Rite and Reason: Newly ordained minister Rev Chris Hudson writes of his move from trade unions to religion.
The transition from trade union official to a religious ministry may seem like a strange journey and yet there is symmetry in it. From platform to pulpit, it is still about people and their welfare; the former concerns the temporal and the latter the spiritual. There is in both an obvious wish to serve one's fellow man.
At times the trade union movement may profess to be more secular than it actually is, and many of those who serve the unions are also people of strong faith.
Recognising that I was a person of faith has been a journey of great discovery for me.
In my travels I have been impressed by the liberation theologians I met in Central America who invited me to speak at Mass in the shantytowns. Their work gave dignity to the poor of Latin America.
I once heard a priest say that Protestants worshipped God in their way and Catholics worshipped him in his way. Whilst this was said in humour it concerned me, because it told me that I could not worship God in my way.
That was before I knew about Unitarianism, which allowed me to worship according to my own creed, interpreting scripture as it was revealed to me through my own intellect.
I am often asked when I converted to Unitarianism. I didn't; I discovered I was a Unitarian.
If I was asked to present a summary of my religious position I could do no better than to quote Tom Paine, the great American writer and icon of Unitarianism.
He informs their non-creedal and non-doctrinal views, without religious acrimony, when he says:
"I do not believe in the creed professed by the Jewish church, by the Roman church, by the Greek church, by the Turkish church, by the Protestant church nor by any church that I know of.
"My own mind is my church. I do not mean by this declaration to condemn those who believe otherwise; they have the same right to their belief as I have to mine.
"But it is necessary to the happiness of man, that he be mentally faithful to himself. Infidelity does not consist in believing or in disbelieving; it consists in professing to believe what he does not believe."
The belief in a prescribed theology began to disintegrate early in my life, as did the fear of being without a religious belief. I made sure all religious awareness was driven from me but replaced it with another absolute called atheism.
The Catholic Church had berated me for indulging in the pleasures of life, and now I embraced a belief system that called on me to deny any sense of my spirituality, and forgo the humbling act of prayer.
Any religious inclination would be the new sin against the religion of secularism. I could embrace the logical and the rational but not the mystical, the spiritual or the transcendental.
My loyalty in the trade union movement was not to its bureaucracy but a commitment to the ideal of fairness in the workplace.
Employers' motivation to make profit is a good thing, but often blinds them to understanding the needs of their employees.
I have never been personally critical of employers but have tried to connect with our shared humanity in order to do business, to learn to trust each other in order to have a common goal.
There are bad employers but there are also bad trade unionists.
Paddy Cardiff, one of Ireland's great trade union leaders, said that if there is a heaven he is not too worried about arriving at the gates and explaining himself.
He will state that he kept the second commandment, love thy neighbour, and that is what trade unionism has also been about for me. By acting in solidarity with my fellow workers I have tried to love my neighbour.
Last Saturday I was licensed as a minister in the Non-Subscribing Presbyterian Church of Ireland, and my mission statement in my new life as a minister will be the following words, which are said at the end of many Unitarian services:
"Be ours a religion which, like
sunshine, goes everywhere: Its
temple all space: Its creed
all truth:
Its shrine, the good heart, its
scripture, all wisdom:
Its ritual, works of love."
The writer Victor Hugo said there is in every village a torch which is the teacher and an extinguisher which is the parson, and that we need more teachers to open our minds and fewer priests to close them.
That might have been the experience of many Irish people, and it may have left a painful mark on their spirit.
But it does not have to be that way and it isn't for me.
Religion can lead to the freeing of the imagination and your best creation can be the life you live.
Rev Chris Hudson is national organiser for the Communications Workers' Union. He received an MBE for his work with the Peace Train.