Ipswich Unitarian Meeting House
Founded in 1699 – Still active
Author: adamwhybray
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Queerness, Kinship, and Unitarianism: Reflections for Pride by Liz Constable
One is not born, but becomes straight(Sara Ahmed paraphrasing Simone de Beauvoir) When Linda invited me to share some thoughts with you all for our Pride Celebration service, I felt honoured and also a little flummoxed about what I could contribute to a congregation of Unitarians whose collective and individual histories abound in concrete examples
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No Thought of the Harvest
NO THOUGHT OF THE HARVEST Rev. Cliff Reed, Minister Emeritus Service address on Sunday 6th June 2021 I suppose worrying about the future has been one of the features of the pandemic. Worrying about our future health, worrying about the future of the economy and how it will affect us, worrying about whether planned
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Celebrating Wisdom, May Day and Beltane
CELEBRATING WISDOM, MAY DAY AND BELTANE Rev. Cliff Reed Ipswich Unitarian Meeting, 2nd May 2021 Text: The Song of Songs, chapter 2, verses 10 to 13. Those lines from the ancient Hebrew love poem that is the Song of Songs contain one of the most beautiful and memorable evocations of spring ever written. They are
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‘The Last Shall Be First: The Women and the Resurrection’ by Rvd. Cliff Reed
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. Matthew places her at the Crucifixion as do Mark
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‘Famous Last Words’ by Rvd. Cliff Reed
The last words of Jesus on the cross will be much read and much reflected upon today, but what were they? In fact the gospel accounts differ on this, and the most agonising and the most challenging version of those last words appears in only two of the gospels, Mark and Matthew. It has been
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‘In Defence of Uncertainty’ by Adam Whybray
When I was eight-years-old I was diagnosed with OCD. Some of my symptoms you will be familiar with – I used to wash my hands so much they bled, would get very upset if rules weren’t strictly adhered to (such as staying up later than my assigned bed time of eight o’clock) and would believe
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‘The ‘Religion’ of Donald J Trump’ by John Midgley
An address delivered at a worship service on Zoomfor Ipswich Unitarians, March 7th 2021 by John Midgley Love is the doctrine of this church. The quest for Truth is its sacrament, and service is its prayer.To dwell together in peace,To seek knowledge in freedom,To serve human need,To the end that all souls shall grow into
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‘Gather Ye Rosebuds While Ye May’ by Ann Baeppler
“Gather ye rosebuds while ye may”… This first line from Robert Herrick’s poem may well be familiar to you. I always thought it was its title – wrongly as I’ve discovered – it’s actually called “To the Virgins, to make much of time”. The general message of the poem is that we shouldn’t be aimlessly
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‘Interesting Times’ by Rvd. Cliff Reed
In the prayer we just had, Dwight Brown quotes the “ancient Chinese curse, ‘May you live in interesting times.’” Well, I suppose you could say that we live in “interesting times.” When we say that times are or were “interesting”, we generally mean that they are “interesting” to look back on from a safe distance.
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‘Happiness’ by Gerrie Hudson
Reflections Will you be YOUR valentine? Will you give yourself love, kindness and compassion? Before I knew there was the opportunity to lead this service on 14th Feb, I already had the idea of focussing on the ‘as yourself’ part of ‘Love your Neighbour as Yourself’. My Grandma was a committed and humble Christian, her
Ipswich Unitarian Meeting House 