Speaker:- Ron Ahnen
Worship Leader:- Viv Allen

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In this sermon, Ron Ahnen (Intern Minister at First Unitarian Church of Albuquerque, New Mexico (USA) reflects on the nature of Truth and how we find especially our own personal truth.

Ron Ahnen © 24 November 2024

Truth. What’s the truth? Can you handle the truth?
I want the truth.

As you all know, we just finished an election in the U.S. with so many different candidates—not just presidential ones—putting forth many competing claims about what “the truth” is. The good news is that we’ve got fact-checkers and journalists all trying to help us sort out exactly what is and is not true. You might think it’s easier to find the truth these days, given that you can Google just about anything in a nanosecond. It turns out, finding out the truth is not so easy. In fact, it’s often really, really hard.

Speaker & Worship Leader:-
Barbara Thomborson

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Barbara Thomborson © 17 November 2024

Ageing and death are two timeless themes, universal to our human experience. Our culture’s near phobia about death has created unneeded anxiety and irrational fear about “passing on, passing away, kicking the bucket, giving up the ghost, breathing your last, losing your life, expiring (like a use-by date), or just plain croaking”. That’s a small sample of the euphemisms English has for dying. In her book The Coming of Age, Simone de Beauvior says, “The vast majority of humankind looks upon the coming of old age with sorrow and rebellion. It fills them with more aversion than death itself”.

Speaker:- John Maindonald
Worship Leader:- Shirin Caldwell

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John Maindonald © 10 November 2024

Today, no business of any size uses paper based accounting. The move from paper based systems started in the late 1950s when large corporations started using computer mainframes, as they were called, for basic operations. In the 1980s personal computers made computer-based accounting systems widely available.

The chatbots that have attracted wide attention in the past several years are a very different technology from accounting systems. In January of last year, Ted Zorn spoke about “Finding our humanity in a technologized world”, looking in particular at the abilities of 2024 chatbots akin to ChatGPT. Chatbots per se are not all that new. The Eliza chatbot came on the scene in the mid 1960s. One could ask it “What can you say that will make me happy?”, and it would come back with a sympathetic response. ChatGPT is of course a vastly more powerful beast, using information that it gathers from the internet for answers that usually appear plausible.

Speaker & Worship Leader:- Rachel Mackintosh

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Rachel Mackintosh © 3 November 2024

Barbara Kingsolver, in her novel Demon Copperhead, has Demon say this:

“… she looked at me in the eyes, and we were sad together for a while. I’ll never forget how that felt. Like not being hungry.”

Like not being hungry.

She looked at me in the eyes, and we were sad together for a while.

I’ll never forget how that felt.

Like not being hungry.

Have you ever been seen like that by another person? Have you ever shared such a deep understanding, be it of sadness or of some other emotion? Do you know that feeling, of not being hungry?

Will you ever forget how that felt?

I will never forget how that felt.

While we’re keeping ‘mostly’ up to date with publishing recorded services, these ones from 2024 have gone on the back burner. We hope to retrieve them at some unknown date in the future.

“Music Sunday”, Rachel Mackintosh, 27th October
“Certification of the organ”, Rachel Mackintosh, 20th October
“The importance of ritual”, Barbara Thomborson, 13 October
“Jain wisdom in a pluralistic world”, Claire Butler, 6 October
“A language of reverence”, Ted Zorn, 29 September
“Flower Communion”, Karn Cleary, 22 September

Speaker:- Randolph Hollingsworth
Worship Leader:- Viv Allen

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From Viv Allen:-

About a year ago an email dropped into my inbox from my cousin Hamish who I only catch up with at family funerals. Attached to that email was a 93 page thesis on my great, great Aunt, Annie Jane Schnakenberg nee Allen, who I knew little about except that she’d fought for women’s suffrage in NZ and was a fluent speaker of Maori, so I was very excited to find out that Randolph Hollingsworth had done a huge amount of research into Annie Jane’s life and written a thesis about her. I quickly got in touch with Randolph to find out more and was delighted to meet her as she now lives in Auckland. Randolph is now an independent scholar, who enjoys researching women’s history which is how she came to write about Annie Jane. Often in NZ we only hear about the main characters in history such as Kate Sheppard but there were many more women who helped fight for women’s rights. Now I’m going to let Randolph tell you more about this fascinating women, Annie Jane.

Randolph Hollingsworth © 15 September 2024

We’ve no text of the talk this week but Randolph has provided extensive notes by way of a draft PDF of the content of this talk.

Links

Opening Words:- “Equality” by Maya Angelou

Chalice Lighting:- is by Albert Schweitzer

Closing Words:- “Phenomenal Woman” by Maya Angelou

Speaker & Worship Leader:- Barbara Thomborson

Death Café is an event where people discuss their understanding, thoughts, and feelings about death. Barbara Thomborson will facilitate the service to enable small group discussion of questions inspired by Death Café. They include practical considerations, experiences of death, grief and loss, and cultural aspects of death.

This service follows on from last month’s End-of-Life Choice service with a brief talk on cultural aspects of death.

Here are the Questions used in the small discussion groups:-

• What does it mean to have a ‘good death’?
• If you knew you were dying, what would you change about your life?
• What was helpful when you were grieving?
• How easy is it to talk to your family about your funeral wishes?

• What is your earliest memory of death?
• If you knew this was your last day of life, what would you do?
• How would you help a grieving friend?
• If you were planning your funeral, what would you include?

• Have you seen a dead body? How did it affect you? If not, then
• Have you witnessed someone die and how did it affect you?
• Where is your will?
• What would you like your lasting legacy to be?
• What do you think about doing something on the internet to remember someone?

• How old would you like to be when you die?
• How would you like to be remembered?
• What do you think about lighting a candle to remember someone who has died?
• What would you like written on your gravestone?

• What does ‘life after death’ mean to you?
• Have you experienced the death of a pet?
• Are there any written or spoken words about death that you have found helpful?
• If you could choose, where would you like to die?

• What does it mean to die with dignity?
• What was your first experience of grief?
• If it were possible, what 1 question would you of someone you love who has died?
• How would you explain death to a 5-year-old?

Speaker & Worship Leader:- Viv Allen

I’m reading a talk written by Erika Hewitt entitled; The Answer I Wish I’d Given (winner of the 2009 Stewardship Sermon Award). Erika wrote a personal, heartwarming story about ‘giving’ which for her is both a statement and an expression of her faith. This story is very relevant to the old 19th century concept of ‘deserving poor’ where government employees make value judgements about who can receive help and who should be punished by withholding this help. This is very topical as now our government has announced plans for social welfare reform in NZ.

Meditation / Conversation starter

• How do you handle homeless beggars and car beggars?

Links

Chalice Lighting:- “In the Mystery of Life About Us There is Light” by George Kimmich Beach

Reading / Meditation:- words from Kahil Gilbran

Main talk:- “The Answer I Wish I’d Given” by Erika Hewitt

Extinguishing the Chalice:- “Daring Vision” by Maureen Killoran

Closing Words:- “Thank you for the stories” by Lizzie Kingston Harrison

Speaker & Worship Leader:- Alix Geard

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Alix Geard © 18 August 2024

Why do we light a chalice in our services? It’s a strange concept, when you think about it. If it’s a cup, then ceremonial cups are usually for water or wine, not flame. How did it get started?

Today I’m splitting my musing into 2 parts. One, now, is about what we know of the history of the flaming chalice. Later, I’ll talk through an interpretation of the lit chalice, using some of the imagery associated with it. I invite you to explore with me and find what resonates for you. This is a little long, so settle in.

Speaker:- Mary Panko
Worship Leader:- Barbara Thomborson

Mary Panko, immediate past president of New Zealand’s End-of-Life Choice Society, is guest speaker on the End-of-Life Choice Act and its upcoming Parliamentary review.

Barbara Thomborson, service leader, will share Unitarian Universalist background on this controversial topic. This service is a call to action.

Follow this link to download information on how to make a submission to the End-of-Life Choice Act review, closing date 26 September 2024.

Mary’s slides to accompany this talk.