15th December, Rev Geoff Usher, “Some Christmas Gifts”
The whole story of Christmas is a mixture of symbol and fact. there is almost universal agreement that jesus was a real person, not just a romantic fiction. Hidden within the symbolism and beauty of the Christmas story, there is the idea that all life has meaning, and that a sense of purpose runs through history. Truth, manifestation, meaning, hope and love are gifts of Christmas.
1st December, Carolyn Donnelly, “The Unitarian Thinking About Christmas”
24th November, Professor Shirlry Scott, “Antarctica: Government, Geopolitical Tensions and the Ethical Question of Tourism.”
Deputy President of the Academic Board of UNSW Sydney and a Professor of International Law and International Relations at UNSW Canberra.
Forthcoming books include Geopolitical Change and the Antarctic Treaty System: Historical Lessons, Current Challenges, edited with Jeffrey McGee and Timothy Stephens (Springer 2024 forthcoming) and The Law of the Sea and the Planetary Crisis, edited with Nengye Liu (Routledge 2025 forthcoming).
17th November, Rev Daniel Jantos, “Creating Space”
This reflection comes from being asked about who are/have been inspiring figures in my life. This is part of my answer to that question. And it has everything to do with someone who created space for something/someone else. We will explore what principles might be involved in the creating of spaces where good and positive things can happen.
3rd November, Gabrielle Donovan, “The Effects of Music on Mind, Mood, and Body”
27th October, “Life in Iran”
20th Ocober, Rev Geoff Usher, “People On The Move”
Throughout the world today there are people on the move. Some people are on the move because they are among the world’s poorest and most vulnerable people. Some have been driven from their homes by lack of food. Some are refugees from war and violence. Some people are on the move because they want to do something to make the world a better and fairer place.
29th September, Rev Rex A E Hunt, ” The Lanscape is Australia’s Natural Wonder” ( Part 2)
“We are locked in a dance with landscapes, moulding the contours as they shape our souls”. The capacity of the natural world to inspire a religious response from humans has long been recognised. And I shared some of that thinking in Part I of this Address last year, which was titled ” Looking to Nature: Landscape, Plants and Beauty”.
If we can go to special places, built by humans, which are designated as sacred, surely we can go to special places, shaped naturally, which are recognised as sacred.
22nd September, Martin Horlacher, “The Anger Epidemic”
1st September, Rev Geoff Usher, “Skin Deep”
As Kamala Harris campaigns to become the first woman of colour to be the President of the USA, she faces the twin obstacles of her gender and her colour, and the misogynist supremacists in Donald Trump’s MAGA movement.
In the early 1950s, in his book The nature of Prejudice, Gordon Allport claimed that we are all born into a complex and subtle web of prejudice. They are perpetuated by our culture, by our families, by our friends, by our schools; certainly by radio, television, newspapers. He warns that these prejudices into which we are born are highly resistant to change.
25th August, Gina Hastings, “Living with Wonder and Awe”
We get so busy with the events and details of our lives that we so easily get frustrated, emotionally strained and stressed. I’d like to suggest that we have lost track with “Wonder and Awe” which is one of our most healing of human qualities.
18th August, Rev Geoff Usher, “Haida Gwaii and the Jade Canoe.”
In the Arrivals Lounge of the Vancouver International Air Terminal there is a sculpture by the award-winning Canadian artist Bill Rice (born 1920). Called, The Spirit of Haida Gwaii, the Jade Canoe, it was completed in 1994 and placed in the new Air Terminal to provide a focal point to the entrance and a welcome to visitors from around the world. It is a representation of an ancient Haida dugout canoe. Haida Gwaii means Islands of the Haida People, and the dugout canoe bears 13 supernatural creatures, each of which is related in some way to the mythical past of the Haida people.
28th July, No Meeting at Kirribilli, “Climate Change”
ANZUUA zoom service 1 pm – Ralph Catts and Rex Hunt – Zoom link to be advised. Topic “ climate change.”
21st July, Rev Geoff Usher, “Love at the Root of Comfort”
Is there any one of us who has never been in need of comfort? Most of us will have known times – perhaps many times – when we have been sorely in need of comfort. In these times of distress, we become deeply aware of those who comfort us.
7th July, Martin Horlacher, “IQ or Not to IQ?: Intelligence Squared…or Halved?”
Since when did being intelligent – and I mean genuinely intelligent – become such a taboo in modern society? Has it always been so, or is it simply more visible in the world of mass media? And either way, what does the future hold?
30th June, Rev Daniel Jantos, “What liberation theology might say about the inequalities of the private education system.”
23rd June, Rev Geoff Usher, “Admitting Uncertainty”
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.
16th June, Gina Hastings, “The Trouble with Narcissists ” (Part 2)
Ginna will discuss what havoc narcissists can create in any situation and how we can handle their destructive games.
2nd June, Rev Geoff usher, “Hard Times and Religion”
Geoff is Treasurer of the NSW Dickens Society, whose Book of the Year for 2024 is Hard Times.Our service on 2 June will commemorate the anniversary of the death of Charles Dickens on 9 June, 1870.
19th May. This talked is cancelled
Rev Dan Jantos, “What liberation theology might say about the inequalities of the private education system.”
5th May, Ginna Hastings, “The Trouble with Narcissists”
What’s a narcissist? What do they do? Why are they so difficult? What can we do when we encounter them in our lives? I’ll be attempting to answer a few of these questions in this talk – but time doesn’t permit a complete academic thesis!
28th April, Rev Geoff Usher, “Socrates”
Socrates was born in 469 BCE and died in 399BCE. He lived about midway between the great Old Testament prophet Isaiah and jesus. Famous as the man who said he knew nothing, he devoted the second half of his life to teaching other people – anyone who would listen. His method of teaching always took the form of a discussion, conversation, questions. Among his disciples were the young men of Athens who were to become the leading philosophers of the next generation.
21st April, Martin Horlacher, “Rational Mysticism: A Contradiction in Terms, or a Tenable Position?”
7th April, Rev Rex A E Hunt , “It Took Jesus a Thousand Years to Die!”
An examination of Saving Paradise, a book published in 2008 by Rita Nakashima Brock – born in Japan and raised in a Buddhist family, and Rebecca Ann Parker – an ordained United Methodist clergy person who also holds dual fellowship with the Unitarian Universalist Association, on the timing and place of the crucifix in Christian art and history.
And its not what we have been previously told!
24th March, Ginna Hastings, “What I Learned About Life by Downsizing”
Last year I moved from a big old, FULL house to a small retirement flat. In shedding my possessions I learned a lot about myself, life and what’s really important in life. I will share those observations in this talk.
25th February, Martin Horlacher, “Fathers of the Renaissance: Francesco Petrarch”
Francesco Petrarch was a 14th century scholar and poet of the early Italian Renaissance, as well as one of the earliest humanists. He holds an important place in intellectual and artistic history, one this talk will examine.
18th February, Rev Geoff Usher, “Return and Rest”
There is a deep human need to find a private place – whether physical or psychological – to which we can retreat when we are troubled, or confused, or needing a time of solitude in which to think things out.
4th February, Martin Horlacher, “Born To Rule”
An examination of the culture of elitism, its psychological underpinnings, and its deleterious effects upon society.
28th January, Martin Horlacher, “Fear”
Fear – we’ve all felt it, experienced it, suffered it. It’s a natural human instinct, and a necessary part of human life. And yet, it can also be used as a deadly weapon – particularly when politics and interpersonal relationships are involved
21st January, Rev Geoff Usher, “I have a dream”
We have inherited the faith and traditions of those who have lived before us. We have inherited their struggle and their suffering, as well as all that these have won. We have inherited the fruits of their courage and their generous sacrifice; and the afterglow of their vision.
We inherit as a unity the mingling of their diversity. We inherit the Spirit that brings all things to be, moulding purpose out of chaos through the power of creative love. As we give thanks for all that we have received, we know we must pass it on, refined and enlarged and improved.