Welcome to the ANZUUA Newsletter!

This is a regular email newsletter from ANZUUA (The Australia and New Zealand Unitarian Universalist Association). Please subscribe, if you haven't already!!

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G'day and Kia ora to all our readers, and welcome to the May 2024 newsletter!

As Unitarian Universalists, we affirm the inherent worth and dignity of every person, the interdependent web of all existence, and the free and responsible search for truth and meaning. We respect the diversity of religious traditions and spiritual paths that enrich our world, and celebrate the diversity of beliefs and values that enrich our communities.

Let us collectively aspire to foster a sense of community, understanding, and compassion that will bring us closer together, inspire us to embrace diversity, and empower us to make a positive impact in our local and global communities. May this be a year of shared learning, meaningful connections, and the fulfillment of our collective aspirations, with love, laughter, and the realization of your deepest hopes and dreams!

Vale Revd Peter Ferguson

 We mourn together with the Western Australian Unitarians the death of the Revd Peter Ferguson. Peter was President Emeritus of ANZUUA, serving for two terms as ANZUUA President, as well as leading the Perth congregation for 26 years. We are grateful for his life and generosity, and memories of him will live on.  ANZUUA offers our condolences to his family and to all members of the Western Australian fellowship.

Peters funeral is Wednesday, May 8th 2024 at 2:15 PM in Perth (4.15 pm Eastern Australia), and will be live streamed. Please see https://bowraodea.com.au/tribute-page/?nid=60517677-6b83-41f2-8a7f-515c4d2505c3 for details.

Future Events

Climate Action: Many in the climate movement (GetUp!, ACF, AYCC, 350.org, Tipping Point) have a huge fortnight of action called Rise Up planned for Monday 29th April to Friday 10th May. This is supported by ARRCC who encourage faith organisations to join in the activities. https://action.getup.org.au/rise_up 2nd May - 9th May, https://www.movebeyondcoal.com/rise_up and https://www.arrcc.org.au/

International Convocation of UU Women: 5-8th September at Cluj-Napoca/Kolozsvár in Transylvania, Romania, the cradle of Unitarianism. The convocation offers a chance to explore the collective need for peace within ourselves and our own communities, as attendees learn how to be more effective change-makers in today’s climate of intersecting global crises and uncertainties. The program for the convocation, “Weaving a Tapestry of Peace and New Perspectives: Connect – Collaborate – Create,” includes notable speakers and panel discussions. The convocation is also an opportunity for fellowship and new cultural experiences with U/Us from around the world. Details: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=71YcLHCME8c and registration links https://www.intlwomensconvo.org/page/4th-convo-2024-september/

 ANZUUA Shared Worship in July

We plan to hold an ANZUUA act of worship by Zoom mid-year. The provisional date will be 28th July at 3 pm New Zealand time, which is 1 pm Eastern Australian time, 12.30 pm in South Australia and 11 am in Perth. Please mark this date in your calendar.

Brisbane UU Fellowship Retreat - August

BUUF will hold a retreat at Springbrook in the Gold Coast Hinterland commencing Friday 16th August in the afternoon and going through to Sunday Afternoon 18th August. We welcome visitors from other UU communities who would like to attend - for details please email info@brisbaneuu.org.au.

ANZUUA Climate Crisis Worship and Study Materials

At the ANZUUA Conference in 2023 our keynote speaker was Emeritus Professor Geoff Levermore. He was a lead author of the 2008 report of Inter-governmental Policy on Climate Change (IPCC). Along with Al Gore, he was the recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize for his work.

Prof Levermore has just been elected the President of the UK General Assembly of Unitarians and Free Christians, and has signalled that he intends to encourage further action by Unitarians on the issue.  He is pictured here being congratulated by Revd Dr Ralph Catts.

ANZUUA has developed a Climate Crisis Information Report and Guidelines for action by congregations and individuals, which will be distributed to all congregations for consideration and further action.

ANZUUA recognises the need for a spiritual commitment to the sacred and inherent responsibility of all human kind to ensure that future generations can inherit from us a planet in which all sentient beings can prosper. As part of this policy, all congregations are requested to provide resource materials for worship and for discussion circles. These materials will be included with the ANZUUA statement and guidelines on the ANZUUA web site.

OLD TREES AND ORWELL’S ROSES: MOMENTS OF WONDER…

© Rev Rex A E Hunt, MSc (Hons), Sydney Spirit of Life Unitarian Fellowship,

Empire Bay NSW 2257

 “The planting of a tree, especially one of the long-living hardwood trees,

is a gift which you can make to posterity at almost no cost and with almost no trouble,

and if the tree takes root it will far outlive the visible effect

of any of your other actions, good or evil”

(George Orwell)

"You don’t have to go into the city to your National Museum to see an impressive work of art.

Just go outside and look at the trees.

Nature’s magnificent living sculptures are in our house gardens,

on nature strips, and in the parks and bush reserves.

         But they are so often easily overlooked. 

Stand under a big old tree and look up." ....

(article continues, with the full text in a pdf file on the ANZUUA website at

https://www.anzuua.org/file-share/b5372c25-9cdb-47c6-ae10-0b93fd9f473d
(wait a few seconds for the file to appear).)

Rex Hunt has written a thought-provoking prose piece, and invites us to look up at the towering trees around us and appreciate them as magnificent living sculptures and incredible feats of natural engineering. Hunt's reverence for trees and the wonder they inspire connects to core Unitarian principles valuing direct experience of transcendent mystery through nature.

The piece highlights the marvels of how trees can communicate underground via fungal networks, identify insect threats, and create beneficial ecosystems sheltering rich biodiversity. Rex Hunt suggests trees' very existence over millions of years points to an inherent sacredness in the natural world that can open our minds to new perspectives and invites readers to observe trees' ingenious processes, to gain fresh insights beyond our daily thinking. By urging us to go sit under trees to discover their "wonders great and small," Hunt hopes we can recapture a sense of awe and amazement to enrich our lives.

Please read the full text on the ANZUUA website at https://www.anzuua.org/file-share/b5372c25-9cdb-47c6-ae10-0b93fd9f473d (wait a few seconds for the file to appear).

Our NZ and AUS UU Communities

A listing, with links, of the churches and fellowships that make up ANZUUA can be found here: https://www.anzuua.org/findingus. We will share news of a selection of UU communities each month. You are encouraged to send any news from your community that you’d like to share to Lynn at lynnjkelly@gmail.com.

Melbourne UU Fellowship

The Melbourne UU Fellowship is busy planning for its retreat in May at Old Hospital Loch 17-19 May.  All UUs are welcome!  Contact us on MelbUUFellowship@gmail.com if you're interested in coming along.  We are also continuing with our monthly exploration of Spiritual Practices.  And on 21 April, our monthly Sunday service focused on a thought experiment about believing in god.  We also meet up for a film once a month.  This month it was Perfect Days, which we all enjoyed.

Brisbane UU Fellowship

We have had some interesting and engaging services, with Death and Memory by

Neville Buch, and A Geological Perspective on What Matters by George Shaw from up-state New York. On the 12th May, Lynn Kelly will lead the service with the topic of Reflections on the Meaning of Work.

 BUUF meet twice a month, on the 2nd Sunday and the 4th Sunday of each month at 10am Queensland time. The service on the 4th Sunday of the month is on Zoom only. We provide Zoom links via email (contact us at info@brisbaneuu.org.au) for all our services mid-week before the service, to allow people who are remote or ill to connect. We encourage all who are able, to attend and help build personal connections and community. We typically have around 10 to 20 people in total attend, some local, some sailing on boats, and some connecting from international locations.

Auckland Unitarian Church

Last Sunday April 28th we hosted a regular visiting speaker Peter Lineham who was introduced by our service leader Ruby Johnson. Peter Lineham is a Massey University Professor emeritus of history and he gave us a fascinating talk about Transcendentalism and its roots in the history of American Unitarianism. We had a great turnout and there was much applause for Peter’s talk. I noticed many people googling after the service, myself included, to find more information about this topic. Peter has for many years written and lectured extensively on the religious history of New Zealand.

Submitted by Viv Allen, Management Committee secretary

You can join Auckland services online at 11am NZ time with the link below:

https://aucklandunitarian.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=c71f9aa30fd6cb6fa8ea2da3d&id=cfbef81007&e=7852c2e060

Meeting ID: 894 916 3748 (tel:894 916 3748)

Password: 12345

Spirit of Life Unitarian Fellowship Sydney

The Sydney Spirit of Life Fellowship held 3 meetings in April and will hold 3 meetings in May, all on Sunday mornings at the Kirribilli Neighborhood Centre, North Sydney.

The topics of recent meetings were:

"It Took Jesus a Thousand Years to Die ....", led by Rev Rex Hunt 

“Rational Mysticism", led by Martin Horlacher

“Socrates”, led by Rev Geoff Usher

Topics for upcoming meetings are:

"The Trouble with Narcissists" Part 1, to be led by Ginna Hastings

"What Liberation Theory might say about the Inequities of our Private Education System", to be led by Rev Dan Jantos

Lively discussion on the topic usually follows the presentation, in our "around the table" setting. Morning tea and a chat always follows the meeting.

At a recent committee meeting we agreed to make another donation to the Afghan Filmmakers Rescue Fund to assist Afghans, who worked with Australian Filmmakers in Afghanistan, to obtain visas to leave Afghanistan to avoid persecution. For an update on their situation click here (wait for a few seconds for the file to appear). The link to our SOL website is https://sydneyunitarians.org/

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