Blog

As a member of the Unitarian Fellowship I can understand and accept why some of my non-Unitarian friends would not want to bother reading our blogs.

The blogs may not interest you if you are completely satisfied intellectually and emotionally with your take on the meaning of life. And/or if your social needs are being fully met by the interactions you are having with like-minded individuals and groups. And/or if you have found a philosophical, or scientific body of influential sources which supplies you with a platform from which to deal with life’s difficult issues. And/or if you have a satisfactory moral underpinning for doing good. And /or if your belief system provides you with the courage and encouragement to initiate change for peace, liberty and justice for all.

I am fairly confident that you will definitely not be interested in reading our blogs if you honestly agree that some or all of the following assertions describe your attitude and behaviour.

1. You are not interested in or do not value other people
2. You are trapped in an unjust and non-compassionate behavioural pattern towards humans and animals
3. You are deluded into thinking that you have found all the answers necessary for your spiritual growth.
4. You have no time for an ongoing search for truth and meaning
5. You have no confidence in the ability of conscientious human beings to use all the available resources at their disposal in carrying out such a search
6. You are afraid of questioning the doctrines and dogma of authoritarian institutions
7. You have disengaged from your close association with all forms of life
8. You are depending on the emergence of a super-cosmic event or intervention which will solve all of your personal problems

In conclusion, as stated above I take full responsibility for the above statements which I have checked out with my fellow members.  On behalf of the Sydney Spirit of Life Unitarian Fellowship I therefore invite you to join our readership if you feel comfortable about being included.

Eric Stevenson

Thomas Carlyle wrote:
“Today is not yesterday. We ourselves change. How then,
can our works and thoughts, if they are always to be the
fittest , continue always the same? Change, indeed, is
painful, yet ever needful; and if memory have its force
and worth, so also has hope.
We ourselves change. It has been said that life is perpetual
growth; and that when you’ve finished changing – you’ve
finished!”

This thought provoking talk on change by the Rev. Geoff Usher can be found here.

“Heresy is a cradle; orthodoxy, a coffin”, (Robert G. Ingersoll)
“Truth is rarely simple and seldom obvious, which is why mature institutions recognise the importance of conflict and disagreement. Christianity was born in conflict, and it has been characterised by conflict ever since. The Church’s obsession with heresy is witness to this fact” (Richard Holloway)
Do you consider yourself a heretic? You should. The ancient Greek word for ‘choice’ is the word we know as ‘heresy’. Heretics are people of choice.

This provocative talk by the Rev. Rex Hunt, a speaker much in demand, has been descibed as briliant. You can read this address in full here.

“What the kangaroo and the koala are to Earth,
we are to the universe… The secrets of the universe
are not different from us”
(Paul Fleischman)
In a couple of weeks time two celebrations will occur. One is the Christian festival called Easter. A time when the life and death of a Jewish peasant sage called Yeshu’a, is remembered.

This talk by the Rev. Rex Hunt can be read here

By Dr Max Lawson

Although reticent by nature, a few words are in order about my attachment to Denmark and all things Danish. I taught for six years at the International People’s College in Elsinore (of Hamlet’s Castle fame) which is on the sea coast
about an hour’s drive north of Copenhagen. On weekends I took students on excursions. One particularly poignant one was to Gilleleje, the most northern point on the island of Zealand and the closest crossing to Sweden, twenty minutes by boat. Gilleleje, like Elsinore itself further south, was one of the escape centres to Sweden.

I took the students to the local ,village church in Gilleleye, which had a large loft or attic in which Jews were hidden, pending their escape to Sweden. Indeed they could see Sweden from a large porthole window. One group were betrayed either by a Danish informer or simply the Germans picked up loose gossip around the town. Another group that did not make it were the elderly Jewish residents of a
nursing home – they were overlooked.
In all 481 Danish Jews were deported to the Eesienstadt (north of Prague). From this “model” concentration camp many were deported to Auchwitz but the Danes were allowed to stay, a promise the Danish authorities had obtained from
Werner Best, head of the German occupation of Denmark.

The retelling of this extraordinary event in October, 1943 can be found here.