Former Benalla convenor Laurence Neil presented a session, at our August meeting, about the Exclusive Brethren otherwise called the Plymouth Brethren Christian Church.  Two of the Wangaratta U3A members also attended with Laurence and contributed to the session which boosted our attendance to six people.
 
Laurence has extensive knowledge about this Church because he worked as a teacher at their Nathalia School and was accepted as an “honorary” member.  It is not possible to walk off the street and become a member of this religion because you must be “born” into it, hence the title “exclusive”.  Brethren members are often successful in business and contribute generously to community charities but their strict rules for members, which includes no TV, university education, computers and other devices leads to the conclusion that it is a “cult”.
 
Our session finished with a searing critique of religion from a DVD video presented by Richard Dawkins. Dawkins is a well-known atheist and sceptic who advocates for reason and science ahead of faith and belief.  Perhaps the value of religion lies somewhere between the two extremes of fundamentalism and atheism because we are not just machine like rational thinkers but also passionate and feeling beings.  While the influence of religions decreases as societies become more knowledgeable and sophisticated, it is unlikely that they will disappear any time soon.
 
With this final report and on a personal note; I am grateful to Benalla U3A for the opportunity to convene the Comparative Religion class.  While it was not quite my “cuppa tea” it came close and I was surprised by many of the wonderful stories plus the rich history contained within this subject.  Also my thanks to the attendees who persevered and contributed honestly for the benefit of all.                              

​Mike Larkin
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The Comparative Religion group held its final meeting at W4 on Wednesday 3rd August.  Prior to the group winding up, Jenny Geer offered to arrange a weekend at an ashram for those who might be interested. 
 
Arrangements for an overnight stay at the Rocklyn Yoga Ashram on Saturday 10th September are now being finalised.   If you would like more information or are interested in attending, please phone Jenny on 0429 433 745.      
 
 http://www.yogavic.org.au/
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For our July session Jenny Geer presented an excellent Power point talk with photos, via the W4 TV, about her pilgrimage walks/tours in Spain and Japan. Both the Camino in Spain and Kumano in Japan have a long history and are both listed as world heritage sites. The Camino is, or can be, very long, 800 kilometres or more, and a minimum of 100 kilometres is required in order to qualify as a pilgrimage. The tomb of St James, of the Christian gospels, which is installed in the cathedral of Santiago de Compostella is the end destination point for the Camino trail. The trail is very well used by people from all over the world and for all sorts of reasons. It has food and accommodation stops at approximately every 20 to 30 kilometres. These vary in standard, mostly with dormitory style sleeping, so occasionally Jenny would indulge the luxury of a modest motel room. Pilgrims can walk, run, crawl, cycle and ride horses along the trail, it is up to the participant and their needs and abilities.

The Kumano in Japan requires visits to a number of different areas which includes temples and shrines and because it is located in mountainous country it means walking up and down lots of steps. This pilgrimage only involves about 50 kms of walking in total and there is some danger from wild bears. Pilgrims carry a small bell to warn off the bears. Jenny was most impressed with the standards of quality and orderliness by the Japanese in both building and maintaining the shrines, paths and facilities. Because the Camino and Kumano are “twinned” Jenny has a special certificate acknowledging this achievement.

Unfortunately the August session of Comparative Religion will be the last for this year due mainly to a decline in numbers. My approach to the topic has been somewhat unconventional and so it has been a partial success only. I did enjoy most of the classes and the enthusiasm of participants and I appreciate the support of Benalla’s outstanding U3A organisation.

For the August session on Wednesday the 3rd Laurence Neal will present information and video about the Exclusive Brethren. This replaces the scheduled talk by a Buddhist teacher/practitioner which was cancelled due to insufficient notifications of attendance. Because this will be the last class the other scheduled topics and trips for the remainder of the year are also cancelled.

Having learned from this experience to be more forthcoming about my area of greatest interest and still wanting to be part of U3A I may propose a different class for the summer of 2017 when short courses may be held. As a guide to what such a class would entail, it will include inquiry into beliefs of all kinds and some focus upon wisdom, the understanding about and the acquisition of it – think of Socrates for an approximation of what I am talking about! The course would not be about conventional or academic philosophy nor the promotion of any ideology, political or religious.

Mike Larkin

A small group of four watched the DVD about the BBC production Sacred Sites of Britain presented by the excellent guide Neil Oliver.  This topic was prepared by Joy Shirley and promoted much discussion about the whys and wherefores of such religious activities.  What thinking could have caused communities to put in so much time and energy shifting and geometrically placing sometimes huge stones in the ground or digging vast mounds, flint mines and ditches with only antler horns and flint tools?
 
Looking at historical sites such as Stonehenge allows us the luxury of hindsight and we can become bemused by the strange things that people will do in the name of religion.  At the time no doubt it was intensely sacred and serious for those involved, with their limited knowledge compared to today.
 
Fervent passion followed by inevitable decline is an observable historical pattern for all religions of the world.  As scientific knowledge plus experience replaces superstition and traditional belief, and new ways arise to bond communities, the need for religion as we now know it diminishes. (Please note that we are discussing institutional religions and not the existence or otherwise of God.)
 
When considering the establishment of what could be called a “religion” on a large scale today the movement which sprung to mind during our discussion was “Climate Change”.  Similarly, but on a lesser scale, football is often referred to as a religion because it incites great passion and draws fans together into “clans”, many of whom spend lots of time and money in pursuit of the “heavenly” grand-final win.
 
Our June session also discussed the agenda for the rest of term 2.
 
Our main topic for July will be pilgrimages with a presentation from Jenny Geer who has walked the Camino trail in Spain and recently walked a pilgrimage trail in Japan.  We may also discuss the modern SBNR (Spiritual But Not Religious) phenomenon, as suggested by Joy, if time allows.
 
In August Linden Hilgendorf will visit us from Chiltern.  Linden, a Buddhist practitioner and teacher, will talk to us about Buddhism and answer questions.
 
Anyone from U3A interested in Buddhism is welcome to attend as we are a small group and I would like to make it worthwhile for Linden. We would appreciate a donation towards Linden’s travel expense.
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​Our discussion subject this month was on the Quaker movement – more correctly known as the Society of Friends, sometimes shortened to Friends.   While many people know that they are pacifists, we found that their other beliefs and approaches interesting.  They have a very strong belief in equality.  This transfers across all aspects in their lives and is demonstrated is in their services. 
 
Their weekly gatherings are called meetings, where everyone is equal.  They have no priests or ministers, no ceremonies or rituals, they sit quietly, often in a circle as no-one is superior.  People may stand and provide brief comments on their thoughts, but this is not mandatory.  They do elect elders to manage the business of the group, and have a more business related meeting once a month.  In marriage, both partners are equal, not one superior to the other.  This even applies to same-gender relationships which have been accepted in the movement for many years.
 
In Australia, there is a large group of Friends in Hobart.  They established a school around 1886.  This is the largest Quaker school in the world, spread across three campuses in Hobart.  We were pleased to have another U3A member who had been a student at the school for 9 years, visit us for the session.   She provided valuable information about the school and the movement, although she was not a member of the Society of Friends.  The school is open to all, another example of the deep sense of equality in the movement.
 
Important Note: For all members of the Comparative Religion Group, there has been a change to the plans for our June session.  The visit to a mosque in Shepparton will not take place until later in the year, so our June session will take place as usual on the first Wednesday of the month – 1 June.   It will be a mixed bag of subjects which may include DVD's about the Sacred Sites of Britain and some study of the principles of Islam in preparation for a cultural/religious tour to Shepparton later in the year.
 

We had an attendance of seven which included Laurence Neil,  the former coordinator of our class. The majority of the discussion was a review our March class when we worked on the definition and origins or religion, plus the listing and discussion about future topics for the group. These future topics could include a visit to Shepparton for discussions on Islam with a Muslim leader and an overnight stay at an Ashram near Daylesford.

​Our next topic for May will be about the Quaker religion as suggested by Joy Shirley. Could all class members please bring along your research findings about this enigmatic religion.
 
A major discussion during the April session was about the need to define Comparative Religion as suggested by Freida Andrews. Due to Mike, the coordinator’s, leaning toward philosophy and spirituality it was felt that a distinction needed to be made between objectively comparing the religions of the world and personally discussing the philosophy and causes behind religion. It was generally agreed that the study of comparative Religions is mainly about the former distinction.
 
The April class was concluded by watching the remainder of the movie “Sita Sings the Blues” by American animation filmmaker Nina Paley.  While the movie includes historical aspects of Hinduism namely, extracts from the epic poem the Ramayana, it is essentially a story about romance and the raw deal so often dished out to women both historically and still today.                                                                                                                     Mike Larkin

​The session commenced with discussion about future topics. This included research on encyclicals by Pope Francis and the merging of pagan cultures with Christian beliefs.  We moved on to a discussion of the various definitions of “religion”.  One that seemed to spark some interest was something of overwhelming importance to a person.  Another expressed the view that many definitions focus too narrowly on only a few aspects of religion; they tend to exclude those religions that do not fit well. An alternative was offered - It is apparent that religion can be seen as a theological, philosophical, anthropological, sociological, and psychological phenomenon of human kind. To limit religion to only one of these categories is to miss its multifaceted nature and lose out on the complete definition.
 
We followed up with a comparison between the origins of religion and religion today.  After developing a list of features of the origins, we looked at what we could see as the differences today.  Our conclusion was that much of the original list still applied but some less comfortable cultural aspects that had crept in i.e. power, greed, idealism and seeing things in black and white even though a more mature approach would see more grey.
 
Homework for this month is to look at the website www.religioustolerance.org   Freida will look for some information on the encyclicals by Pope Francis. 

Our plan for our September meeting was to have a speaker from the Baha’i Faith but we have been unable to contact them. If anyone knows of a reliable contact person from Baha’i please let us know. Instead, after discussion time, we watched the final of three videos about Islam in which we saw the extent of the Empire and its various leaders including, probably the greatest, Suleiman. This video was mainly about the secular side of the Islamic empire when it was at its height. Suleiman expanded the architecture and culture of Islam with magnificent mosques and other engineering marvels extending from Spain in the west, Hungary in the north and most of the middle-east. Suleiman suffered the usual problems of the succession in an autocracy which included the terrible necessity of having his own son killed. It was not uncommon, when there was more than one son, for the potential rival to be killed even by his own brother. This was meant to prevent a splitting of the loyalty of the subjects.

Also interesting was learning about the place of the “harem” which was not the imagined “sexual free for all” for the ruler that some would have us believe. The Sultan spent a lot of leisure time with the women because it was an escape from the duties of court and only a strictly limited number of wives and concubines were there for his “pleasure”. Apparently the harem women were highly valued for their contribution into the management of court duties.

Our planned outing in October to the Anglican Benedictine convent has been cancelled due to illness at the convent. We are still going to the Winton Wetlands Hub for lunch and will have a guest speaker, if available. For this outing we will car pool, for people driving from Benalla, starting from the Dunlop campus carpark, (between the classroom and Aldi supermarket).  We will leave the carpark at 12:10pm for lunch at 12:30 at the Hub.

Regarding the duration and start time of our regular Dunlop campus classes: it was decided at the September meeting that we change back to a two hour session with the option of an extra half hour if needed.  The start time will stay at 1pm.

Mike Larkin

Only a few people attended the July session and we finished early due to the cold weather, having discussed the homework from June and watched a video about Islam. The video contained the essential history of the rise of Islam and the role that Mohammed played.

Life for the mainly desert Arabs was one of almost constant warfare with other tribal groups over territory and religious allegiances. The only time that the fighting stopped and the tribes got together was in a sacred tent in Mecca where no fighting was allowed. This “ceasefire” also enabled trading to take place and so the human ingenuity for “turning a blind eye” prevailed.

Mohammed’s genius was to declare a single God and this had the effect of uniting the various tribes. The sacred tent in Mecca was retained and other rules followed such as prayer 5 times a day, while facing Mecca, plus the various rules about hygiene, food and so on.

I was reminded by Mohammed’s life story that it was similar to Ghandi’s, whom we studied earlier in the year.  Both Ghandi and Mohammed were as much political strategists as they were spiritual leaders. In Mohammed’s case major battles were fought to overcome resistance to his new religion and for Ghandi the “battle” to liberate India from the British was fought using “non-resistance” methods.  These two leaders inspired major change to whole societies.

No homework was organized for this period, but for those interested, and wishing to prepare in advance for our next session, August 5th, we will watch the excellent video on Islam again, because so few of the class have seen it. We meet as usual in the ex-Centre room Dunlop Campus.

September’s topic is as yet undecided.

At this stage a trip is planned in October to the Benedictine Monastery at Thoona and on the same trip we may stop at the Winton wetlands café for lunch, or afternoon tea, plus study the indigenous displays and possibly hear details about it from an indigenous representative.

In November, our final meeting of the year, we will study/discuss Christianity and Judaism.

Mike Larkin

We started our June session reviewing the homework from our session in May.  The discussion included a question about spirituality compared to religious institutions.  As a result of the discussion our homework for this month is to define each the following in a single sentence:

• What is religion?
  
  
• What is spirituality?
  
  
• Are we religious, spiritual, or something else?
  
  

We went on to look at a documentary on the story of Buddha.  This gave some insights into the background of Buddhism, including some of the myths behind his birth and early life.  It was interesting to compare these to the record in the Bible re the birth of Jesus.  For example, there was a story of a mother’s dream of a child becoming the Buddha, and in Isaiah there is a prediction of the birth of Jesus.  Mike shared some thoughts from his study of the Gospels, bringing together some of the learning from our previous sessions, and also highlighting some similarities between Buddhism and Christianity.  This brought in an extra question to look at as part of our homework – what is Gnosticism?

A reminder for students that we are now commencing the session at 1:00pm.