with Rev. Clay Nelson

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Follow this shortcut to the bottom of the page for the Spirit of Life, Time For All Ages, Reading, Closing Words, Postlude

Today’s service also included the latest Report from the Peace & Social Justice Group

Clay Nelson © 19th July 2020

It is difficult to deny that hope is hard to find in 2020 as the increasingly out-of-control pandemic keeps knocking at our door. For nearly all of us, inside or outside our unique bubble, life has become dire or at least more challenging and fearful. But while hope is in short supply, magical thinking seems to be having a banner year. On that basis alone, they are clearly not the same.

with Rev. Clay Nelson

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Follow this shortcut to the bottom of the page for the Spirit of Life, Time For All Ages, Opening & Closing Words, Postlude.

Clay Nelson © 12th July 2020

Some things bear repeating. Most of this musing is from a talk on racism I gave over a year ago. Sadly, it has not passed its use by date.

And this talk itself was also repeated in the Winter 2020 issue of Quest – Journal of the Australia New Zealand Unitarian Universalist Association.

Racism is like the Covid 19 virus, if it can be cured it will be a challenge. Scientists are working on it, but they aren’t there yet. But they do know a few prerequisites. Racism is what Rudyard Kipling coined as “the white man’s burden” — not just for colonisers, not just for Trump supporters, not just for people who dress up in bedsheets, not just for Americans, but all white people, even for Unitarians in their predominantly white faith movement with their first three principles which are the antidote to racism. Recognising the inherent worth and dignity of every person; seeking justice, equity and compassion in human relations; and accepting one another and encouraging spiritual growth in our congregations.

with Rev. Clay Nelson

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Follow this shortcut to the bottom of the page for the Spirit of Life, Time For All Ages, Opening & Closing Words, Postlude.

Clay Nelson © 5th July 2020

We are in the midst of living the ancient curse: “May you live in interesting times”. Unless we are over a hundred years old, no one alive has been through a pandemic quite like what we are experiencing now. We are still learning about the virus and its spread. What will treat it? How do we prevent it? Will a vaccine be discovered? It is most assuredly impacting economies, but it is also changing how we relate to each other, perform our work if we still have a job, our politics, the social contract and, of special interest to me, the church. What does the future hold for Unitarianism in Aotearoa? Will its values still be voiced for future generations? If so, what will the vessel of those values look like? Will the present assumptions about being a church hold or will we come to see and experience church in totally new ways? Let me be clear, I have no idea what the answers are to these questions. I hope I’ll live long enough to find out. Call it spiritual and intellectual curiosity. The best I can do is offer a suggestion as to how to discern different paths we might take in a time of uncertainty, where the ground beneath us is shifting minute to minute.

with Rev. Clay Nelson

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Follow this shortcut to the bottom of the page for the Time For All Ages, Opening & Closing Words, Postlude.

Clay Nelson © 28th June 2020

When I was twelve I was inspired like many Americans of my generation by John F Kennedy’s words at his inauguration:

with Rev. Clay Nelson

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Follow this shortcut to the bottom of the page for the Spirit of Life, Time For All Ages, Opening & Closing Words, Postlude, Links shared during the chat.

Clay Nelson © 21st June 2020

Christopher and Catherine are two of my Facebook and real friends. A number of years back I presided at their wedding. During our preparation time for the big day a bond formed that has continued to this day.

During the lockdown I came to look forward to their funny and entertaining posts about their bubble life. Then the posts became intriguing as they shared stories about Gavin, their pet caterpillar that lived on an indoor swan plant.

with Rev. Clay Nelson

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Follow this shortcut to the bottom of the page for the Spirit of Life, Time For All Ages, Opening & Closing Words, Postlude, Links shared during the chat.

Clay Nelson © 14th June 2020

“If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?” It is a philosophical question raised first by philosopher George Berkeley in 1710. He offered no answer. In 1863 the question was raised again in the magazine The Chautauquan. Their answer was, “No. Sound is the sensation excited in the ear when the air or other medium is set in motion.” Their scientific view was supported by Scientific American in 1884, “Sound is vibration, transmitted to our senses through the mechanism of the ear, and recognized as sound only at our nerve centres. The falling of the tree or any other disturbance will produce vibration of the air. If there be no ears to hear, there will be no sound.”

with Rev. Clay Nelson

Follow this shortcut to the bottom of the page for the Spirit of Life, Time For All Ages, Opening & Closing Words, Postlude, Links shared during the chat.

No text this week, but questions raised and discusion started on how we implement level1 at AUC.

• Level 1 requirements
  • Thorough clean
  • Hand sanitiser every where
  • QR Code
  • Download contact tracing app
• Renters and small groups
• Zoom congregation
  • Who would not attend an in-person worship?
  • How to include those not in Auckland and those who are vulnerable
    • Add a virtual service?
    • What times would be best if we went to two services?
• Morning Tea
• Zoom committee meetings

Breakout

Discussion continued…

Links

Time For All Ages = The Youngest Marcher: The Story of Audrey Faye Hendricks, a Young Civil Rights Activist
by Cynthia Levinson, Vanessa Brantley-Newton (Illustrator)

Closing Words are We shall overcome By Jonalu Johnstone

with Rev. Clay Nelson

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Follow this shortcut to the bottom of the page for the Spirit of Life, Time For All Ages, Opening & Closing Words, Postlude, Links shared during the chat.

Clay Nelson © 31st May 2020

In deciding what to muse on this week I just needed to take a moment to reflect on what is happening around me. The first thing I noticed was the brouhaha surrounding Todd Muller’s first week as opposition leader. First there was the MAGA hat that he doggedly defended displaying in his office as just some political swag, a souvenir. He was apparently oblivious to its being a malevolent symbol promoting racism, nativism, xenophobia, anti-science, and gross misogyny as being okay at least to white supremacists. Muller might as well decorate his office with swastikas and Klan hoods.

with Rev. Clay Nelson

and the occasional comment from Waldo.

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Follow this shortcut to the bottom of the page for the Spirit of Life, Time for All Ages, Opening & Closing Words, Postlude, Links shared during the chat.

Clay Nelson © 24th May 2020

I’ve been musing on how long-range planning has become nothing more than wondering what might happen next week. Certainly, one vocation that has little future is that of futurist. Wikipedia defines a futurist as someone whose speciality or interest is futurology or the attempt to systematically explore predictions and possibilities about the future and how they can emerge from the present, whether that of human society in particular or of life on Earth in general.