Kiitsu—Returning-to-One

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I originally wrote this piece for Mothering Sunday back in March 2019 for the congregation of the Cambridge Unitarian Church and I offer it once again because I still think it says something useful and highly relevant to a liberal religious tradition which, at least in part, is willing to contemplate (if not always then attempt to answer) the question of how it might be able to move from a basically supernaturalist world view to a more religiously naturalistic one. But I also offer it now in the context of the murder last week here in the UK of Sarah Everard at the hands of a violent, male perpetrator. Sarah’s violent death has revealed, once again, the truly shocking truth that the great majority of women continue daily to live in fear of male violence and that this shocking and depressing fact never seems to change. My thought and hope is that one creative way forward might be by finding various ways to get our culture finally to let go of it’s obsession with, and conscious (or unconcious) comittment to, the supreme fiction of a violent, male, patriarchal, monotheistic god. The question then becomes what kind of supreme fiction might best be brought into play that could better serve all of humanity, male and female, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender alike? As will shortly become apparent, I think Venus or Aphrodite is by far the best candidate. Although I have tried my best to avoid this, I fully recognise that my offering up here of Venus as my own preferred supreme fiction may still, occasionally, display the “male gaze” at work and I must, therefore, make it clear that I’m open being challenged and corrected at any point if and when my male gaze becomes apparent to clearer, wiser eyes than my own.

Here's a link to Botticelli’s “The Birth of Venus”.

The full text of this podcast can be found in the transcript of this edition or at the following link:

https://andrewjbrown.blogspot.com/2021/03/mothering-sundaythe-mother-of-matter-is.html

Please feel to post any comments you have about this episode there.

Music, "New Heaven", written by Andrew J. Brown and played by Chris Ingham (piano), Paul Higgs (trumpet), Russ Morgan (drums) and Andrew J. Brown (double bass)

If you would like to join a conversation about this podcast then our next Wednesday Evening Zoom meeting will take place on 24th March at 19.30 GMT.  You'll find a link to this meeting in the notes to the next episode.

Thanks for listening. Just a reminder that the texts of all these podcasts are available on my blog. You'll also find there a brief biography, info about my career as a musician, & some photography. Feel free to drop by & say hello. Email: caute.brown[at]gmail.com

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Revisiting a meditation on love in the time of Coronavirus drawing on the work of the Italian philosopher, Franco 'Bifo' Berardi.

The full text of this podcast can be found in the transcript of this edition or at the following link:

https://andrewjbrown.blogspot.com/2021/03/more-speed-more-strength-more.html

Please feel to post any comments you have about this episode there.

Music, "New Heaven", written by Andrew J. Brown and played by Chris Ingham (piano), Paul Higgs (trumpet), Russ Morgan (drums) and Andrew J. Brown (double bass)

If you would like to join a conversation about this podcast then our next Wednesday Evening Zoom meeting will take place on 10th March at 19.30 GMT.  Link below.

Topic: Cambridge Unitarian Church, Evening Conversation

Time: Mar 10, 2021 19:00 London

Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/83791025180?pwd=eWptaWtnblFIaEc5WU1uREJ1N2lvQT09

Meeting ID: 837 9102 5180
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Here’s the timetable:

19.15-19.30: Arrivals/login

19.30 - 21.00: Questions to, and conversations with, Andrew James Brown moderated by Courtney Whalen Van de Weyer

21:00: Event ends

Thanks for listening. Just a reminder that the texts of all these podcasts are available on my blog. You'll also find there a brief biography, info about my career as a musician, & some photography. Feel free to drop by & say hello. Email: caute.brown[at]gmail.com

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The full text of this podcast can be found in the transcript of this edition or at the following link:

https://andrewjbrown.blogspot.com/2021/02/what-learning-to-play-jazz-can-tell-us.html

Please feel to post any comments you have about this episode there.

Music, "New Heaven", written by Andrew J. Brown and played by Chris Ingham (piano), Paul Higgs (trumpet), Russ Morgan (drums) and Andrew J. Brown (double bass)

If you would like to join a conversation about this podcast then our next Wednesday Evening Zoom meeting will take place on 10th March at 19.30 GMT. Details in the next episode/blog.

Thanks for listening. Just a reminder that the texts of all these podcasts are available on my blog. You'll also find there a brief biography, info about my career as a musician, & some photography. Feel free to drop by & say hello. Email: caute.brown[at]gmail.com

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How might one best overcome, and move beyond, many of the problematic, supernaturalistic theological ideas which still attach themselves to our culture’s inherited, underlying religious tradition, namely Christianity; ideas which, often in hidden and obscure ways, continue to influence our European and North American culture’s worst, but also very best, ways of being in the world?

The full text of this podcast can be found in the transcript of this edition or at the following link:

https://andrewjbrown.blogspot.com/2021/02/overcoming-christianity-by.html

Please feel to post any comments you have about this episode there.

Music, "New Heaven", written by Andrew J. Brown and played by Chris Ingham (piano), Paul Higgs (trumpet), Russ Morgan (drums) and Andrew J. Brown (double bass)

If you would like to join a conversation about this podcast then our next Wednesday Evening Zoom meeting will take place on 24th February at 19.30 GMT.  Link below.

Topic: Cambridge Unitarian Church, Evening Conversation

Time: Feb 24, 2021 19:30 London

Join Zoom Meeting

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82763640509?pwd=cEJXSXZlVkhqQk9HL1BCVHgrRzdydz09

Meeting ID: 827 6364 0509

Passcode: 366955

Here’s the timetable:

19.15-19.30: Arrivals/login

19.30 - 21.00: Questions to, and conversations with, Andrew James Brown moderated by Courtney Whalen Van de Weyer

21:00: Event ends

Thanks for listening. Just a reminder that the texts of all these podcasts are available on my blog. You'll also find there a brief biography, info about my career as a musician, & some photography. Feel free to drop by & say hello. Email: caute.brown[at]gmail.com

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A new-materialist meditation for Valentine’s Day.

The full text of this podcast can be found in the transcript of this edition or at the following link:

https://andrewjbrown.blogspot.com/2021/02/sapphos-time-scissored-worka-new.html

Please feel to post any comments you have about this episode there.

Music, "New Heaven", written by Andrew J. Brown and played by Chris Ingham (piano), Paul Higgs (trumpet), Russ Morgan (drums) and Andrew J. Brown (double bass)

If you would like to join a conversation about this or any other podcast then please note our next Wednesday Evening Zoom meeting will take place on 24th February at 19.30 GMT.  The link will be published on this blog and in the notes to the podcast for that week.

Thanks for listening. Just a reminder that the texts of all these podcasts are available on my blog. You'll also find there a brief biography, info about my career as a musician, & some photography. Feel free to drop by & say hello. Email: caute.brown[at]gmail.com

Send us Fan Mail

Being a few thoughts inspired by the Scottish novelist Neil M. Gunn on the kind of way those of liberal persuasion might seek to follow post COVID-19.

The full text of this podcast can be found in the transcript of this edition or at the following link:

https://andrewjbrown.blogspot.com/2021/02/by-way.html

Please feel to post any comments you have about this episode there.

Music, "New Heaven", written by Andrew J. Brown and played by Chris Ingham (piano), Paul Higgs (trumpet), Russ Morgan (drums) and Andrew J. Brown (double bass)

If you would like to join a conversation about this podcast then our next Wednesday Evening Zoom meeting will take place on 10th February at 19.30 GMT.  Link below.

Topic: Cambridge Unitarian Church, Evening Conversation
Time: Feb 10, 2021 19:15 London

Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/83760492065?pwd=S2ZyRDRPZWttblhrSTl1NUQyVTYvdz09

Meeting ID: 837 6049 2065
Passcode: 286343

Here’s the timetable.

19.15-19.30: Arrivals/login

19.30 - 21.00: Questions to, and conversations with, Andrew James Brown moderated by Courtney Whalen Van de Weyer

21:00: Event ends 

Thanks for listening. Just a reminder that the texts of all these podcasts are available on my blog. You'll also find there a brief biography, info about my career as a musician, & some photography. Feel free to drop by & say hello. Email: caute.brown[at]gmail.com

Send us Fan Mail

A talk, in part written for the Cambridge U3A PHL 04: Humanism and Religion class, on what it means to be be “skeptics with naturally religious minds” or “open-minded ‘reverent’ humanists”.

The full text of this podcast can be found in the transcript of this edition or at the following link:

https://andrewjbrown.blogspot.com/2021/01/the-case-for-ecstatic-humanismbeing.html

Please feel to post any comments you have about this episode there.

Music, "New Heaven", written by Andrew J. Brown and played by Chris Ingham (piano), Paul Higgs (trumpet), Russ Morgan (drums) and Andrew J. Brown (double bass)

If you would like to join a conversation about this or any other podcast then please note our next Wednesday Evening Zoom meeting will take place on 10th February at 19.30 GMT.  The link will be published in the notes to the podcast for that week.

Thanks for listening. Just a reminder that the texts of all these podcasts are available on my blog. You'll also find there a brief biography, info about my career as a musician, & some photography. Feel free to drop by & say hello. Email: caute.brown[at]gmail.com

Send us Fan Mail

An exploration of a few of the problems faced when trying to reiterate the important, in fact central, teaching of loving one another.

The full text of this podcast can be found in the transcript of this edition or at the following link:

https://andrewjbrown.blogspot.com/2021/01/little-children-love-one-another-or-how.html

Please feel to post any comments you have about this episode there.

Music, "New Heaven", written by Andrew J. Brown and played by Chris Ingham (piano), Paul Higgs (trumpet), Russ Morgan (drums) and Andrew J. Brown (double bass)

If you would like to join a conversation about this podcast then please note our next Wednesday Evening Zoom meeting will take place on 27th January at 19.30 GMT.  Link below.

Topic: Cambridge Unitarian Church, Evening Conversation
Time: Jan 27, 2021 19:30 Greenwich Mean Time

Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/88458495000?pwd=VUQ4UGJpdXAzOExNWjl2NE81RitJZz09

Meeting ID: 884 5849 5000
Passcode: 759630

Here’s the timetable.

19.15-19.30: Arrivals/login

19.30 - 21.00: Questions to, and conversations with, Andrew James Brown moderated by Courtney Whalen Van de Weyer

21:00: Event ends 

Thanks for listening. Just a reminder that the texts of all these podcasts are available on my blog. You'll also find there a brief biography, info about my career as a musician, & some photography. Feel free to drop by & say hello. Email: caute.brown[at]gmail.com

Send us Fan Mail

Welcome to this bonus edition of the “Making Footprints Not Blueprints podcast” which is a supplement to Episode 15. It is nothing more, nor any less, than a representative recording of the service of mindful mediation I offer the Cambridge Unitarian Church, UK, each week.

For those of you who end up listening to this recording more than once, and who no longer wish to hear my general introduction (a quite understandable state of affairs!) then please note the service proper begins at exactly 2’ 15”.

To get the most out of this recording it will help if you could print up, or have sight of, the order of service. Here is a link to a pdf version or you may read it in the transcript attached to this episode.

https://www.cambridgeunitarian.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/Evening-Service.pdf

Make sure you are seated somewhere comfortable and reasonably quiet where you will not be disturbed during the service which lasts a little over forty-five minutes.

On the order of service you will see certain passages printed in bold, italic type; you are invited to read those along with me so that the service takes on a responsorial quality rather than remaining merely a monologue. Also please feel free, along with me, to light both a candle at the beginning of the service, and one for a personal joy or concern after the mindful meditation has concluded.

Just to note that this recording contains a representative reading, in this case George Kimmich Beach’s meditation, “And quiet our anxious hearts”, and a representative piece of music and a Taizé chant, “Stay with me, remain here with me. Watch and pray, watch and pray.” Were you ever able to join the Cambridge congregation one Sunday morning you will discover that the reading, piece of music and Taizé chant changes each week. Please be in touch with me via the link below if you would like the Zoom link for that service which is held at 10am GMT every Sunday morning. You will be made most welcome.

https://www.cambridgeunitarian.org/contact/

Music, "New Heaven", written by Andrew J. Brown and played by Chris Ingham (piano), Paul Higgs (trumpet), Russ Morgan (drums) and Andrew J. Brown (double bass)

Thanks for listening. Just a reminder that the texts of all these podcasts are available on my blog. You'll also find there a brief biography, info about my career as a musician, & some photography. Feel free to drop by & say hello. Email: caute.brown[at]gmail.com

Send us Fan Mail

How Henry Bugbee’s naturalistic philosophy and some mindful meditation might help us get through the pandemic.

The service of mindful meditation found in this piece can be downloaded at this link:

https://www.cambridgeunitarian.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/Evening-Service.pdf

You can contact me by email by going to the contact page of the Cambridge Unitarian Church website:

https://www.cambridgeunitarian.org/contact/

The full text of this podcast can be found at the following link:

https://andrewjbrown.blogspot.com/2021/01/on-need-to-take-even-strokeshow-henry.html

Please feel free to post any comments you have about this episode there.

Music, "New Heaven", written by Andrew J. Brown and played by Chris Ingham (piano), Paul Higgs (trumpet), Russ Morgan (drums) and Andrew J. Brown (double bass)

The next series of online, Zoom conversations will start on Wednesday 27th January.

Thanks for listening. Just a reminder that the texts of all these podcasts are available on my blog. You'll also find there a brief biography, info about my career as a musician, & some photography. Feel free to drop by & say hello. Email: caute.brown[at]gmail.com