Sunday Greetings, 29th March 2020
Greetings and best wishes from Emmanuel Road.
As I did last week I’ve written some words as a Sunday reflection and should you be minded, you can read that at the following link:
On a connected theme the philosopher Nigel Warburton wrote a piece last year that has just been republished by the New Philosopher magazine called ‘Unexpected Change.’ As he notes this piece is suddenly very relevant. Again, should you be minded you can read that at the following link.
Unexpected Change by Nigel Warburton
Perhaps here I could draw your attention to Nigel Warburton’s own excellent podcast series:
https://philosophybites.com
To the wonderful archive of Melvyn Bragg’s series In Our Time:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/2Dw1c7rxs6DmyK0pMRwpMq1/archive
And to the the History of the World in 100 Objects and Living with the Gods presented by Neil MacGregor:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00r2hky
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0001p7s
Just a reminder that a recording of the evening service of mindful meditation is now available as is the offer for an online ‘Epicurean Gathering’ this coming Wednesday. If you click on the link below you’ll go to my last message to you as it appears on the church website the website and in it you’ll find all the relevant links.
If you’re looking for other calming, reflective things (and who isn’t!), Tal sent me this lovely mp3 along with the following words:
“Just before dinner tonight, I happened to make a ‘live’ (ie. got one or two mistakes in it, and Bev shouting ‘Dinner!’ in the background!) recording of the Duetto from Mendelssohn’s Lieder ohne Worte, composed in June 1836, just after Mendelssohn met his future wife. It’s such a relaxing piece. I played it by candlelight — feel free to recreate the cosy experience and listen by candlelight too. And you’re welcome to share it with the congregation if you think they’d enjoy it.”
Thank you Tal. We look forward to hearing you again in the church building as soon as we are able.
And lastly, for today anyway, in response to one of my earlier emails I had a lovely message from someone who joined our congregation for a few months last year whilst he was staying in Cambridge, Dan Kinch. Dan is currently in Chennai and in his email he wrote the following insightful words that echo one of the points I made in my Sunday spiel linked to above:
“And now in this current situation we all find ourselves in, distance seems to be taken completely out of the equation—my mode of interaction with my local friends in Chennai is exactly the same as my mode of interaction with friends and loved ones back in the UK, or even in the US. Everyone in my life is now exactly as far away as everyone else is, and with the literal distance that gave rise to this comes a strange-yet-comforting sense of closeness.”
Thank you Dan. And with Dan’s thoughtful words I bid you au revoir and I’ll be in touch again sometime in the middle of the week. Naturally, please just drop me a line if you need to talk at any time.
Every best wish,
Andrew
Andrew J. Brown
http://andrewjbrown.blogspot.com/
@caute
Minister
Memorial Church (Unitarian)
Emmanuel Road
Cambridge
CB1 1JW
01223 576952
07477 462 110
http://www.cambridgeunitarian.org/