Poetry Sunday’s a First Parish tradition– If you have some jotting for this year’s edition on Sunday the twenty-first day of November This simple request you’re asked to remember: For the order of service please send me the title Of ode, lyric, elegy, sonnet or idyll. Send it to double-u-wians-at-mac- Dot-com to be listed whether … Continue reading Poetry Sunday
As we mark Veteran’s Day, we reflect on what it means to serve in our military. What does it mean to be a soldier in a time of persistent, ongoing war? What are the emotional and spiritual impacts they face when defending our freedom or promoting the U.S. empire, depending on one’s perspective? This Sunday … Continue reading Thank You For Your Service
This Sunday, we welcome back the congregation to worship in together in our sanctuary, or to stream the service from home. It has been a long 18 months away from our meetinghouse! Yet, while we joyfully return to our religious home, uncertainty for the future remains. Will this be another brutal Covid winter? Are we … Continue reading The Jagged Edge of Uncertainty
This is the time of the year when pagans celebrate Samhain and Christians observe All Souls Day. It’s a time when some believe that the veil separating us from our loved ones who have died becomes thin. This will be a Sunday for remembering, so you are invited to bring a photo of your departed … Continue reading A Circle of Memory
What does it mean to be grasped by love? Not sentimental or romantic love. Not love that is pliable or yields to force. But the kind of love displayed by the Hebrew prophets, Amos and Isaiah, by Ghandi and Martin Luther King. The love that overcomes hate, that leads to more justice. This will be … Continue reading Side with Love
Are you bombarded by demands on your time, by feelings of guilt if you dare say “no” to yet another request? Are you stretched way too thin & gasping for breath? Is this really how you want to live this one wild and precious life you’ve been given, as the poet Mary Oliver would say? … Continue reading Gaining Control
We end our worship each Sunday by saying, “Let our service begin”—but how do we decide how to be of service? Is there a best way to do good? Jill Gaulding, our guest speaker, will reflect on this question, drawing on her Zen Buddhist practice and her experiences as the co-founder of Gender Justice and … Continue reading The Moon in a Puddle
It was the 19th Century Transcendentalists who transformed Unitarianism from a liberal Christianity whose truth claims were dependent upon the miracles of Jesus to a religious faith centered in a direct experience of the holy. Who were these Transcendentalists? This will be an outdoor service, so please bring a chair or blanket to sit on. … Continue reading The Transcendentalists
Do you have a friend or neighbor who might be interested in learning more about our spiritual community? If so, this would be a good Sunday to invite them to come with you. This service promises not only to inspire and challenge long-time members, but also provide an overview of who we are as a … Continue reading Bring a Friend Sunday
Universal salvation? Unity of God? How will we ever find common ground? This year we mark the 60th anniversary of when Unitarians and Universalists merged to become one religion. We will explore the history of these two denominations and how they evolved over the years to become the faith that we practice today. Come join … Continue reading A Unitarian and a Universalist Walk into a Bar…
