Louise Reeve’s address from our ‘Moving On’ service on 3 October 2021 to mark our final service in the main Church Hall in its current form, before the building is sold.

Moving On Service

Since the decision was made to sell this building, I’ve had the same conversation a few times with fellow Unitarians:

“How’s it going at Newcastle?”

“Quite busy, thanks, we’re selling our building.”

“Oh, that’s sad.”

“No, it isn’t.”

Often, I then have to explain that “selling the building” is not the same as “closing the church”.

There is a tendency to identify a church with its building, and sometimes even as its building. Which I can understand. Many, many, congregations have had only one building as their home through their entire existence. At Newcastle, as the large grey stone plaque in our entrance hall indicates, we have had five, plus private meeting houses at the very start of our existence as Unitarians. Moving on to a new home – or, as we are now, doing something creative with the old home – is not as big a change for us as it might be for some other congregations.

People do get very, very, attached to their spiritual homes. Of course we do. The idea that a place has an essential character or spirit, particularly if it is a place of worship or spiritual practice, is an ancient one. The Romans called it genius loci, the ancient Celts believed that many spirits inhabited the natural world around them and humans needed to pay them due respect in order to survive and thrive.

Closer to our time, the Norwegian architect Christian Norberg-Schulz describes the notion of the ‘spirit of place’, saying that: “A place is a space which has a distinct character. Since ancient times the genius loci, or spirit of place, has been recognised as the concrete reality humanity has to face and come to terms with in our daily lives. Architecture means visualising the genius loci and the task of the architect is to create meaningful places, whereby they help human beings to dwell.”

Certainly, Cackett, Burns, Dick, and MacKellar, the architects who designed this magnificent church, did a spectacular job of creating a meaningful place. This is a building unlike any other in the city, and unlike any other Unitarian worship space I know of. Indeed, many people have noted its similarity to the Unitarian Unity Temple of Chicago, designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, and if anyone would like to know more about that, I would refer you to Maurice Large’s service about this. At this point, then, I would like to pause and say “Thank you!” to those past architects, to the congregation who commissioned them, and to Rev. Herbert Barnes.

Rev. Herbert Barnes was minister at Newcastle upon Tyne Unitarians between 1919 – 1951. To quote from Maurice Large’s history of our members and ministers:

“He could not have known that, halfway through his ministry, the church would be faced with having to demolish the building [they worshipped in at the time], as it became unsafe for public use. The congregation faced the inevitable, and, supported and encouraged by their minister, found a site in Ellison Place and built the present church in a thoroughly modern style, recognised by its Grade II listing as a fine example of Art Deco design. Its opening in January 1940 was an occasion of great joy, although tempered with sadness for Herbert, whose wife Beatrice had died only two months before.”

Thus, Rev. Barnes was faced with a similar situation to the one I’m in right at this moment on Sunday March 26^th 1939, when he preached the final ever sermon in the old Church of the Divine Unity, which stood where the City Library now stands on New Bridge Street. He, of course, was far better trained and experienced at this sort of thing. As a sidebar, if anyone’s wondering why we have our interesting name – ‘Church of the Divine Unity’ – it’s due to the forceful character of one of our former ministers, Rev. George Harris, who was minister here between 1845 – 1859. It was through his leadership that the earlier church building was built, and it was at this point that we acquired our name. To quote Maurice Large: “It is said that Rev. Harris declaimed during an argument with the Trustees, “If the Church of England can have a Church of the Holy Trinity then we can have a Church of the Divine Unity!”

I’ve spoken in earlier services about Rev. Barnes’ robust rebuttal of the view that “the church has had its day”; funny that they were having that discussion back in the 1930s – it’s an old one! Ben has already read us an extract from Rev. Barnes’ inaugural service in this building. In his final sermon within the old Church of the Divine Unity, he quoted from Charles Rann Kennedy’s book, “The Servant in the House”:

“You must understand that the Church of the Living God is no dead pile of stone and unmeaning timber. It is a living thing… it is made up of the beating of human hearts and the nameless music of human souls, the numberless musings of all the dreamers of the world. Sometimes the work goes forward in darkness, and sometimes in blinding light; sometimes beneath the burden of anguish, and sometimes to the tune of a great laughter.”

We will soon sing our hymn, “The Church is Not Where Altar Stands”. In doing so, we do not reject the importance of buildings or the spirit they embody to our congregation. We acknowledge everything this building has done for us, and for the community it has been part of for so many years. Adult education groups, dance classes, musical and dramatic performances, sports clubs, and Weight Watchers have all met here over the years.

By selling our building to be refurbished so that more people can use it, we are both securing our own future, and giving a gift to the people of Newcastle upon Tyne. We are preserving its history and status as a listed building, and ensuring that a big space in the very heart of this city can be used to benefit our community. This building has served us well as our meeting house and worship space for many years, and now, in addition to this, it will continue to serve us by both continuning to be our meeting place, and helping to secure our financial future. At this point I have to be frank and observe that if nothing else, freeing up the resources that trying to maintain and sell the building has consumed over the years will be a massive boon. I do occasionally wonder whether, if the Trustees who first mooted the idea of selling the building back in the 1990s had known that the Chairperson under whose tenure it would finally be sold was, at that time, just leaving primary school, they would have given the whole thing up as a bad job!

I would like to say thank you to them, too, to the ministers and trustees over the years who have preserved this building and got us to where we are now. And thank you especially to Dr Barry Thomas, Maurice Large, and David Venus for their hard work in recent years.

We do face considerable challenges. As we’ve seen in the past year, keeping our congregation together in a changed world has been at times difficult and draining, but it has also offered us new possibilities. Our mission in future will be to offer a space where all are welcome, where people in Newcastle who are spiritual explorers can join our community in fellowship.

Our forebears commented in the souvenir booklet at the opening of this building: “Not the least remarkable thing about this building is that it is here – an accomplished fact. The difficulties which faced minister and congregation when it was realised that the church in New Bridge Street must be abandoned required extraordinary bravery to meet. Those difficulties were increased enormously by the apprehension of war, and then the tragedy of war itself. And yet, what seemed insurmountable has been surmounted. The wonder church is there.”

Let us become once more a wonder church. Not because of the size and grandeur of our building, magnificent as it is, but by going forward in faith and creativity. Let us lead the way for Unitarianism in the north east, and show Unitarians across the UK that creative solutions can be found to solve complex problems. Let’s serve our community by asking ourselves what the spiritual needs of people in Newcastle in 2021 and beyond are, and how we can work with them to meet those needs. Inspired by our own spiritual connection to truth, whether we name it the living God, the divine mystery, the truth within, or something else, let’s build on the past to go forward into the future.

To quote once more from Rev. Barnes, as he preached the final words of the final service in our old building all those years ago:

“Often as I have stood in this pulpit to urge the truths of life upon the hearts of men and women, I have felt myself to be surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses. Tonight as I leave it forever, I salute the memory of those who have preached here, and the memory of the loyal people who have worshipped in the pews. This place is dear to us because of the sacred experiences we have had here – some of the deepest and holiest of life. I would inspire you with the thought that as we say goodbye to this little shrine, the world and life move on, and claim our allegiance.”

Let us too move on, into our future. May it be so.