Expanding Horizons

"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.

Initiation to a Living Planet: Bush Bathing

The setting for Rob's service is the bushland of Shady Grove Church, a time capsule from a pre-technological age. On this warm, early November Sunday, the bush is alive with all the wild flowers of late Spring. Gently holding the elements of our human culture - the old Church and Hostel - is our bushland ecosystem - a wild, living "organism" with a history of its own. Rob uses it as a setting for spiritual growth - through the practice of "Bush bathing" - drawing on all our senses and experienced alone and in silence. Afterwards, Rob explains the symbolism and divinity of the "Tree of Life" and we light candles to share our "bush-bathing" joys and concerns.

Holy Artefacts - Truth

An address by Aaron Poeze - a member of our congregation - recorded on Sunday, 28th October, 2018 in the Unitarian Meeting House in Adelaide. In this address Aaron introduces us to the idea of a binary world - starting with the computer language of binary code - 0's and 1's that make our devices work, thereby uncovering a world of contrasts, opposites - good/bad, black/white, love/hate and reversals in mirror imaging. Aaron introduces us to the technique of "mirroring" - the reversal of images as a technique for testing our deeply held beliefs including those about ourselves as windows to truth and understanding, thereby pointing the way towards personal learning, understanding and growth.

Pride In Our Welcome

An address by the Minister, Rev. Rob MacPherson - recorded on Sunday, 21st October, 2018 in the Unitarian Meeting House in Adelaide.

In this address, Rob explores the diversity of human sexuality in expressing Love for others. Rob traces a story of three interconnected journeys that follow the same spiritual arc:
- his personal journey;
- the journey of the wider Unitarian Movement, in being alive to no dogma but Love thereby proudly at the vanguard of lgbt acceptance;
- our journey as the Unitarian Church community in South Australia, welcoming lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans-gender people into the loving Unitarian Universalist community that is our Church.

Breaking the Seal - the Confessional and the Law

Rob's address "Breaking the Seal - the Confessional and the Law" is prompted by the findings of the recent Royal Commission of Enquiry into Child Sexual Abuse which recommended mandatory reporting by priests of instances of Child Sexual Abuse heard during confession. This puts them at risk of either breaching their sacred Seal of Confession or risk criminal penalties and imprisonment should they fail in their mandatory duty to report instances of child abuse as required under State Law. When conflict occurs between the Law of the State and The Law of the Church over a confession regarding child sexual abuse, which is to prevail? As a Unitarian Minister, and as a former Catholic - himself a victim of Child Sexual Abuse, Rob is uniquely placed to consider this ethical dilemma.