that I am, I thought I would offer a few comments about libraries and restaurants in Oxford. I spent most of my time working in Harris Manchester College’s Tate Library. The college started life as an institution to train Unitarian ministers and the library is literally crammed with ephemera celebrating past...

Harris Manchester College

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I am spending the first two weeks of my archival research time at Harris Manchester College. It is part of the University of Oxford. It was originally founded as an institution to train Unitarian ministers, but as the fortunes of British Unitarianism have declined so has its connection with the movement. Right now, there are perhaps 3,000 Unitarians throughout the United Kingdom, worshipping in...

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