Ipswich Unitarian Meeting House
Founded in 1699 – Still active
Category: Sermon
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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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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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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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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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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
Ipswich Unitarian Meeting House 