This service will be led in partnership. The theme is Home and Housing Security: What does home mean, what does housing security look like and what can we do? The structure of the service will be slightly different from the norm, with the congregation seated in circles.
Video to come.
Audio to come
Circle Groups are a unique ministry – not a therapy group, a study group, or a discussion group. Members practice “deep listening” together without critique, response, or cross-talk.
Circle Groups (or Covenant Groups) are a great way for new and old members of the congregation to get to know each other at a deeper level.
Today we split into 2 separate Circle Group sessions:-
In church with Shirin Caldwell who started our first Circle Group over 15 years ago,
An on-line session using Zoom with Tess Brothersen.
We mourn our just-retired Minister, Clay Nelson, who died on 2 November 2023. Clay was our Minister from September 2014 to August 2023.
Nina Khouri has launched a givealittle page to support Clay’s family with funeral costs.
https://givealittle.co.nz/cause/funds-for-the-funeral-of-the-beloved-clay-nelson
Clay Nelson touched so many people through his 40 years of ministry, introducing folk to the power of radical love and acting as a resource to all who desire to experience their full humanity through their chosen spiritual path. And dedicating his life to building communities committed to transforming the world to be a little more just and a little more peaceful.
https://givealittle.co.nz/cause/funds-for-the-funeral-of-the-beloved-clay-nelson
The Funeral was on Saturday 11th November, at the Auckland Unitarian Church. and was livestreamed on YouTube, follow this link Funeral Service for Clay Nelson -https://youtube.com/live/ByH9HkpcDVo, to view that.
Follow this link for the NZ Herald death notice and condolences page.
Clay was born on 31 May 1949 in Coral Gables, Florida.
His father, Calvin Clayton Nelson Sr, was a student at the time and was subsequently an academic whose career took him all around the USA — so Clay and his younger sister Cynthia, recently reunited for some happy days in Philadelphia, lived all over the place … a couple stints in Florida, and also Sandy Oregon, Yakima Washington, Gunnison Colorado, and eventually LA California …
Continue reading Farewell Clay NelsonInviting people of all faiths to join us for a special service celebrating our unity and spiritual friendship across the differences of race, culture and beliefs.
Universal Worship is an inclusive service spreading the message of the underlying unity of religion. It intends to foster harmony, respect and understanding amongst the faith communities.
Universal Worship includes sacred music and readings from the scriptures of the worlds major religions.
It will be streamed on Facebook
https://www.facebook.com/groups/1207190452789048/permalink/1529870713854352/
Or you can join via Zoom
https://zoom.us/j/92417774540?pwd=NlE3dm9NMlovR3d2akpLOG9mWlllUT09
And you can find out more at
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1glcRTyFQL1lAa632-ZHxTXSCs4Mol2ngWmMKEhEKSRI/edit?usp=sharing
Following on from her talk – What are we waiting for? — the pitfalls of respectability – to us on International Women’s day 8th March, Rachel Mackintosh was part of this panel discussion hosted by the Human Rights Commission, held on Tuesday 10th March.
Gender and Economic Equality for Women in New Zealand: Progress and Challenges was chaired by the Right Honourable Helen Clark, former prime Minister of New Zealand, and featured panellists:
The Tree of Life appears in almost every faith, but it could be the Jewish Old Testament tree in Eden, the Christian, Mormon or Baha’i Tree of Life, the Bodhi Tree of Enlightenment of the Buddhist, The Norse tree of Yggdrasill, the Oak tree of the Druid or the Fig tree of Hinduism.
All are pictures of the archetypal Sacred Tree, a metaphor for the source of life and connecting all forms of creation.
A variety of artists with different influences and views on a common theme of spirituality, illustrating the very many ways art can be spiritual.