Things That Make You Go Hmmm-4

An address by the Rev. Rob MacPherson - recorded on Sunday,4th August, 2019 in the Unitarian Meeting House in Adelaide.
In today's service, Rob dispensed with pews and arranged us in 'round-table discussion groups of half-a-dozen, with tea or coffee to loosen our tongues/inhibitions. The service begins with a reading of Louis MacNeice's poem, "Prayer Before Birth". Rob invites each group to undertake a little thought experiment. Imagine that each of us - like the yet to be born foetus of the MacNeice poem - is in a conscious, intelligent state before birth - but knowing nothing about race, sex, gender, social class, health system, abilities or disabilities, the wealth of the family we will be born into, our religion, our personal preferences. What sort of society would we like our infant selves to be born into? If we had to decide the principles that underpin that society - what would they be?
Rob ends his introduction with an aphorism - perhaps "caveat" - to guide group discussion - "Pride wants to know who is right; humility wants to know what is right". Each group reported back one idea about the ideal world for the young to be born into.

Rob then draws the threads together with some concluding remarks relating to our Unitarian principles and leaves us with a challenge to take us out of our Sunday morning comfort zone.