Auckland Unitarians

with David Hines.

David Hines and panelists © 11th December 2022

A panel of leading religious and non-religious leaders discuss the government’s new religion in schools programme.

The panel:-

Paul Morris, Emeritus Professor, School of Social and Cultural Studies, Victoria University of Wellington / Te Herenga Waka.

Secular Education Network chair Penny Ehrhardt, and New Zealand Association of Rationalists and Humanists vice-president Sara Passmore, have already spoken in our church, but that was before we had the full text of the government’s plans. They’ll be on Zoom.

Anjum Rahman, Founder and Project Co-Lead of Inclusive Aotearoa Collective Tāhono, who must be the best known Muslim leader in the country, due to her frequent interviews on TV. She has also advocated for religious studies and the end of Christian religious instruction (Bible in Schools).

David Zwartz former president New Zealand Jewish Council will be speaking for most Jewish people.

Also this statement was read to the meeting from Robert Hunt, chair, NZ Buddhist Council, on behalf of the Executive Committee.

Recorded by Auckland Unitarian Church 11th December 2022

With Ted Zorn.

Recorded at Auckland Unitarian Church 8th January 2023

Today, I want to talk about finding our humanity in a technologized world and the dangers of relying too heavily on technology to do tasks that we expect to be done by humans. Specifically, I want to delve into the questions raised by the fact that a machine like ChatGPT can write a speech, a personal letter, or your child’s essay assignment.

For those who may not be familiar, ChatGPT is a large language model developed by OpenAI. It has been trained on a vast amount of data and is able to generate human-like text on a variety of topics. It is a relatively new technology and its capabilities are still being explored and refined.

For more information see

With Alix Geard, Ted Zorn.

Recorded at Auckland Unitarian Church 1st January 2023

On this first day of the year, I want to talk about meaning. Specifically, I want to talk about how we take our small blue planet’s gravitationally-bound sweep around its star and turn one point on that circuit into a time for parties and new year’s resolutions and setting up a calendar for the year to come. About how different people – and peoples – do that differently, and how we navigate getting along together.

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With Rev. Clay Nelson

Recorded at Auckland Unitarian Church 18th December 2022

I don’t consider it Christmas until I have watched It’s a Wonderful Life. I ticked that off last Sunday. So, for me, it’s now Christmas.

I don’t know when it became one of my treasured Christmas traditions, but I can’t remember when it wasn’t. When my kids were teenagers, there was lots of eye-rolling when I insisted that watching it was a family event. Something about it appealed to my Unitarian heart, and I wanted to inoculate theirs. They would ask me when I would find a new tradition. My answer was, “When I stop tearing up at the end.”

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With Rev. Clay Nelson

Recorded at Auckland Unitarian Church 4th December 2022

Shakespeare had it wrong. When Juliet tells Romeo, “A rose by any other name would smell as sweet,” she is arguing that it does not matter that Romeo is from her family’s rival house Montague. The reference states that the names of things do not affect what they really are. I disagree. Nothing could be further from the truth.

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Worship Leader:- Rev. Sally Mabelle

Recorded at Auckland Unitarian Church 27th November 2022

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With Distinguished Professor Emeritus Paul Spoonley

Worship Leader: Ted Zorn

Recorded at Auckland Unitarian Church 20th November 2022

Kia ora tatou katoa. Nga mihi na mihi nui. Nga mihi kia koe, Ted. Thanks for the introduction, and te whare e tu nei. Tena koe. I acknowledged the house in which we are standing, sitting. Ted has kindly mentioned the book, Histories of Hate. And so I’ve got a long, have had a long connection in studying the far right. And so earlier this year, as Ted has indicated, the Prime Minister and Cabinet appointed me as a co-director of He Whenua Taurikura. He Whenua, land, Taurikura, peace, so land of peace. And what we’re tasked with doing is bringing together the best research and knowledge that we can to avoid ever having to encounter an event like the March 2019 again. So we’re just getting underway. We had a hui here in Auckland two weeks ago, in which we brought together communities, government departments and experts and we looked at the research that is available, but also the gaps that exist. Coincidentally, this book was written. Histories of Hate, was written before this appointment. But Paul Morris, who some of you might know who’s involved with religious diversity initiatives in New Zealand and is a member of the Jewish community, and I wrote the chapter on what’s happening in countries like New Zealand at the moment. And so I just want to share some thoughts there of what we’re seeing.

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With Lyn Farhi

Worship Leader: David Hines

Recorded at Auckland Unitarian Church 13th November 2022

Morena Everyone. I am Lynn Farhi. It is great to be here this morning. As some of you know I have a love of art and creativity in all its forms. Today for brevity’s sake I will just speak about Art and its therapeutic uses. I have used Art therapeutically for the last 14 years in hospice volunteer work and in school chaplaincy. And I thought in light of the Unitarian principle to search for truth and meaning, it may add a tool to some of your toolkits.

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More art therapy exercises can be found at https://aucklandunitarian.org.nz/podcast/20221113_LynFarhi_ArtTherapyExercises.pdf

Worship Leader: David Hines

Recorded at Auckland Unitarian Church 6th November 2022

The image of an ambulance at the bottom of the cliff is a common one in politics. Left-wing and right wing politicians both use it for different policies.

Left wing politicians use it to say: let’s not be tough on criminals, let’s spend money on fixing the social background that made them that way.

Right wing politicians use it to say: let’s not throw money at unemployed people; let’s spend it on getting people back into their jobs. The national party raised this in a speech last week.

I think, there is a place for both. Sometimes we need to look to the long term, and we call it a fence at the top of the cliff.

Sometimes we need compassion now and we want an ambulance at the bottom of the cliff.

For more information see

https://aucklandunitarian.org.nz/global-warming-an-ambulance-at-the-bottom-of-the-cliff/

Worship Leader: John DiLeo

Recorded at Auckland Unitarian Church 30th October 2022

When I signed up to lead today’s service, I figured it would be easy to come up with things to say. I mean, after all, there’s no shortage of writings and opinions around the Church’s appropriation and subjugation of non-Christian customs and occasions.

I also figured it would be really easy to find information on what Unitarians think about Halloween and other ‘appropriated’ holidays.

For more information see

https://aucklandunitarian.org.nz/whose-holiday-is-it-anyway/