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Founded in 1699 – Still active
My children had lovely first words, Mum of course, a cat noise, my younger daughter just said ‘yeah’ to everything…until she learnt the word ‘no’ of course. But my first word was more and apparently, I used this abundantly in all situations. More of everything please! I’m still like that! And I wonder if wanting…
I’m sure I was born technophobic, and I sometimes feel a bit of a weed not being up with the technology of the twenty first century. But then what is a weed? Let’s see what Ralph Waldo Emerson had to say in a lecture given at the time when ‘cotton’ made up a great part…
1. My theme today is “Sons of Adam, Daughters of Eve”, so by way of introduction I’m going to read a short passage from the story of the first man and the first woman, Adam and Eve, as it appears in Genesis, the first book in the Bible: ‘The man named his wife Eve because…
“He prayeth well, who loveth well Both man and bird and beast. He prayeth best, who lovest best All things both great and small. (Coleridge – The Rime of the Ancient Mariner pt 7) Those opening words, were the words of Samuel Taylor Coleridge, from his poem ‘The…
One of my many memories of Christmases past is from 1968. It was hearing the astronaut and commander of Apollo 8, Colonel Frank Borman, reading the opening words of the book of Genesis as his spacecraft and its three-man crew orbited the Moon and he looked down on this “good earth”. This was the precursor…
I. Who was There: It is Advent, the time of preparation for the festival of Christmas. At its heart is the story of the birth of Jesus, as told in the gospels of Matthew and Luke, and it is a story retold in that great seasonal tradition, the Nativity play. Advent is the time for…
I. I suppose Byron’s phrase “those bloody banners” might, today, have a rather different meaning from that which he intended! He was referring to the blood-soaked banners of war, today it might be used by someone who is upset by the current craze for tying Union flags to lamp posts. Flags, or banners or standards,…
READING: Psalm 65: 1-2; 9-13 Lammas, which actually falls on 1st August, is the oldest Christian festival, at least in England, which gives thanks for the harvest. It dates from Anglo-Saxon times and was celebrated through the Middle Ages, until it fell out of favour at the Reformation. Although the secular festivities of Harvest Home…
The most potent symbol of Pentecost is fire – the “flames like tongues of fire” that appear to the disciples of Jesus gathered in the upper room and which come “to rest on each one.” And the fire itself is the sign of the Holy Spirit with which the disciples are filled and so transformed…
I. We have just had a week of celebrations for V.E. Day, marking the 80th Anniversary of Victory in Europe and the end of the war against Nazi Germany. It wasn’t the end of World War II, though. That had to wait until V.J. Day and victory over Japan three months later. There was still…
Ipswich Unitarian Meeting House 