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This week
Well known Unitarian Church minister, the 79 year old Dr. John Bodycomb who is attached to Melbourne University as a chaplain, brought to life the impact of Christmas on Melburnians and various religions and the way they could dovetail to worship a single God.
An able and entertaining speaker, he drew the analogy of everyone in the world being in a giant hall - the world - with stained glass windows each representing different religions. There would be one of Christ, Buddha, Krishna and an inscription representing Mohammed and each of the people in the hall could gather alongside the stained glass window that most appealed to them. What was important was that the same light of God shone through each of the windows.
First he wished club members Merry Christmas in several languages including French and German and topped it off with a Merry Christmas in ancient Welsh.
He explained the importance of religion to various cultures and the part it could play in lifting values of those following its precepts suggesting that proper observance of the precepts of various religious codes could lead to a similar outcome.
"Churches provide an example that there is more in life than meets the eye," he said adding "they invite us to touch the face of God.''
He said these days some of the church's ceremonies had new names such as a Naming Ceremony instead of Baptism. He quoted John Donne 17th meditation which includes the lines that "no man is an island."
He concluded with the suggestion from one American church goer who said that regardless of the religion, going to church for an hour meant that was an hour that the person was not thinking about themselves and "that sure as hell has to be better for many of us.''
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