22 January, Rev. Geoff Usher : “Nostalgia”.
We may hold and cherish our memories. We may even view the past through rose-tinted spectacles of nostalgia. But we cannot return to the past. We cannot re-create the past.
There is a danger in trying to wish that everything could be “just like it was in the good old days” – which of course weren’t always really so good.
29 January, Colin Whatmough: “Globalisation and Morality”
Should the bottom line in economics change from ‘Profit, People, Planet’ to ‘People, Planet, Profit’ or even ‘Planet, People, Profit’.
5 February, Sandy Biar: “Harnessing nationalism for good: the upside of global nationalistic sentiment.”
19 February, Helen Whatmough: “Post Truth / Post Fact”
Is vocabulary usage / meaning being distorted and/or changed leading to confusion of meaning? Are we all complicit in confusing reality and truth in a post-truth era?
26 February, Rev. Daniel Jantos: “Patterns of liberation and constraint.”
Theology has historically been for the purpose of liberation. Various ones like the Buddha and Jesus offered people a framework of understanding that provided relief from oppression or suffering or isolation. “What we hope for is always better than what we know.” The function of theology has changed. The current purpose of Theology today seems to be mostly frameworks of constraint. What is right and what is wrong? Who belongs and who does not? So what would constitute a contemporary theology of liberation?
5 March, Carolyn Donnelly & Barbara O’Brien: “Remembering Leonard Cohen.”
Recalling his music and his life. Communal input invited.
12 March, No service.
19 March, Martin Horlacher: “What Would Confucius Do?”
“One of the most important philosophers of the ancient world, the sayings and ideas of Confucius have had a powerful influence on the Eastern world, as well as the Western one. But how does his philosophy apply to life today?”
26 March, Rev. Geoff Usher: “Two Travel Stories”
Two different stories connected only by the theme of travelling, and the people one can meet on the way. What sort of impression do we leave with the people who happen to meet us as we travel life’s journey?
2 April, Rev. Geoff Usher: “What Other Church?”
Unitarians are among the few who do not claim that they alone possess the truth about God / nature / the universe / life.
What unites Unitarians is the value they set on the freedom to explore religious issues, the freedom to follow the dictates of reason and conscience, the freedom from the real or perceived constraints of creeds and dogmatic formulas. At the same time, they generally have strongly held common values and principles.
THIS WILL ALSO BE OUR AGM, PLEASE COME.
9 April, No meeting.
16 April, No meeting.
23 April, Jan Tendys: “The Sensible Centre—Is that Us?”
In ancient Greek philosophy, the “golden mean” is the desirable middle between two extremes, one of excess and the other of deficiency.
Can we apply this to some modern conundrums?
30 April, Martin Horlacher: “Control-Alt–right”
The so-called “alternative right’ have risen to prominence lately, especially in the United States. But is this new form of ultra conservative nationalism to be taken seriously? Indeed, is it even “new”? And just what kind of influence is it having on political thought both American and international?
7 May, Max Lawson: “Charles Dickens: Liberal Christianity and Unitarianism.”
14 May, No service.
21 May, Rev. Geoff Usher: “Alone Together.”
We talk about ourselves, as Unitarians, being an assortment of worshippers, with different backgrounds, different religious backgrounds, different personal theologies. A statement like “All are welcome here” implies this sort of variety. Given such variety, what binds us together as members of our congregation, and within the Unitarian movement?
28 May, Martin Horlacher: “Holy Days and Holidays.”
With the recent March for Science in the United States and elsewhere, it’s worth asking why we as a nation have to have holidays thrust upon us that are religious in nature. Why aren’t we celebrating Moon-Landing Day by giving each other chocolate moons, or venerating Jonas Salk’s birthday as Polio Vaccine Day?
4 June, Ruby Willis: “Colouring Outside the Lines.”
A look at why we tend to stick to the path of least resistance in our behaviours both large and small, with an emphasis on the work of Michel Foucault.
11 June, No service.
18 June, Colin Whatmough: “How the West is Losing.”
And how will the West, especially the US, respond?
25 June, Dr. Max Lawson: “The Spiritual Quest of D.H.Lawrence.”
Christianity had a great influence upon D.H.Lawrence but he did not consider himself a Christian. Max will explain this complexity.
2 July, Colin Whatmough: “Why Australia is going backwards in Education.”
9 July, No meeting.
16 July, Rev. Daniel Jantos: “Taking Inventory”
Zen master and teacher, Thich Nhat Hahn, likes to speak and write about “coming home to yourself.” If the analogy holds true, then it’s worth asking about the state of our home place. Does “coming home” provide us with a source of comfort and renewal? Or, is the home-place cluttered with the stuff that heightens our anxiety’s and fosters habit patterns of obsessiveness? This reflection will hope to provide us a chance to take an inventory of our minds’ and souls’ “home places.”
23 July, Rev. Geoff Usher: “Diversity Without Division.”
American UU minister Mike Young has postulated a hierarchy of responses to diversity, starting with tolerance as a minimum, followed by affirmation, and culminating in a position that cherishes theological diversity as a positive good. He claims that only where diversity is valued, cherished, and celebrated can the kind of community that keeps us alive and growing be created.
30 July, Dr Max Lawson: “The Spiritual Journey of Christopher Isherwood: from Cabaret to Vedanta.”
Although best known for his Berlin novels and as a gay icon, Christopher Isherwood was also on a spiritual path which included Quaker and Vedanta (Hindu) traditions.
6th August, Martin Horlacher: “Plato and the Philosopher Kings of Ancient Greece”
An examination of the philosopher Plato’s ancient political philosophy, and how it has reverberated through the ages.
13th August, No meeting.
20th August, Rev. Geoff Usher: “The Perfume of the Trampled Flower”
Forgiveness has been described as “the perfume that the trampled flower casts upon the
heel that crushes it.”
27th August, Martin Horlacher: “Existentialism”
As a philosophy and metaphysical theory, existentialism has included individuals as different from each other as Dostoyevsky and Nietzsche, and movements as diverse as atheism and Christianity. This talk will examine what its core ideas are, and how they can apply to today’s world.
3rd September, Rev. Geoff Usher: ” Looking at Life”.
10th September, No meeting.
17th September, Rev. Rex Hunt: “Celebrating Earth and Wonder in Early Spring”
There is no good reason to believe that taking nature to heart leaves a person with any fewer spiritual benefits than taking to heart the teachings of supernaturalist traditions.
24th September, Dr Max Lawson: “Walt Whitman as a spiritual teacher”
Emerson arguably met Whitman 12 times and sent Bronson Alcott and Henry Thoreau to New York to visit Whitman. They, like Emerson, were greatly impressed with Whitman, not only as a poet but as a prophet. This is the talk that was scheduled for the 3rd September.
1 October, Geoff Usher: “Making Oneself Miserable.”
In the normal sprinkling of a human community, there will be other people doing better than we are in almost any category. By selectively comparing ourselves with them, we can quickly and easily make ourselves feel really inferior. It is not difficult to make yourself miserable.
8 October, No meeting. Markets
15 October, Helen Whatmough,: “Why Reason and Evidence Don’t Change
Our Minds.”
Confirmation bias is the tendency people have to embrace information that supports their beliefs and reject information that contradicts them.
22nd October. No Meeting. ANZUAA Conference in Adelaide.
29 October, Martin Horlacher: “The Age of Genius: The Seventeenth Century
and the Birth of the Modern Mind.”
The Age of Enlightenment brought about a paradigm shift in the sphere of human thought. This talk will examine philosopher AC Grayling’s recent book about this seminal period of history, and its ramifications for today.
5 November, Colin Whatmough: “An Historical Look at Islam.”
12 November, No meeting.
19 November, Morandir Armson: “George Gurdjeiff, guru or fraud?”
George Ivanovich Gurdjieff (1866/1872/1877? – 1949) was a spiritual teacher and mystic, of Armenian descent, who pioneered a method of spiritual development, which he referred to as “the Fourth Way”. Both during his life and after, Gurdjieff has been alternately praised as a great mystical teacher, and scorned as a charlatan. His followers, the Gurdjieffians, have had a wide influence on the New Age movement, but have also been labelled “the strangest religion in history”. This address will seek to examine the truth about Gurdjieff; was he a guru, mystic, and spiritual guide, or was he a base and cynical fraud?
26 November, Rev. Geoff Usher, “175 Years, Channing and Philipps.”
This service will mark the 175 anniversary of two distinguished Unitarian Ministers: William Ellery Channing (USA) and Nathaniel Philipps (UK).
3 December, Martin Horlacher: “A Christmas Gift”
10 December, No meeting