Greetings to you all.
This update contains:
- A link for the Morning Service of Mindful Meditation, Music & Conversation
- A note about the Music Group meeting this Sunday 19th
- A note about Hassocks to Cushions meeting after this Sunday’s service
- Games, Recipes and Equality on Saturday and Sunday 15th-16th November—led and facilitated by Aisha Madha (flyer below)
- A link for the Thursday morning/evening Zoom “Kiitsu Kyōkai” Seiza Meditation & Conversation Meeting
- Links to the minister’s address/podcast
- Planning Application
- Minutes of the Life of the Church Zoom meeting on Wednesday 15th October
- A link to additional national Unitarian news
A link for the Morning Service of Mindful Meditation, Music & Conversation
Our regular Sunday Morning Service of Mindful Meditation, Music and Conversation starts in the church on Emmanuel Road at 10.30 am and finishes at 11:40 am. Should you wish to join this by Zoom, please use the following permanent link:
https://us06web.zoom.us/j/86882949446?pwd=kliXbdABEfbU8FjDMtNRNJ4Lr2lb5z.1
Meeting ID: 868 8294 9446
Passcode: 612407
A note about the Music Group meeting this Sunday 19th
Marianna writes: “Calling singers to a run-through of two interesting items from Sing Your Faith (purple hymn book). Marianna may be absent for the following two Sundays, so we’ll meet earlier in the month this time.”
A note about Hassocks to Cushions meeting after the service on Sunday 19th
Celia is thinking about regularly setting the alternate third-Sunday-afternoons aside to work on the conversion for our hassocks to cushions. If you’d like to join Celia, then please do . . .
Games, Recipes and Equality led and facilitated by Aisha Madha on Saturday and Sunday 15th-16th November—details in the attached flyer. Please let Aisha know if you wish to attend.
A link for the Thursday morning/evening Zoom “Kiitsu Kyōkai” Seiza Meditation & Conversation Meetings:
This coming Thursday, 23rd October, the meeting will be at 10:30-12:00.
For more information, please visit:
https://andrewjbrown.blogspot.com/p/kiitsu-kyokai.html
https://www.cambridgeunitarian.org/evening-service/
Join Thursday Zooms at the same link:
https://us06web.zoom.us/j/85775868333?pwd=LEuyKnfbRJORbqsuzkhsonHui4ttwA.1
Meeting ID: 857 7586 8333
Passcode: 970614
Links to the minister’s address/podcast:
In written form at:
https://andrewjbrown.blogspot.com
Or as podcast episodes at:
Planning Application—if you would like to look at the Planning Application, the Church has put in can be found at the following link:
https://applications.greatercambridgeplanning.org/online-applications/applicationDetails.do?activeTab=documents&keyVal=SYVKZODXGQW00
There are a lot of drawings, sections and plans as separate documents on the application, but the Heritage & Access Statement draws everything together in one PDF and outlines the process leading to the final plans. Please remember that these plans have been submitted simply so that we will soon have before us some necessary information so that, as a congregation, we will be able to decide together how best to use/reuse/reconfigure our buildings in the coming years. It’s vital to be absolutely clear that no decision has been reached about what we might, or might not, do, and no such decision can be reached before the congregation has worked through all the possibilities available to it.
Minutes of the Life of the Church (LoC) Zoom meeting on Wednesday 15th October
PRESENT: Elden Horner (ET Trustee), Marianna Michell (MM church musician), Sue Tombs (ST Trustee), Laurinda Luffman (LL), Mark Woods (MW), Ruth Gilman (RG), Jacqui Carnall (JC Trustee), Celia James (CJ Trustee).
The main items planned on the Agenda were to hear Andrew Brown (AB) describe something of his work while on sabbatical and to look at the thought he had had about changing a phrase in our Sunday guided meditation. AB had laid this before us before his sabbatical during August and September but the LoC Group had not managed to look at it. We were pleased to have AB amongst us again, to facilitate the meeting.
A. AB had suggested that we might amend the wording ‘sense of oneness’ in our guided meditation to ‘returning-to-one’. This will be more in keeping with the tenor of Kiitsu Kyōkai (Kiitsu means ‘returning-to-one’, and Kyōkai means ‘gathering.’ We explored a bit how we personally react to and interpret the wording in the meditation and hold those, looking at how we are seeking to be part of something already underway, with its tradition. Making this amendment is in the tradition of the way this meditation developed over the years when it was the church’s Sunday evening meeting and we agree to the change of wording.
B. We would like to learn more about other services AB takes and to understand what underpins them: such as planning for and conducting weddings and funerals. We note that AB is the only Registered person in our church personnel. AB suggested that we may work to prepare certain liturgies and/or meditations for specific national or world crises or celebrations. We realise this could involve dedicated and regular meetings to take the tasks forward.
C. We considered the focus of the LoC Group and would like to see it run parallel to the work of the trustees’ group, which attends to the framework of the buildings and our statutory responsibilities. It could be thought of as the trustees’ work being to define the buildings and resources we need for ourselves and our wider community, and the LoC’s work being to define the ethos, principles and energy of ourselves AS that community: Trustees and the Life of the Church being twin Groups. At this time we are in something of a hiatus, awaiting the decision of the City Planners, to know what might be possible for our community to define for our buildings.
D. AB described something of the studies he had undertaken during his sabbatical, his work in translating texts from the Japanese free-religionists, Czech Unitarian communities and the International Association for Religious Freedom, exploring its relevance to our own community. We realise our links with other traditions and would like to explore how these apply in the present day, for instance, fostering potential links with Buddhist groups like Risho Kosei-kai. This kind of this is, of course, already underway in the Thursday Kiitsu Kyōkai groups of zoom. We think it could be stimulating to develop international connections with other religious communities, particularly focusing on potential partnerships with Buddhist groups and other Unitarian communities.
E. We look forward to the workshop at the church on Saturday 18th October : Shaping the Future Together: Three Horizons, led by Nick Butler-Watts, Innovation Programme Manager at the GA.
F. We shall not meet next on our usual third Sunday of the month, for a picnic lunch, but, instead, aim to be part of the two day event being run by Aysha Madha: Games, Recipes and Equality.
G. We shall meet by zoom on December 17 at 5pm..
Celia James
Andrew Brown
For additional national Unitarian news, please click on the following link:
Uni-news
https://us20.campaign-archive.com/home/?u=1590ea5f53cdc6fb8a17c311c&id=7bce4a21b7
Andrew James Brown
(Days off are generally Monday and Tuesday)
Minister
Cambridge Unitarian Church
Emmanuel Road
Cambridge
CB1 1JW
07477 462 110 (Mobile)
http://www.cambridgeunitarian.org/
Blog: Caute
https://andrewjbrown.blogspot.com/
Podcast: Kiitsu—Returning-to-One
https://kiitsu.buzzsprout.com
Jiyū Shūkyō / Free-Religion
https://andrewjbrown.blogspot.com/p/free-religion.html
Seiza Meditation (Quiet Sitting)
https://andrewjbrown.blogspot.com/p/seiza-meditation.html