Nov 20 2018
Archive for the 'Uncategorized' Category
Aug 28 2018
Programme Change 20 September 2018
Sea of Faith Dunedin – Programme Change
Inbox
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Alan Jackson
1:48 PM (26 minutes ago)
to Alan
Hello Sea of Faith Friends in Dunedin
When it was realised that the September Sea of Faith meeting clashes with the Archibald Baxter Memorial Annual Peace Lecture, it was decided to make the September Sea of Faith meting the Baxter Lecture and the October Sea of Faith meeting the one planned for September. So…
Sea of Faith meeting Thursday 20th September – Maire Leadbetter – Informed Dissent – Challenging State Secrecy 5.30pm in Archway 2 Lecture Theatre on Campus (this is the Archibald Baxter Memorial Peace Lecture).
Maire will be introduced by Prof Kevin Clements and thanked by Prof Richard Jackson and a book gift will be presented by author Dr Paul Sorrell.
Sea of Faith meeting Thursday 18th October – usual place and time – Bruce Spittle on the views of Jordan Peterson, a 56-year-old Canadian clinical psychologist and professor of psychology as expressed in his 12 Rules for Life: An Antidote to Chaos.
Appreciatively
Alan
……………………………………..
Alan Jackson
Newsletter Editor
Dunedin Local Group of the Sea of Faith Network
New Zealand
55 Evans Street
Opoho
DUNEDIN 9010
New Zealand
Ph: 473 6947
Jul 03 2018
Newsletter July 2018
Hello Sea of Faith Friends
Just because we are not physically meeting, doesn’t mean that we have stopped thinking and reflecting, meditating, praying and it always seems that there is much to think about.
Some of the more traditional community thought the sermon at the recent Royal Wedding was too long. At first I thought – “Hey, seven minutes is enough” but thinking later and reading the text, it was a different story. It is idealistic but then so was Martin Luther King when he shared his “I have a Dream” and we know that the violence of that era has translated into the unthinkable, a “man of colour” as President of USA – and one highly regarded for his intelligence and rhetoric. I think it was Ray Charles who was initially banned in his home state as a performer but his smash hit song “Georgia on my mind” has become the official anthem of the state now.
In 2010 there was the germ of an idea that there should be a memorial to Conscientious Objectors built. It was stimulated by the treatment of Dunedin farmer Archie Baxter (father of James K) during WWI. Well at the end of last week planning permission was granted for an inner city site to build the memorial.
Keep the faith.
Keep warm.
Very best wishes.
Appreciatively
Alan
……………………………………..
Alan Jackson
Newsletter Editor
Dunedin Local Group of the Sea of Faith Network
New Zealand
55 Evans Street
Opoho
DUNEDIN 9010
New Zealand
Jun 15 2018
Newsletter June 2018
Alan Jackson
Tue, Jun 5, 1:27 PM (10 days ago)
Hello Sea of Faith Friends
The Newsletter will continue during our recess for the winter – I’d love to hear from anyone with suggestions or articles – and I know that folk DO intend to send things in – but we all get side-tracked… (there is a proverb about the paving of the road to hell I think).
Our numbers, like every other organisation I belong to (apart from U3A) are shrinking and with winter holidays for a few of the leaders, a recess is the best solution. I hope that we will all keep warm, keep reading something new and difficult and challenging to exercise brains, create new brain cells and surprise ourselves.
I’m reading some of WB Yeats’ poetry just now – some is easy enough and some pretty obscure, so I’m reading (on the web) some analyses of his work to shed light. I discover that he had a patron, Lady Augusta Gregory, who ran the “big house” at Coole Park. I decided to read a bit more about her in a book called “Lady Gregory’s Toothbrush” by Colm Toibin. Towards the end of the book I discovered that Lady G regarded the Irish as being in two groups – those that had toothbrushes and those that didn’t. Towards the end of her lifetime, more Irish owned toothbrushes, and Ireland became more self-governing.
Yeats and Lady G started The Abbey Theatre in Dublin – they were criticised for the plays they put on including JM Synge’s Playboy of the Western World – well I had heard of that but hadn’t read or watched it and discovered that a theatre group had recorded a production (free on YouTube). The script is free on the Gutenberg Project website and there are reviews of the reception of the play from The Guardian (of the day) and the Irish Times.
All without leaving home during a wet week.
I hope you find a topic of interest and can share via the Newsletter. Drop a line to say what you are reading and how it is stimulating your thinking.
Keep warm.
Appreciatively
Alan
……………………………………..
Alan Jackson
Newsletter Editor
Dunedin Local Group of the Sea of Faith Network
New Zealand
55 Evans Street
Opoho
DUNEDIN 9010
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
Mar 02 2018
Newsletter March 2018
We Start With…
A two minute period of silence – a moment of peace.
From the Chair
I so enjoyed our February meeting, run by Alan Jackson, in which he gently and rapidly reviewed the changes in religion and faith since Victorian times, then asked the big question What do you believe now?
Members of my discussion group had many and varied answers, as is usual for Sea of Faith. I found myself talking about the things that grounded me – some of which I’d never realised before. I so enjoy being with folks who are open and accepting, it renews and challenges your thinking.
Our March meeting will start with our AGM, which will be very short, then there will be more opportunity to renew and challenge thinking as we talk about ‘whither and how’ for Dunedin Sea of Faith’s future. Do come along, you will be very welcome.
Gretchen
gretchen.kivell@xtra.co.nz (03) 473 0031
Our Next Meeting
Unlike many AGMs, this one will not be asking for volunteers to do things (but no-one will refuse offers either).
Our local active group is now around a dozen good folk and our finances are such that we cover the cost of the meetings and draw on a little of the reserve for the refreshments.
The financial details are attached to this mail.
Faith Thinking
When the church was a socially influential part of lives we were told what the ethical positions were on issues such as marriage, divorce, adultery etc.
With the secularisation of society here and elsewhere the individuals in the society have to work out those positions from an ethical point of view.
It means that we have to stay well-informed by reading, discussing, listening to expert opinion and then weighing up all the evidence to reach our opinion.
Sea of Faith is a good place to hold many of those discussions.
Sea of Faith – Dunedin
Nourishing our Spirituality
Newsletter MARCH 2018
Annual General Meeting
REMEMBER
THIRD THURSDAY
Thursday, 15th MARCH
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
Happy birthday Sir Lloyd Geering
Otago Daily Times
Saturday, February 24, 2018
Theologian regards century of change
By KAY SINCLAIR
As he approaches his 100th birthday, former Dunedin Presbyterian minister and controversial theologian Sir Lloyd Geering is writing another book.
But this one is not a theological treatise.
“Rather, it’s a small volume about how so many things changed during the 20th century,” the 99-year-old told the Otago Daily Times from his Wellington home yesterday.
He thinks he will call the book “How Times Have Changed”.
Because, as Sir Lloyd says, the past 100 years have certainly seen “such a lot of change”, including the way we communicate and the way we travel.
For example, today’s cell- phones and the internet are a far cry from the limitations of 100 years ago.
“My parents never really came to grips with the ordinary old telephone,” Sir Lloyd says.
As a child living in Southland, he saw electricity reticulated through much of the province. And for the first 25 years of his life, his family did not have electricity.
But today’s technology seems to pose few problems for the almost 100-year-old who spends a lot of time using his computer, communicates regularly with family members by Skype and also uses Skype to play Scrabble with nine other people in various parts of the world.
Writing about the extent of changes in the past 100 years or so recalls how the former Knox Theological Hall principal’s radical thinking so shocked and outraged conservative Christians 50 years ago, he was accused of heresy, although ultimately acquitted.
Now, he says, the matters raised at that time had all become very familiar and seemed “old hat”.
Through most of the 20th century, almost everyone believed in an afterlife.
“But by 2000, very few did.”
That was why funerals had changed so much. Rather than a ritual to celebrate someone’s passing from this world to a better life in the next, funeral services were now more a celebration of a person’s life and achievements and what the person meant to family and friends.
Sir Lloyd has very strong links to Dunedin and Otago, with two years at St Clair Primary School, five years at Otago Boys’ High School and seven at Otago University and Knox Theological College. And, after his ordination, he served in parishes in Kurow and Dunedin and was also Knox College principal for some time.
“I spent almost half of my life in Dunedin and enjoyed it,” he said.
While he is not 100 years old until Monday, Sir Lloyd has already received greetings from the Queen, the Governor General and the Prime Minister.
And he is looking forward to a celebration tomorrow with 80 family members and friends, some coming from Australia, Germany and Singapore.
His son and two daughters and their families, including a great grandson, will be there — “the first time all of the family will have been together”.
Sir Lloyd says his health is good, he is “pretty fit”, keeps his brain active with puzzles and games, and walks for 30 minutes every day.
And he has good genes. His father lived to be 100.
Newsletter Editor:
Alan Jackson
55 Evans Street
DUNEDIN 9010
Ph: 473 6947
alanjackson@xtra.co.nz
Mar 02 2018
Letter from Alan and newsletter March 2018
|
4:26 PM (15 hours ago) |
Hello Sea of Faith Friends On the day of last meeting there was a funeral for our friend Robin Smith and most of our group was able to attend the service. At the meeting we all spoke about the things we remembered about Robin – he was a stalwart of our group until failing health sapped his vitality. The Labour Party made him a Life Member in recognition of his sterling services there and he was a founder-member of the Dunedin Chapter of the Howard League for Prison Reform. He was very often to be seen at University Club on Fridays and at the open lectures at University – he certainly did keep himself thoroughly busy in making social justice happen here in the city – an example to be admired and followed Robin. It seems that most groups to which I belong; Royal Dunedin Male Choir, Freemasons, University Club etc have ageing memberships and our Sea of Faith group is no exception. It seems no time at all since we had 25 at our regular meetings at Highgate. OK I know all groups are ageing but you know what I mean. As our group gets smaller we have to look at how we continue – and continue we do plan to do – but in what form, where, how often and so on. That conversation your committee had at the January meeting but the membership must have a say as well and that discussion will follow the AGM – and if we have any spare time we’ll continue to tease out “What we Believe”. Is it possible to have a Creed and say “I believe” (Credo = I believe) in these things… (as in The Apostles Creed and the Nicene Creed)? There is never any shortage of issues to think about. Appreciatively Alan……………………………………..Alan JacksonNewsletter EditorDunedin Local Group of the Sea of Faith NetworkNew Zealand 55 Evans StreetOpohoDUNEDIN 9010New Zealand Ph: 473 6947 http://dsof.blogtown.co.nz/The Sea of Faith Network: Exploring Meaning in Life
We Start With…
A two minute period of silence – a moment of peace.
From the Chair
I so enjoyed our February meeting, run by Alan Jackson, in which he gently and rapidly reviewed the changes in religion and faith since Victorian times, then asked the big question What do you believe now?
Members of my discussion group had many and varied answers, as is usual for Sea of Faith. I found myself talking about the things that grounded me – some of which I’d never realised before. I so enjoy being with folks who are open and accepting, it renews and challenges your thinking.
Our March meeting will start with our AGM, which will be very short, then there will be more opportunity to renew and challenge thinking as we talk about ‘whither and how’ for Dunedin Sea of Faith’s future. Do come along, you will be very welcome.
Gretchen
gretchen.kivell@xtra.co.nz (03) 473 0031
Our Next Meeting
Unlike many AGMs, this one will not be asking for volunteers to do things (but no-one will refuse offers either).
Our local active group is now around a dozen good folk and our finances are such that we cover the cost of the meetings and draw on a little of the reserve for the refreshments.
The financial details are attached to this mail.
Faith Thinking
When the church was a socially influential part of lives we were told what the ethical positions were on issues such as marriage, divorce, adultery etc.
With the secularisation of society here and elsewhere the individuals in the society have to work out those positions from an ethical point of view.
It means that we have to stay well-informed by reading, discussing, listening to expert opinion and then weighing up all the evidence to reach our opinion.
Sea of Faith is a good place to hold many of those discussions.
Sea of Faith – Dunedin
Nourishing our Spirituality
Newsletter MARCH 2018
Annual General Meeting
REMEMBER
THIRD THURSDAY
Thursday, 15th MARCH
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
Happy birthday Sir Lloyd Geering
Otago Daily Times
Saturday, February 24, 2018
Theologian regards century of change
By KAY SINCLAIR
As he approaches his 100th birthday, former Dunedin Presbyterian minister and controversial theologian Sir Lloyd Geering is writing another book.
But this one is not a theological treatise.
“Rather, it’s a small volume about how so many things changed during the 20th century,” the 99-year-old told the Otago Daily Times from his Wellington home yesterday.
He thinks he will call the book “How Times Have Changed”.
Because, as Sir Lloyd says, the past 100 years have certainly seen “such a lot of change”, including the way we communicate and the way we travel.
For example, today’s cell- phones and the internet are a far cry from the limitations of 100 years ago.
“My parents never really came to grips with the ordinary old telephone,” Sir Lloyd says.
As a child living in Southland, he saw electricity reticulated through much of the province. And for the first 25 years of his life, his family did not have electricity.
But today’s technology seems to pose few problems for the almost 100-year-old who spends a lot of time using his computer, communicates regularly with family members by Skype and also uses Skype to play Scrabble with nine other people in various parts of the world.
Writing about the extent of changes in the past 100 years or so recalls how the former Knox Theological Hall principal’s radical thinking so shocked and outraged conservative Christians 50 years ago, he was accused of heresy, although ultimately acquitted.
Now, he says, the matters raised at that time had all become very familiar and seemed “old hat”.
Through most of the 20th century, almost everyone believed in an afterlife.
“But by 2000, very few did.”
That was why funerals had changed so much. Rather than a ritual to celebrate someone’s passing from this world to a better life in the next, funeral services were now more a celebration of a person’s life and achievements and what the person meant to family and friends.
Sir Lloyd has very strong links to Dunedin and Otago, with two years at St Clair Primary School, five years at Otago Boys’ High School and seven at Otago University and Knox Theological College. And, after his ordination, he served in parishes in Kurow and Dunedin and was also Knox College principal for some time.
“I spent almost half of my life in Dunedin and enjoyed it,” he said.
While he is not 100 years old until Monday, Sir Lloyd has already received greetings from the Queen, the Governor General and the Prime Minister.
And he is looking forward to a celebration tomorrow with 80 family members and friends, some coming from Australia, Germany and Singapore.
His son and two daughters and their families, including a great grandson, will be there — “the first time all of the family will have been together”.
Sir Lloyd says his health is good, he is “pretty fit”, keeps his brain active with puzzles and games, and walks for 30 minutes every day.
And he has good genes. His father lived to be 100.
Newsletter Editor:
Alan Jackson
55 Evans Street
DUNEDIN 9010
Ph: 473 6947
alanjackson@xtra.co.nz
Feb 06 2018
Newsletter February 2018
We Start With…
A two minute period of silence – a moment of peace.
From the Chair
Happy New Year to you all. I hope that Christmas and New Year has been a good time for you.
Your committee has met and, to meet some particular requirements, we are going to meet on the third Thursday of each month, beginning in February. I trust this is OK for you; you may need to alter your diary entries.
The committee had a fruitful discussion about the future of Dunedin Sea of Faith, as we get to be a smaller group. We’d like to open this discussion up to all who attend meetings, and will do so at our March meeting after the AGM.
Gretchen
gretchen.kivell@xtra.co.nz (03) 473 0031
Our Next Meeting
A rose by any other name
(Romeo and Juliet)
At last conference the old idea of our funny title Sea of Faith came up again. I think everyone knows that this topic has come up again and again at conferences but no-one has managed to give an alternative title that appeals or really describes what we do. The words were used by Professor Don Cupitt in a six-part 1984 BBC TV series about the history of Christianity in the modern world in response to advances in science, politics and secularisation.
We remember that it comes from the poem “Dover Beach” by Matthew Arnold in 1867
The sea is calm tonight.
The tide is full, the moon lies fair
Upon the straits; on the French coast the light
Gleams and is gone; the cliffs of England stand,
Glimmering and vast, out in the tranquil bay.
Come to the window, sweet is the night-air!
Only, from the long line of spray
Where the sea meets the moon-blanched land,
Listen! You hear the grating roar
Of pebbles which the waves draw back, and fling,
At their return, up the high strand,
Begin, and cease, and then again begin,
With tremulous cadence slow, and bring
The eternal note of sadness in.
Sophocles long ago
Heard it on the Ægean, and it brought
Into his mind the turbid ebb and flow
Of human misery; we
Find also in the sound a thought,
Hearing it by this distant northern sea.
The Sea of Faith
Was once, too, at the full, and round earth’s shore
Lay like the folds of a bright girdle furled.
But now I only hear
Its melancholy, long, withdrawing roar,
Retreating, to the breath
Of the night-wind, down the vast edges drear
And naked shingles of the world.
Ah, love, let us be true
To one another! For the world, which seems
To lie before us like a land of dreams,
So various, so beautiful, so new,
Hath really neither joy, nor love, nor light,
Nor certitude, nor peace, nor help for pain;
And we are here as on a darkling plain
Swept with confused alarms of struggle and flight,
Where ignorant armies clash by night.
Sea of Faith – Dunedin
Nourishing our Spirituality
Newsletter FEBRUARY 2018
Expert Analysis
Here is an analysis from the web site The Victorian Web
http://www.victorianweb.org/authors/arnold/touche4.html
“Dover Beach” is a melancholic poem. Matthew Arnold uses the means of ‘pathetic fallacy’, when he attributes or rather projects the human feeling of sadness onto an inanimate object like the sea.
The first stanza opens with the description of a nightly scene at the seaside. The lyrical self calls his addressee to the window, to share the visual beauty of the scene. Then he calls her attention to the aural experience, which is somehow less beautiful. The lyrical self projects his own feelings of melancholy on to the sound of “the grating roar /Of pebbles, which the waves draw back, and fling/ At their return, up the high strand” This sound causes an emotion of “sadness” in him.
The second stanza introduces the Greek author Sophocles’ idea of “the turbid ebb and flow of human misery”. A contrast is formed to the scenery of the previous stanza. Sophocles apparently heard the similar sound at the “Aegean” sea and thus developed his ideas. Arnold then reconnects this idea to the present. Although there is a distance in time and space (from the Aegean in the Eastern Mediterranean to Dover Beach on the south coast of England — “northern sea”), the general feeling prevails.
In the third stanza, the sea is turned into the “Sea of Faith”, which is a metaphor for a time (probably the Middle Ages) when religion could still be experienced without the doubt that the modern (Victorian) age brought about through Darwinism, the Industrial revolution, Imperialism, a crisis in religion, etc.) Arnold illustrates this by using an image of clothes. When religion was still intact, the world was dressed (“like the folds of a bright girdle furled”). Now that this faith is gone, the world lies there stripped naked and bleak. (“the vast edges drear/ And naked shingles of the world”).
The fourth and final stanza begins with a dramatic pledge by the lyrical self. He asks his love to be “true”, meaning faithful, to him. (“Ah, love, let us be true /To one another!”). For the beautiful scenery that presents itself to them (“for the world, which seems/ To lie before us like a land of dreams,/ So various, so beautiful, so new”) is really not what it seems to be. On the contrary, as he accentuates with a series of denials, this world does not contain any basic human values. These have disappeared, along with the light and religion and left humanity in darkness. “We” could just refer to the lyrical self and his love, but it could also be interpreted as the lyrical self-addressing humanity. The pleasant scenery turns into a “darkling plain”, where only hostile, frightening sounds of fighting armies can be heard:
And we are here as on a darkling plain Swept with confused alarms of struggle and flight, Where ignorant armies clash by night.”
What’s In a Name?
Renaming Sea of Faith?
Alan Jackson
NEW TIME
THIRD THURSDAY
Thursday, 15th FEBRUARY
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
According to Ian Hamilton, these lines refer to a passage in Thucydides, The Battle of Epipolae, where — in a night encounter — the two sides could not distinguish friend from foe”.
Comment for our Discussion
Could it be that in 1867 Arnold saw the faith of people as being in recess whereas now, whilst we may think that we are in a secular society (one where church and state is separate) we are in the midst of a time of great spiritual awareness (think of the care which goes into modern marriage vows, the choice of venue for marriages, the time spent preparing eulogies at funerals and not just be clergy either). There are dozens of “thoughts for the day” in newspapers and magazines and these are often from non-Christian faith traditions but do speak to us at a meaningful level.
There are many strongly held faith traditions in New Zealand – faith schools of all kinds as well as different places where people of faith meet.
Maybe we should call our organisation “Oceans of Faith” to reflect today’s widespread and deeply-held faiths.
Can you think of any other poem or popular song lyric perhaps, which conveys the idea of our search for meaning in life?
As we get older, we are less tied to routine work, perhaps chasing promotion, raising children, altering or painting the family home and we turn to thoughts of the spirit and meaning of it all.
Monty Python made a film The Meaning of Life in 1983, and Douglas Adams has written about it – the answer is 42 or is it?
I picked up on a comment of Lloyd’s at conference when he used the term Nourishing Our Spirituality and used that as the strapline in the November Newsletter – did you notice? What do you think?
We are a spiritual people whether we go to a church or not. We constantly look to make sense of our lives and our world amidst the major issues; Euthanasia, Youth Suicide, Climate Change, Population Growth, Resource use, Plastics Pollution, Species Extinction, Robotics, Universal Basic Income, Racial Tensions, Feminism, Regional Wars, Brexit, Borders in Northern Ireland, Home Rule for Scotland, Ireland, Wales, using Te Reo – the list goes on.
The issues confront us daily – where do we stand? Are we at peace with our decisions? Do we need to modify our viewpoint in the light of new research?
Coming together at meetings like ours, attending lectures at University, joining in with Mornington Methodist Open Education group, attending talks at the Hospital Chaplaincy, Discussions on Ethics at St Paul’s Cathedral and our Medical School, being part of the National Sea of Faith Organisation ($20 per year) and receiving the bi-monthly newsletter whether by paper ($30 extra) or e-mail (no further charge), watching some TED talks on YouTube, reading widely and then SHARING one’s discoveries – that makes us the spiritually rich and generous folk we try to be and make our place a slightly better one for our presence and for our neighbours. It is important to be informed about issues so that we can discuss without bigotry, it is important to keep an open mind when new information comes along.
The world doesn’t always have to be just as it is now – and we have the example of one great teacher who showed a way.
Euthanasia Submissions
Have your say by 20th February 2018
https://www.parliament.nz/en/pb/bills-and-laws/bills-proposed-laws/document/BILL_74307/end-of-life-choice-bill
Newsletter Editor:
Alan Jackson
55 Evans Street
DUNEDIN 9010
Ph: 473 6947
alanjackson@xtra.co.nz
Gratitude Quotations
Alfred Painter:
Saying thank you is more than good manners. It is good spirituality.
Brother David Steindl-Rast:
Gratefulness is the key to a happy life that we hold in our hands, because if we are not grateful, then no matter how much we have we will not be happy — because we will always want to have something else or something more.
Buddha:
Let us rise up and be thankful, for if we didn’t learn a lot today, at least we learned a little, and if we didn’t learn a little, at least we didn’t get sick, and if we got sick, at least we didn’t die; so, let us all be thankful.
Cicero:
Gratitude is not only the greatest of virtues, but the parent of all the others.
Denis Waitley:
Happiness cannot be travelled to, owned, earned, worn or consumed. Happiness is the spiritual experience of living every minute with love, grace and gratitude.
Eric Hoffer:
The hardest arithmetic to master is that which enables us to count our blessings.
Jean Jacques Rousseau:
There is nothing better than the encouragement of a good friend.
Johannes A. Gaertner:
To speak gratitude is courteous and pleasant, to enact gratitude is generous and noble, but to live gratitude is to touch Heaven.
John F. Kennedy:
As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words, but to live by them.
Marcel Proust:
Let us be grateful to people who make us happy; they are the charming gardeners who make our souls blossom.
Meister Eckhart:
If the only prayer you said in your whole life was, “thank you,” that would suffice.
Seneca:
There is as much greatness of mind in acknowledging a good turn, as in doing it.
What’s In a Name?
Renaming Sea of Faith?
Alan Jackson
NEW TIME
THIRD THURSDAY
Thursday, 15th FEBRUARY
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