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| Message for Maghotsav - Rev. Kate Dean - Minister, Roslyn Hill Unitarian Church,London, UK |
 On behalf of the members of Rosslyn Hill Unitarian Chapel, I send you greetings from Hampstead in London! We are proud of our historic association with the Brahmo Samaj, through our shared approach to open-minded spirituality and the first connections back in the 1890s when Mr Sen visited the Chapel to speak to 600 people. In these turbulent days, when opinions about politics and religion are so divided - in the UK, India, America and many other countries - it is even more important for us to maintain spaces where people can share their views in order to find common ground. The classic Unitarian volume 'Every Nation Kneeling' published in 1954 contains services which draw wisdom from many different sources. A reading by Tagore (with slight alterations) caught my eye:
"The traveller has to knock at every alien door
To come to his own at last.
One has to wander through all the outer worlds
To reach the innermost shrine at the end."
The unofficial poet laureate of the Unitarian Universalists, Mary Oliver, who died recently, has won the hearts of many freethinking spiritual people. She shared the same sense of wonder, exploration and divinity when she wrote:
"I don’t know exactly what a prayer is.
I do know how to pay attention,
how to fall down
into the grass, how to kneel down in the grass,
how to be idle and blessed."
So, in your coming together for this year's Maghotsav, may your community be cheered by the hospitality and blessings that you share.
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