Read more about Inclusive Values Education
Quiz Night Returns!
Absent in 2020 due to ‘that virus’ Quiz Night returns in 2021 bigger and better than ever!
Saturday 22 May, 6.00 pm–10.00pm:
Contact Betsy Marshall (quiznight@aucklandunitarian.org.nz) or sign up at a Sunday service to let us know if you (and the number of family members/friends) are planning to attend the Celebration Dinner and Quiz Night at the church on Saturday 22 May from 6.00pm to 10.00pm.
As everyone will be seated at round tables for eight, we are keen to ensure we have enough tables for everyone attending.
Also, please bring along a main, salad or dessert for six to eight people for a pot-luck dinner.
How wonderful it will be to get together after a year of Covid restrictions. Also, we look forward to having a brief presentation from our Church Treasurer about what will be needed to ensure our community continues to thrive this year.
Hope to see you on Saturday 22 May.
Betsy Marshall
Quiz Night Coordinator
How to address Mystery
with Rev. Clay Nelson
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.
Clay Nelson © 9 May 2021
My first academic assignment in seminary is still very much a part of my memory. The reason is that it made me wonder if I was cut out for this new path I was taking. I was to write an essay on Rudolph Otto’s work The Idea of the holy. Otto, an early 20th century German theologian, argued that the holy was to be addressed with fear and trembling, which he called awe. I know I was a neophyte theologian but I did not get his conclusions. They did get clearer years later when George W Bush attacked Iraq with “Shock and Awe”. That was definitely an Old Testament kind of holy. But anger, vengeance, oppression, and indiscriminate genocide do not instil me with awe. Ever since then, I have wrestled with the idea of the holy.
Continue reading How to address MysteryUU Asia Pacific Zoom Service – Islam & Unitarianism
with Rev. Clay Nelson
Help a Kid to Camp – Thank You!!
Thanks to everyone for the tremendous support for this campaign!
Through your efforts, church members have sponsored 43 Year 7 & 8 Glen Taylor School students to the school camp at Kawau Island held later this month. Sponsorship for these students is very much appreciated, and the school’s Principal, Chris Herlihy, sends huge thanks to all!
Universal Worship
with representatives from the major world faiths.
7:15PM, Friday 7th May 2021
Inviting 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.
Maybe: Outgrowing our past
with Rev. Clay Nelson
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.
Clay Nelson © 2 May 2021
One of the more influential, life-shaping memories I store in my dishevelled filing cabinet of a brain, is reading King Lear when I was 16. It may have been my first in-depth encounter with the Bard of Avon. While I can give a basic outline of Shakespeare’s tragic play, it is not the story itself that haunts me, but one particular interchange between Lear and his Fool. The Fool tells him, “Thou shouldst not have been old till thou hadst been wise.”
Continue reading Maybe: Outgrowing our pastCrafting for the Tree Council
Craftivist Companions have completed our Living Wage Campaign. There is a poster on the notice board of some of our work, and there are some “graffiti” pieces hanging in the local neighbourhood. Have you spotted them?
Our current project is in support of the Tree Council. We are making 120 brooches with the theme of celebrating trees, one for each member of parliament. We will send them with a letter to appeal to them to act to protect our trees. If you would like to make a brooch please ask Kay, Corrine or Pien for some tips.
Even better, join us at 7.30 on Thursday evenings, at the church.
Keeping the Peace
with Rev. Clay Nelson
You can find the unedited livestream at https://youtu.be/UnYYf_o9COA
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.
Te Raukura
Te Raukura is an important symbol to the tribes who affiliate to the Taranaki rohe. This symbol is captured in the form of a white feather, or a plume of white feathers. Te Raukura represents spiritual, physical, and communal harmony and unity. It is an acknowledgement of a higher spiritual power, which transcends itself upon earth. It is a symbol of faith, hope, and compassion for all of humankind and the environment that we live in.
There are various accounts of how the Raukura feather became such a significant symbol to the people of Taranaki. One such account refers to a gathering of people at Parihaka who witnessed an albatross landing on one of its courtyards, dropping a single feather before departing. This feather became the Raukura, and was honoured by Tohu Kakahi and Te Whiti-o-Rongomai, the prophetic leaders of Parihaka, and its community.
Continue reading Keeping the PeaceWhat Good are Pupfish?
with 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 © 18 April 2021
The following tale has been abridged and brutally edited by me in the interest of time. It is from a chapter in Elizabeth Kolbert’s book “Under a White Sky”.
A couple of weeks before the Christmas of 1849, William Lewis Manly climbed to a mountain pass and beheld “the most wonderful picture of grand desolation one could ever see.” Manly was standing in what’s now southwestern Nevada with an empty stomach and a dry and parched throat.” Manly found himself wandering the desert owing to a series of unfortunate decisions. Hoping to reach the gold fields in Northern California they took a detour that led into some of the most inhospitable terrain on the continent.
Continue reading What Good are Pupfish?