Today’s service marks the first day of Auckland Pride month for 2026. I talked at some length during last year’s Pride service about the politics of Pride, and while I will not repeat that message here, I will touch upon the wider social context in which the queer community of Aotearoa finds itself at present. Last year it was clear that a reactionary political backlash was coming, and that has materialised in the last few months in the form of the coalition government’s attempt to curtail healthcare for trans youth. We don’t know yet what the result of this will be as the decision is currently undergoing judicial review. However, I think there are reasons to be hopeful about the resilience of Aotearoa’s queer community. Organisations advocating for access to reproductive healthcare such as contraception and abortion, have recognised that this assault on trans rights sets a dangerous precedent for bodily autonomy more broadly, and are being vocal in their opposition to the government’s agenda here.
Why do we repeat this ritual every year? It isn’t just to brag about our travels. When we share our water in the common bowl, it reminds us that while we are separate people, we are also part of an interdependent community.
You probably know about the water cycle.
We are in the middle of this cycle. When we drink about two litres of water every day, and then sweat or urinate, or die, we take and then put water back into the water cycle. So water is constantly on the move.
Even if you didn’t study chemistry, you might well know that water is a molecule made up of two hydrogen atoms and one oxygen atom. This molecule being tiny, if you had 18 grams of water, or a little more than half an ounce, that would be about 6 x 10^23 molecules.
This would be 602 sextillion molecules. If you were a 10 year old child weighing 35 kilograms you would contain 20 litres of water or 20,000 grams or 602 septillion molecules. That child returns ten percent or two litres to the water cycle every day.
Because water is constantly cycling around, and because every human being has such large numbers of molecules of water cycling through them, there’s a very good chance that each one of us has at least a few molecules of water that were formerly in the bodies of Socrates, Sappho, Jesus, Mohammed and the Buddha, and any number of great and wise people who lived in the past as well as some of history’s villains.
Thus when we say that we are all interconnected, that statement is quite literally true — we are all interconnected through the water cycle, not only with each other, but with all living beings past and present. Mary Magdalene, Kupe, Mary Wollstonecraft, Te Puea, Billie Holiday, your grandmother, my grandmother, our first minister, William Jellie all might literally be connected to you through water.
I now invite you each to bring your water — and if you didn’t bring it, please feel free to use the virtual and also real water here in this pitcher, that can stand in for the water you are connected to. Those at home, if you have water, pour it; and we will also pour water for you here.
Auckland Unitarian Christmas Eve Candlelight Service 2025
This Service will not be Zoomed.
Readers:-
Maria Hayward David Fougère Leo Boyd Barbara Thomborson
Peter Kennedy Tess Brothersen Ted Zorn Kate Lewis
Musicians
Piano — Frank Chen Organ — Edmond Wong Piano / Voice — Caitlin Smith French Horn — Chris Breeden
The collection this evening will be split 50/50 between RainbowYOUTH and Merge Café, and the amount donated will be matched from church funds, so give generously and double the value of your contribution!
Those who are unable to attend Christmas Eve but would like to contribute are asked to please do a bank transfer to the new bank account of the Auckland Unitarian Congregation Incorporated: 02-0200-0156552-00 (Particulars: “Your Name” and Reference: “Christmas Eve”
Feeling a bit Grinchy this year? You’re not alone. This sermon is for everyone who has ever wanted to skip Christmas, escape the forced cheer, or hide from a holiday that asks too much. It’s also about what happens when love finds us anyway, in forms we didn’t expect, and in places we didn’t think to look.
The Grinch and Scrooge are my favorite Christmas characters. Not in spite of their cynicism, but because of it. They’re the only honest ones in their stories. Everyone else is performing joy, pretending Christmas magic just happens naturally. But the Grinch and Scrooge?
They’ve done the math. They’ve weighed Christmas against their pain and built excellent walls to protect themselves from a holiday that demands vulnerability they can’t afford.
And here’s what I love most: they’re not wrong. They’re not villains. They’re survivors. And they do what survivors do.
Speaker:- Marieke Jasperse Worship Leader:- Maria Hayward
Dr Jasperse is a consultant cross-cultural psychologist, and survivor of modern slavery, dedicated to destigmatising distress and strengthening responses that restore dignity and determination. She has consulted for the United Nations, the NZ and Australian governments, and anti-trafficking NGOs, and looks forward to sharing her personal and professional insights on trafficking in Aotearoa New Zealand.
Saunoama’ali Dr Karanina Sumeo is the immediate past Equal Employment Opportunities Commissioner and will speak about her experience leading the Pacific Pay Gap Enquiry.
Pacific Pay Gap Enquiry and Human RightsListen, or download the MP3
Speaker:- Margaret Lewis Worship Leader:- Shirin Caldwell
Merge Café – Making a community-minded third spaceListen, or download the MP3
A third space is neither home, school nor work but a space where people can be themselves, be with friends. A café, a bar, a museum, even a park. may be places where many of our most vulnerable communities do not feel welcome or feel they need to be out of sight. Similar to a church, Merge Community and Café is a space where all communities are welcome. Find out our Kaupapa, how it works and some of the impacts. Meet Margaret Lewis from Lifewise/Merge whose role is to help build capability and capacity within the many communities Merge works with. Also see below for how you could contribute.
The management committee has approved a new project with two parts:
Providing $25 meal cards for local people experiencing homelessness Each card provides 5 free lunches. We are inviting the congregation to contribute towards the cost of these cards, with the PSJ offering matched funding of up to $250. If you would like to contribute towards a meal card, please make your payment to the Auckland Unitarian Congregation Incorporated account: 02-0200-0156552-00, Particulars: Your Name Reference: Merge Café
Collecting food items for Merge Café We are seeking donations of food items that can be used in the café, such as flour, oil, pasta, rice, lentils, tinned food, and any surplus fruit or vegetables you may have. Other suitable food items will be used to create small food parcels for their clients. Please place items in the plastic box on the left as you enter the church.
Neurodivergence. What does it mean – what are the challenges faced, and how can neurotypical individuals assist in mitigating these challenges and ensuring neurodivergent people are included, respected and accommodated?
Speakers:- Nikki Smith-Eklund (she/they) M Hum Rts & Dr. Tof Eklund (they/them) Worship Leader:- Rachel Mackintosh
Navigating Neurodivergence and the Neurodiversity Paradigm
20 November is International Day of Remembrance of all those in the transgender community murdered in hate crimes in the previous 12 months. The transgender community have become the target of disinformation and vilification by politicians and the far-right. Perhaps it is time for the rest of us to stand up to transphobia.
Speaker & Worship Leader:- Maria Hayward
Transgender Day of RemembranceListen, or Download the MP3
A couple of years ago, on Nov 20th, my daughter asked me if I wanted to go with her to a special service at St Matthew-in-the-city for “Transgender Day of Remembrance”. We sat nervously, in the candlelit church, and read, in somewhat shock and distress really, as hundreds of names scrolled in a datashow list in front of us. These were the names of 370 transgender persons – almost all women – who had been murdered in the previous 12 months because of their gender identity.
And they were only the names of people from countries willing to report these hate killings, and only of those who were identified as trans at their murder.
I imagine there were many, many hundreds more – not counted.
A look at Rutger Bregman’s book, Humankind: A Hopeful History, with an in-depth look at a real life shipwreck incident, similar to Lord of the Flies but with a very different outcome. How might we look at humanity and ourselves differently, if we were aware that people in emergencies tend to be very generous and caring, rather than self-centered and panicky?
Speaker & Worship Leader:- Joel Hildebrandt
The Real Lord of the FliesListen, or download the MP3
I’m curious how many of us read Lord of the Flies in school? Raise your hand.
The book is evidently a popular one for school reading (both here and in the US). It was written by William Golding and published in 1954. Golding was strongly influenced by the Cold War and the ongoing threat of nuclear war; WWII, the bombings of London and Dresden, and the horrendous testing of atomic bombs on the people of Japan were recent events that must have weighed on his mind. Golding had read another book, The Coral Island, which focused on Christian messages and the supposedly civilizing effects of British colonialism. He decided he would write his own book, – and here I quote him – “a book about children on an island, children who behave in the way children really would behave”. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lord_of_the_Flies) Interestingly, the original title of Golding’s book was Strangers from Within.
