I have to confess that like many of us I am left daunted by the scope of the problems being created by global climate change. Other than an occasional reference to the fact that there is a problem, I have never devoted an entire sermon to the eco-disaster we face. I can feel myself retreat into uncertainty about how to proceed even as I begin. What can I say that will make a difference? What can any of us do to save the planet? Continue reading What Would the Goddess Do?→
Today is All Saints Day. There is a phrase in the Apostles Creed, which is possibly the only phrase I really like – the Communion of Saints – what does the Communion of Saints mean? Well it essentially means that when a Christian receives Communion, they are not just having Communion with people in that congregation, they’re having Communion with everybody else in the world who is having Communion, and having Communion with everybody who has ever had Communion in the history of the church, and they’re having communion with everybody who will ever come to receive Communion. To me it is a symbol of the interdependent web of existence of which we are a part, It reminds us we didn’t get here out of nothing, we are connected to those who came before, and others in the future will be connected to us, a reminder of our oneness.
So I thought today for our new members it would be good to give them a family tree, so that they know what they are being grafted to. I’m going to give you a whirlwind tour of some of the people who have gone before in this congregation. Continue reading The Communion of Unitarian Saints→
The title of this sermon comes with a story told by the Revd Dr Stephanie Mayi:
“It all began in January of 1637 when Anne Hutchinson went on trial in Boston for her role in creating theological discord within the fledgling Massachusetts colony. Since arriving in the new born Boston a few years earlier, Hutchinson had been holding meetings, leading discussions, and in many other ways expressing her own religious viewpoints—including her opinions about the various clergy in Boston and surrounding towns.Continue reading “You have Stept Out of Your Place” – Challenging Patriarchy→
Lately I’ve been watching the world news about the Syrian refugee crisis with a mix of emotions including surprise, pity, empathy, horror and fear ……..
It has got me thinking about how we Auckland Unitarians might respond. We will have time after my talk for a short discussion.
From April through October 2015 over twelve Wednesday evening sessions we watched a short video presentation on Islam by an esteemed Islamic scholar and followed up with a discussion on the issues raised.
Clay sees that it is vital for the west to know more about Islam, given Islam’s growth and projections it will become a dominant religion thoughout the world within a few decades.
How we as a society respond to Islam highlights principles of religious freedom and respecting those of different beliefs, as we struggle with the issues of tolerating the intolerant and understanding extremism, be it religious, polical or social.
We hosted a ‘Bread and Roses High Tea’ as a fundraising event for this movement, with the cost of admission at $19.25 equal to the hourly rate currently (October 2015) considered to be a reasonable minimum Living Wage. The event raised over $1,000.
An array of musicians entertained us this afternoon, including the wonderful TWEED
Before tackling what is wrong with the Living Wage I should make a full disclosure as we often hear journalists do when they have a connection to the story on which they are reporting. In early 2012 I attended the second meeting of unions, churches, and community NGOs exploring the initiation of a Living Wage Movement in Aotearoa New Zealand. I attended its kick-off later that year on May 21st. I became active in a faith network to support the movement and later became its convenor. Continue reading What’s Wrong with the Living Wage?→
This past Thursday, the day Muslims around the world celebrated one of their two solemn feasts, Eid al-Adha, the Feast of Sacrifice, 769 pilgrims making their Hajj were tragically killed and 863 were injured in a stampede.
I offer this prayer from a Muslim funeral service for them out of compassion for our shared humanity and respect for their faithfulness to their beliefs. It is a way of expressing in the words of Pope Francis “our closeness” with them and their grieving families. I invite you to stand if you are able and face the back doors, the direction to Mecca. Continue reading Why Celebrate Sacrifice?→
The religious atmosphere of the family in which I was nurtured, and of the churches that I attended, now seems to me resonant, in many ways, of English Christianity in the early 1800s, 200 years ago. Religious belief was taken very seriously, doubt was a sin, and those lively minds who did finally reject the old belief systems found the process traumatic. To the trauma of abandoning a way of thinking that had become deeply part of them was often added the trauma of parting ways with a community to which they had been strongly committed. I, from my own experience, feel a strong sense of kinship with those 19th C figures who found the dogmatic Christian belief system in which they had been nurtured too much of a prison of the mind.
Unitarian churches were, in many or most places just as orthodox as the rest, albeit they did reject a few orthodox doctrines. The old is rejected, but the new hardens all too easily into a new orthodoxy. Even without a creed, the freedom of belief that we in Unitarian and UU churches enjoy today was not always a feature of the Unitarian movement. There were, in the 19th C and later, some hard-fought controversies that led up to this point. Ultimately, it came to be accepted that once that process of challenge has started, it is impossible, in advance, to set limits to that process, to say where it might stop.
