MUA News

1 Spring Training Day: is being planned for May 2024, at Unitarian New Meeting in Birmingham, on the possible implications of Artificial Intelligence for Unitarian congregations. 2 Midland Unitarian Association AGM: this will be taking place on Saturday 30th March 2024 at Unitarian New Meeting in Birmingham, with Guest Speaker Dr Mark Fox. Further details … Read more

  Prelude The Humming Chorus from Madame Butterfly by Giacomo Puccini   Before our service begins, a caveat: the words of the address are the opinion of the author alone, not of the Midland Unitarian Association as a whole….   Opening Words Prayer said on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the death of … Read more

  Prelude Roots and Wings by Elizabeth Harley   Opening Words by Stephanie Bisby   Prayer is woven into the fabric of all things, so we gather, not to form a prayer, but to give space for our hearts to offer the prayers which form in us in every moment of our lives: when we … Read more

  Prelude Roots and Wings by Elizabeth Harley   Opening Words Each day by Andy Pakula   With each new day, we are offered another step in life’s sacred journey, an invitation to join in the flow of life that streams around us. Today, we may face a barren desert landscape to cross, parched as … Read more

  Prelude Roots and Wings by Elizabeth Harley   Opening Words by Sylvia L. Howe (adapted)   I bid you welcome on this first Sunday of the New Year.   Like Janus we gather with part of us looking backward and part of us looking forward.   We gather on the edge of the new … Read more

1 Timings and locations of future meetings: it was agreed that while most of the EC’s meetings would continue to be on Zoom, one meeting a year (during May) would be in-person, at Unitarian New Meeting Church in Birmingham.

Prelude Roots and Wings by Elizabeth Harley   Opening Words by Cliff Reed, from Beyond Darkness (adapted)   We gather in Advent to anticipate the season of the Nativity, the festival that will celebrate the coming of Jesus into the world. For some, he is Emmanuel, “God with us”, the special presence of the Divine … Read more

  Prelude Roots and Wings by Elizabeth Harley   Opening Words by Rabindranath Tagore   Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high; Where knowledge is free; Where the world has not been broken up into fragments by narrow domestic walls; Where words come out from the depths of truth; Where … Read more

  Prelude Roots and Wings by Elizabeth Harley   Opening Words by Alex Brianson (adapted)   We gather today to share a particular kind of community – a community of faith in which each of us is free to quest for our own ways of being spiritual and religious.   We gather to think about … Read more

  Two Minute Silence   Our service this week will begin with the customary Two Minute Silence, in respect and remembrance of those who have laid down their lives in war.   [silence]   They shall not grow old, as we that are left grow old; Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn. … Read more