The “Foundation of Faith” of the Danish Unitarisk Kirkesamfund (Unitarian Church Community)

Earlier today, I attended the regular online Seiza (Quiet Sitting) meditation session led by Miki Nakura-sensei. After the meditation, five of us spent some time working on a translation of a couple of tricky Japanese sentences in Miki’s basic instructions about how to practise Seiza on a chair (you can read the revised translation at this link). It happened that one of the participants was a Seiza practitioner from Denmark with connections to the Evangelical-Lutheran Church in Denmark (or People’s Church: Folkekirken), and in conversation I was asked about the Unitarian movement. I took the opportunity to point out that I knew that there was (or had been) a small Unitarian community in the country, and after the Seiza session ended, I took the opportunity to see what I could discover about Unitarians in Denmark. I immediately came upon the Unitarisk Kirkesamfund (Unitarian Church Community), in Copenhagen. To my surprise, I saw that their website says that:

“The Unitarian Church Society was first offered membership of the GAUFCC (General Assembly of Unitarian and Free Christian Churches) in the 1990s, because the English Unitarians had at that time decided to include us among the isolated Unitarian congregations (in the English‑speaking part of the world) that they already represented. At that time, we were the only Unitarian society in Scandinavia.”

It was a surprise to me because, despite being a minister on the roll of the GAUFCC myself, I had not known this, and indeed I can find no current mention of the connection on any British Unitarian webpage or in our current printed directory. As with all these things, there might be some complex back‑story to why this is the case, but prima facie this seems a real pity, because when I looked at the page called  “Foundation of Faith” on their website, the statements I found there are wonderful expressions of exactly the same kind of free religion we are trying to practise in the Cambridge Unitarian Community. (Incidentally, their church building — see photos above and below — was built in 1927, the same year as the church building in Cambridge). Anyway, it seems to me that it is going to be worth my emailing them simply to say hello …

And, for those interested in such things, here is a tentative translation of their webpage, “Foundation of Faith”:

Foundation of Faith
The Unitarian Church Society’s Foundation of Faith, 2023

Unitarians have no creed, but the majority of the members of the Unitarian Church Society agree that the following statements express the religious core of Unitarianism. There may be individual viewpoints that diverge from some of these statements, but this is respected, since all religious belief is considered a private matter. Furthermore, we allow for continual development, which means any of these points may be revised at any time.

Foundation of Faith

We believe that the heights and depths of existence, its sorrows and joys, cannot be expressed in formulas or eternal doctrines, but must be lived and experienced throughout life. And we believe that human beings are born open, questioning, and with an innate capacity for goodness. We have no sure, common answers to life’s great questions.

We trust that there exists one all-encompassing divine power, which each individual may perceive in different ways, and we assume that all religions and all forms of religiosity spring from this one source.

We feel the deepest reverence for the great miracle of creation and all living things, and believe that we all share responsibility for the Earth and for all life.

An All-Encompassing Divine Power

At the most fundamental level, Unitarians assume that the universe constitutes a unity (unitas) or a whole, in which everything is connected and mutually interdependent.

There exists one all-encompassing divine power. This power may be perceived in different ways – as a personal god, a spiritual law, a cosmic principle, or the like – and may therefore also have different names.

We have no common answers to the great questions: whether life ends, what might happen after life ends, and so on. However, we find it impossible to believe that an all-encompassing divine power could endorse eternal damnation.

We have, and we show, respect for the interdependent network of all life, of which we are all a part.

Harmony with the World

We honour the divine in all people and believe that a divine spark is present in all living things. All are god’s children.

We hold sacred, we honour, and we wish to live according to the commandment of love, as it is written in many of the great religions, for example as Jesus formulated it: “You shall love your god with all your heart and your neighbour as yourself.”

The Common Origin of Religions

All religions are human attempts to explain the inexplicable. They depend on culture and therefore cannot be final and fixed, but are subject to constant development. No religion possesses the whole “truth”, but all religions contain something true.

Unitarians continually seek consistency between their religious beliefs and scientific theories.

The Individual’s Conscience and Free Thought

It is life-affirming to feel trust and love towards the divine power and towards all living things.

The divine has not only inspired some people in a bygone age – the divine inspires all people at all times.

We recognise the right of the individual to free thought, inquiry, and belief, under the guidance of one’s god and one’s conscience, unbound by external authorities, but in accordance with Unitarian ethics.

Religious views are continually considered and discussed.

Unitarians respect the right of the individual to their own religious standpoint. We expect the same respect from others.

Unitarians continually seek consistency between scientific theories and their religious beliefs.

Our Common History

Unitarians share a common history that has roots in Christianity and that includes, among other things:

– that Jesus is seen as an inspiring human being;

– that baptism and communion are unnecessary, because the ideas of original sin and eternal damnation are rejected;

– that the Bible may be an inspiring book, but not an authoritative truth.