the beat and the borrowings / the song we become

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Alix Geard © 16 August 2026

Friends,

I invite you to begin with something so ordinary that we rarely notice it.

Take a breath.

Feel your heart.

Before we learn language, before we develop beliefs, before we choose identities or communities, we live inside rhythm. The pulse in the womb and the rise and fall of our lungs are among the first music we ever know.

We are rhythmic creatures.

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Ralph Catts © 9 August 2026

Address: A Theology for Seekers

Our fourth principle is a free and responsible search for truth and meaning. This approach contrasts with most of the major world religions where canon and a scripture from thousands of years ago proscribe what followers are to believe.

Hans le Grand, a European minister who is a friend of mine, has recently completed a Doctorate in Theology, in which he develops a Seeker Theology. His starting point is an agnostic approach to the mystery of existence and our place within the complexity of existence which, he suggests, is beyond our full comprehension (Le Grand, 2023, p. 46), The elements of a Seeker theology include

• human thought as the source of ethics,
• diverse sources of inspiration,
• spiritual growth,
• a world view,
• the role of community and
• a perspective on what happens after death (Le Grand, 2023, pp. 36 -37).

In all these dimensions he argues that rational analysis and personal discernment are the arbiters of reality. This distinguishes Seeker Theology from the canon of Christian theology.

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Maria Hayward © 2 August 2026

Introduction to Colonisation

The chalice words are in honour of the Unitarian Universalist fourth Principle and were written by William Ellery Channing (an early US Unitarian – 19^th c.).

“I call that mind free, which jealously guards its intellectual rights and powers, which calls no-one master, which does not content itself with a passive or hereditary faith, which opens itself to light, whencesoever it may come, which receives new truth as an angel from heaven”.

Preamble:

Rev Alec Toleafoa mentioned colonisation and its effects in his talk to us about the Polynesian Panthers last year. And Catherine Delahunty earlier this year shared with us the ongoing detrimental effects of colonisation on West Papua. Some of us participating in this service today have predecessors who were colonisers, mine were, and our home countries enjoyed the spoils (wealth) that accrued from colonisation. But maybe there are also a few in our group who are descendants of colonised peoples, and your ancestors might not have fared as well. In nearly all the colonised countries, indigenous people, even today, are more or less at the bottom of every social pile, so I wonder, what did the colonisers do to create these unequal societies? I decided to undertake a “free and responsible search for truth and meaning”, (principle 4 again, – the green one), because I wanted to understand more about the detrimental effect of colonisation. But this is an extensive field, and I’ve only covered the tip of the iceberg. One aspect of colonisation was the dramatic accrual of wealth by colonising countries and the corresponding poverty inflicted on indigenous groups. India was one of the wealthiest countries in the world at the time of the British takeover; by the time they left, it was one of the poorest. But another aspect of colonisation was the racist belief in the superiority of the colonisers. I’d like to share with you today the beginning of my journey into learning about how colonisation and racism had a damaging effect on the beautiful motu we occupy today – Aotearoa.

Transcendence through the arts: what transports you?

Speaker & Worship Leader:- Rachel Mackintosh

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Rachel Mackintosh © 26 July 2026

If you look at the kinds of things we say about ourselves in this Unitarian faith, you will often find reference to the fact that we don’t offer easy answers, or certainty, or the promise that an interventionist god will look after us.

There is a quote from Rainer Maria Rilke that elegantly sets out this aspect of Unitarianism:

“Be patient towards all that is unsolved in your heart and try to love the questions themselves, like locked rooms and like books that are now written in a very foreign tongue. Do not now seek the answers, which cannot be given you because you would not be able to live them. And the point is, to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps you will then gradually, without noticing it, live along some distant day into the answer.”

Today our topic is art and the ineffable.

By some irony, I will be using words to convey the ineffable: that which is too vast to be contained in words.

That’s okay.

Words have spaces between them.

for Well-Being of People and Planet

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Laurie Ross © 19 July 2026

The goal of an Eco-Economy will only be achieved if there is a Transformation of the global Economic System, to truly serve our higher values, to protect and nurture the well-being of Humanity and the Earth. Te ira Tangata e Te Taiao.

This honours the Unitarian Universalist Principle #7 ‘Respect for the interdependent web of all existence of which we are a part.’ This means the realization that the natural environment is interwoven with human Beings in the Spirit Te Wairua.

Speaker & Worship Leader:- Rachel Mackintosh

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Rachel Mackintosh © 12 July 2026

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Meditation / Conversation starter

• To?
• Come?

Links

To come

Speaker & Worship Leader:- Paul Henriques

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Paul Henriques © 5 July 2026

My talk today is about the Universalist Church and its people. I briefly explore the history and beliefs of Universalism, including notable events and eminent Universalists. The religion of Universalism was founded on the idea that everybody gets saved. In other words, universal salvation. Its development had a remarkable set of Universalist characters. Examples include a third century scholar who refused under torture to recant his beliefs, a group of English farmers planting vegetables on common land who were beaten for it time and again, and the founder of the American Red Cross. The period I cover today starts with that third century scholar and ends in 1961 when the American Universalists and Unitarians merged.

James and Harriet Martineau, a brother and sister and two different paths

19th Century Unitarians James and Harriet Martineau resisted inherited authority and insisted on the freedom to seek truth for themselves. One remained a religious theist and the other became a freethinker, but both embodied a spirituality grounded in conscience, courage and responsibility.

Speaker:- Peter Lineham
Worship Leader:- Ted Zorn

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Peter Lineham © 28 June 2026

Meditation / Conversation starter

• What beliefs or assumptions have you changed through honest inquiry?
• What made that change possible?

Links

Opening Words:- are from James Martineau’s chapter, “Christianity without Priest and without Ritual,” in his book Studies of Christianity.

Reading:- is from excerpt from Harriet Martineau’s “Autobiography, vol. 1”

Refugees and migrants contribute towards making Auckland the second most diverse city in the world. As we celebrate World Refugee Day (June 20th) perhaps we can reflect on what is gained from this diversity – how we are enriched by this as individuals and as a community.

Speaker & Worship Leader:- Maria Hayward

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Maria Hayward © 21 June 2026

Pride month earlier this year got me thinking – thinking about diversity. And I remembered a comment my daughter had made to me when she was maybe 8 or 9 years old.

I was doing that thing that a lot of working mothers (and some fathers) have to do – which is to sometimes take your kids to work with you during the school holidays. While we were entering the security gate at the Refugee Centre (my workplace), I stopped to briefly chat with a staff member about the new intake of families. A few minutes later, my daughter made an interesting comment that I have never forgotten: “You’re so lucky”, she said, “that you have a job where you get to talk to so many different types of people”. I thought about that comment for quite a while and wondered what she, as a young child, might have been thinking.

“You are so lucky that you have a job where you get to talk to so many different types of people”…. The person I had been chatting was from the Democratic Republic of Congo, DRC. We didn’t have many African-background people in NZ at that time and maybe it was his starkly different appearance and skin colour that got her thinking. But she said I was ‘lucky’. What did she ‘see’ that prompted this comment?

Niki Harré talks about her year as a self-appointed secular priest. She undertook three vows – simplicity, hospitality and pause, offered weekly services and personal conversations, and attended a Christian church. While she experienced considerable resistance, she also learnt a great deal about humility, listening to and caring for the other, and an awareness of the world as it is, rather than as we wish it was.

Speaker:- Niki Harré
Worship Leader:- Rachel Mackintosh

No text this week.

Meditation / Conversation starter

• Is there something missing in the secular world?
• What is it?

Discussion ‘rules’:

• Keep your comments brief
• Ensure everyone has a turn (or passes)
• Listen, but do not comment (you can affirm with a very brief comment during your own speaking time)
• You can add a further comment if everyone has had their turn to speak