Regular Events for 2019

The parish meets once a month, typically on the fourth Sunday of the month. You can see the full, current calendar on the Calendar Page. You can also sign up to the parish newsletter for event updates.

Dinner and discussion

Most monthly meetings are an evening of discussion, held in a pub over dinner.

These evenings are an informal time to meet and get to know each other, but also to discuss what we’re reading, ask questions, and share ideas and experiences. 

Usual venue: The Toxteth Hotel, Glebe
Usual starting time: 5:30pm

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Eucharist Service

The Eucharist is the most common, Christian service or liturgy. In some churches, it’s called The Lord’s Supper, Holy Communion, the Mass, or the Divine Liturgy.

The ritual of the Eucharist enacts the weaving together of the Divine and the human, and the simultaneous weaving together of each of us into the sacred community.

Each person makes their own sense of it. But we stand together in our practice of it.

Usual venue: The Unitarian Church, 15 Francis St, Darlinghurst
Usual starting time: 5:30pm

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Secret John 3 – Dinner & discussion – November

Dinner discussions are an informal time to meet and get to know each other, to discuss what we’re reading, ask questions, and share ideas and experiences.

This month we continue our discussion of the Secret Book of John.

Last time, we discussed the frame narrative (the dialogue between John and the Saviour) and the Hymn of the Monad.

This time, we’ll continue through the text to look at the emergence of Barbelo – and foreshadow some of her role from a Temple perspective – and the emanation of the Aeons.

This is about where we were hoping to get to last time, so just follow last time’s instructions about how far to read.

As I said last time, this section is long and confusing and you shouldn’t expect it to make sense the first time you read it. It may help to read over it once without getting bogged down, read the notes and then try the text again.

The notes for this month are here (same notes as last time).

If you don’t have a copy of the text already, I’d recommend the Waldstein & Wisse translation which is available at the Gnostic Society Library. Their translations of the short version and the long version are both available there.

Please RSVP by email or Facebook if you’re planning to come.

Event Details

The image is “Sophia” by Alex Grey.

Dinner & discussion – September

Dinner discussions are an informal time to meet and get to know each other, to discuss what we’re reading, ask questions, and share ideas and experiences.

This month, we will continue our in-depth study of the Secret Book of John. We are slowly exploring the text over several sessions, during which we discuss what to do with it, what it means for the spiritual journey and how it might ask you to respond.

The Secret Book of John, also referred to as the Secret Revelation to John or the Apocryphon of John or simply Secret John, is perhaps the most significant gnostic text discovered thus far. Less well-known than the Gospel of Thomas, Secret John is one of the earliest renderings of a gnostic cosmology and one of the most intriguing guides to the spiritual journey of the human soul.

Before The Meeting

The most important thing before you come is that you have read the text up to the end of the emanation of the aeons, before Sophia gives birth. In both the long and short versions, the section is numbered “9” and it ends like this:

And the Invisible one gave him an unconquerable intellectual power. And he spoke and glorified and praised the invisible Spirit, saying, Because of you the All came into being and it is to you that the All will return. And I will praise and glorify you and Autogenes with the three Aeons: the Father, the Mother, the Child, the perfect power.’

And It set up his Child Seth over the second Aeon beside the second Light Oroiel.

And in the third Aeon were set up the seed of Seth over the third Light, Daveithai. And the holy souls were set up.

In the fourth Aeon were set up the souls of those who were igno­rant of the Fullness and did not repent immediately but they per­sisted a while. And afterward they repented. They dwelled beside the fourth Light Eleleth.

These are the creatures who glorify the in­visible Spirit.

This section is long and confusing and you shouldn’t expect it to make sense the first time you read it. It may help to read over it once without getting bogged down, read the notes and then try the text again.

The notes for this month are here.

You can find the class notes from last month linked from last month’s event.

If you don’t have a copy of the text already, I’d recommend the Waldstein & Wisse translation which is available at the Gnostic Society Library. Their translations of the short version and the long version are both available there.

Please RSVP by email or Facebook if you’re planning to come.

Event Details

Dinner & discussion – August – Secret John 1

An informal time to meet and get to know each other, to discuss what we’re reading, ask questions, and share ideas and experiences.

Topic: The Secret Book of John also referred to as the Secret Revelation to John or the Apocryphon of John or simply Secret John is perhaps the most significant gnostic text discovered thus far.

Less well-known than the Gospel of Thomas, Secret John is one of the earliest renderings of a gnostic cosmology and one of the most intriguing guides to the spiritual journey of the human soul.

Starting this month, we’ll be embarking on an in-depth study of Secret John. We’ll slowly explore the text over several sessions and then discuss what to do with, what it means for the spiritual journey and how it might ask you to respond.

Our first conversation, which may be mostly preliminaries, is at the regular parish Dinner & Discussion tomorrow night. Here are the first notes so you can prepare for the discussion or discover the text on your own at home if you’re unable to come.

If you don’t have a copy of the text already, I’d recommend the Waldstein & Wisse translation which is available at the Gnostic Society Library. Their translations of the short version and the long version are both available there.

RSVP by email or Facebook

Event Details

Dinner & discussion – The Lady In The Temple

Theologian Dr Margaret Barker draws together extensive evidence that, prior to the destruction of the first temple in Jerusalem in the 8th Century BCE, a feminine divine figure was worshipped both in the Temple, in other places in the wilderness and in people’s homes. She appears to have been a central figure of Hebrew religious devotion.

This month’s discussion features a recap of Bishop Tim’s talk about Dr Barker’s research at the recent AJC Conclave in Montreal, followed by discussion and play with the ideas.

Dinner discussions are an informal time to meet and get to know each other, to discuss what we’re reading, ask questions, and share ideas and experiences.

RSVP by email or on Facebook.

Event Details