Expanding Horizons

Mortality and Immortality

This service was conducted by our Minister, The Rev. Rob MacPherson on 3rd November, 2019 at the Unitarian Church at Shady Grove, set amidst the beautiful Adelaide Hills and stringybark woodland which surrounds the old church and graveyard. Recent rain has temporarily revived and transformed it for us to enjoy before the expected onset of a fierce and potentially fiery summer.

Rob's address today is about Mortality and Immortality. He contrasts traditional - and contemporary - notions of judgement, mortality and immortality with a braver perspective inspired by Philip Larkin's poem, "Aubade" - "Death is no different whined at than withstood". We are confused about Death. The material perspective is that we want to achieve our mortality - without dying, hoping that we will somehow go on - forever in one form or another.
While we are almost as ephemeral as the May-fly, Rob reminds us of a power that works through human hands but is not made by human hands - an enduring spiritual nexus between love and death.

Listen on!

Confession, Purity and the Soul

This sermon, titled "Confession, Purity and the Soul" was given by our Minister, Rev. Rob MacPherson on Sunday, 27th October, 2019 in the Unitarian Meeting House in Adelaide.

As a former young Catholic, Rob reminisces about the nature and purposes of the Sacrament of Confession within the Roman Catholic Church. Such old habits "die hard". Before his confession, Rob would be expected to catalogue all his transgressions. And after conferring regularly and privately with a priest within the 'privacy' of a confessional, these sins would then be ritually absolved - or washed away - so that Rob would be purified - cleansed of his sins - before the Mass. Rob then explains why Confession was such an imperative for Catholics and observes the institutional power that is drawn from it. He then compares the variations to be found on the Sacrament of Confession in Catholicism and other churches with our Unitarian Universalist perspective on wrong-doing and forgiveness. Listen on!

Angst, Hope and Climate Change

A recording by Jennie Dyster - of an address she gave on Sunday, 13th October, 2019 in the Unitarian Meeting House in Adelaide. In this address, "Angst, Hope and Climate Change", Jennie defines angst as an emotion that combines the unbearable anguish of life with the hope of overcoming a seemingly impossible situation. Without hope, she observes, angst becomes just plain old anxiety and leaves us with hopelessness and inaction. In order to arrest global warming, Jennie shows how it will be necessary to generate hope and purposeful action within communities through creativity and imagination informed and guided by science.

How Work Shapes Your Spirit

An address by our Minister, Rev. Rob MacPherson - recorded on Sunday,20th October, 2019 in the Unitarian Meeting House in Adelaide. In today's address, Rob explores how work and the spiritual life have interacted historically; how human expectations about our working lives have changed in a post religious age - especially the relatively new freedom to choose the nature of our work, understanding work as spiritual practice and the even newer expectation that work is expected to be fulfilling - able to shape a person's soul and the need for patience and diligence - all the things that are good for the human soul. Rob asks: "How do you think your chosen work has shaped you? How might your work have helped or hindered your spiritual growth?" And as we begin our search for a new Minister, Rob also asks us to reflect on Ministry work, and to consider how it has shaped - or might shape - our spiritual life as a community. We need to think carefully, critically, wisely and informedly about the nature of Ministry-work - as Work - and how WE might all work together with a new Minister to Grow as a Spiritual Community.

"The Gift of Weeping"

Today's service was led by Rev. Nicholas Rundle, The Uniting Church Chaplain at the Royal Adelaide Hospital - recorded on Sunday, 6th October, 2019 in the Unitarian Meeting House in Adelaide. Nicholas's sermon was called "The Gift of Tears" which began with a reading - by Barbara Willow - of a poem: "An absolutely Ordinary Rainbow" from Les Murray's Anthology of poems - "The Weatherboard Cathedral" and a quote from Fr. Matta El Meskeen, a Coptic Orthodox Monk who led the revival of the Coptic Church in Egypt - "It is hard to speak of tears. Are not tears a sign of the limitation of speech, when in bewilderment, the tongue fails, the heart speaks and the eyes utter tears?". Nicholas contemplates the strength in expressing grief through weeping - in contrast to societal attitudes that so often see it as a weakness.

Things You Can't Unsay

An address by our Minister, Rev. Rob MacPherson - recorded on Sunday,29th September, 2019 in the Unitarian Meeting House in Adelaide. Rob's address today is all about gossip - its functions as well as its dangers and some useful strategies for dealing with it.

Whatever Happened to Goldilocks?

Today's address is about Church Membership and our need - as a church - to address the rapidly growing cohort of listeners who regularly subscribe to our weekly audio podcasts and regular Channel 44 telecasts of our services via Facebook. Our Facebook page has more than seven times as many regular subscribers than church attenders. Most churches haven't worked out how to respond to the cultural shifts enabled by telecommunication technology.

If so many have not formally joined this church as a members, Rob asks - Why have a formal membership structure at all? Why not just continue to be a permanent guest in this house - rather than one of the hosts? What advantages are there in belonging? - in becoming members? How may we become better versions of ourselves by making such commitment (to church membership)? Rob goes on to explain by using the analogy of the "world's worst house-guest" - Goldilocks. What we gain by committing to a collective such as ours is important; what we stand to lose is also important. Rob explains.... Listen on!

Schadenfreude

An address by Jennie Dyster - recorded on Sunday,15th September, 2019 in the Unitarian Meeting House in Adelaide. Jennie's sermon today was - in the absence of a succinct word for it in English - all about what the Germans call schadenfreude (schaden - "harm" ; freude - "joy") - that often fleeting, opportunistic mix of elation, pleasure, joy or self-satisfaction we may feel at another's misfortune, failure, or humiliation.

Life on Moore Street

This service was recorded on Sunday, 8th September, 2019 in the Unitarian Meeting House in Adelaide and conducted by the Rev. Rob MacPherson - with guest speaker, Brother Martyn Paxton, of Saint Francis Xavier Cathedral, Adelaide - and the Moore Street Mission. Our church supports The Moore Street Mission via our a weekly food basket. Brother Martyn spoke on homelessness. He described how a capitalist-centred political ethos has led to increasing disparity in wealth between the rich and the poor and the privatisation of public housing. This has led to sharp increases in the cost of rental accommodation and the demise of public housing - traditionally provided by the States, resulting in the current crisis of homelessness amongst the poor.
It is common practice for many Australians to blame the poor for their homelessness. Brother Martyn dispels some commonly held myths about why people become homeless and argues that the real barrier to providing safe accommodation for all is the abrogation of responsibility by successive State and Federal governments for the current and growing crisis caused by the shortage of affordable accommodation.

The Goodfather

An address by the Rev. Rob MacPherson - recorded on Sunday,1st September, 2019 in the Unitarian Meeting House in Adelaide. Being Fathers Day, Rob's sermon was all about raising to worth the role of Fatherhood. Nothing prepares fathers for the role of fatherhood - other than just doing it. It's knowledge acquired "on the run"! As high-stakes improvisers, fathers are bound to get some things right and some things wrong and this relationship is crucial to our development - as children - into adulthood. Love is the key element. A mature, differentiated relationship is also a reciprocal one. Differentiating from one's own father as we mature also requires us to decide what to keep of him and what to leave behind. So there's a bit of sorting out to do!