with Jonathan Mason

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Jonathan Mason  © 12 February 2023

The question of whether there is life in the universe is one of the big questions of the 20^th and 21^st century. Movies such as ET, Contact, Arrival and Interstellar have explored these issues along with alien invasion movies such as Independence Day. I remember growing up watching the night sky with a sense of wonder, In my search for the mystery in life, Unitarian Principle #4, I have found the question of whether there is other life in the universe to be one of the profound mysteries that I reflect on. The answer to this question may also impact Unitarian Principle #7, on the interdependency of humans with our world, in ways that I’ll discuss later. In the following talk, I’ll go over the prevailing science on Extra terrestrial life and then discuss its implications for our world and Unitarianism. This is a personal talk giving my views on issues, apologies for those who have different views.

with John DiLeo

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

Todays sermon:- a reading of “Getting Through the Night” By Mary Wellemeyer

Meditation / Conversation starter:

• Do you think I’m being overly pessimistic, or will things really get that bad?
• However bad things do get, how can we prepare – individually and as a congregation – to get through it?
• What can we do – again both individually and as a congregation – to help others get through it?
• What should we be doing to break this cycle?

Links

Welcome:- includes “Welcome Home” By Rachel Rott

Opening Words:- “Call from Beyond” By Susan Maginn

Chalice Lighting:– “This Chalice Is Lit for You” By Tara Humphries

Todays sermon:- a reading of “Getting Through the Night” By Mary Wellemeyer

The New Yorker article referenced in the sermon is: “Eviction: The day they came for Addie Polk’s house,” by Peter J Boyer, published 24 November 2008.

Closing Words:- “We have a calling in this world” By Jean M Rickard

Speaker and Worship Leader:- David Hines

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David Hines © 22nd January 2023

My original subject for today was Gonna lay down my sword and shield, which was about concentration camps in World War 2, and how this appalling story was the background to the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

But it was such a complicated story I couldn’t get my head around it. And I was looking for a new topic.

And then Jacinda came up with the idea of resigning …. And it was obvious.

Speaker and Worship Leader:- Rachel Mackintosh

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Rachel Mackintosh © 15th January 2023

If you think about the vastness of space, and how enormous our galaxy is, and how big our planet is, and how small we are, I’m not really eating all that much cheese.

Thanks to Kay for finding and sharing that.

Speaker and Worship Leader:- Ted Zorn

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Ted Zorn © 8th January 2023

Today, I want to talk about finding our humanity in a technologized world and the dangers of relying too heavily on technology to do tasks that we expect to be done by humans. Specifically, I want to delve into the questions raised by the fact that a machine like ChatGPT can write a speech, a personal letter, or your child’s essay assignment.

For those who may not be familiar, ChatGPT is a large language model developed by OpenAI. It has been trained on a vast amount of data and is able to generate human-like text on a variety of topics. It is a relatively new technology and its capabilities are still being explored and refined.

Speaker:- Alix Geard
Worship Leader:- Ted Zorn

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Alix Geard © 1st January 2023

Tēnā koutou, tēnā koutou, tēnā tatou katoa

Greetings, greetings, greetings to us all.

Welcome again to this – small, niche – gathering of our community. Thank you for the opportunity to stretch outside my own comfort zone to address our group here. Happy New Year.

Or should I say “Happy Gregorian New Year”? Let’s come back to that.

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On this first day of the year, I want to talk about meaning. Specifically, I want to talk about how we take our small blue planet’s gravitationally-bound sweep around its star and turn one point on that circuit into a time for parties and new year’s resolutions and setting up a calendar for the year to come. About how different people – and peoples – do that differently, and how we navigate getting along together.

with David Hines

David Hines and panelists © 11th December 2022

A panel of leading religious and non-religious leaders discuss the government’s new religion in schools programme.

The panel:-

Paul Morris, Emeritus Professor, School of Social and Cultural Studies, Victoria University of Wellington / Te Herenga Waka.

Secular Education Network chair Penny Ehrhardt, and New Zealand Association of Rationalists and Humanists vice-president Sara Passmore, have already spoken in our church, but that was before we had the full text of the government’s plans. They’ll be on Zoom.

Anjum Rahman, Founder and Project Co-Lead of Inclusive Aotearoa Collective Tāhono, who must be the best known Muslim leader in the country, due to her frequent interviews on TV. She has also advocated for religious studies and the end of Christian religious instruction (Bible in Schools).

David Zwartz former president New Zealand Jewish Council will be speaking for most Jewish people.

Peter Lineham religious history prof, is equally well known. Not so well known is he is a Christian who once described himself as a liberal evangelical.

Also this statement was read to the meeting from Robert Hunt, chair, NZ Buddhist Council, on behalf of the Executive Committee.