Ipswich Unitarian Meeting House
Founded in 1699 – Still active
Author: adamwhybray
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Reaping What We Sow
It sometimes seems that the future is bleak, with a burning planet descending into a chaos of social disintegration, environmental collapse and war as the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse ride out. But it needn’t be like this.
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Defoe and Dissent
Defoe leaves us on his fictional island, as Crusoe left his ‘subjects’, with a diverse, humane, tolerant and harmonious community of men, women and children, “of which”, we are told, “there were a great many.” Not a bad vision for the 18th century and maybe not a bad one for the 21st!
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Education, Education, Education
“If King Solomon, Jesus and God Himself struggle to get their students to listen, what chance does a humble secondary school teacher have?”
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Earth, Moon and Lammas
The climate-change and global warming, which the satellites in space have enabled us to chart on a planetary scale, make for a grim story that we ignored for too long – about fifty years or so, in fact. We may not be able to rely on the cycle of seedtime and harvest as we once…
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Pentecost and the Chalice Flame
We light our chalice to affirm the values we hold dear, to remember the “flames like tongues of fire” at Pentecost, and we light it to profess the Spirit that gives us life, the Breath of God which is our life and the life of the world.
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Type II Fun
Some time ago, Stacie took a break from work to send me an article from the Washington Post, titled “What is Type II fun,” and why do some people want to have it?” This was accompanied by a simple observation: we shall see if this long-distance bike ride we’re planning for this summer is Type…
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Outside the Cliffs of Eden
“There are no kings inside the Gates of Eden” sang Bob Dylan back in1967, at the height of that decade’s idealism and optimism. In an ideal world there would be no need for kings or rulers of any kind. People would cooperate, not compete; they would be ruled by wisdom and reason, live together in…
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The Last Shall Be First
“One of the most notable aspects of the Easter accounts in the four canonical gospels is the presence of women at the crucial moments. And one woman in particular is named as being present at virtually all of them, namely Mary of Magdala or Mary Magdalen.”
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The Challenge of the Cross
“He was on the side of people who care about those who suffer. And he said that God was on their side too. And he showed that standing up for those who suffer can itself bring suffering: that standing up for truth, standing up for peace, standing up for justice, standing up for humanity, standing…
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A Beloved Community
When you consider the obsession of the institutional Christian Church down the centuries with inventing, promoting, defending and enforcing so-called ‘orthodox’ dogmas, creeds and doctrines, you might imagine that Jesus had some interest in such things. Well, he didn’t. His concern was to create a new community that embraced, embodied and practiced love: divine love…
Ipswich Unitarian Meeting House 