Rembrandt's 'The Baptism of the Eunuch' painting.

What Can We Learn from The Ethiopian Eunuch?

May 2, 2021Posted inSermons
In our first reading today we encountered a character from the New Testament who, I believe, is sadly too oftern neglected – The Ethiopian Eunuch. Yet there are, of course two Ethiopian Eunuchs in the biblical cannon. And the other is in which book?… no need to all shout at once! Yes the first Ethiopian Eunuch mentioned in the Bible in actually Ebed-Melech in Chapter 38 of the Book of Jeremiah. In that story Ebed-Melech is an official of the King of Judah. Ebed-Melech saves the day in that story by leading a crack team of soldiers to rescue the prophet Jeremiah from a cistern that he has been thrown into (a cistern as in a waterproof well type structure used to collect rainwater – not a flushing toilet cistern).

History of LGBTQIA+ People in Unitarian Ministry

November 7, 2020Posted inTalks
I wish to start with a brief plug. As part of my ministerial training, I need to conduct a rights of passage service. So, if any of you here this afternoon wish to get married, you are especially welcome to contact me! You might laugh at this but one of my other options is conducting a funeral and I’m sure I will get even fewer willing volunteers for that! Why can I make the offer of being able to marry people in this queer space so confidently? Because the chapel of Harris Manchester College is the only Oxbridge college chapel registered to preform both opposite and same-sex marriages. But why, in this age, is it the case that HMC is the only college chapel to offer marriage equally to all who want it to the full extent that the law allows? In part it is because of the college’s Unitarian heritage.