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.

No recording or text this week

Speaker:- Karanina Sumeo
Worship Leader:- Rachel Mackintosh

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.

No text this week

Speaker:- Margaret Lewis
Worship Leader:- Shirin Caldwell

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.

Peace and Social Justice Project – Merge Café

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

Nikki Smith-Eklund & Tof Eklund © 23 November 2025

No text this week

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

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.

Maria Hayward © 16 November 2025

A couple of years ago, on Nov 20^th, 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

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

Read below, or download the PDF

Joel Hildebrandt © 9 November 2025

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.

Speaker & Worship Leader:- Rachel Mackintosh

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

Read below, or download the PDF

Rachel Mackintosh © 2 November 2025

On 21 February 2023 Archimedes’ arrow of time is released, to speed over 254 days to its destination: death.

On 21 February we receive news of Clay’s terminal diagnosis and driving home from the hospital appointment I begin sobbing. This is not a problem for my driving, actually, but Clay suggests I pull over. Which I do into the side of a car minding its own business in the next lane. The kindness of the stranger in that car, who is not angry but concerned, sets the tone of the next 254 days.

According to Bishop Ussher’s treatise published in 1650, the universe began precisely on October 23, 4004 BC—at sunset. Science disagrees, — by about 13.8 billion years. This service explores how embracing scientific understanding can deepen, not diminish, our sense of awe, wonder, and the sacred.

Speaker:- Kate Lewis
Worship Leader:- Ted Zorn

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

Read below, or download the PDF

Kate Lewis © 26 October 2025

The 23rd of October, Thursday this week, was a big one for at least two reasons. One was the mega strike of workers across many careers and across New Zealand. The second was that Thursday marked the beginning of the 6029th year since the creation of the world, according to Bishop James Ussher. He published his scientific treatise to that effect in 1650: October 22, 4004 BC, in the evening, say 6:00 pm, is when the universe was created; thus 23 October, 4004 BC was the first day.

There was some controversy about this date in Ussher’s time. Other scholars, including Isaac Newton, came up with dates ranging around 4000 BC; counts of attempted chronologies in 1861 suggested there were up to 300 different opinions of the Earth’s age, as trying to figure it out was not unusual among scholars of the time.

Today I’m going to talk about the history of the Earth and how we think about time. These have implications for the choices we make, in particular around science.

Speaker:-Barbara Thomborson
Worship Leader:- Karn Cleary

Read below, or download the PDF

Barbara Thomborson © 19 October 2025

This joyful service celebrates the life of our congregation and is our annual memorial to the life of its creator, Rev. Dr. Norbert Čapek. As minister to Unitarians in Prague, Czechoslovakia, he was a 20^th century Unitarian martyr, killed by Nazis in 1942.

The British Unitarian Assn describes the Flower Communion as “a celebration of the good things of life as given and received through the fellowship of a congregation, symbolised in the giving and receiving of flowers.” The Flower Communion has become an Auckland Unitarian annual ritual to celebrate the coming of Spring, one of the best things in life, IMO. It also commemorates the minister who created the Flower Communion. You’ll hear more about Rev Čapek later.