Expanding Horizons

"Living Our Authentic Selves - Being True to Who We Are"

Today's theme is "Living Our Authentic Selves - Being True to Who We Are".
Bo asks some hard questions. How would you feel if you discovered that the person that everyone else was seeing was not who you really are? Do we choose to conform to the labels the world superficially ascribes to us? Or do we choose to reach beyond these superficial labels to our authentic selves and thereby grow together in love and with this fuller understanding?

The Wailing Wall

In the context of the Prayer Vigil recently held in St Francis Xavier Cathedral following the massacre in Christchurch, Rob compares the Unitarian practice of prayer with the other faith traditions. He likened the prayers of the church leaders to an antipodian, multi-faith "wailing wall" where the Jewish faithful weep, pray, beseech, bargain with and even berate the Abrahamic, 'omnipotent' God. Despite the "hard theological wall" which divides us, the prayer vigil has nevertheless drawn all the diverse faith traditions together. Rob uses the Vigil and shares his gut reactions to feeling excluded and overlooked to explore the purpose of prayer. For Unitarians - prayer focusses on the how we might reflect on our experiences, what they reveal about our shortcomings and how we might reflect, change and Grow in Grace.

Suffer the Little Children

An address by the Minister, Rev. Rob MacPherson - recorded on Sunday, 31st March, 2019 at The Unitarian Meeting House in Adelaide. Rob explores the phenomenon of recent student-led protests which were supported by many parents and grandparents and criticised by others. These protests were in response to the failure of our leaders to implement effective policies and legislation needed to arrest global warming and secure for our children and grandchildren a liveable and sustainable future within the very short time frame left in which to act.

The Church Beyond Friendship

An address by the Minister, Rev. Rob MacPherson - recorded on Sunday, 24th March, 2019 at The Unitarian Meeting House in Adelaide. Rob asks why people join, attend or affiliate themselves with an intentional community like a church. An intentional community is no longer something given to you e.g. by being born into it - but something its members are seeking - a connectedness to others which is transcends friendship, family and workplace. You have to want it and work to maintain it. Rob explores the benefits but also the dangers, pitfalls and challenges of belonging to a church community. If we are to build a spiritually enriching, supportive and vibrant Church community we need to build and maintain bonds of connectedness that transcend friendship into something like comradeship - the essence of which is - God! The service concludes with a communal musical offering in which "tribal" musical instruments are distributed by Neil and we all celebrate our belonging - our comradeship and our connectedness in a memorable musical finale to wonderful morning of worship.

"Unboxing" day

An address by Aaron Poeze, a member of our congregation - recorded on Sunday, 17th March, 2019 at The Unitarian Meeting House in Adelaide, two days after the massacres at the Al Noor and Linwood mosques, Christchurch. Aaron looks at the dangers of simplistically stereotyping and prejudging others - the beginnings of xenophobia - where differences are seen as deficits. Aaron invites us to reflect on the lables or stereotypes - the "boxes" - we may have been placed in and thereby confined by others. He also invites us to reflect those we may also have placed in boxes and invites us to free them from the boxes in which they have been confined.

What We Raise to Worth

An address by the Minister, Rev. Rob MacPherson - recorded on Sunday, 10th March, 2019 at The Unitarian Meeting House in Adelaide. Rob's address explores the true meaning of Worship - or "Worth-ship" - "raising to worth things that matter" - choices in our lives that raise us up rather than enslave us.

Advice to Your Younger Self

An address by the Minister, Rev. Rob MacPherson - recorded on Sunday, 3rd March, 2019 at Shady Grove Church in the Adelaide Hills. In this address, Rob reflects - with hindsight - on what advice he would have given his younger self and invites us to do the same.

Our musician and church member, Alex provided a wonderful selection of guitar music which was ideally suited to the acoustic of our beautiful little chapel at Shady Grove set amongst native bushland. A memorable service.

Think of a Number

An address by the Minister, Rev. Rob MacPherson - recorded on Sunday, 24th February, 2019 in the Unitarian Meeting House in Adelaide. In this address, Rob uses probability mathematics as a means of understanding why our First principle - "The inherent worth and dignity of every person" - IS our First principle.

The Power of the Myth

An address by John Eaton - a member of the Church, recorded on Sunday, 17th February, 2019 in the Unitarian Meeting House in Adelaide. John draws on the book "Sapiens" by Jewish historian, Dr Yuval Noah Harari to show how homo sapiens has expanded from the village "gossip group" of 150 people to cities, nations and civilisations of many millions. This has only been made possible through mythologies about which there is common agreement. John looks at the mythologies of religion, the divine right of kings, economic systems - including money - even the mythology of science. He suggests that the anthropocene - the era of the human plague and human-induced global warming exacerbated by the excesses of capitalism and its bedfellow, conspicuous consumption has created an angry planet. If sapiens is to be saved from extinction, we will all urgently need to reject the myth of capitalism, remove national and global inequality, thereby reducing our population and relace it with new and powerful myths that repair and conserve the web of life that sustains us. He suggests some simple, practical ways in which we can all begin to repair the planet.

Can Objects be Sacred?

An address by the Minister, Rev. Rob MacPherson - recorded on Sunday, 10th February, 2019 in the Unitarian Meeting House in Adelaide. Rob talks about the excess of "stuff" in our lives. Post-war consumerism and mass-produced goods have been changing our culture since the Industrial Revolution. But the rise of supercharged industrial manufacturing and the use of the modern mass media by the Advertising Industry since World War 2 have greatly increased demand and affordability, prompting people to want even more. Shopping has become a leisure activity if not the dominant cultural activity. Globalisation has seen manufacturing shift to India and China where "stuff" could be made even more cheaply.
However, a reaction away from mass-produced "stuff" has seen the resurrection of "crafted" (hand-made) goods - with something bordering on the spiritual. The previous week's blessing of the school bags left Rob wondering about our relationship with objects, how they might be blessed and how we might bless them - even common everyday things. Can the objects we use in our lives become truly sacred? How may we become more aware of the spiritual dimension of objects?