When I was preparing today, I googled ‘Unitarian Mysticism’ and to my surprise and delight, up came an inspiring 10-week Adult Religious Education course on the Unitarian Universalist Association website (uua.org) called ‘Spirit in Practice’ by Rev. Erik Wikstrom Walker. This morning, I’ll be weaving together some of the stories he tells on that course with readings and quotes from other inspiring authors.
Thirty years ago, it was January 1991.. I had just moved from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to Boulder, Colorado, with my fiance who assured me that Boulder was the ‘healthiest city in the America…
We had just bought a house and were planning to be married that summer, and Life was opening up. In April, I flew home to Philadelphia to finish off a required weekend seminar for my Masters degree programme in Spiritual Psychology and mom and dad picked me up at the airport on a Thursday night.
As my 3 younger sisters had all moved out from home, I spent a quiet evening with just the three of us..mom, dad, and me. The very next morning, I was jarred awake from a deep sleep by my mother…’Sally, it’s Dad!..’ She had received a call from my dad’s office wondering why he wasn’t at work yet. She then heard the radio playing in the bathroom and found my father lying there, on his back on the bathroom floor…he had died suddenly of a massive heart attack. He was 60 years old…….Last year, I turned 60….
You are warmly invited to participate in a winter solstice weekend, 19-20 June.
10-4pm Saturday the 19th will be a day of dance deepening, open to all who wish to deepen in their experience of the Dances of Universal Peace and associated walks and meditative practices. Please bring a vegetarian plate to share for lunch.
5pm Sunday will be an evening dance gathering, followed by a community shared vegetarian supper, 6:30-8pm.
From 2-4pm on Sunday, 20th June, Dance leaders are invited to join together in the spirit of collaboration and mutual support/growth by contributing in a shared reflection gathering preceding the dance evening.
Have you heard the phrase ‘there’s an elephant in the room’?…this is just a metaphor
for an important or enormous topic that is obvious but no one mentions or wants to discuss it because it might make them uncomfortable or is personally, socially, or politically embarrassing. However, we Unitarians like digging into important discussions, so I searched for
‘Elephant in the room quotes’ to trumpet out for us today….here are a few of my favourites…
For the past couple of years, I’ve been involved with the West Auckland Women’s Interfaith initiative… this began in the wake of the Christchurch Mosque shootings as a way to break down the barriers of fear between People of different faiths, to form interfaith friendships, where we could realise our essential unity as a human family, despite our differences of belief, ritual, and culture. Visiting some of the women in their various congregations, and I had some surprising adventures.
No text this week. but here are the words to the karakia used near the beginning of the service:-
Karakia tīmatanga.
Manawa mai te mauri nuku
Manawa mai te mauri rangi
Ko te mauri kai au
He mauri tipua
Ka pakaru mai te po
Tau mai te mauri
Haumi e, Hui e, Taiki e!
Opening prayer.
Embrace the life force of the earth
Embrace the life force of the sky
The life force gathered is powerful
It shatters the darkness
Come great life force
United, Connected, Blessed
And the hymn towards the end:-
Te Aroha,
Te Whakapono,
Te Rangimarie,
Tatou Tatou e,
Sally shares highlights of the new science which is closely examining the substance of our interdependent web of life. Based on Lynne McTaggart‘s “The Bond.” We’ll look at some of the latest research which suggests that a will to connect rather than a drive to compete is the essential impulse of all life.
