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Join us at 11am Sunday mornings

(22:00 UTC Saturday evening)

Our services include a talk from a different speaker every week, often followed by a discussion. Services feature Jaime Taylor on our fully restored stereophonic pipe organ, and/or Frank Chen on piano. We always finish with morning tea and opportunity for friendly socialising.


Join us ‘live’ in the building,
or via Zoom, link below:-
Meeting ID: 894 916 3748, Passcode: 12345

Coming up:-

Sunday 8 December, 11.00am:-

Communing with Nature
Tree Hugging may now have been proven to work – who would have thought it?

Speaker:- Viv Allen
Worship Leader:- Shirin Caldwell

After a short talk about the latest research on how it’s been shown that there is a link between the amount of green space in our lives and our better health, mood and longevity, we’ll break into small groups and discuss this.

Let’s share with others what impact (if any) you believe that nature and green spaces have had on your life, mood and health and how this relates to our UU seventh Principle, the respect for the interdependent web of all existence.


Sunday 15 December, 11.00am:-

The Treaty Principles Bill

Speaker:- Zeo Haami (Ngāti Awa)
Worship Leaders:- Rachel Mackintosh / Betsy Marshall

Zeo Haami is Community Organiser for Te Ohu Whakawhanaunga.  

The service will be followed by a workshop and shared lunch, offering background resources and assistance in completing submissions on the bill.


Sunday 22 December, 11.00am:-

Non-violent communication

Speaker & Worship Leader:- Kate Lewis


Tuesday 24 December, 8.00pm:-

Christmas Eve Candlelight service

Worship Leader:- Rachel Mackintosh


you can also

Zoom into a midweek (Wednesday 4, 11, 18 December etc.) morning tea and chat, with whoever else turns up,

Follow this link to read the latest (December 2024) ANZUUA (Australia and New Zealand Unitarian Universalist Association) Newsletter. At the bottom of each newsletter is the opportunity to subscribe as an individual.

Health and safety measures: We now have working air purifiers in the church, to help reduce the spread of any nasties.

we apologise for the recent hiatus in posting videos and service information (below) to this site. Normal service will be resumed as soon as possible.

Anniversary Service: Celebrating 123 years of Unitarian Fellowship in our Church

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Speakers:- Karn Cleary, Ann Blyth, Chris Childs, David Fougère.
Worship Leader:- Karn Cleary

Video to come

Audio to come

Read below, or download the PDF – to come

In this service, long-time members of the church share memories from the 1950s, 60s, 70s & 80s, and what keeps them coming back.


Continue reading Anniversary Service: Celebrating 123 years of Unitarian Fellowship in our Church

Listening for Your Own Truth

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Speaker:- Ron Ahnen
Worship Leader:- Viv Allen

Listening for Your Own Truth
Listen, or download the MP3

Follow this shortcut to the bottom of the page for the various readings, videos, etc. shared in the service.

Read below, or download the PDF

In this sermon, Ron Ahnen (Intern Minister at First Unitarian Church of Albuquerque, New Mexico (USA) reflects on the nature of Truth and how we find especially our own personal truth.


Ron Ahnen © 24 November 2024

Truth. What’s the truth? Can you handle the truth?
I want the truth.

As you all know, we just finished an election in the U.S. with so many different candidates—not just presidential ones—putting forth many competing claims about what “the truth” is. The good news is that we’ve got fact-checkers and journalists all trying to help us sort out exactly what is and is not true. You might think it’s easier to find the truth these days, given that you can Google just about anything in a nanosecond. It turns out, finding out the truth is not so easy. In fact, it’s often really, really hard.

Continue reading Listening for Your Own Truth

RUMInations on Ageing and Dying

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Speaker & Worship Leader:-
Barbara Thomborson

RUMInations on Ageing and Dying
Listen, or download the MP3

Follow this shortcut to the bottom of the page for the various readings, videos, etc. shared in the service.

Read below, or download the PDF


Barbara Thomborson © 17 November 2024

Ageing and death are two timeless themes, universal to our human experience. Our culture’s near phobia about death has created unneeded anxiety and irrational fear about “passing on, passing away, kicking the bucket, giving up the ghost, breathing your last, losing your life, expiring (like a use-by date), or just plain croaking”. That’s a small sample of the euphemisms English has for dying. In her book The Coming of Age, Simone de Beauvior says, “The vast majority of humankind looks upon the coming of old age with sorrow and rebellion. It fills them with more aversion than death itself”.

Continue reading RUMInations on Ageing and Dying

The Age of the Machine —
What Kind of Society do we Want?

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Speaker:- John Maindonald
Worship Leader:- Shirin Caldwell

The Age of the Machine —
What Kind of Society do we Want?
Listen, or download the MP3

Follow this shortcut to the bottom of the page for the various readings, videos, etc. shared in the service.

Read below, or download the PDF


John Maindonald © 10 November 2024

Today, no business of any size uses paper based accounting. The move from paper based systems started in the late 1950s when large corporations started using computer mainframes, as they were called, for basic operations. In the 1980s personal computers made computer-based accounting systems widely available.

The chatbots that have attracted wide attention in the past several years are a very different technology from accounting systems. In January of last year, Ted Zorn spoke about “Finding our humanity in a technologized world”, looking in particular at the abilities of 2024 chatbots akin to ChatGPT. Chatbots per se are not all that new. The Eliza chatbot came on the scene in the mid 1960s. One could ask it “What can you say that will make me happy?”, and it would come back with a sympathetic response. ChatGPT is of course a vastly more powerful beast, using information that it gathers from the internet for answers that usually appear plausible.

Continue reading The Age of the Machine —
What Kind of Society do we Want?

A year and a day

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Speaker & Worship Leader:- Rachel Mackintosh

A year and a day
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Follow this shortcut to the bottom of the page for the various readings, videos, etc. shared in the service.

Read below, or download the PDF


Rachel Mackintosh © 3 November 2024

Barbara Kingsolver, in her novel Demon Copperhead, has Demon say this:

“… she looked at me in the eyes, and we were sad together for a while. I’ll never forget how that felt. Like not being hungry.”

Like not being hungry.

She looked at me in the eyes, and we were sad together for a while.

I’ll never forget how that felt.

Like not being hungry.

Have you ever been seen like that by another person? Have you ever shared such a deep understanding, be it of sadness or of some other emotion? Do you know that feeling, of not being hungry?

Will you ever forget how that felt?

I will never forget how that felt.

Continue reading A year and a day

Missing Services

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Apologies from the video editor, we’ve had a hiccup with editing recent services, they are recorded, but we haven’t been able to prepare the videos and audio files for publication. That has now changed. From here on – 3rd November – we’ll be adding new services soon after they happen, and catching up with the old ones, listed below, as time allows.

“Music Sunday”, Rachel Mackintosh, 27th October
“Certification of the organ”, Rachel Mackintosh, 20th October
“The importance of ritual”, Barbara Thomborson, 13 October
“Jain wisdom in a pluralistic world”, Claire Butler, 6 October
“A language of reverence”, Ted Zorn, 29 September
“Flower Communion”, Karn Cleary, 22 September

Annie Jane Schnackenberg (nee Allen) New Zealand Fighter for Women’s Rights

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Speaker:- Randolph Hollingsworth
Worship Leader:- Viv Allen

Annie Jane Schnackenberg (nee Allen) New Zealand Fighter for Women’s Rights
Listen, or download the MP3

Follow this shortcut to the bottom of the page for the various readings, videos, etc. shared in the service.

From Viv Allen:-

About a year ago an email dropped into my inbox from my cousin Hamish who I only catch up with at family funerals. Attached to that email was a 93 page thesis on my great, great Aunt, Annie Jane Schnakenberg nee Allen, who I knew little about except that she’d fought for women’s suffrage in NZ and was a fluent speaker of Maori, so I was very excited to find out that Randolph Hollingsworth had done a huge amount of research into Annie Jane’s life and written a thesis about her. I quickly got in touch with Randolph to find out more and was delighted to meet her as she now lives in Auckland. Randolph is now an independent scholar, who enjoys researching women’s history which is how she came to write about Annie Jane. Often in NZ we only hear about the main characters in history such as Kate Sheppard but there were many more women who helped fight for women’s rights. Now I’m going to let Randolph tell you more about this fascinating women, Annie Jane.


Randolph Hollingsworth © 15 September 2024

We’ve no text of the talk this week but Randolph has provided extensive notes by way of a draft PDF of the content of this talk.


Links

Opening Words:- Equality” by Maya Angelou

Chalice Lighting:- is by Albert Schweitzer

Closing Words:- Phenomenal Woman” by Maya Angelou

Death Café Comes to the Unitarian Church

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Speaker & Worship Leader:- Barbara Thomborson

Death Café Comes to the Unitarian Church
Listen, or download the MP3

Death Café is an event where people discuss their understanding, thoughts, and feelings about death. Barbara Thomborson will facilitate the service to enable small group discussion of questions inspired by Death Café. They include practical considerations, experiences of death, grief and loss, and cultural aspects of death.

This service follows on from last month’s End-of-Life Choice service with a brief talk on cultural aspects of death.

Here are the Questions used in the small discussion groups:-

  • What does it mean to have a ‘good death’?
  • If you knew you were dying, what would you change about your life?
  • What was helpful when you were grieving?
  • How easy is it to talk to your family about your funeral wishes?
  • What is your earliest memory of death?
  • If you knew this was your last day of life, what would you do?
  • How would you help a grieving friend?
  • If you were planning your funeral, what would you include?
  • Have you seen a dead body? How did it affect you? If not, then
  • Have you witnessed someone die and how did it affect you?
  • Where is your will?
  • What would you like your lasting legacy to be?
  • What do you think about doing something on the internet to remember someone?
  • How old would you like to be when you die?
  • How would you like to be remembered?
  • What do you think about lighting a candle to remember someone who has died?
  • What would you like written on your gravestone?
  • What does ‘life after death’ mean to you?
  • Have you experienced the death of a pet?
  • Are there any written or spoken words about death that you have found helpful?
  • If you could choose, where would you like to die?
  • What does it mean to die with dignity?
  • What was your first experience of grief?
  • If it were possible, what 1 question would you of someone you love who has died?
  • How would you explain death to a 5-year-old?

The Answer I Wish I’d Given

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Speaker & Worship Leader:- Viv Allen

The Answer I Wish I’d Given
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I’m reading a talk written by Erika Hewitt entitled; The Answer I Wish I’d Given (winner of the 2009 Stewardship Sermon Award). Erika wrote a personal, heartwarming story about ‘giving’ which for her is both a statement and an expression of her faith. This story is very relevant to the old 19th century concept of ‘deserving poor’ where government employees make value judgements about who can receive help and who should be punished by withholding this help. This is very topical as now our government has announced plans for social welfare reform in NZ.


Meditation / Conversation starter

  • How do you handle homeless beggars and car beggars?

Links

Chalice Lighting:- In the Mystery of Life About Us There is Light” by George Kimmich Beach

Reading / Meditation:- words from Kahil Gilbran

Main talk:- The Answer I Wish I’d Given” by Erika Hewitt

Extinguishing the Chalice:- Daring Vision” by Maureen Killoran

Closing Words:- Thank you for the stories” by Lizzie Kingston Harrison