Video to come
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In this service, long-time members of the church share memories from the 1950s, 60s, 70s & 80s, and what keeps them coming back.
Follow this shortcut to the bottom of the page for the various readings, videos, etc. shared in the service.
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In this sermon, Ron Ahnen (Intern Minister at First Unitarian Church of Albuquerque, New Mexico (USA) reflects on the nature of Truth and how we find especially our own personal truth.
Ron Ahnen © 24 November 2024
As you all know, we just finished an election in the U.S. with so many different candidates—not just presidential ones—putting forth many competing claims about what “the truth” is. The good news is that we’ve got fact-checkers and journalists all trying to help us sort out exactly what is and is not true. You might think it’s easier to find the truth these days, given that you can Google just about anything in a nanosecond. It turns out, finding out the truth is not so easy. In fact, it’s often really, really hard.
Continue reading Listening for Your Own TruthFollow this shortcut to the bottom of the page for the various readings, videos, etc. shared in the service.
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Barbara Thomborson © 17 November 2024
Ageing and death are two timeless themes, universal to our human experience. Our culture’s near phobia about death has created unneeded anxiety and irrational fear about “passing on, passing away, kicking the bucket, giving up the ghost, breathing your last, losing your life, expiring (like a use-by date), or just plain croaking”. That’s a small sample of the euphemisms English has for dying. In her book The Coming of Age, Simone de Beauvior says, “The vast majority of humankind looks upon the coming of old age with sorrow and rebellion. It fills them with more aversion than death itself”.
Continue reading RUMInations on Ageing and DyingFollow this shortcut to the bottom of the page for the various readings, videos, etc. shared in the service.
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John Maindonald © 10 November 2024
Today, no business of any size uses paper based accounting. The move from paper based systems started in the late 1950s when large corporations started using computer mainframes, as they were called, for basic operations. In the 1980s personal computers made computer-based accounting systems widely available.
The chatbots that have attracted wide attention in the past several years are a very different technology from accounting systems. In January of last year, Ted Zorn spoke about “Finding our humanity in a technologized world”, looking in particular at the abilities of 2024 chatbots akin to ChatGPT. Chatbots per se are not all that new. The Eliza chatbot came on the scene in the mid 1960s. One could ask it “What can you say that will make me happy?”, and it would come back with a sympathetic response. ChatGPT is of course a vastly more powerful beast, using information that it gathers from the internet for answers that usually appear plausible.
Continue reading The Age of the Machine —Follow this shortcut to the bottom of the page for the various readings, videos, etc. shared in the service.
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Rachel Mackintosh © 3 November 2024
Barbara Kingsolver, in her novel Demon Copperhead, has Demon say this:
“… she looked at me in the eyes, and we were sad together for a while. I’ll never forget how that felt. Like not being hungry.”
Like not being hungry.
She looked at me in the eyes, and we were sad together for a while.
I’ll never forget how that felt.
Like not being hungry.
Have you ever been seen like that by another person? Have you ever shared such a deep understanding, be it of sadness or of some other emotion? Do you know that feeling, of not being hungry?
Will you ever forget how that felt?
I will never forget how that felt.
Continue reading A year and a dayWhile we’re keeping ‘mostly’ up to date with publishing recorded services, these ones from 2024 have gone on the back burner. We hope to retrieve them at some unknown date in the future.
“Music Sunday”, Rachel Mackintosh, 27th October
“Certification of the organ”, Rachel Mackintosh, 20th October
“The importance of ritual”, Barbara Thomborson, 13 October
“Jain wisdom in a pluralistic world”, Claire Butler, 6 October
“A language of reverence”, Ted Zorn, 29 September
“Flower Communion”, Karn Cleary, 22 September
Follow this shortcut to the bottom of the page for the various readings, videos, etc. shared in the service.
From Viv Allen:-
About a year ago an email dropped into my inbox from my cousin Hamish who I only catch up with at family funerals. Attached to that email was a 93 page thesis on my great, great Aunt, Annie Jane Schnakenberg nee Allen, who I knew little about except that she’d fought for women’s suffrage in NZ and was a fluent speaker of Maori, so I was very excited to find out that Randolph Hollingsworth had done a huge amount of research into Annie Jane’s life and written a thesis about her. I quickly got in touch with Randolph to find out more and was delighted to meet her as she now lives in Auckland. Randolph is now an independent scholar, who enjoys researching women’s history which is how she came to write about Annie Jane. Often in NZ we only hear about the main characters in history such as Kate Sheppard but there were many more women who helped fight for women’s rights. Now I’m going to let Randolph tell you more about this fascinating women, Annie Jane.
Randolph Hollingsworth © 15 September 2024
We’ve no text of the talk this week but Randolph has provided extensive notes by way of a draft PDF of the content of this talk.
Opening Words:- “Equality” by Maya Angelou
Chalice Lighting:- is by Albert Schweitzer
Closing Words:- “Phenomenal Woman” by Maya Angelou
Death Café is an event where people discuss their understanding, thoughts, and feelings about death. Barbara Thomborson will facilitate the service to enable small group discussion of questions inspired by Death Café. They include practical considerations, experiences of death, grief and loss, and cultural aspects of death.
This service follows on from last month’s End-of-Life Choice service with a brief talk on cultural aspects of death.
Here are the Questions used in the small discussion groups:-
I’m reading a talk written by Erika Hewitt entitled; The Answer I Wish I’d Given (winner of the 2009 Stewardship Sermon Award). Erika wrote a personal, heartwarming story about ‘giving’ which for her is both a statement and an expression of her faith. This story is very relevant to the old 19th century concept of ‘deserving poor’ where government employees make value judgements about who can receive help and who should be punished by withholding this help. This is very topical as now our government has announced plans for social welfare reform in NZ.
Chalice Lighting:- “In the Mystery of Life About Us There is Light” by George Kimmich Beach
Reading / Meditation:- words from Kahil Gilbran
Main talk:- “The Answer I Wish I’d Given” by Erika Hewitt
Extinguishing the Chalice:- “Daring Vision” by Maureen Killoran
Closing Words:- “Thank you for the stories” by Lizzie Kingston Harrison
Read below, or download the PDF
Alix Geard © 18 August 2024
Why do we light a chalice in our services? It’s a strange concept, when you think about it. If it’s a cup, then ceremonial cups are usually for water or wine, not flame. How did it get started?
Today I’m splitting my musing into 2 parts. One, now, is about what we know of the history of the flaming chalice. Later, I’ll talk through an interpretation of the lit chalice, using some of the imagery associated with it. I invite you to explore with me and find what resonates for you. This is a little long, so settle in.
Continue reading The chalice flame