An overview of the Islamic beliefs and practices, and later at the end of the service an opportunity to ask questions.

Speakers:- Brother Bilal Slaimankhel
and Brother Ammar Mullah
from Ponsonby mosque

Worship Leader:- Viv Allen

Video to come

Audio to come

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

Auckland Unitarian Church © 17 August 2025

No text this week

Links

Opening Words:- “We need not think alike to love alike” attributed to Francis David

Chalice Lighting:- from a “UU Heritage Chalice Lighting” by Elizabeth M Strong

Closing Words:- “Let religion be to us life and joy” by Vincent B Silliman

Speaker & Worship Leader:- Kate Lewis

Video to come

Audio to come

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.

Kate Lewis © 30 March 2025

As far as I can tell looking through the archives we’ve had two services in which the musings were about Ramadan. In both cases Clay introduced the services by talking about violence associated with Islam. In 2017 it followed a week in which there had been six terrorist attacks around the world, all of which involved Muslims as either perpetrators or victims. He presented a talk by another Unitarian minister on religious fundamentalism in Islam and other religions.

In May, 2019, the talk followed the murder of 51 Muslims at a mosque in Christchurch. In that case Clay used text from a convert to Islam answering some basic questions about Islam and Ramadan.

I would love to have an occasion to talk about Islam without mentioning violent extremism, but it is impossible not to mention the on-going war in Gaza and to acknowledge that violence against Muslims by Christians, Jews, and other Muslims pervades our world. The persistent and wide-spread Western association between Islam and violence leads to prejudice and racist speech and behaviour, so it is everyone’s problem.

Speaker:- Rehanna Ali

Worship Leader:- David Hines

Rehanna Ali is head of the Federation of Islamic Associations of NZ‘s Islamic Awareness programme and joint convenor of their Education Sector Development; and was a founder of the Islamic Women’s Council of New Zealand (IWCNZ).

Rehanna Ali © 9 January 2022

Links

A reflection on the Christchurch massacre

with Rev. Clay Nelson

Read below or download the PDF

Clay Nelson © 15 March 2020

I’m sure that not long ago I thought there was no such day as “Everything you think is wrong” day to celebrate. I was wrong. I have no idea who comes up with these days, and no one knows who came up with this one or why on this date, March 15. My guess is the Ides of March was chosen because Julius Cæsar thought Brutus was his friend right up to the moment the knife entered his back.

So how does one celebrate this faux holiday? According to the anonymous founder this is a day to avoid making decisions, and by all means avoid saying “I think”. It is also a good day to spend time contemplating everything we don’t know or think we do, but don’t. We can take time to laugh at ourselves for things people used to think were true but aren’t.

with Rev. Clay Nelson

Read below, or download the PDF

Clay Nelson © 5 May 2019

If you live in Aotearoa New Zealand there are a few positives that have resulted from the horror of March 15, which doesn’t mean the price wasn’t way too high. New gun laws passed nearly unanimously within a couple weeks that have banned automatic and semiautomatic weapons. National and international efforts are ongoing to reign in social media as platforms for hate speech. In depth debates to distinguish free speech from hate speech fill public discourse. And in my mind, a greater recognition by non-Muslims that Muslims are not the threat they have been painted to be since 9/11 and continue to be by Trump and other politicians. They are more often the victims of violence than its perpetrators. They need protection from every religion’s far right fundamentalists as much as anybody else. The outpouring of support for the victims and the Muslim community shown at vigils, burying the local mosques with flowers of condolence, the raising of money for the victims’ families, concerts in support of the Muslim community, the government’s paying for the funerals and fast-tracking visa applications, non-Muslim women wearing hijabs in solidarity with their sisters, and mosques opening their doors to their non-Muslim neighbours to share their faith to build bridges have been transforming acts. We are not who we used to be. From my perspective, we are better than we used to be before March 15.

with Rev. Clay Nelson

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Clay Nelson © 24 March 2019

I see Brian Tamaki of Destiny Church is having a tantrum again about New Zealand being a Christian nation. He objected to Jacinda’s call to Muslim prayer before a two-minute silence to remember the victims of the massacre of worshipping Muslims in Christchurch. He called it an abuse of her Prime Ministerial powers.

Read below, or download the PDF

Clay Nelson © 17 March 2019

Friday morning, I had today’s service and my talk all prepared. Friday evening, I had nothing to offer. The unthinkable, the unimaginable had happened. New Zealanders had been cast out of the Godzone with tears streaming down our face and our hearts broken. Our Muslim brothers and sisters lay dying and bloodied in a house of prayer. This couldn’t happen here, yet graphic news stories and social media told us otherwise. It has shaken us to our core even more than the earthquakes that had come from previously unknown fault lines in Christchurch. As traumatic as those were, they were natural acts. This act of hatred had not previously happened here. We didn’t think it could in spite of plenty of evidence that the deadly virus of white nationalism had become epidemic around the world. No house of prayer was safe if its worshippers were the marginalised or people of colour. Homophobia, transphobia, Islamophobia, anti-Semitism, and racism has crawled out from the rocks they have been hiding under to be greeted as mainstream by right-wing political leaders and print and social media. But we thought we were better than that. We thought that was not who we are.