https://us06web.zoom.us/j/86882949446?pwd=kliXbdABEfbU8FjDMtNRNJ4Lr2lb5z.1
Meeting ID: 868 8294 9446
Passcode: 612407
An important note about the second of two important Life of the Church Meetings following the service on Sunday 25th January 2026
This Sunday the service will not contain a thought for the day or a conversation as the thought for the day/conversation will be the content of the meetings themselves.
The service will finish at approximately 11:10am. We will break for 20 minutes for coffee, and then reconvene for the second Life of the Church.
These meetings are being arranged so that the trustees and the minister can bring before you all information they have about the current state of our buildings (the church, the hall, and the old manse), as well as the past, current, and expected, income of the church. This information will then act as the necessary background to a shared conversation about what we might/would/could like to do in the future to ensure that we have buildings, and a financially viable model, that is sustainable over the longer term for our small free-religious community. A community that, we would add, continues to desire to serve the needs of the wider, local (non-church) Cambridge community during the coming years.
To this end, the minister and trustees will also share with you at these meetings a few possible (and non-binding) scenarios (including the one currently with the council planning department — see this at the end of this update) simply to help us begin our shared conversation about what we want to do.
PLEASE NOTE (and I cannot stress this enough!) PLEASE NOTE: No final decisions are going to be made at these initial meetings. They are simply taking place to help us all to have the information before us that will show that, unless we wish consciously to enter into a process of managed decline, we cannot continue with the status quo, and that we will need to find ways to work together compassionately, kindly, respectfully, creatively, and at times, courageously, to find the path that will be for us safer than the known way.
When we are all informed, and have had the proper kind, and length of conversation together in which everybody will have had a chance to contribute, we will, as befits a genuinely democratic organisation, hold an Extraordinary General Meeting (EGM) and take a vote on what we wish to do. Obviously, it is still too early in the process to know when any EGM can meaningfully be held.
We invite you to this new stage of a conversation that was begun with the development of our Principles of Living during 2023/2024 (see below), and continued with the Three Horizons Workshop held in the church on the 18th October 2025, facilitated for us by Nick Butler-Watts on behalf of the General Assembly of Unitarian and Free Christian Churches (also see below).
A note from Marianna about leading singing at this year’s General Assembly Meetings (27-29th March)
This year, I will lead the General Assembly choir. Rehearsal slots are built into the timetable for ample preparation prior to the Annual service. I’m currently arranging three songs for the occasion, and I invite anyone who has not attended GA for years, to re-consider! And anyone who is curious – do inquire about attending. Details are on our national website: https://www.unitarian.org.uk
“Speak the speech, I pray you…“ (Hamlet) — Workshops to support clear speaking to a group
As we move towards becoming a more egalitarian community, opportunities arise to support and empower each other to that end. At the online Life of the Church gathering last Wednesday 21st, we took further the idea of church members basing a Thought for the Day on any of Norbert Čapek’s Ten Advices – hopefully on a monthly basis.
We have noted that the acoustics of our church and hall can make hearing frustratingly difficult for those with imperfect hearing, without amplification, nor a modern loop system. So, Marianna has offered to run short sessions in support of confident, clear reading and communication.
There are several elements to being heard and understood: of presenting what we have to say in a consistent manner. We will focus on areas such as connecting with our listeners, audibility, and engagement with text.
Many of us love to read; maybe we regard ourselves also as writers. So, these gatherings are for enjoyment and for sharing our experience and skills.
They will take place after services, so, do look out for the first date. Sandwiches at the ready!
A reminder that science this Thursday is the fifth Thursday of the month there will be no Zoom “Kiitsu Kyōkai” Seiza Meditation & Conversation Meeting this week. The next meeting will be on the 5th February at 19:30-21:00:
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
A note about an 8-week online Soul Deep course, taking place on Wednesdays from 14th January at 6.30pm facilitated by Aisha Madha and Mandy Reynolds
Links to the minister’s address/podcast:
In written form at:
https://andrewjbrown.blogspot.com
Or as podcast episodes at:
For additional national Unitarian news, please click on the following link:
Uni-news
https://us20.campaign-archive.com/home/?u=1590ea5f53cdc6fb8a17c311c&id=7bce4a21b7
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 (see below) 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.
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