In the recent service “Listening into the Difficult Places,” we explored the power—and limits—of communicating through differences. This follow-up asks how do we do that as a community?
How do we work through differences in deeply held values and beliefs?

Speaker & Worship Leader:- Ted Zorn

No recordings this week.

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Ted Zorn © 31 May 2026

Introduction

I suspect I’m not alone in this, but I often choose a topic for these talks because it intrigues me and not because I have a clear set of answers. That is certainly true today.

The reading I just read gives us a helpful way into today’s topic.

It reminds us that Unitarian Universalism is a covenantal faith, not a creedal one. Neither of those words — covenantal or creedal — was part of my vocabulary before joining this church. But the idea is simple enough: we are not held together by a shared doctrine about God, salvation, scripture, or the afterlife. We are held together by acovenant — promises about how we will seek truth together, how we will treat one another, how we will repair harm, and how we will hold one another accountable.

That sounds like what I signed up for.

But as Timothy Ellis points out, covenant can easily become something we talk about more than something we live. It can become a set of nice words, recited occasionally, but not truly integrated into the life of the congregation.

Speaker & Worship Leader:- Ted Zorn

So much can be achieved if we share honestly and listen deeply to each other. But what if we do so and find that our beliefs, needs or values are fundamentally at odds?

Read below, or download the PDF

Ted Zorn © 22 February 2026

I’ve spent my entire adult life believing in the power of communication.

I have a PhD in the subject. I’ve spent my career studying it, teaching it, writing about it, and trying — not always successfully — to practise it effectively.

Next week, when classes begin at the uni, my main teaching responsibility will be a course entitled Managing Conflict.

So I am personally and professionally invested in the idea that clear and honest sharing and deep listening matter.

And I believe that from the depth of my being.

Speakers & Worship Leaders:- Ted Zorn & Team Male

In honour of NZ Women’s Suffrage Day on Friday 19th September.

Suffrage was a victory for women, but it also expanded the soul of our democracy. As men offer this service, we do so as allies — affirming that women’s rights, and the rights of all people, remain a sacred responsibility we carry forward together.

The paradox of tolerance suggests that extending tolerance to the intolerant risks enabling the eventual dominance of intolerance. It challenges UUs’ commitment to justice, equity, and compassion. How do we manage the tension between openness and resisting hate in an era of rising divisiveness?

Speaker & Worship Leader:- Ted Zorn

Video to come

Audio to come

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

Ted Zorn © 6 July 2025

Reading

Before my talk, I’d like to read something I wrote for this service. It is a poem in progress. It’s about my topic today,

The Paradox of Tolerance

I believe you can believe what you believe and I can believe what I believe and that we can still live together in community.

Usually.

You can think that what I think is wrong and I can think what you think is wrong, and it’s okay.

Usually.

You deem one thing to be best and I deem another thing to be best, and we can both be redeemed.

Usually.

You value some things, and I value different things, but we both have value.

Always.

But what if what you think is that someone who thinks like me is unacceptable?

What if you believe that someone who believes what I believe has no place in our community?

What if you deem that people like me are less than people like you?

What if you value some people, but not people with my values?

Hmm. Now we have a problem.

Speaker & 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.

Ted Zorn © 14 July 2024

I’ve entitled my talk today, “A More Beautiful Question”.

I borrowed the title from a book by the same name, written by former Chief Justice of the US Supreme Court Warren Berger. More about him later.

Remember the scene from Alice in Wonderland where Alice asks the Cheshire Cat: “Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?”

The Cheshire Cat answers: “That depends a good deal on where you want to get to.”

Alice: “I don’t much care where—”.

And Cheshire Cat replies: “Then it doesn’t matter which way you go.”

You could argue that Alice’s was an imperfect question, not a beautiful one. She asked a question without knowing what sort of answer she wanted, or what would in fact be a useful answer. It was a question lacking purpose.

Speaker & 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.

Ted Zorn © 27 August 2023

I’ve always had a thing for language. I think I inherited this from my dad. Dad wasn’t highly educated, nor widely read – the only magazines he ever subscribed to were Reader’s Digest and TV Guide, and I never knew him to read a novel — but he loved to play with language.

He often used words that were either made up or some version of a word he’d learned while serving overseas in the military. He would latch on to words and phrases that were new to him.

When he came to New Zealand for the first time, the term flatmate caught his eye – it’s not a term used in the USA — so for his remaining years, he referred to my daughter, his granddaughter, as “my little Kiwi American flatmate”.

In fact, he had nicknames for just about everyone – or at least everyone he liked. They were not all flattering.

Speaker and 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.

Ted Zorn © 8th January 2023

Today, I want to talk about finding our humanity in a technologized world and the dangers of relying too heavily on technology to do tasks that we expect to be done by humans. Specifically, I want to delve into the questions raised by the fact that a machine like ChatGPT can write a speech, a personal letter, or your child’s essay assignment.

For those who may not be familiar, ChatGPT is a large language model developed by OpenAI. It has been trained on a vast amount of data and is able to generate human-like text on a variety of topics. It is a relatively new technology and its capabilities are still being explored and refined.