Apr 03 2018
Newsletter April 2018
Hello Sea of Faith Friends
Next meeting:
Limits to Growth
Alan Jackson
REMEMBER
THIRD THURSDAY
Thursday, 19th APRIL
St John’s Church Hall,
Cnr Wright Street
& Highgate
Tea and Coffee
will be available from 5.30pm
The programme will start at 6.00pm
Contribution – $5
Gretchen mentions a radio programme about having conversations about dying. Some of you will have heard it – for those who haven’t – <ctrl> <click> on this link.
Kathryn Mannix is one of Britain’s foremost palliative care doctors. After 30 years at the deathbeds of thousands of patients, she believes that dying has turned from an everyday experience to an overly medicalised procedure, and that we’ve lost the familiarity previous generations had with the process of dying. Her bestselling book With The End in Mind, is her attempt to break the “conspiracy of silence” around mortality.
It is VERY well worth the effort whatever age you happen to be, and maybe you might include some younger people in the listening.
It is linked, indirectly, to our topic for April “Limits to Growth”.
There are just over two weeks before the meeting so keep your eyes on the papers and please collect any related articles – we can look at them at the meeting and see how they further our conversation.
Appreciatively
Alan
We Start With…
A two minute period of silence – a moment of peace.
From the Chair
Over many years our Sea of Faith group has discussed a range of issues to do with death and dying, including euthanasia (several times, as we keep up with recent thinking and proposed changes to the law); Advanced Directives; the book ‘Being Mortal’ by Atul Gawande.
I’ve just been listening to Kathryn Mannix, a palliative care doctor in Britain, talk to Kathryn Ryan about her approach ‘We need to talk about dying’, which I found to be profoundly interesting. Congruent with Atul Gawande, she opens up important issues, for example “there are situations where medical treatments that were helping to keep someone alive are now prolonging their dying”. This was a distressing issue within my family about 15 years ago, and I’m so pleased to know how thinking has moved on since then. http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/ninetonoon/audio/2018637230/kathryn-mannix-we-need-to-talk-about-dying
Gretchen
gretchen.kivell@xtra.co.nz (03) 473 0031
Our Next Meeting
There have been many letters in the papers recently about overcrowded tourist sites and the littering of the countryside. Lack of facilities at freedom camp sites is an issue too. Some people in the cities (food, accommodation, vehicle hire etc) benefit from increased tourism but is there a limit to the growth? Is tourism simply a different form of mining of the environment as logging, coal mining and mineral extraction once were?
We know that we have over-fished species such as Orange Roughy and we know that seals and whales were endangered before our attitudes changed.
We will look at issues surrounding limits to growth, including tourism both here and in other hot spots.
We will touch on the question – is the establishment of life on Mars a solution?
Limits to Growth
Alan Jackson
REMEMBER
THIRD THURSDAY
Thursday, 19th APRIL
St John’s Church Hall,
Cnr Wright Street
& Highgate
Tea and Coffee
will be available from 5.30pm
The programme will start at 6.00pm
Contribution – $5
…………………..
Frances Smithson: on Robin Smith
“His great strength was his gentleness”.
…………………..
Fred Fastier
Fred attended our Local Group meetings until the start of this year when hearing became too great a problem – despite hearing aids and our sound system.
This article appeared in the University of Otago Alumni News – you will all be interested and inspired by it.
The University of Otago wished former Pharmacology faculty member and long-time Otago supporter Emeritus Professor Fred Fastier a happy 98th birthday on Tuesday, 13th March.
Fred taught pharmacology at Otago between 1949 and 1980 and was the inaugural professor of Pharmacology.
Since the mid-1990s Fred has supported the Fastier Prestigious Summer Studentship, which funds BSc, BSc (Hons) and MSc Pharmacology and Toxicology students over a 10-week summer research project.
Fred was made the first honorary member of the Pharmaceutical Society of New Zealand in 1969 for his significant contribution to the development of pharmacy education.
He remained academically active for many years after leaving his post, eventually gaining a master’s degree in philosophy. In recent years he has often attended lectures on campus on a wide range of topics and has written and self-published a number of books, limericks and other entertainment.
Thanks to Sheila Clarke for drawing our attention to this item.
Mornington Methodist Open Education Series
April 18th: Jimmy McLaughlan on the new Dunedin Methodist Mission hostel for young transients.
May 16th: Prof Paul Morris on the Revision of the National Statement on Religious Diversity’.
June 20th: Prof Peter Lineham on Sunday Best, his book on the impact of NZ culture on the Christian Church (and vice versa).
July 8th: A film on Environmental Issues (probably Richard Attenborough on the Great Barrier Reef).
August 15th: Paul Gourlie on Contemporary Islam in Dunedin.
September 19th: Prof Colin Gibson on Mr Bach’s Magnificat.
October 17th: Students from the OU Centre for Theology and Public Issues.
Last Meeting
After the AGM we looked at our future given our declining numbers. We brainstormed many ideas – one which appealed is to consider the winter meetings and either move them to mid-day or postpone them. This could mean a gap of two or three months when we don’t meet and that may mean that some folk would find it easier not to attend on resumption.
Meeting at Summerset, in the library and paying the same fee as our present hall hire, has advantages in that we currently have several members resident there and our meeting might encourage some new folk to come along. Meeting in private homes is awkward as there are accessibility issues at most places.
Marjorie and Bruce generously offered to host a BBQ in the good weather at year end.
It was suggested that since most of us will not be so active in another ten years, we ought to consider what has been achieved by our Sea of Faith Local Group by way of preparing to “wind down”. Someone suggested that the folk who are still resident in Dunedin who no longer attend, might be invited to a BBQ to contribute to such a process – what did they get out of it when they were active members.
Meanwhile… in the words of the song we… keep right on to the end of the road.
Hello Sea of Faith Friends
Gretchen mentions a radio programme about having conversations about dying. Some of you will have heard it – for those who haven’t – <ctrl> <click> on this link.
Kathryn Mannix is one of Britain’s foremost palliative care doctors. After 30 years at the deathbeds of thousands of patients, she believes that dying has turned from an everyday experience to an overly medicalised procedure, and that we’ve lost the familiarity previous generations had with the process of dying. Her bestselling book With The End in Mind, is her attempt to break the “conspiracy of silence” around mortality.
It is VERY well worth the effort whatever age you happen to be, and maybe you might include some younger people in the listening.
It is linked, indirectly, to our topic for April “Limits to Growth”.
There are just over two weeks before the meeting so keep your eyes on the papers and please collect any related articles – we can look at them at the meeting and see how they further our conversation.
Appreciatively
Alan