Speaker:- Dr. Tof Eklund
Worship Leader:- Rachel Mackintosh

If you find nonbinary gender(s) confusing, want to understand what it means to be nonbinary, or are nonbinary, this one’s for you. Dr. Tof Eklund (they/them) speaks about being nonbinary, the challenges and prejudices nonbinary folks face, and the profound implications of nonbinary thought and spirituality.

Dr. Tof Eklund, (they/them), is Lecturer in English and New Media Studies @ AUT.

Read below, or download the PDF

A Reflection on Rainbow Flags

Maria Hayward © 15 February 2026

Kia ora koutou katoa. I am going to read a personal reflection on this month’s Pride theme, and then I’ll introduce our guest speaker, Dr Tof Eklund.

I thought I’d talk about flags.

I had intended to open the Pride month services with brief explanation of the rainbow flags we’ve been displaying, but I didn’t manage to get around to it. Then, with the occasion of Tof speaking today, I wondered if there was a non-binary flag – and there is, so I’ll talk about that soon, but this gives me an opportunity to also talk about the rainbow flag in general.

Speaker & Worship Leader:- Keola Whittaker

Instead of preaching about queer folks as people who need support, I’m inverting it to what can queer and trans people teach the rest of us about being fully human? Especially now, when authoritarianism and even AI are trying to flatten us all into simple categories. I’ll be weaving in the story of the Kapaemahu stones in Waikiki – four healing stones connected to mahu (Hawaiian gender-diverse) practitioners that were literally buried under concrete for decades and then uncovered in the 90s.

Read below or download the PDF

Reading 

Our reading today comes from Hawaii. It is the ancient legend of the Kapaemahu Stones, which I will talk about in my sermon. Here is the story:

Speaker:- Marieke Jasperse
Worship Leader:- Maria Hayward

Dr Jasperse is a consultant cross-cultural psychologist, and survivor of modern slavery, dedicated to destigmatising distress and strengthening responses that restore dignity and determination. She has consulted for the United Nations, the NZ and Australian governments, and anti-trafficking NGOs, and looks forward to sharing her personal and professional insights on trafficking in Aotearoa New Zealand.

No recording or text this week

Speaker:- Karanina Sumeo
Worship Leader:- Rachel Mackintosh

Saunoama’ali Dr Karanina Sumeo is the immediate past Equal Employment Opportunities Commissioner and will speak about her experience leading the Pacific Pay Gap Enquiry.

No text this week

Speaker:- Margaret Lewis
Worship Leader:- Shirin Caldwell

A third space is neither home, school nor work but a space where people can be themselves, be with friends. A café, a bar, a museum, even a park. may be places where many of our most vulnerable communities do not feel welcome or feel they need to be out of sight. Similar to a church, Merge Community and Café is a space where all communities are welcome. Find out our Kaupapa, how it works and some of the impacts. Meet Margaret Lewis from Lifewise/Merge whose role is to help build capability and capacity within the many communities Merge works with. Also see below for how you could contribute.

Peace and Social Justice Project – Merge Café

The management committee has approved a new project with two parts:

Providing $25 meal cards for local people experiencing homelessness
Each card provides 5 free lunches. We are inviting the congregation to contribute towards the cost of these cards, with the PSJ offering matched funding of up to $250.  If you would like to contribute towards a meal card, please make your payment to the Auckland Unitarian Congregation Incorporated account: 02-0200-0156552-00,
Particulars: Your Name
Reference: Merge Café

Collecting food items for Merge Café
We are seeking donations of food items that can be used in the café, such as flour, oil, pasta, rice, lentils, tinned food, and any surplus fruit or vegetables you may have. Other suitable food items will be used to create small food parcels for their clients. Please place items in the plastic box on the left as you enter the church.

Neurodivergence. What does it mean – what are the challenges faced, and how can neurotypical individuals assist in mitigating these challenges and ensuring neurodivergent people are included, respected and accommodated?

Speakers:- Nikki Smith-Eklund (she/they) M Hum Rts
& Dr. Tof Eklund (they/them)
Worship Leader:- Rachel Mackintosh

Nikki Smith-Eklund & Tof Eklund © 23 November 2025

No text this week

Speaker:- Ruth Irwin
Worship Leader:- Viv Allen

Ruth Irwin is an author and Professor. She teaches courses on globalisation, climate change, philosophy, colonialism, and post-colonialism, education, policy and economics. She has written several books on climate change, philosophy and economics, edited 3 collections on philosophy and climate change, and public policy, and written over 60 peer reviewed book chapters and journal articles.

Isaiah speaks against rulers who write laws that crush the poor and enable injustice. In the 1970s, successive New Zealand Governments used such laws to legally justify the racial profiling and persecution of Pasifika peoples, especially through the Dawn Raids.

Speaker:- Rev. Alec Toleafoa
Worship Leader:- Ted Zorn

Read below, or download the PDF

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

Alec Taleafua © 20 July 2025

“Woe to you who legislate evil—
who make laws that make misery for the poor,
that rob destitute people of dignity,
exploiting defenseless widows and taking advantage of homeless children.”

Isaiah 10:1–3 (The Message version)

Let me take you to a moment in time a moment in history.

To a family home in the inner-city suburb of Arch Hill, a group of young Pasifika and Maori gathered for a meeting, a meeting that would ignite a revolution in the way mainstream New Zealand treat Pasifika & Maori. A meeting that would give Pasifika communities a megaphone through which to articulate and amplify our stand against the everyday racial prejudice and discrimination we were experiencing at the time. And so the Polynesian Panther Party was born on 16^th June 1971.