Auckland Unitarians

Speaker & Worship Leader:- Viv Allen Recorded @ Auckland Unitarian Church 25 February 2024 I had intended to read one of Clay’s talks entitled,  Why should we learn another language? From Sept 2020  in its entirety but after I read it I realised that a lot of it was about Clay’s personal journey. I have experience with my own journey regarding this topic so I’ve added some of my own thoughts a...

Speaker:-  Laurie Ross & Worship Leader:- Shirin Caldwell Laurie Ross © 18 February 2024 A Call to the people of New Zealand, as a Nuclear Free Peacemaker nation, to withdraw from Militarisation and Warfare. It is time for Humanity to end the barbaric practice of war to work for Peace and Justice. ‘Love’ is the foundation of Unitarian fellowship and the quest for ‘Truth’ leads to liberating ou...

Speaker & Worship Leader:- Rachel Mackintosh Recorded @ Auckland Unitarian Church, 11 February 2024 Why do we repeat this ritual every year? It isn’t just to brag about our travels. When we share our water in the common bowl, it reminds us that while we are separate people, we are also part of an interdependent community. You probably know about the water cycle.... For more information see:- h...

Speaker & Worship Leader:- John DiLeo Recorded at Auckland Unitarian Church 4th February 2024 At the end of October, I travelled to Washington, DC, to present training at and attend the OWASP Global AppSec Conference. On the Sunday before the conference, I had the opportunity to attend the first  ThreatModCon , a one-day mini-conference focused on threat modelling. At that event, I was privile...

With Rachel Mackintosh Recorded at Auckland Unitarian Church 21 January 2024 Alice laughed. “There’s no use trying,” she said. “One can’t believe impossible things.” “I daresay you haven’t had much practice,” said the Queen. “When I was your age, I always did it for half-an-hour a day. Why, sometimes I’ve believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.” “THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS”, LEW...

With Alix Geard Recorded by Auckland Unitarian Church 31 December 2023 Good morning, community of Auckland Unitarians. Kia ora koutou! As we gather on this last Sunday of the year, New Year’s Eve, we find ourselves between times, standing on the bridge that connects the past and the future. Today, our theme is “Reflections and Resolutions” – a time to look back at the footprints we’ve left on the...

Speaker:- Jonathan Mason Worship Leader:- Phebe Mason Recorded at Auckland Unitarian Church 17 December 2023 Each year, as we celebrate Christmas, I have wondered what really happened in Bethlehem. The Nativity Scene is embedded in our seasonable culture. In our Unitarian hymn book, we have about 25 hymns that refer to Bethlehem, the Star, and the manger scene. So this year, with the request for s...

Speaker:-  Paul Tonson Worship Leader:- Alix Geard Recorded 10 December 2023 @ Auckland Unitarian Church From my earliest years I’ve known about Jesus of Nazareth and in my youth I was especially drawn to him as a charismatic individual. Later I loved the idea of him as a sign of contradiction, a life-long challenge to my easy preconceptions and natural prejudices. Last week a number of you recall...

Speaker & Worship Leader:- Betsy Marshall Recorded @ Auckland Unitarian Church 3rd December 2023 Today we gather to celebrate the opening of this building on 4 December 1901 – exactly 122 years ago tomorrow. As Clay Nelson said in his service for new members in 2015, the anniversary of the building is a time to be reminded that “we didn’t get here out of nothing, we are connected to those who...

Speaker:-  Paul Tonson Worship Leader:- Ted Zorn Recorded @ Auckland Unitarian Church 26 November 2023 The path ahead of us JESUS WITHOUT CHRIST  is a possible title for a book that has been germinating in my mind recently. In preparing for today with Ted, I was delighted to find that numbers of this congregation may share the questions that give rise to such a title. This discovery has confirmed...

Speaker:- Rachel Mackintosh Worship Leaders:- Ted Zorn, Kate Lewis Recorded at Auckland Unitarian Church 5th November 2023 Our recently retired minister, Clay Nelson, died on Thursday (2 November 2023). Those of us who have known Clay are grieving. So, we’ve changed this service to reflect on coming together in grief and the wonder of life. Rachel MacIntosh, Clay’s wife, will present a talk that C...

Speaker & Worship Leader:- Kate Lewis. Recorded 19th November 2023 @ Auckland Unitarian Church. I’m very aware that this is the first service since Clay died that we’re not using one of his talks. I’ve been on the calendar for months, and Ted and I decided that this would be an alright topic for today since we’re hurting and I hope that some of these words may be useful for all of us in dealin...

Speaker & Worship Leader:- Viv Allen Viv Allen led a service centred around a reading of a  Clay Nelson sermon from February 2020 For more information see:- https://aucklandunitarian.org.nz/curiosity-may-be-harmful-to-cats-but-how-about-to-unitarians-2/

Speaker:- Mary Ellen Warren Worship Leader:- Ruby Johnson Recorded at Auckland Unitarian Church 29 October 2023 For more information see https://aucklandunitarian.org.nz/world-polio-day/

Speaker:- Grant Williams of Maritime Union of New Zealand Worship Leader:- Rachel Mackintosh. For more information see:- https://aucklandunitarian.org.nz/a-wharfies-story/

with Karn Cleary Recorded at Auckland Unitarian Church 15 October 2023 For more information see https://aucklandunitarian.org.nz/flower-communion-4/

Speaker:- John Maindonald Worship Leader:- Shirin Caldwell Recorded 8 October 2023 @ Auckland Unitarian Church John Donne (1572-1631), who wrote the words that I want to ponder today, lived in England in troubled times. He was born to a staunchly Roman Catholic family at a time when it was illegal to be a practicing Catholic. For more information see:- https://aucklandunitarian.org.nz/no-person-is...

Speaker:- Peter Lineham Worship Leader:- Ruby Johnson I was very struck by an article in the Washington Post on 21 August of this year by Perry Bacon jnr.... Recorded 1 October 2023 by Auckland Unitarian Church For more information see:- https://aucklandunitarian.org.nz/finding-your-home-in-the-church-community/

Recorded @ Auckland Unitarian Church 24 September 2023 Speakers & Worship Leaders:- Rachel Mackintosh & Betsy Marshall In early 2014, our Unitarian community was coming to terms with the fact that after only eight months, due to visa issues, we’d lost the American minister we’d contracted for two years. Fortunately the Ministerial Search Committee wasted no time in resurrecting itself to i...

Speaker & Worship Leader:- Rev. Clay Nelson Recorded @ Auckland Unitarian Church 17 September 2023 Here is a factoid about your minister I hope to have kept from you for nine years. In secondary school, I was a band nerd. I wasn’t the cool one playing the sexy alto sax like I wanted. Instead, I was consigned over my objections to playing the tuba. It was even more humiliating as I was one of t...

Speaker:-  Paul Watson of Essentially Men Worship Leader:- Ted Zorn Kia ora everyone, and a heartfelt thanks to Ted for that beautiful introduction. When I first met you Ted around 20 months ago I instantly liked you, and I think one of the reasons is because as you presented last week ‘You’ve always had a thing for language’. I think our brains connected quickly, my Auckland spelling, speaking an...

with Ted Zorn Recorded at Auckland Unitarian Church 27 August 2023 I’ve always had a thing for language. I think I inherited this from my dad. Dad wasn’t highly educated, nor widely read – the only magazines he ever subscribed to were Reader’s Digest and TV Guide, and I never knew him to read a novel — but he loved to play with language. He often used words that were either made up or some version...

With John DiLeo Recorded @ Auckland Unitarian Church, 20th August 2023 As we were driving home from last Sunday’s service, I was thinking on what I should talk about this week. During that service, we celebrated Clay’s years with this church as our paid minister, and we acknowledged that phase of our community’s life was coming to a close. During the Notices that day, Ted reminded us all of the ne...

Speaker & Worship Leader:- Rev. Clay Nelson Recorded @ Auckland Unitarian Church, 13th August 2023 As has been mentioned once or twice recently, and to my great sadness, I am retiring at the end of the month. Because I have loved all forty-one years of my ordained ministry in two denominations and my nine years with you, I want to scream, “Nah, this isn’t how I planned it.” But, ”Yeah, it is t...

Speaker & Worship Leader:- Rachel Mackintosh. Recorded 6th August 2023 at Auckland Unitarian Church. I met Clay 10 years ago at a residential training for community organising. The basis of the training was storytelling. At the opening of the training, all participants were asked to tell stories about a time we had spoken truth to power. Clay’s story was about taking the Anglican Bishop of Auc...