https://us06web.zoom.us/j/86882949446?pwd=kliXbdABEfbU8FjDMtNRNJ4Lr2lb5z.1
Meeting ID: 868 8294 9446
Passcode: 612407
The link for this coming Thursday’s Zoom “Kiitsu Kyōkai” Seiza Meditation & Conversation Meeting, this week, 28th May 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:
A notice from Marianna about the possibility of starting a new group: ‘From PAGE to SCREEN’ in which some of us could gather to watch films.
Notes from last week’s Life of the Church Zoom Meeting
The meeting focused on planning meditation practices and services for the upcoming months. The group discussed using Jerry’s harvest meditation for August 9th and considered alternative approaches for the regular harvest festival in October. We reviewed several meditation options including Mariana’s proposal for June 14th (when Andrew will be away conducting a wedding in Switzerland), with Andrew offering feedback on making meditations more generic and inclusive for different religious backgrounds. The group also discussed the need for someone to handle the thought for the day portion of the June 14th service and agreed to ask for volunteers during the next service. They reviewed Andrew’s draft meditation on the opening of the Principles of Living that Kento Suzuki had provided feedback on, suggesting incorporating physical anchors and focusing on feeling rather than just thinking about concepts. The conversation ended with plans for the next Life of the Church meeting will be a face-to-face one on following the morning gathering on 21st June. At the moment we’re planning 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?
A notice from Jerry and Caroline about their Oxfam fundraising tea party on Saturday 13th June at 3pm
Caroline and Jerry are holding another fundraising tea party for Oxfam on Saturday 13th June at 3pm at their bungalow, 17B Mill Lane, Histon. Please bring a donation of £5 cash per person. Directions are available if required. Oxfam work across the globe, but are currently heavily involved in emergencies in Gaza, Lebanon, Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo. All are welcome.
Draft minutes from our AGM on 26th April 2026
Please note that these minutes remain draft minutes despite having been sent to, and checked by those who attended the AGM. At the next AGM they will be formally ratified and signed (if all agree) as being an accurate record of the meeting.
Unitarian Church Cambridge CIO
Annual General Meeting
Held in the Church on Sunday 26th April 2026
The meeting was quorate (i.e. more than 10 members present in Church or on Zoom)
Attendance Members attending in the Church: Elden Horner (Trustee), Sue Tombs (Trustee), Jacqui Carnall (Trustee), Celia James (Trustee), Jerry Carr-Brion, Marianna Michell, Stephen Lawrence, Susanna Brown, Courtney Van de Weyer, Katie Burns, Tony Burns.
Members attending online: Aysha Madha, Clare Southall
Friends attending in the church: Caroline Carr-Brion, David Burns, Daiva Doualgiene, Andrew Brown (Minister).
Friends attending online: Ruth Gilman.
Apologies: Rosemary Watson, Stephen Watson, Pascal Keller.
- The Minutes of the AGM held on 27th April 2025 had been circulated and read; they were approved unanimously.
Proposer: Marianna Michell Seconder: Jerry Carr-Brion - Matters arising from the Minutes: None
- Statement of Accounts and Trustees’ Report for 2025: Sue Tombs (ST) explained that the Accounts before the Meeting had only just been received from Staffords and still need to be signed before they can be submitted to the Charity Commission. Since our Accounting Year runs January to December, Trustees intend to prepare the 2026 Accounts in January 2027, and, because Staffords have proved so tiresome to deal with, they will suggest that we change to another firm to be our Examiner of Accounts. We ask Sue Tombs and Thomas Carlisle to look into this and report to Trustees. The originals of the two Treasurer reports are filed with these minutes. Stephen Lawrence was reassured that there was no impediment to the Accounts being signed and submitted to the Charity Commission. David Burns (DB) spoke to our financial situation and explained the need to assess our ‘burn rate’ (the rate at which our resources are being used in the present way) and that while the annual figure of our cash outflow is negative, it is not at a rate which is excessive at present. David reiterated that we are fortunate in that our investments are such that we are in a position to decide to use them imaginatively and boldly at this time, to implement our building plans for the church: that there are times to conserve funds and there are times to realise them. Andrew Brown spoke to the considerable workload which had been entailed in becoming a CIO and expressed appreciation for the work of the previous church committee members, as well as trustees. The Meeting thanked Sue Tombs and Thomas Carlile, our treasurer and Church Administrator, for the considerable body of work which they undertake on our behalf on a day to day basis. The Statement of Accounts and Trustees’ Reports was unanimously approved. Proposer: Tony Burns. Seconder: Courtney Van de Weyer
- Re-Election of Trustees: Celia James, Jacqui Carnall, Sue Tombs and Elden Horner were unanimously re- elected. Proposer: Courtney Van de Weyer. Seconder: Jerry Carr-Brion
- Election of fifth Trustee: Aysha Madha being willing to stand, she was unanimously elected as Trustee.
Proposer: Marianna Michell. Seconder: Susanna Brown. We welcomed AM to this service and thanked her for taking on the role of Safeguarding Lead for the church. - Re-election of Chairperson: Being willing to continue as Chairperson, Celia James was unanimously re-elected. Proposer: Courtney Van de Weyer. Seconder: Stephen Lawrence
- Re-election of Treasurer: Being willing to continue as Treasurer, Sue Tombs was unanimously re-elected. Proposer: Marianna Michell. Seconder: Susanna Brown
- Selection and appointment of Examiner of Accounts for 2026 accounts: Sue Tombs spoke to the frustrations she and Thomas Carlile had encountered, for yet another year, in dealing with Staffords and proposed that we take action to change to another firm. We need to be dealing with a Firm who will engage with us and answer our questions. To this end we ask Sue Tombs to seek a different Firm but we agree to re-employ Staffords for next year’s accounts if she cannot find a replacement for the. Proposer: Stephen Lawrence. Seconder: Marianna Michell
- The need to close the Tallerman House Trust: The sale of Tallerman House was completed some time ago and all monies from the sale have been received, and it only remains for us to address the formalities of winding up the Trust. We agreed to close the Tallerman House Trust. Proposer: Tony Burns. Seconder: Jerry Carr-Brion. We expressed our gratitude to those on the Committee at the time who engaged in the onerous tasks of overseeing the sale and investing the proceeds for us. We thank Andrew Bethune for agreeing to oversee this last formality.
- The need to close the Cambridge Memorial Church Charity. Sue Tombs spoke to the procedure by which this can be done by means of an email to the Charity Commission, requesting the closure of the Cambridge Memorial Church Charity, as we are now a registered CIO. We understand that the Charity Commission merely merges the old charity with the new CIO. We agree to ask Sue Tombs to oversee this and thank her for this work. Proposer: Celia James. Seconder: Courtney Van de Weyer
- Trustees’ thanks: Sue Tombs spoke for all trustees in thanking Victoria Robinson at Buckles Law Firm for all her work on our behalf to complete our Transfer Document, from the church being the old charity to becoming a CIO. We are also very grateful to Yasmin Glavin at Ashtons Law Firm for all her work in getting our buildings registered with the Land Registry. Both these tasks have been frustrating and tiresome procedures for Victoria and Jasmin, and they have been very patient with us. The tasks were made more complicated than usual by the death of our previous lawyer, with the lack of clarity as to what he had or had not achieved so far, and time slots ran out during the impasses, so that procedures had to be started anew; (plus any of the disruptions due to Covid at the time). Trustees have valued all the thought and detail that our architects, Owers Warwick, have put into developing the building plans for the church. We appreciate the level of their engagement with the City Planners and their commitment to our project, not least in their generous pricing of their services. Trustees thank Courtney Van de Weyer for being our intermediary with Owers Warwick and for pursuing all the ways we can liaise with them to make the best case possible to the City Planners. We have relied on her to be overseeing all the developments as they have arisen and benefitted from her own engagement with the project. Trustees thanked David for all his attention to our affairs throughout the year. We value his steady guidance as we go forward with our plans, as well as his oversight of our day to day affairs, recorded in our minutes; we have appreciated his attendance at our Trustee meetings.
- AOB. Courtney Van de Weyer described the processes behind the choices we’ve needed to make with regard to our building plans. Courtney explained the consequences of the very unsatisfactory site visit made by the Planning Officer, whose criticisms about ‘the loss of use’ had been based on the assumptions she had made about the Hall and the church; the Planning Officer had not even entered either building, but had only cursorily looked at the exteriors. However, the Heritage Officer, who was also present, had toured the buildings. We understand why we have needed to withdraw our plans; that this is to make some minor adjustments to address these criticisms, and then to submit our plans as a Pre-Planning application. One of the things we have been able to add to the plans is to show how all the activities that take now place in the Hall and Common-room will transfer easily to the refurbished church (which is almost totally unused at the moment) and the reconfigured manse. Courtney told us that the Pre-Planning Application had been submitted to the City Planners on April 24th and that we can expect an answer to take six months; if this has been successful, we understand that we may then be asked for some specialist reports by the City Planning Department and we recognise that we shall need to employ some consultants for these. We agree that all expenses accrued so far have been money we needed to spend and have been judiciously costed, to promote our plans (on which our future depends).
13 Date of Next AGM: date set for Sunday 25th April 2027
We thank everyone for their attendance and attention.
Celia James – Chairperson
Signed ……………………………………………..………………Dated…………………………………..
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.htm
Seiza Meditation (Quiet Sitting)
https://andrewjbrown.blogspot.com/p/seiza-meditation.html