Speaker:- Peter Lineham
Worship Leader:- Ted Zorn
Can a novel help us imagine—and create—a better world? In this service, guest speaker Peter Lineham explores well-known writers whose lives and work were shaped by Unitarian beliefs and communities. Focusing on Victorian and later novelists, he considers how freedom of thought, compassion and a sense of calling found expression in their writing—and what their stories might offer us today.
Video to come
Audio to come
Follow this shortcut to the bottom of the page for the various readings, videos, music, etc. shared in the service.
Introduction by Ted Zorn © 25 October 2026
Our speaker today, Professor Peter Lineham, is a New Zealand historian specialising in religious history.
He is the author of many books on New Zealand religious history. He has undertaken research on, among other things, new religious movements, and the histories of the Brethren, Protestantism, evangelicalism, and Anglicanism in New Zealand.
In 2019, Peter was appointed a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit, for services to religious history and the community.
Although officially retired since 2019, Peter keeps busy with many activities including occasional commentary on public affairs, especially in religious matters. I was delighted to hear him not so long ago on Newstalk ZB helping us understand why the Exclusive Brethren order their members to get rid of pets, which I was reminded of given we had our annual animal blessing service in this church 3 weeks ago.
It’s lovely to have him here to talk to us on something more joyful than getting rid of pets, and I know you will enjoy and benefit from hearing him today.
No text this week.
Meditation / Conversation starter
- Has a work of fiction or poetry moved you deeply or made you think differently about the world?
- What stayed with you?
Links
Prelude:- “Written on the Sky”, by Max Richter.
Opening Words:- are an excerpt from Charles Dickens novella “A Christmas Carol”. This excerpt is from Scrooge’s conversation with the ghost of his former business partner Jacob Marley.
Reading:- is a letter that the late American writer Kurt Vonnegut wrote to a high school English class when 5 of its students had invited him, as their favourite writer, to attend their class.
Closing Words:- an excerpt from George Eliot’s essay “The Natural History of German Life”, which she wrote in 1856 as an extended review of the works of a German historian.
Postlude:- “Beauty in the Rose-Garden”, which is from Edward MacDowell’s piano suite Forgotten Fairy Tales.