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Thoughts About St Michael's, & etc.
Oct. 10th, 2012 03:00 pmLast Sunday visited St. Michael's Uniting Church where the service was on the cheery subject of cancer. It was a essentially humanist presentation albeit with a small component of Christian ritual, but concluding with a brilliant Chinese opera singer. It was apparently a quiet day - there was only 350 people in the congregation. After the service I attended the new member's gathering, and last night a class on Dr. Francis McNab's "New Faith" - which is essentially using the myths of religion (yes, he and his colleagues call them "myths"), tied with the insights of psychotherapy.
There are inevitable comparisons with the Melbourne Unitarian Church, a place where I have hitherto spent so much time and energy. Aesthetically of course, St. Michael's is far superior, an absolutely stunning heritage-listed building. They are much better organised with a sophisticated distribution of powers, responsibility, with extensive qualified and professional staff. Unsurprisingly, their attendance and their finances and assets seem to be vastly superior (apart from the Church there's a small office block as well). Not sufficiently researched at the moment is their overall governance along with their charitable and social justice programs, although I think I recognise the name of the person who co-ordinates the latter.
On the Sunday returned to the Unitarian Church Philosophy Forum to hear Rick Barker give a presentation on "The Prehistoric Human Settlement of Sahul (intro paper, PDF), which was well attended, apparently better than the service, I have been reliably informed. Have since discovered that there is also a boardgame on the subject! Finally, will be speaking on November 13 at the Melbourne Atheist Society on "The Importance of a Secular Political System", which will have a couple of surprises to what is a seemingly obvious title.
There are inevitable comparisons with the Melbourne Unitarian Church, a place where I have hitherto spent so much time and energy. Aesthetically of course, St. Michael's is far superior, an absolutely stunning heritage-listed building. They are much better organised with a sophisticated distribution of powers, responsibility, with extensive qualified and professional staff. Unsurprisingly, their attendance and their finances and assets seem to be vastly superior (apart from the Church there's a small office block as well). Not sufficiently researched at the moment is their overall governance along with their charitable and social justice programs, although I think I recognise the name of the person who co-ordinates the latter.
On the Sunday returned to the Unitarian Church Philosophy Forum to hear Rick Barker give a presentation on "The Prehistoric Human Settlement of Sahul (intro paper, PDF), which was well attended, apparently better than the service, I have been reliably informed. Have since discovered that there is also a boardgame on the subject! Finally, will be speaking on November 13 at the Melbourne Atheist Society on "The Importance of a Secular Political System", which will have a couple of surprises to what is a seemingly obvious title.
