Humility is the orphaned virtue of our age. Charles Dickens dealt it a mortal blow in his portrayal of the unctious Uriah Heep. True humility is one of the most expansive and life-enhancing of all virtues. It does not need to advertise itself, but is a glorious revelation of the human spirit.
The full sermon can be found here.
These have been collected by Valerie Worswick, a member of Eric’s centre for progressive religion. These can be read in the links below.
https://sydneyunitarians.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/Opening.pdf
https://sydneyunitarians.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/Marriage.pdf
https://sydneyunitarians.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/NorthRyde.pdf
https://sydneyunitarians.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/E.S.NOTES-ON-PROCESS-THEOLOGY-AUGUST-2019-CPRT-GROUP-LED-BY-PETER-CORRY.pdf
https://sydneyunitarians.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/E.S.RETHINKING-THE-EASTER-STORY.pdf
https://sydneyunitarians.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/WHAT-IS-HOPE.pdf
https://sydneyunitarians.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/Morphic.pdf
( Please remeber that, if the text is not easily read, you can magnify it in your browser)
by Rev. Rex A E Hunt
(Rex Hunt is a former Victorian ‘living in exile in NSW’ and who lived in Ballarat and the District for 10 years)
Eureka Day is celebrated/remembered on 3 December each year. At around 3.52am on the Sunday morning of 3 December 1854, 276 troopers of the 12th Regiment, leave the Government Camp and attack the stockade (in Ballarat) at dawn.
The attack starts when a digger fires the first shot at 4.35 am. The battles finished by 4.55am.
In a letter to The Age following the uprising, Peter Lalor, leader of the miners, wrote asking why “nothing had been done to fix affairs before this bloody tragedy took place.”
He continued: “Is it to prove to us that a British government can never bring forth a measure of reform without having first prepared a font of human blood in which to baptise that offspring of their generous love?… Or is it to convince the world that where a large standing army exists, the Demon of Despotism will have frequently offered at his shrine the mangled bodies of murdered men.”
After the Eureka uprising, most of the miners’ grievances were redressed.
This fascinating talk can be read here.
Not all religions are necessarily good – certainly they may be less than completely good. They may be bigotted, superstitious, reactionary, imperialist, cruel. Anyone one who has any understanding of history will know that that has often been the case.
Of course, religions can be reasonable, open, merciful, progressive. Consider Hinduism and Buddhism. Mahatma Ghandi was an outstanding example of the saintly people (if you will allow me the use of that term with its Christian connotations) – the many saintly people who have represented the non-Christian religions.
The Rev Geoff Usher dicusses in his sermon how religion and reason interacts, in particular, the Unitarian religion.
This sermon can be read in full here.
Rev. Rex A..E. Hunt presided ove our ‘Flower Communion”, an adaptation of the ceremony invented by Norbert Capek.
The full service can be read by clicking here.