It is produced by Belper Unitarians. Now to produce something like this requires a congregational exercise in prioritising what is important for a leaflet, in saying and recording what beliefs exist and what people do, in doing the photography (including of some events), in sharing the writing, and the final selection. You've got the:
- Welcome (and recognise the building)
- Map
- Services
- Activities
- Contacts (and website)
- Wider context (district, national)
- History
- What people say
- Photographs (especially people)
- Some punchy headlines
The leaflet is what gets put in public buildings, as well as what can be taken from the church. The focus should be on the Unique Selling Point of Unitarianism, which is its diversity and difference (in concrete terms the Christian, Humanist, Pagan and Eastern) coming together and especially the rites of passage that reach into areas other churches reject.
There is more information on a folding card leaflet than on a poster, but less than on a website. There is less grab and pull on a leaflet but the folding card leaflet does have a front page. It ought to be handy. Belper's seems to pass all the tests as far as I can see.
4 comments:
It's well-produced leaflet - however the line "you never know what you're going get next' in relation to the readings, struck me as the reason why Unitarianism will always attract only a small following.Newcomers like to know what they are going to get - Unitarians can be smug about their vaunted diversity as if in every other church, members were all of the same mind ; the truth, as you know, is that Catholicism and Anglicanism are quite as diverse as most Unitarian congregations but there is a reassuring similarity about the type of worship that can be comforting to all - privately the members may be very diverse.Some Unitarian congregations claim to embrace diversity but reject it in practice ; hence the creation of the Unitarian Christian Association to 'uphold the liberal Christian'heritage of the denomination, which was perceived by many to be under threat at the time of its formation.
I don't think my Buddhist orientated friend in Hull, but prefers a wider arena, would be happy in an Anglican church. I'm sure more people prefer regularity, but some of us think after a while it becomes stale. There is regularity in Unitarian worship, in its form if not content. I'd like that to be less so. I've little time for the UCA: I've overlapped with its arguments but disagree entirely with its denominational politics.
Ah Belper - really chuffed to hear that my incumbent visited and signed her name in the visitor's book - I'll have to pay a visit too.
Good for you. And if they ever get me to take a service, I'll arrange to pay a visit to your church if it would be practical.
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