https://us06web.zoom.us/j/86882949446?pwd=kliXbdABEfbU8FjDMtNRNJ4Lr2lb5z.1
Meeting ID: 868 8294 9446
Passcode: 612407
There will be a Life of the Church Meeting following the morning gathering. This will start at about 12:30 and will last about an hour. Led by Marianna Michell.
At the last Life of the Church meeting we decide to make it an invitation to reflect upon our individual selves: how our life changes do alter our perspective on who we are, now, in this church community. It will be an opportunity to talk, perhaps, about what suited us when we first attended, and what might suit us now. We hope it will run somewhat in parallel with three horizons project we have recently run, enabling each of us to identify aspects of our church involvement which we sense no longer fit, what roles may we have outgrown, how we see ourselves now, whom do we aspire to become, and how might we get there?
The link for this coming Thursday’s Zoom “Kiitsu Kyōkai” Seiza Meditation & Conversation Meeting, this week, 25th June 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 and a note about a translation of Klaas Hendrikse’s God does not exist and Jesus is his son:
In written form at:
https://andrewjbrown.blogspot.com
Or as podcast episodes at:
As you may have read last week, I was sadly unable to get to Switzerland to conduct Pascal and Juna’s wedding, having been admitted to hospital for an emergency operation to remove a kidney stone and repair a ruptured ureter. It was (and remains at times) extremely painful, and I came home in serious need of rest and healing. I am getting better, but I’m far from tickety-boo just yet—although with luck I will be with you on Sunday to offer a short thought for the day. However, I’m unlikely to stop around after the service, not least of all because I will have conducted a marriage service on Friday, and a marriage blessing on Saturday. I will be by then, I know, extremely tired. Thanks for all the kind words and offers of help. Much appreciated.
Anyway, to take my mind off things while confined to the house, I decided it was a good time (and I certainly had a goodly amount of it) to tackle translating a book I had long wanted to read: God Does Not Exist and Jesus is His Son (2010) by the liberal Dutch Reformed pastor Klaas Hendrikse (1947-2018), a man who had a profound influence on my own ministry.
Now, if you are a member of this congregation whose religious journey has been, like mine, profoundly shaped by liberal Christianity, I think you will truly enjoy this informed, deeply humane, and often gently wry take on what it means to (and how one can) remain part of that tradition, even as one needs—indeed, must—leave many its assumptions and beliefs behind.
Hendrikse wrote that this book was “written for people who do not consider themselves unbelievers, who are trying to find their way in the conviction that there is not ‘nothing’, and who are more inclined to believe in ‘something’ than in what is called ‘God’ in churches. They will, the author hopes, be helped by it to walk their own path of faith.”
I think he succeeds wonderfully in this, and so, here is a link to the Google Docs page containing my draft translation. I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed translating it. Having finished, I might now see if the Dutch publishers wish to publish it… it seems unlikely, but you never know!
God Does Not Exist and Jesus is His Son (2010) by Klaas Hendrikse (1947-2018)
If you read it then you will eventually discover that Hendrikse was very positively disposed towards a Dutch moment called Ietsism (Somethingism). In my role as minister of this congregation I can say, without doubt, that many members will find themselves resonating with the Ietsist position. Given that, I also make available a draft translation of a short, accessible, and I think important essay from 2007 by the Dutch theologian, journalist, editor, Theo van de Kerkhof, called The Intuition of Ietsism (Somethingism): Nothingness as Our Safe Haven.
Intuition of Ietsism (Somethingism): Nothingness as Our Safe Haven
Enjoy!
A link to “Our Principles of Living” and “Ten Advices”
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
Kiitsu Kyōkai (Returning-to-One Gathering)
https://andrewjbrown.blogspot.com/p/kiitsu-kyokai.html
Seiza Meditation (Quiet Sitting)
https://andrewjbrown.blogspot.com/p/seiza-meditation.html