with Rev. Clay Nelson.

Recorded at Auckland Unitarian Church 20th February 2022

Like the vast majority of Kiwis I have been unimpressed by the behaviour of the anti-maskers, anti-vaccinators, anti-mandators, Trump wannabes, neo-Nazis, Jacinda haters, and miscellaneous malcontents creating chaos in Wellington for nearly two weeks. Protesting is a justifiable activity in a democracy. Sometimes that protesting leads to civil disobedience, which is an essential force for bending the arc of justice. The question I have been mulling over is: can what is happening in Wellington be considered civil disobedience or uncivil disruption of the peace?

For more information, including links to items referred to in the talk, see:-

https://aucklandunitarian.org.nz/uncivil-civil-disobedience/

with Rev. Clay Nelson.

Recorded at Auckland Unitarian Church 13th February 2022

The future has a history. My guess is that humans have always been obsessed with predicting the future. It doesn’t matter if they were using tea leaves, animal entrails, numerology, bumps on the head, palmistry, tarot cards, or dreams interpreted by oracles, shamans, prophets, priests or spiritualists, they craved to know what was going to happen next.

For more information see:-

https://aucklandunitarian.org.nz/predicting-the-future-yeah-right/

with Rev. Clay Nelson.

Recorded by Auckland Unitarian Church 6th February 2022

I find water to be not only a miraculous source of life, but also a rich metaphor for who we are.

I recently bought a new scale because the mirror says my health would benefit by losing a few kilograms. OK, maybe more than a few. The scale I bought is high-tech. You know me. What other kind would I buy. It reminds me of cell phones. Remember when a phone’s sole purpose was to call someone. How 2005. Well, my new scale does tell me my weight, but it also tells me my BMI, muscle and bone mass, and what percentage of my body weight is water. For those who are curious, it was 48.6% this morning. Wow! I had no idea. It also tells me a few other things like what the weather will be and records it all on my phone. No, I can’t call anyone with it.

What I have been musing about this week is how water is within, between and beyond us, much like the sacred.

For more information see:-

https://aucklandunitarian.org.nz/water-within-between-and-beyond-us/

With John DiLeo.

Recorded by Auckland Unitarian Church 30th January 2022.

John DiLeo © 30 January 2022.

For much of my life, my conscious perspective on ‘freedom’ was always in terms of “freedom to.” As a child enjoying nearly every privilege one could – an able-bodied White, Christian, cis, hetero male of European descent, born to a reasonably stable two-parent household, and living in a quiet, small, lily-white town in rural Connecticut – “freedom from” wasn’t something I ever thought about.

For more information see:-

https://aucklandunitarian.org.nz/freedom-from-what-exactly/

With Rev. Sally Mabelle, Nina Khouri.

Recorded by Auckland Unitarian Church 23rd January 2022.

Sally Mabelle © 23 January 2022.

When I was preparing today, I googled ‘Unitarian Mysticism’ and to my surprise and delight, up came an inspiring 10-week Adult Religious Education course on the Unitarian Universalist Association website (uua.org) called ‘Spirit in Practice’ by Rev. Erik Wikstrom Walker. This morning, I’ll be weaving together some of the stories he tells on that course with readings and quotes from other inspiring authors.

For more information see:-

https://aucklandunitarian.org.nz/unitarian-mysticism-as-activism/

Birdsong from New Zealand Department of Conservation (DOC)

With David Hines.

Recorded by Auckland Unitarian Church 16th January 2022.

David Hines © 16 January 2022.

My sermon today says Let’s stop making apologies for God. She’s a total nuisance.

In the Christian circles I grew up in, people were constantly saying how good God was.

They blindly ignored all the grief and harm in the world, and if anybody drew attention to it, they’d come up with excuses. Like: God sent this to test you.

If you pointed out that God also did nothing whatever to help you through these troubles. You prayed for help and nothing happened, they’d say: God always answers your prayers: Sometimes the answer is Yes. Sometimes it’s no, and sometimes it’s wait.

I was not very old before I realised this too was crap, because that means absolutely any thing can be called God, and in practice that’s the same as there being no God at all.

So I’d like to talk about the claims religious people make for God, and the major excuses they make when she doesn’t deliver.

For more information see:-

https://aucklandunitarian.org.nz/lets-stop-apologising-for-god/

with Rehanna Ali, David Hines.

Recorded by Auckland Unitarian Church 9th January 2022.

Rehanna Ali is head of the Federation of Islamic Associations of NZ‘s Islamic Awareness programme and joint convenor of their Education Sector Development; and was a founder of the Islamic Women’s Council of New Zealand (IWCNZ).

For more information, including video containing the slides used in this talk see:-

https://aucklandunitarian.org.nz/what-kind-of-religion-in-school-muslims-are-hoping-for/

with Rehanna Ali, David Hines, Betsy Marshall.

Recorded by Auckland Unitarian Church 9th January 2022.

Rehanna Ali is head of the Federation of Islamic Associations of NZ‘s Islamic Awareness programme and joint convenor of their Education Sector Development; and was a founder of the Islamic Women’s Council of New Zealand (IWCNZ).

For more information, including video containing the slides used in this talk see:-

https://aucklandunitarian.org.nz/what-kind-of-religion-in-school-muslims-are-hoping-for/

with Rev. Clay Nelson.

Recorded by Auckland Unitarian Church 19th December 2021

I need to begin this musing with a warning to those who might be triggered by words like Jesus or Christianity. On the Sunday before Christmas, I give myself permission to express some of my thoughts and ideas about progressive Christianity, which are the foundation of my faith. My justification is that both of the denominations that make up Unitarian Universalism were progressive Christians before we had a term for it. While Unitarian Universalism no longer identifies only with Christianity, many of our members are progressive Christians or Christians without God as I like to call them. For those who are repelled by Christianity either because they have experienced toxic Christianity or count themselves amongst rationalists and humanists or follow another faith tradition they bring to the mix, I hope learning about the scholarship that has revealed a very different Christianity from what we normally see around us will be both enlightening and beneficial.

For more information, including a link to the music that inspired 'A progressive Jesus person' see:-

https://aucklandunitarian.org.nz/seeing-is-not-believing-believing-is-seeing/

with Rev. Clay Nelson.

Recorded by Auckland Unitarian Church 12th December 2021

... her observations caused me to muse on anger and how much of it is fuelled by privilege. We all get angry. If we don’t think so we should schedule some time with a therapist. Everyone has felt antagonism towards someone or something we feel has deliberately done us wrong.

For more information see https://aucklandunitarian.org.nz/privilege-fuelled-anger/