Expanding Horizons

Annual In-gathering and Blessing of the School bags

Our Annual In-gathering Service conducted by our Minister, Rev Rob MacPherson on Sunday, 27th January, 2019 in the Unitarian Meeting House in Adelaide. It involved an in-gathering of our Children and Church members to bless (the schoolbags of) the children prior to the commencement of the first school term. This was followed by our Water Communion and an address by Rob.

"Born Bad!" - On The doctrine of Original Sin

An address by the Jenny Dyster - recorded on Sunday, 20th January, 2019 in the Unitarian Meeting House in Adelaide.
Drawing closely upon James Boyce's book, “Born Bad: Original Sin and the Making of the Western World” (Publ. Counterpoint, 23 Jul 2014), Jenny contrasts the Unitarian belief in Universal Salvation with the development of the doctrine of Original Sin within mainstream Western European churches - especially Catholic, Calvinist and other protestant traditions - its political impact on western civilisation and how “human beings were born sinners, subject to the just wrath of God. Ultimately this doctrine was used to gain institutional power and influence over the lives of "the faithful". It also shaped "the Work Ethic" - and Western Civilisation itself. Jenny also explores how "Original Sin has since morphed into the “selfish gene” - or "meme" of Richard Dawkins - evolutionary biologist, ethologist, and atheist.

The Big Question

An address by the Rev. David Usher - recorded on Sunday, 13th January, 2019 in the Unitarian Meeting House in Adelaide.

In this address, David explores the really Big Question - "Does God exist?"
David believes that "God" - as a physical presence in a material universe - doesn't exist, but asserts that this doesn't make him an atheist.
David resolves this apparent 'dissonance' by drawing an analogy with a doubting child's question to a parent "Do you believe in Santa Claus?" and uses a wise parent's answer to explain his understanding of God.
The Reality and Presence of God is expressed through such dimensions of spirituality as Wonder, Awe, Mystery, Love, Kindness, Generosity - and Belief - all the things that we can't see or touch or reduce to a precise formula - but which are manifestations of the loving presence of God in our lives and which we lose to our spiritual peril.

Kindness

An address by a member of our Church, Charlie Madden - recorded on Sunday, 6th January, 2019 in the Unitarian Meeting House in Adelaide. In his address, Charlie explores kindness anecdotally - reminiscing over his first experiences of kindness as a new arrival to Australia from the UK. He also explores kindness - to each other and to our planet.

"And How are the Children?"

Reflecting on his own childhood, Alex ponders how the traditional Masai greeting - "And how are the Children?" might affect our consciousness of our children's welfare and how it might engender a feeling of social well-being - were we to adopt it as our greeting.

A Blue Christmas

An address by the Minister, Rev. Rob MacPherson - recorded on Sunday, 22nd December, 2018 in the Unitarian Meeting House in Adelaide. In this address - "A Blue Christmas", Rob reflects on the many people who are depressed this Christmas - such as the lonely who may feel rejected, unloved, those who are isolated from family and friends or whose hopes have fallen short of their expectations. Rob reflects on the myriad of ways in which they - or for that matter - we - have touched the lives of so many others - just by our being "Us".

There's Something About Mary

An address by the Minister, Rev. Rob MacPherson - recorded on Sunday, 9th December, 2018 in the Unitarian Meeting House in Adelaide. In this address - "There's something about Mary", Rob ponders the benefits for human advancement of an emerging world order where women leaders take their rightful place in an equitable partnership with men. In searching for the real Nativity, Rob delves back into the historical, political and cultural realities of Roman-occupied Judea - over two millennia ago and finds a very different - but much more likely - scenario for the Christmas Story than the mythologised, self-serving, sanitised, male-generated, New Testament account of the birth of Jesus.

Confessions of a Christian "Atheist"

John - as a Unitarian - observes the widening credibility gap between fundamentalist, dogmatic certainty about God and scientific understandings and explanations premised on Heisenberg uncertainty. He identifies the contribution of Christianity to Western Civilisation as part of our rich Christian heritage - teachings that have shaped human conduct and ethics, magnificent cathedrals, iconography (through art - in all its forms) and religious music that have shaped Western Civilisation, governance and culture. It has also been our Unitarian heritage.

But was this what Jesus had in mind? Jesus would have preferred his "cathedrals" to be in human hearts and minds rather than in powerful institutions. He suggests that the growing cognitive dissonance between Faith and Science is causing Christians to reconsider Church dogma regarding perceptions of God, formed over the past two millennia that have now dated. He rejects the traditional notion of an omnipotent, omnipresent and omniscient God and outlines instead his personal construct, informed by science - of what "God" and "Divinity" mean to him.

Our AGM and Why You Should Care

An address called "Our AGM and Why You Should Care", by the Minister, Rev. Rob MacPherson - recorded on Sunday, 18th November, 2018 in the Unitarian Meeting House in Adelaide. In setting the theme for our AGM, today - Rob encourages us to draw on the power of our memory and knowledge of our history, and with hope for our future - to shape our shared destiny with our hearts and minds open to the wisdom in every voice amongst us - to dream and design a bold future for our church.
Rob uses cartoons and examples of effective leadership and innovation to contrast the differences between sinking churches and thriving churches. Little actions by our members can mean the difference between sinking or continuing this journey together.
In the words of John Wolf, Emeritus Minister of a UU church in Tulsa, "There is only one reason for joining a Unitarian Universalist church: - to support it!”

Armistice Centenary Service

An address by the Minister, Rev. Rob MacPherson - recorded on Sunday, 11th November, 2018 in the Unitarian Meeting House in Adelaide to mark the Centenary of the signing of the Armistice at the end of WW1. In this address, Rob describes the rapidly changing face of war in the 20th century, WW1 being the first war that utilised mass production techniques to create armaments of unprecedented killing power. The so-called "war to end all wars" - was followed - in less than a generation - by WW2 and by an almost continuous succession of other wars ever since. This 21st Century has seen war continue uninterrupted, with weapons of even greater destructive power.
We can condemn war and the economic and political systems that create it. We can mourn and honour those human souls who enlisted for a multitude of reasons. We cannot escape history but we do not have to keep repeating it. We can decide what this costly legacy means to each of us: 100 years of almost constant war and the moral choices we must make.
The participants in this service then leave the Meeting House to walk to a nearby relic of WW1 - to be confronted by the brutality of a heavy weapon - a field gun - to place flowers, leave messages and to sing responses to "We Shall Overcome".
We then return to the Meeting House to conclude this service of remembrance.

On our return, Rob challenges us to make a "binary choice". In a globally interdependent world we are either complicit in the atrocity of ongoing militarism and war or we resist it.