Sussex Unitarian James Barry (51) is gearing up to delivering a marathon sermon on Sunday 29 July 2012 at the Old Meeting House, Ditchling, East Sussex. He will start at 12 noon.
‘My first milestone will be at twelve hours,’ says Mr Barry. ‘Unless I can make that goal, I don’t really feel I will have achieved anything.’ He would like to speak for long enough to be entered in the Guinness Book of Records.
The first purpose of his record-breaking attempt is to raise funds for a remarkable Unitarian charity that provides holidays in the Derbyshire countryside for disadvantaged children. The sponsorship money will be shared, too, with the Youth Programme of the General Assembly of Unitarian and Free Christian Churches, and with the Ditchling chapel.
The ‘preachathon’ will be shown live via the internet, at www.ukunitarians.org.uk/tv
Mr Barry, who has been a Unitarian for the past twenty years, has given his autobiographical sermon the title ‘The History of the Corruption of my Christianity’. It is derived from the 1782 publication of A History of the Corruption of Christianity by the great scientist and theologian Joseph Priestley. Priestley, one of the founders of the Unitarian movement, questioned some of the tenets of orthodox Christianity, such as the virgin birth and the divinity of Jesus.
Mr Barry does not want to ‘bore himself to sleep’. He hopes that his sermon will be interactive and that people will make contact via the website while he is speaking and will provide the stimulus of questions.
Mr Barry’s life history is likely to make compelling listening. He has been rescued three times by the emergency services, once cave climbing in Dorset, once in Snowdonia while trying to help some university students, and once when his yacht was dismasted close to rocks on the south coast. He has walked from Land’s End to John o’Groats, made three trips to orphanages in Romania, and attended the world beard championships.
And twenty years ago he became, in terms of his religious affiliation, a nonconformist.
Mr Barry, an IT expert, lives in Hassocks with his partner, their year old daughter, Maisie, and his Staffordshire bull terrier, Reg.
Unitarianism is one of the oldest nonconformist faith groups, tracing its formal origins back to 1662 when 2000 ministers were ejected from the Church of England for their refusal to accept the imposition of the 39 Articles of Faith. Unitarians tend to give pre-eminence to reason rather than what they regard as superstition, and to be more concerned with doing good in this world than with saving their souls for an undemonstrable next one.
The Old Meeting House, Ditchling, goes back to 1698 but its congregation was formed in 1670.
The charity for which Mr Barry is raising funds is Send-a-Child-to-Hucklow. It was founded fifty years ago. It brings some 250 children a year – from any faith group or none - from socially deprived areas for a week’s holiday at the Unitarian Conference Centre at Great Hucklow, Derbyshire. It has proved a life-changing experience for many of them.
And twenty years ago he became, in terms of his religious affiliation, a nonconformist.
Mr Barry, an IT expert, lives in Hassocks with his partner, their year old daughter, Maisie, and his Staffordshire bull terrier, Reg.
Unitarianism is one of the oldest nonconformist faith groups, tracing its formal origins back to 1662 when 2000 ministers were ejected from the Church of England for their refusal to accept the imposition of the 39 Articles of Faith. Unitarians tend to give pre-eminence to reason rather than what they regard as superstition, and to be more concerned with doing good in this world than with saving their souls for an undemonstrable next one.
The Old Meeting House, Ditchling, goes back to 1698 but its congregation was formed in 1670.
The charity for which Mr Barry is raising funds is Send-a-Child-to-Hucklow. It was founded fifty years ago. It brings some 250 children a year – from any faith group or none - from socially deprived areas for a week’s holiday at the Unitarian Conference Centre at Great Hucklow, Derbyshire. It has proved a life-changing experience for many of them.
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