Thursday, August 12, 2010

A Unitarian Tea Party...

I offer this from a 1903 issue of "The Pacific Unitarian" with no comment: 

"A Unitarian Tea(ty) Party. 
(Given as questions to be answered.)

This tea we claim as the chief characteristic of Unitarianism.
Superiority.


And it is manifest to the world by our
Minority.

When accused of appropriating all the intellectual greatness of the world we must plead
Guilty.

Do we need a sip of Moses's favorite brew?
Humility '?

In one brand of tea we acknowledge we are below the average, that is,
Popularity.

This tea is our bond,
Unity.

One issue of modern politics we should serve to other denominations.
Reciprocity.

Of this brand we ourselves should partake.
Sincerity.

But we of all others should avoid this.
Illiberality.

One of our Christian endeavors is
Purity.

We must drink deeply of
Charity.

And stand always for
Honesty.

This tea, although the soul of wit, is only the form of our covenant.
Brevity.

To be true to our church and each other we need
Loyalty.

And to respond to the calls upon us with
Alacrity.

Always do our
Duty

And assume a degree of
Responsibility.

Not leaving all to the overworked
Trustee.

And the result of all will be
Christianity."

Blessings
(Illustration:  Beatrix Potter,  Toad's Tea Party)

3 comments:

TK Kenyon said...

When I saw the title of your post, I thought you'd be serving a choice of skim and soy milk with that.

Much deeper post than the title suggests, though.

TK

slt said...

...served, of course, with "fair trade" tea! Thank you so much for writing. I agree-it says much for good (and for ill)esp. in light of recent discussions of UU "culture."
It is a pleasure to hear from you. Blessings, BU

Milky Tea said...

Lovely. I like.