Ipswich Unitarian Meeting House
Founded in 1699 – Still active
Author: adamwhybray
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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…
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TEMPTATION AND BEATITUDE: A LENTEN MEDITATION
There are those who seek to heal the wounds and divisions that make enemies of human beings and of nations, upholding the vision of just and humane relationships at every level.
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Membership Meeting
Our reasons for meeting here are multiple – people will be here for company, a sense of community, stimulating thought, the calming routine of ritual, and a chance to consider that which lies beyond our immediate perception. Our reasons for membership are likewise. For me membership should fundamentally allow us authenticity – the ability to…
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WHERE DO THE MERMAIDS STAND?
“Where do the mermaids stand?” asked the mermaid in Robert Fulghum’s tale about some sort of wild children’s party. And on being told that “There are no such things as mermaids”, the mermaid replies, “Oh yes [there are], I am one.”
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Too Cosy at Christmas
“I suppose that most of us like our Christmas to be a cosy time, and, for most of us it probably is – although we know well enough that this isn’t so for all too many today.”
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A REFLECTION ON THE DEATH OF THE QUEEN
“The death of the Queen has been met with so many fulsome and wholly justified tributes that I hesitate to add to them. But this is such a momentous event in our country’s story that I don’t feel I can just pass it by.”
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Address by Andrew Benedict
In “Cathedral”, a short story by the American novelist Raymond Carver, the main character tries to describe a cathedral to man who is blind. “They’re really big,” he explains. “Massive. They’re built of stone. Marble, too, and lots of polished wood. In those olden days, when they built cathedrals, [people] wanted to be close to…
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TIME TO WAKE UP: A JUBILEE REFLECTION
lways be joyful, pray continually; give thanks whatever happens; for this is what God wills for you in Christ Jesus.” (I Thess. 5: 12-18). Hold to that ethos and we will be true to the Spirit that has filled all loving communities of faith, regardless of the particulars of doctrine and theology.
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FROM GENTLEMAN JACK TO THE TRANSGENDER DEBATE
“This General Assembly of Unitarian and Free Christian Churches,a. Affirms with joy that each person’s understanding and statement of their own gender identity is a matter of conscience;b. affirms that transgender rights are human rights;c. joins the BMA, the TUC and others in civil society in urging the adoption of the self-declaration model for gender…
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Dismal Stories
There was a time when people who delivered “dismal stories” were called “Jeremiahs”, Jeremiah being the Old Testament prophet most given to predictions of unrelieved gloom and disaster. But Jeremiah’s tragedy, like that of Cassandra in Greek mythology, was that he was not believed even though he was right…
Ipswich Unitarian Meeting House 