Our chairperson, Louise Reeve, and myself, Ben MacLeod, had a very productive meeting with two of the ‘big cogs’ of UK Unitarianism. We were joined on Zoom by Liz Slade the Chief Officer of the General Assembly of Unitarian and Free Christian Churches and the recently ordained Rev. Rory Castle-Jones, the GA Communications Officer. Liz and Rory wanted to check in with us in response to the article we wrote at Newcastle about the need for more publicity and promotion about Unitarianism on a national level. We had a very productive conversation about our various ideas for national and local advertising and the need for the GA to set aside some funds to do more advertising and promotion.

Liz and Rory took our ideas back to the GA Executive Committee. The EC decided that none of their members had enough experience in marketing, so they agreed to get some outside help with this plan. We are also hoping that the Unitarian College might put together a short course to help congregations learn more about how to promote themselves, for example by engaging with the local press in their area or designing print adverts or materials. Hopefully this is the first step in a very fruitful journey into making Unitarianism the nationally-recognised religion it ought to be. It’s not about bursting our churches at the seams with new congregants. It’s about being able to mention to somebody that you’re a Unitarian and to have them actually know what that is. We can but try!

Ben MacLeod