Speaker & Worship Leader:- Rachel Mackintosh

An exploration of justice and inclusion.

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 © 27 July 2025

To come In this place, in this community, we covenant to serve humankind in fellowship, that all souls shall grow in harmony.

We face challenges in this endeavour, though we repeat the statement every week.

Certainly, we believe that all souls should grow in harmony.

You may know this story of former Auckland Councillor, the late Efeso Collins. This story takes place at the swearing in when he was first elected to Auckland Council in 2016. I have never been to a swearing in ceremony, but I can imagine a solemn and reverent event. The mayor in robes and chain, the council members dressed in their best, taking on the awesome responsibility of serving their city, with their intentions fresh — intentions of doing their best to make this place somewhere we can all live well. The town hall cleaned and polished to its finest, perhaps some organ music, dignitaries present, VIPs in the audience, there to lend weight to the moment and to pay respect to our elected leaders. A ceremonial occasion.

In 2016, when Efeso Collins was being sworn in, a council usher refused to believe that his wife, children and elders were entitled to sit in the VIP area. Efeso had to persuade the usher to let them take their seats.

Efeso was appalled and embarrassed. His family was humiliated. It was 2016, for goodness’ sake. Weren’t we beyond that kind of racism?

Isaiah speaks against rulers who write laws that crush the poor and enable injustice. In the 1970s, successive New Zealand Governments used such laws to legally justify the racial profiling and persecution of Pasifika peoples, especially through the Dawn Raids.

Speaker:- Rev. Alec Toleafoa
Worship Leader:- Ted Zorn

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.

Alec Taleafua © 20 July 2025

“Woe to you who legislate evil—
who make laws that make misery for the poor,
that rob destitute people of dignity,
exploiting defenseless widows and taking advantage of homeless children.”

Isaiah 10:1–3 (The Message version)

Let me take you to a moment in time a moment in history.

To a family home in the inner-city suburb of Arch Hill, a group of young Pasifika and Maori gathered for a meeting, a meeting that would ignite a revolution in the way mainstream New Zealand treat Pasifika & Maori. A meeting that would give Pasifika communities a megaphone through which to articulate and amplify our stand against the everyday racial prejudice and discrimination we were experiencing at the time. And so the Polynesian Panther Party was born on 16^th June 1971.

Speaker:- Tenzin Chosang
Worship Leader:- Rachel Mackintosh

The paradox of tolerance suggests that extending tolerance to the intolerant risks enabling the eventual dominance of intolerance. It challenges UUs’ commitment to justice, equity, and compassion. How do we manage the tension between openness and resisting hate in an era of rising divisiveness?

Speaker & Worship Leader:- Ted Zorn

Video to come

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.

Ted Zorn © 6 July 2025

Reading

Before my talk, I’d like to read something I wrote for this service. It is a poem in progress. It’s about my topic today,

The Paradox of Tolerance

I believe you can believe what you believe and I can believe what I believe and that we can still live together in community.

Usually.

You can think that what I think is wrong and I can think what you think is wrong, and it’s okay.

Usually.

You deem one thing to be best and I deem another thing to be best, and we can both be redeemed.

Usually.

You value some things, and I value different things, but we both have value.

Always.

But what if what you think is that someone who thinks like me is unacceptable?

What if you believe that someone who believes what I believe has no place in our community?

What if you deem that people like me are less than people like you?

What if you value some people, but not people with my values?

Hmm. Now we have a problem.

Speaker:- Ibrahim Omer
Worship Leader:- Rachel Mackintosh

This service will celebrate the only indigenous holiday in Aotearoa.

Speaker & Worship Leader:- Rachel Mackintosh

Speaker:- Maria Hayward
Worship Leader:- Ted Zorn

June 20 is World Refugee Day. This is an international day of celebration of the resilience of survivors of war or other conditions that force individuals to flee their home countries. It’s an opportunity to learn about the causes of forced flight, the NZ refugee resettlement programme and the truths and myths about refugees. For us as UU’s it’s also an opportunity to expand our compassion for displaced and oppressed people everywhere.

Video to come.

Audio to come

Read below, or download the PDF to come

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

Maria Hayward © 15 June 2025

June 20^th is World Refugee Day. It’s a day for remembering the plight of refugees around the world and for celebrating their resilience.

I would like to begin today’s talk with some definitions. A Refugee 101, if you like.

Firstly, I’ll explain the difference between: a refugee, a displaced person and an asylum seeker; and then the difference between a quota refugee and a convention refugee.

Systematic Extremes of Poverty and Wealth

Speaker:- Ruth Irwin
Worship Leader:- Rachel Mackintosh

The rate of economic growth is set at 2-3%. Its a finely calibrated complex system of moving parts. As brand new money gushes out of private banks in the form of ex nihilo credit, it pools in “reservoirs of value.” This results in the rich getting extremely rich, and the poor losing the value of their labour to inflation. The economic growth model is exponential. It systematically produces extremes in wealth and poverty.

The engine of economic growth and climate change

Speaker:- Ruth Irwin
Worship Leader:- Rachel Mackintosh

“Banks create credit ‛ex nihilo’ which means ‛out of nothing’. This brand new credit is the engine that forces economic growth into the system. Technological efficiencies are all absorbed and exceeded by growth. That means that new technology does not result in a reduction in climate emissions. Instead, there is an exponential increase in resource consumption. Understanding the banking industry is vital to begin to unwind the economic growth model, and its production of climate change.”