Chalice Lighting:- “We inherit this free faith from the brave and gentle” by Audette Fulbright Fulson
Reading:- “Good Bones” by Maggie Smith
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Kurt Payne © 28 July 2024
“..you cannot attain spiritual intelligence through numbers..” was mentioned more than once during Barbara Thomborson’s service in May. This week Kurt looks more into this tiny facet while exploring a model of a whole person – no calculators required!
Drawing a picture of a tree we would draw a trunk, add some branches and pop some leaves on.
For an artist the gaps and space between the leaves is more important and can be bigger than the tree itself. The shadow and length of the shadow help give size and weight. Feel the shade and the coolness along the path. Imagine the birds, animals and insects living in it. Hear the sound of rustling, the smell of the sap, of the composting leaves. Source of food, provider of oxygen, of shelter and warmth as wood. A concept for family lineage, unitarians may have even had a phone tree.
This type of lateral thinking is needed when we start to look at the model of a human.
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Mal Green © 21 July 2024
Tēnā koutou katoa
Ko Kōtirana, ko Aerana, ko Ingarangi te whakapaparanga mai
Ko Owairaka to maunga
Engari, ko Titirangi te whenua tupu
I nāianei, ko Te Onewa te kāinga
Nō Tāmaki Makaurau ahau
He Kaiako au i Te Kunenga ki Pūrehuroa
Ko Penman-Cooney te hapu
Ko Green-Clark te whānau
Ko Mal Green toku ingoa
I am a fifth generation descendant of Scottish, Irish, English immigrants to Aoteroa. I was born in Mt Albert, grew up in Titirangi, live now in Northcote. I teach at Massey University. I come from the Penman-Cooney extended family. My immediate family is Green-Clark. I am Mal Green.
Today I will share a bit of my spiritual whakapapa.
I was born into an evangelical Christian family – a missionary evangelical family that has produced countless missionaries and pastors. The main motif in this spiritual orientation was vindictive – if you did the right things and pleased God, you were blessed; if you did the wrong things and offended God, you were damned. So, God was judgemental; the world is evil; humans are depraved; Jesus is divine. I got involved in youth clubs, performed at and produced concerts, toured with performing arts groups, ended up in church leadership, wrote pamphlets – all to spread the message.
Continue reading Humanizing ChristianityRead below, or download the PDF
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Ted Zorn © 14 July 2024
I’ve entitled my talk today, “A More Beautiful Question”.
I borrowed the title from a book by the same name, written by former Chief Justice of the US Supreme Court Warren Berger. More about him later.
Remember the scene from Alice in Wonderland where Alice asks the Cheshire Cat: “Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?”
The Cheshire Cat answers: “That depends a good deal on where you want to get to.”
Alice: “I don’t much care where—”.
And Cheshire Cat replies: “Then it doesn’t matter which way you go.”
You could argue that Alice’s was an imperfect question, not a beautiful one. She asked a question without knowing what sort of answer she wanted, or what would in fact be a useful answer. It was a question lacking purpose.
Continue reading A More Beautiful QuestionRead below, or download the PDF
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John DiLeo © 7 July 2024
The Thursday just past was US Independence Day – the annual celebration of that country’s declaration, and eventual winning, of independence from English colonial rule.
That occasion got me thinking about freedom, in the patriotic, “land of the free and home of the brave” sense. This eventually brought me to a few questions: What freedoms do I really have? Which ones matter most to me? What would I be willing to do to preserve them?
Continue reading Celebrating FreedomNo recordings this week.
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Barbara Thomborson © 23 June 2024
Our Christmas traditions came from ancient Nordic and Celtic pagans. You already knew that, right? To this native of the northern hemisphere, New Zealanders use those traditions at the wrong time of the year. The British are blessed with numerous ways to celebrate the winter solstice because the Vikings and Romans, then French, brought their traditions to England and Scotland. These pagans’ earth-based deities and celebrations came from their agricultural lives and dependence on nature. They had to live in tune with nature, and nature inspired all of their holidays.
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Rachel Mackintosh © 16 June 2024
It’s 1944.
It’s Hell.
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Laurie Ross © 2 June 2024
‘Two things fill the mind with ever increasing wonder and awe, the more often and the more intensely the mind is drawn to them: (they are) the starry heavens above me and the moral law within me’ Immanuel Kant ‘Critique of Pure Reason’ [1724-1804]
Let us start with 3 Questions: What are ‘higher values’? Why do we want or need them? How do we develop ‘Higher moral values’ for living a good life?’
Simple answers are: