Viv Allen led a service centred around a reading of a Clay Nelson sermon from February 2020
Speaker & Worship Leader:-
Viv Allen
Meditation / Conversation starter
- What piques your curiosity?
Farewell Clay Nelson
We mourn our just-retired Minister, Clay Nelson, who died on 2 November 2023. Clay was our Minister from September 2014 to August 2023.
Givealittle page to raise funds towards Clay’s funeral.
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.
Here’s the Eulogy delivered by Rachel Mackintosh at Clay’s Funeral.
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 NelsonWelcome to Limbo. Please leave your certainties at the door
Speaker:- Rachel Mackintosh
Worship Leaders:- Ted Zorn, Kate Lewis
Our recently retired minister, Clay Nelson, died on Thursday (2 November 2023). Those of us who have known Clay are grieving.
So, we’ve changed this service to reflect on coming together in grief and the wonder of life.
Rachel MacIntosh, Clay’s wife, will present a talk that Clay wrote and presented to us a couple years back called “Welcome to Limbo. Please leave your certainties at the door.” Appropriately, it’s about how we respond to chaos, uncertainty, and the unexpected.
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.
Clay Nelson © 5 December 2021
Buddha told a parable: A man was travelling across a field when he encountered a tiger. He began to run, and the tiger chased after him. Coming to a precipice, he slipped and was able to catch hold of the root of a wild strawberry bush, hanging in the air. The tiger sniffed at him from above. Trembling, the man looked down only to find that another tiger was waiting to eat him. He thought the bush could sustain him for a while, until he saw two mice gnawing away the vine. A tiger above, a tiger below. The man saw a ripe strawberry near him. Grabbing the vine with one hand, he plucked the strawberry with the other, and ate it. How sweet and delicious.
Continue reading Welcome to Limbo. Please leave your certainties at the doorWorld Polio Day
Speaker:- Mary Ellen Warren
Worship Leader:- Ruby Johnson
Follow this shortcut to the bottom of the page for the various readings, videos, etc. shared in the service.
No text this week
Links
Opening Words:- “Determined Seed” by Laura Wallace
Chalice Lighting:- “Sacred Unknowing” By Amy Carol Webb
Reading:- “A Recipe for Resilience” by Margaret Weis
Closing Words:- are from “The Pathway to Healing” by roddy bell-shelton biggs
A wharfie’s story
Speaker:- Grant Williams,
Maritime Union of New Zealand
Worship Leader:- Rachel Mackintosh
No text this week
Links
Chalice Lighting:- “Honoring Our Labors” by Florence Caplow
Closing Words:- “We Are” by K E Cummins
Flower Communion
Speaker & Worship Leader:- Karn Cleary
The talk:- is an address from a Flower Communion service by John Midgley, an English Unitarian minister.
Links
Opening Words:- “Flowers” a poem by Albert Laighton
Chalice Lighting:- is from a UUA service “Day of Religious Freedom – 13th January”
The talk:- is an address from a Flower Communion service by John Midgley, an English Unitarian minister.
Closing Words:- Just before he was put to death in Dachau, Dr. Capek wrote this prayer, reflecting on his own life and the state of his spirit.
No person is an island unto themselves
Speaker:- John Maindonald
Worship Leader:- Shirin Caldwell
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.
John Maindonald © 8 October 2023
John Donne (1572-1631), who wrote the words that I want to ponder today, lived in England in troubled times. He was born to a staunchly Roman Catholic family at a time when it was illegal to be a practicing Catholic.
Continue reading No person is an island unto themselvesFinding Your Home in the Church Community
Speaker:- Peter Lineham
Worship Leader:- Ruby Johnson
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.
Peter Lineham © 1 October 2023
I was very struck by an article in the Washington Post on 21 August of this year by Perry Bacon jnr.
Continue reading Finding Your Home in the Church CommunityCornucopia — a tribute to Clay Nelson
Speakers & Worship Leaders:- Rachel Mackintosh & Betsy Marshall
Video 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.
Rachel Mackintosh, Betsy Marshall © 24 September 2023
Beginnings
Betsy: In early 2014, our Unitarian community was coming to terms with the fact that after only eight months, due to visa issues, we’d lost the American minister we’d contracted for two years. Fortunately the Ministerial Search Committee wasted no time in resurrecting itself to identify what we might do to support our Church’s dual strategy of working towards a full-time ministry and strengthening lay leadership.
Continue reading Cornucopia — a tribute to Clay Nelson
Pomp and circumstance:
a valedictory
Speaker & Worship Leader:- Rev. Clay Nelson
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.
Clay Nelson © 17 September 2023
Here is a factoid about your minister I hope to have kept from you for nine years. In secondary school, I was a band nerd. I wasn’t the cool one playing the sexy alto sax like I wanted. Instead, I was consigned over my objections to playing the tuba. It was even more humiliating as I was one of the smallest in the band.
Continue reading Pomp and circumstance:a valedictory