Ipswich Unitarian Meeting House
Founded in 1699 – Still active
Tag: Cliff Reed
-
THE HOLINESS OF HARVEST
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
-
V.E. DAY AND THE AMBIGUITY OF CELEBRATION
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
-
Easter Mash-Up
What does Easter mean to people nowadays? I found myself asking this question when I was walking through my local cemetery one day during Holy Week, between the hope of Palm Sunday, and the despair of Good Friday. Passing by a new grave I was confronted by what, to me, was a truly bizarre sight
-
Dying For Us All
Two thousand years ago, on a Friday morning in Jerusalem, at the season of Passover, a young Jewish rabbi named Jesus was led out to be executed, to be crucified on the orders of the imperial Roman authorities. That is what we commemorate today. In the eyes of the Romans he was a trouble-maker guilty
-
Marianne Faithfull and the Ages of Women
I. Marianne Faithfull, one of the most truly iconic figures of the so-called ‘swinging sixties’, died on 30th January. I say “iconic” carefully and deliberately – it is such an overused word these days – because in the 1960s Marianne Faithfull’s image – which is what “icon” means – came to represent the feminine aspect
-
The Religion of Jesus
Today we tend to see our Unitarian movement as inclusive and diverse to a remarkable degree, but we should never cease to be aware that our roots are in Christianity, and that many Unitarians – of whom I am one – identify as Christian, albeit of an extremely liberal hue. There was a time, not…
-
A Carribean Odyssey
“Those were days I never should have had, in a country I never should have been in… but I did have those days, on that beautiful island, having times that changed my life… until my Odyssey brought me back to Ithaca.”
-
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.
-
Fragments of the Mind of God: Atoms in Search of a Meaning
When you read Ezekiel’s visionary experience of the “four living creatures” appearing out of the tumultuous, flashing sky and the “wheels within wheels” that rise and move with them (chapter 1, vv. 4-21), you could be forgiven for wondering what he had been smoking because that vision bears the hallmarks of an hallucinogenic experience. But
-
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
Ipswich Unitarian Meeting House 