Auckland Unitarians

Speaker:- John Maindonald

Worship Leader:- Shirin Caldwell

Recorded 7 April 2024 @ Auckland Unitarian Church

From the time when he returned from his five year journey around the world, Darwin thought long and hard, not just about the relationships between living things, but also about life and living. He moved from relatively orthodox Anglican to an agnostic who never ceased to wonder at the world of nature and the place of humans in it. While he never identified as a Unitarian, he was exposed to multiple sources of Unitarian influence.

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Speaker & Worship Leader:- Rachel Mackintosh

Recorded 31 March 2024 @ Auckland Unitarian Church

Speaker:- John Maindonald

Worship Leader:- Shirin Caldwell

Recorded 17 March 2024 @ Auckland Unitarian Church

Charles Darwin, who lived through the middle years of the 1800s, is familiar to most of us as the man who laid the foundations of the modern theory of evolution. His ideas have had dramatic continuing effects on our view of ourselves and of the world of which we are part. The idea that living things shared a common evolutionary heritage was not new. What was new was the mechanism that Darwin, along with Alfred Wallace who came up with very similar ideas at the same time, proposed. Darwin worked his arguments into a book of almost 500 pages that was widely read and finally carried the day in the world of science. It is a careful assembly of evidence, from animal breeding, from geology, and from the way that different life forms are distributed across different continents and islands.

Speaker & Worship Leader:- Rachel Mackintosh

Recorded 10 March 2024 @ Auckland Unitarian Church

I have recently watched all three seasons of Ted Lasso.

I had been aware of the show for some time but had been put off by the moustache, and the fact that it seemed to be about sport. Though I admire physical grace, I really don’t care about all the winning and losing and fighting over a ball.

I had been missing out. Ted Lasso is a gift.

It is a gift that slowly unwraps. When one of the characters, Danny Rojas, says, “Football is life”, I like his joy but really don’t connect. Football isn’t my life.

Turns out though, that in Ted Lasso, football is a metaphor for life. Turns out that Ted Lasso himself really doesn’t care about all the winning and losing either. He cares about community and people being their best selves. He’s probably a Unitarian, though that doesn’t get mentioned in the script.

With Karn Cleary

Recorded @ Auckland Unitarian Church 3 March 2024

Speaker & Worship Leader:- Viv Allen

Recorded @ Auckland Unitarian Church 25 February 2024

Speaker & Worship Leader:- Rachel Mackintosh Recorded @ Auckland Unitarian Church, 11 February 2024

Why do we repeat this ritual every year? It isn’t just to brag about our travels. When we share our water in the common bowl, it reminds us that while we are separate people, we are also part of an interdependent community.

You probably know about the water cycle.... For more information see:-

Speaker & Worship Leader:- John DiLeo

Recorded at Auckland Unitarian Church 4th February 2024

With Rachel Mackintosh Recorded at Auckland Unitarian Church 21 January 2024

Alice laughed. “There’s no use trying,” she said. “One can’t believe impossible things.”

“I daresay you haven’t had much practice,” said the Queen. “When I was your age, I always did it for half-an-hour a day. Why, sometimes I’ve believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.” “THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS”, LEWIS CARROLL (CHARLES LUTWIDGE DODGSON)

We know, because of science, the enlightenment, telescopes, that compared with us, the universe is big. We may have seen that meme that shows two photos of the Milky Way, one taken before, and one taken after we have made a mistake: clue, it’s the same photo.

My musing today has as its starting point, not Alice, actually, but the quote: “the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards justice.”

My sermon topic “Bending the arc of the universe” has taken liberties with the quote already, and may seem arrogant – how could we bend the arc of the universe? – but I am aiming rather for audacious. As Paul said when I sent him my title, “May as well aim big.”

Meditation / Discussion Questions:-

• What makes you pause in wonder?
• And what action for justice does this inspire in you?

Speaker & Worship Leader:- Betsy Marshall

Recorded @ Auckland Unitarian Church 3rd December 2023

Today we gather to celebrate the opening of this building on 4 December 1901 – exactly 122 years ago tomorrow.

As Clay Nelson said in his service for new members in 2015, the anniversary of the building is a time to be reminded that “we didn’t get here out of nothing, we are connected to those who came before, and others in the future will be connected to us, a reminder of our oneness”.

The focus of today is not just on the past but also on our aspirations for the future – hopefully a future in which Auckland Unitarians continue as a vibrant faith community as well as a force for social and political good.

Speaker:- Rachel Mackintosh
Worship Leaders:- Ted Zorn, Kate Lewis

Recorded at Auckland Unitarian Church 5th November 2023

Our recently retired minister, Clay Nelson, died on Thursday (2 November 2023). Those of us who have known Clay are grieving.

So, we’ve changed this service to reflect on coming together in grief and the wonder of life.

Rachel MacIntosh, Clay’s wife, will present a talk that Clay wrote and presented to us a couple years back called “Welcome to Limbo. Please leave your certainties at the door.” Appropriately, it’s about how we respond to chaos, uncertainty, and the unexpected.

For more information see:-

Speaker & Worship Leader:- Kate Lewis.

Recorded 19th November 2023 @ Auckland Unitarian Church.

I’m very aware that this is the first service since Clay died that we’re not using one of his talks. I’ve been on the calendar for months, and Ted and I decided that this would be an alright topic for today since we’re hurting and I hope that some of these words may be useful for all of us in dealing with grief.

I also feel the need to give a disclaimer because I’m an academic, and this isn’t my field. I am talking about self-compassion because becoming more compassionate towards myself and others is a path that I am on and something I’m striving for. I have become interested in the psychology behind it and have done some reading, and I’m convinced that most of us can benefit from an increased dose of self-kindness.

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Speaker & Worship Leader:-
Viv Allen

Speaker:- Mary Ellen Warren
Worship Leader:- Ruby Johnson

Speaker:- John Maindonald
Worship Leader:- Shirin Caldwell

Recorded 8 October 2023 @ Auckland Unitarian Church

John Donne (1572-1631), who wrote the words that I want to ponder today, lived in England in troubled times. He was born to a staunchly Roman Catholic family at a time when it was illegal to be a practicing Catholic.

Speaker:- Peter Lineham

Worship Leader:- Ruby Johnson

I was very struck by an article in the Washington Post on 21 August of this year by Perry Bacon jnr....

Recorded 1 October 2023 by Auckland Unitarian Church

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Recorded @ Auckland Unitarian Church 24 September 2023

Speakers & Worship Leaders:- Rachel Mackintosh & Betsy Marshall

In early 2014, our Unitarian community was coming to terms with the fact that after only eight months, due to visa issues, we’d lost the American minister we’d contracted for two years. Fortunately the Ministerial Search Committee wasted no time in resurrecting itself to identify what we might do to support our Church’s dual strategy of working towards a full-time ministry and strengthening lay leadership.

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Speaker & Worship Leader:- Rev. Clay Nelson

Recorded @ Auckland Unitarian Church 17 September 2023

Here is a factoid about your minister I hope to have kept from you for nine years. In secondary school, I was a band nerd. I wasn’t the cool one playing the sexy alto sax like I wanted. Instead, I was consigned over my objections to playing the tuba. It was even more humiliating as I was one of the smallest in the band. For more information see:-

with Ted Zorn Recorded at Auckland Unitarian Church 27 August 2023

I’ve always had a thing for language. I think I inherited this from my dad. Dad wasn’t highly educated, nor widely read – the only magazines he ever subscribed to were Reader’s Digest and TV Guide, and I never knew him to read a novel — but he loved to play with language.

He often used words that were either made up or some version of a word he’d learned while serving overseas in the military. He would latch on to words and phrases that were new to him.

When he came to New Zealand for the first time, the term flatmate caught his eye – it’s not a term used in the USA — so for his remaining years, he referred to my daughter, his granddaughter, as “my little Kiwi American flatmate”.

In fact, he had nicknames for just about everyone – or at least everyone he liked. They were not all flattering.

With John DiLeo

Recorded @ Auckland Unitarian Church, 20th August 2023

As we were driving home from last Sunday’s service, I was thinking on what I should talk about this week.

During that service, we celebrated Clay’s years with this church as our paid minister, and we acknowledged that phase of our community’s life was coming to a close.

During the Notices that day, Ted reminded us all of the need for members to step up and fill the void Clay’s retirement has created. We can no longer sit back and let him come up with all the ideas week after week, because – simply put – it’s not his job any more.

The ‘theme’ or ‘slogan’ that popped into my head during last Sunday’s drive home was simple: “One Community – Many Voices.”

Speaker & Worship Leader:- Rev. Clay Nelson

Recorded @ Auckland Unitarian Church, 13th August 2023

As has been mentioned once or twice recently, and to my great sadness, I am retiring at the end of the month. Because I have loved all forty-one years of my ordained ministry in two denominations and my nine years with you, I want to scream, “Nah, this isn’t how I planned it.” But, ”Yeah, it is the reality I must come to accept…kind of.”

The expectation of ministers, when they retire, is to absent themselves for at least a year from the congregation they served to make room for the new minister. As trained UU ministers don’t grow on trees here or in Australia, and it will be a while before we can hire my replacement, I’ve been asked to help fill the vacuum on a voluntary basis while you figure out where you want to go.

Speaker & Worship Leader:- Rachel Mackintosh.

Recorded 6th August 2023 at Auckland Unitarian Church.

I met Clay 10 years ago at a residential training for community organising. The basis of the training was storytelling.

At the opening of the training, all participants were asked to tell stories about a time we had spoken truth to power. Clay’s story was about taking the Anglican Bishop of Auckland to the Human Rights Commission for violation of the Human Rights Act because he refused to ordain a gay priest.

My story was about standing up to a union leader who, to a largely but not totally white male audience, had used the phrase “dirty girls of the Philippines” to refer to migrant sex workers. I confronted him privately and told him I had been offended at his use of language that was imperialist, misogynist and anti-worker. He went back to that audience and apologised, even though many of them had found his language perfectly acceptable.

As all the people in the room told their stories, we began to see that all of us had not only identified injustices but had also had moments of courage where we had spoken up. Some of our stories had had successful outcomes, but many had not. Many of us had acted alone. All of our stories had promise. When one person shows courage in the face of injustice, that act holds the kernel of transformational change.

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Recorded @ Auckland Unitarian Church, 30th July 2023

Speaker & Worship Leader:- Rev. Clay Nelson

My father loved words. The Oxford English Dictionary and books on etymology, the study of the origin of words and how their meanings have changed throughout history, were never far from his fingertips. If he couldn’t find just the right word for the book he was writing, he had no reluctance in just creating a word that captured his intent. He passed on his love of words to me. That was to my benefit in seminary, where I was required to take two semesters of word study. It was essential to preparing sermons. Our task was to fully understand biblical words in all their meanings, translations and uses in biblical times so they could be applied relevantly in our modern and cultural context. I know it sounds boring and tedious, but thanks to Dad, I loved it.

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With Rev. Clay Nelson

Piano:- Frank Chen

Recorded at Auckland Unitarian Church 23rd July 2023

You might remember me telling you the story of the 1969 UUA General Assembly in Boston. It was at the height of the Black empowerment movement in America. For that reason, many Black UUs attended instead of the token few who usually came. White UUs were shocked and wondered where they all came from. They had always been there since the 18th century but had been generally ignored or discounted. We were more diverse than we had been aware of or at least acknowledged. But in 1969, systemic racism reared its ugly head, undermining that diversity and many Black UUs walked out the door, never to return. Much has happened within Unitarian Universalism since then. So, it was highly newsworthy when Sofia Betancourt, a woman, a person of colour and openly queer, was overwhelmingly elected as president of the UUA.

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With Kate Lewis

Recorded at Auckland Unitarian Church 16th July 2023

Many of us have lost a sense of belonging in one place or another, having made a life around the world from where we were born and grew up. There is a longing for a beloved past and people, and despair when we realize that when we go back everything has changed and feel grief at what has been lost.

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With Paul Henriques.

Recorded 2nd July 2023 by Auckland Unitarian Church.

As many of you know, with Auckland Unitarian Church support, I initiated a pilot programme to help dyslexic children in Samoa in a joint programme with their Ministry of Education, Science and Culture. While there I came across information on Samoa’s nonviolent struggle for independence from New Zealand. Back in New Zealand, I began to read up on the subject and in asking friends and family about it, found few knew much about it and some nothing at all. I find it a very sad but interesting story, that certainly deserves knowing about, and thought I would share a bit of it with you this morning.

with Rev. Clay Nelson

Recorded at Auckland Unitarian Church 25th June 2023

Over a long life, I often think about the choices I’ve made or were made for me. How have they determined who I am now? How have they pointed me in a positive direction or made my life a personal hell? They have surely done both. Has my life followed a script with little input from me, or has it been totally of my own making? These are the musings I’d like to explore this morning.

Speaker & Worship Leader:- Rev. Clay Nelson

Recorded 11th June 2023 @ Auckland Unitarian Church

with Alix Geard.

Recorded at Auckland Unitarian Church 4th June 2023.

I wanted to share something about what the future might look like: especially something new about what’s going on in the space around climate change and degrowth. I’ve been finding that quite depressing, though.

I admit that I even asked ChatGPT for some examples of what I might say. The homilies it came up with were familiar, reassuring, anodyne and almost completely pointless. They did sound good, though.

Instead, I want to throw some ideas at you about what people are like, and how we work together. The ideas are all a bit flawed – they’re working notes and patterns to look out for – but I’ve found them useful.

For more information, including links and discussion questions, see:-

Speaker:- Peter Lineham

Worship Leader:- John DiLeo

Recorded by Auckland Unitarian Church 28th May 2023.

Perhaps the simplest way to introduce this Pentecost theme is to ask you to visualise this scene.

The narrow streets of Jerusalem were in those days dominated by the huge temple on which King Herod the Great had lavished his attention, and was regarded as one of the greatest sites of the Roman world, and the Roman battalion’s barracks and palace for the governor on his infrequent visits, for this was occupied territory, and the fear of public disturbances was a constant imperial fear in a province like Judea which was so distinctive in its fanatical religiosity.

So when any disturbances happened, the regime wanted stability, they wanted to clear the streets, and Roman and Jewish leaders took the same approach.

For more information, including all the discussion questions, see:-

with Rev. Clay Nelson.

Recorded at Auckland Unitarian Church 7th May 2023.

with Rev. Clay Nelson.

Recorded at Auckland Unitarian Church 30th April 2023.

with Rev. Clay Nelson.

Recorded at Auckland Unitarian Church 23rd April 2023.

Last week we explored the many challenges of being a living tradition, the biggest being finding a consensus when we don’t have a creed, holy book of revelation or ecclesiastical authority.

This morning our focus is on the Seven Principles. How they came to be? Their role in our faith. Have they passed their use by date?

With Rev. Clay Nelson.

Recorded 16th April 2023 by Auckland Unitarian Church

This morning I would like to focus on what it means to be a living tradition. As Unitarian Universalists we sing about it. We proudly proclaim it as what we are. But what does it mean? Most simply put our beliefs are etched in pencil and not carved in stone. But there are consequences. Like being green, being a living tradition isn’t easy.

It is a big topic, so this is the first of several random musings exploring who we are, how we got here and where we are being led. My hope is that we might better understand our Kaupapa, our mission and purpose.

with Rachel Mackintosh Recorded at Auckland Unitarian Church 9th April 2023

At the risk of being grandiose, I begin this sermon a bit like the person who wrote the gospel of Mark. It’s more than 40 years since I read Madeleine L’Engle’s children’s book, A Wrinkle in Time. I have thought about it and talked about it since, but I haven’t relived it. (I didn’t watch the film because I didn’t want to risk my memory being ruined.) Here is my telling of the bits that have stuck with me, with some interpositions along the way.

Speaker:- Martin Lewis
Worship Leader:- John DiLeo

Recorded @ Auckland Unitarian Church, 2nd April 2023

Gratitude and its ability to uplift and enrich our lives is as extremely important and relevant today as it ever was.

As we are constantly bombarded with negative news and dramatic spin; dire messages through various forms of media, we might descend into feelings of anxiety, depression, hopelessness and despair.

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with John DiLeo

 Speaker & Worship Leader:- Rachel Mackintosh

Recorded at Auckland Unitarian Church 12th March 2023

A father and son are in a horrible car crash that kills the father. The eight-year-old son is rushed to hospital in critical condition. ED staff prep him rapidly and take him to an operating theatre where the surgical team is waiting. Just as he’s about to go under the knife, the surgeon says, “I can’t operate — that’s my son.”

How can this be?

I opened the service with this riddle.

You may have heard it before.

You may have been confounded or you may have found the answer obvious.

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Speaker & Worship Leader:- Vivienne Allen

Recorded at Auckland Unitarian Church 5th March 2023

have always been drawn to trees. Until I turned 10 I spent most of my spare time climbing trees on our farm. Back then I divided all trees into two categories; good and bad; the good ones were those great for climbing such as Pohutukawa, some Lawsons, oaks and others with wide low branches. The bad ones which were not good for climbing were trees like Lombardy poplars that were too upright or didn’t have low branches. Luckily our sharemilkers had 7 children for me to play with and our favourite activity was to climb trees. We even used to enjoy climbing the nectarine trees in the orchard in summer, sitting up in the branches munching nectarines on a hot day.

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