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(This is the text of a speech delivered by Mahatma Gandhi in London in September 1931, during his visit for the first Round Table Conference.)

There is an indefinable mysterious power that pervades everything. I feel it though I do not see it. It is this unseen power which makes itself felt and yet defies all proof, because it is so unlike all that I perceive through my senses. It transcends the senses. But it is possible to reason out the existence of God to a limited extent. Even in ordinary affairs we know that people do not know who rules or why and how He rules and yet they know that there is a power that certainly rules.

The rest of this Reading given by Rev Geoff Usher for his address “Fresh Surprise of Love” can be seen here.

Anonymous (presented at the meeting of the fellowship oin February,2025)

God said go
and I said who me
and God said yes you
and I said
but I’m not ready yet
and an important meeting is coming up
and I can’t leave my work right now
and you know there is no one to take my place
and God said you’re stalling

again God said go
and I said but I don’t want to
and God said I didn’t ask if you wanted to and I said
listen I’m not the kind of person to get involved in controversy
besides my family won’t like it
and what will the neighbours think and God said baloney

and yet a third time God said go
and I said do I have to?
and God said do you love Me?
and I said
look I’m scared
people are going to hate me
and cut me up in little pieces
I can’t take it all by myself
and God said where do you think I’ll be?
And God said go
and I sighed here I am, send me.

Amen.

by Rev Geoff Usher.

Behind the Christmas story are truths of great significance for humanity. The whole story of Christmas is a mixture of symbol and fact, of imagery and truth – literal truth and prophetic or spiritual truth. The prophetic dreams, the wandering star, the song of the angels:- we may find it difficult to accept such elements of the story as historically true. We may be unable to regard the Biblical narrative as a complete and accurate account of what happened two thousand years ago.

And yet, they are more than simply a flight into fantasy. There is truth in such elements. And through them great truths are being communicated; and communicated in depth, not merely superficially.
We miss the meaning of Christmas if we fail to listen to its messages:- its message concerning the reality of God; its message about life, and about our part in life and about the purpose of history. The story of the child in a manger is more than, the birth of another child of the year. It goes beyond simply relating the beginnings of the most influential figure of our western civilisation, and perhaps of the whole history of humankind.
Although many myths surround the story, at Christmas we celebrate the birth of a real man, not a myth:- we celebrate the birth of a child two thousand years ago, who came to be known as Jesus – although his real name was probably Joshua bar Joseph — Joshua the son of Joseph.
Serious scholars do not question the historicity of Jesus. There are doubts, queries and inconsistencies about some of the details.

To read the compltete sermon please click here.

A year ago, on September 1st, I set off from my temporary home between homes to “rediscover wonder and awe”. I travelled exactly 3300 km around NSW to visit country towns that I’ve always heard about and never seen.  I wanted to discover them. I was curious. After a year of downsizing, tough change, & grief in my life I needed to restore my soul, and the trip was how I chose to do so. 

As I travelled I posted on Fb my discoveries, observations and …. shared the wonder and awe that I sought and found as much by accident as by design.  Some people ignored the posts from my trip, some read every word.  It was a journey of discovery.  The posts were more or less “postcards from the Universe” that I shared. There was no theme other than what I personally delighted in, things that gave me the wonder and awe that I sought.

This reflection by Gina Hastings on the capacity for wonder and awe by humans can be read here.

(by Gina Hastings presented at SoL on 25/08/2024).

by Rev Geoff Usher

In our Unitarian tradition, theology is important, but our Unitarian study is natural theology.  It is “the study of God by the light of human reason”.  It is a continuing study which brings about change of theological understanding in every generation.

The text if this talk can be read here.