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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.

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This is a talk by the Rev Daniel jantos, given on the 30th of June, 2024.

The full text can be read here.

by Rev Geoff Usher

The Lawrence Lectures on Religion and Society were established to inquire into the nature and relevance of religion as it relates to personal meaning and fulfillment, to formulation of values and ethical commitment. The Lectures were associated with the First Unitarian Church of Berkeley, California, where I gave the annual Earl Morse Wilbur Lecture in January 1986.
On 17 October 1980, Theodore Roszak gave the Lawrence Lecture entitled “The Personal and the Planetary” .My sermon today is based on Roszak’s Lecture, for which he took as a text a couple of lines from Gerard Manley Hopkins:

And what is Earth’s eye, tongue, or heart else, where
Else, but in dear and dogged man?
And what is Earth’s eye, tongue, or heart else, where
Else, but in dear and dogged man?

We begin by going back some three centuries to the period when the ideal of democratic equality first entered the political consciousness of the modern world.
Few of us today would question the great transformation in moral identity which first taught people to think of themselves as equals:- equal in dignity, equal in their access to the rights and goods of the commonwealth. That conviction holds an axiomatic position in our lives.
And yet, it was once a shocking and disruptive new idea.

These sermons were given on two days, and are presented here as Part 1 and Part 2.