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by Rev.  Geoff Usher.

This is an account of a  fascinating period of history, focusing on a Unitarian hero. If you are interested in the development of religious liberty, this talk is for you.

 

by Rev. Geoff Usher

Some words by Jacob Trapp:
“Put Off Thy Shoes”
So it was said to Moses at the burning bush.
“Put off the shoes of the habitual,” said an Hasidic rabbi. Let your bare feet touch the ground. Experience things afresh.
“He who can no longer stand rapt in wonder and awe,” said Einstein, “is as good as dead. His eyes are closed.”
“If the doors of perception are opened,” said William Blake, “then everything will appear as it is, infinite.”
“From the touch of my feet to the grass,” said Walt Whitman,” spring a hundred affections.”
Those words express what, ideally, worship ought to be, or, more precisely, what worship ought to inspire. Jopie Boeke a true story, told by a professor who taught at the seminary she attended.

To read the complete address, click here.

A talk given by Neil Inall.

It’s a beautiful day outside isn’t it? When we meet family or friends or associates there are two main questions…the first about health and the second about the weather. Hasn’t it been hot, hasn’t it been cold, hasn’t it been humid. Seldom in Australia do we say “hasn’t been wet. I am sick of rain”. Rarely do we make this observation in this the driest of all continents apart from Antartica. If you look at the monthly rainfall figures on the Internet you will see that once again its been a poor wet season in the far north of the country…. and its dry through most of the inland. If you have friends at Tamworth or Broken Hill—certainly Tamworth people will have told you how they have to carry water for their gardens and have done so for many months.
The cotton harvest is about to start in northern NSW and also in Queensland. This harvest will be down 50 percent on last year..50 percent!!
What does that mean in dollars?

To read the full talk, click here.

 

This was a talk given at the Spirit of Life Unitarian Fellowship in 2014

by Geoffrey R. Usher.

Many people are looking seriously for a religious home that is right for them. Why?  One reason is that, in the middle of the most technologically advanced civilisation we have ever known, many people feel terribly lonely.

We have lots of people around us. There are lots of institutions, organisations, clubs and causes of all kinds asking for our attention, our support, our involvement. There is plenty of information, and plenty
of means of communication. We have access to more news and chatter of all kinds than any other generation has ever had in the whole history of humankind.

The problem is that what we hear, so often, is only chatter, chatter, chatter.
Chatter – without meaning.
Chatter – without real concern.
Chatter – without depth.
Chatter – without appreciation for any ultimate purposes.
Chatter – without connection to any sources of quiet strength or calm or purposefulness.
Chatter – without relevance to anything that rises above what might be discussed on a Wednesday morning talk show.

To read the rest of this talk click here.

Notes from address given by Colin Whatmough on 5 October 2014 at Kirribilli  Neighbourhood Centre.
The following is based on the research of Al Gore, former Vice President of the USA in his recent book ‘The Assault on Reason’.
I  invite you to ponder on one of the Unitarian Principles – the right of conscience and/or reasoning and the use of the democratic process within our congregations and within society at large.
Democracy begins with the premise that all are created equal and seeks to meet human needs – it values access and equity concepts.
By contrast, capitalism begins with  the premise that competition will inevitably produce inequality – depending on differences in talent, industriousness and fortune – in its desire for profit.
These two systems have been the reigning philosophies in two different spheres of life. Most Western countries exist as the Democratic Capitalist style of government. The faultline that marked  the boundary between capitalism and democracy generated tremors in Abraham Lincoln’s mind in 1864, quote, “But I see in the near future a crisis approaching that unnerves me and causes me to tremble for the safety of my country. As a result of the Civil War, corporations have been enthroned, and an era of corruption in high places will follow; the money  power of the country will endeavour to prolong its reign by working upon the prejudices  of the people until all the wealth is aggregated in a few  hands and the Republic is destroyed.
I feel at this moment more anxiety for the safety of my country than ever before, even in the midst of war.God grant that my suspicions may prove groundless.”
Al Gore makes the case that Abraham Lincoln’s suspicions have not proved groundless in the current American democratic Capitalist system especially with respect to the immense power exerted by modern  multinational corporations and media outlets in the new globalised world of Earth Incorporated.