This Week in Worship

Sunday, July 21, 2019

9:30am- 10:30am in the Children’s Church

“From ’Bombingham’ to Selma to Montgomery”

Facilitated by: Tucker and Hale Smith

Worship Associate: Robert Johnson

Musician: Emma Jean Moulton

Exploring the civil rights trail, yesterday and today, two New Englanders head south to gain a deeper understanding.

Minister

Rev. Lisa Ward

minister@fpmilton.org

**This column was written in June to keep continuity through Rev. Ward’s vacation in July.  She will be back in the office on August 1st.**

Spiritual Practice #3 of the Link Summer Series: Savoring

A guiding quote for this practice comes from E.B. White: “I arise in the morning torn between a desire to improve the world and a desire to enjoy the world. This makes it hard to plan the day.”

Many of us wake in the morning with the desire to be purposeful: to heal or help, or fix, or change something.

We need grounding for this way of applying ourselves to the world.  We need the experience of loving the world or our lives that we want to heal or save.  We also need the strength and energy to persevere.

Find time to savor something in your life on a regular basis.  It can be a simple moment.  A taste of wonderful food.  A feeling of the sun on your face.  The exhileration of being in water or taking a shower.  A moment of intimacy.  An engagement with soil as you garden…

Give yourself over to savoring moments.  With this frame, more and more moments will become precious to you, helping make life worth living and loving.

Blessings Be, Rev. Lisa

Religious Exploration

Summer RE and Youth Break: Formal youth and religious exploration programming will resume on September 8 when regular worship services start again. Enjoy your summer, and remember to make time for spiritual practices – especially practicing gratitude!

It is time to register your child or youth for classes next fall! The Religious Exploration Committee requests all families to register your child or youth before attending classes. Please use this link to our online form: Online registration form (or paper registration forms are available on the RE bulletin board in the Link hallway).

Events, News and Announcements

 Green Gleanings

‘TIS THE SEASON…

…..for fresh produce.  Eating locally-grown, seasonal fruits and veggies quickly after harvest/purchase is a good, green practice.  Patronize your local Farmers Market!  Milton’s is held Thursday afternoons on the town green behind Milton Village Post Office, off Adams Street — if you ride your bike AND wear a helmet, you’ll receive a $2 coupon to spend at a vendor, courtesy of Milton Bicycle Advisory Committee.  Here’s a link to a handy chart of what’s in season, provided by Sierra Club:

https://www.businessinsider.com/fresh-vs-frozen-fruits-vegetables-health-nutrition-2017-4

“Beans, beans, the magical fruit; the more you eat the more you toot.

Beans, beans, they’re good for your heart; the more you eat, the more you….” …hiccough?

So much for silly summer camp ditties.  Enjoy!

2019-2020 Pledges

As we start a new fiscal year in July, we wanted to remind folks that use VANCO (or auto-pay from their bank) that pledge amounts should be updated to reflect your planned pledge amount. If you use VANCO, we’d be happy to make that change for you in the office- all you need to do is email Susan (manager@fpmilton.org) with your new monthly pledge amount, and she can change it in VANCO.

If you’re not using VANCO, and you’d like to, you can sign up on First Parish’s website. If you’ve forgotten your username or password, you can request on the website. You can then set up to have your pledge (in any amount you choose) automatically deducted from the account of your choice on the same day each month. 

If you don’t want to sign up for VANCO, another option would be to set up FirstParish in Milton as  a vendor in your bank’s online banking portal. You can have your bank send checks to First Parish monthly on your behalf. 

If you have any questions about how to fulfill your pledge, please feel free to contact Susan at manager@fpmilton.org. She will be happy to help you!

Summer Projects

by Susan DeMinico, Office Manager

Exciting progress on the meetinghouse this week! The painting is complete on the town hall facing side of the Meetinghouse. You can see the stark contrast in the paint in this photo; the crew is just starting to scrape the paint from the walls near the front of the chruch. The crew will be finishing the front of the church in early August, then returning late September to finish the courtyard side, rear of church, and a few small details. It’s exciting to see the Meetinghouse so beautifully painted!

Courageous Conversations

August Celebration and Concert

Thursday, August 15th from 7:00 PM – 9:00 PM

Parkway United Methodist

158 Blue Hills Pkwy, Milton, MA 02186

RSVP here

Join our potluck celebration of Courageous Conversations Towards Racial Justice. Invite friends and family to join our commemoration of our racial awareness work. There will be a free concert. Please bring a dish to share for the potluck.

Sign-up for Church Directory Photos!

First Parish members: More information will be coming about our new church directory but you can sign up for your photo session *now*. Each group will need about a half-hour for their session and we currently have three dates that we will be taking photos: August 6 and September 13 and 14. 

Please use this link to choose your spot:

https://booknow-lifetouch.appointment-plus.com/yr4jj9pk/

You can reach out to Leslie with your questions: lesliecmacpherson@gmail.com

Rev. Lisa Ward, Minister

Out the month of July and August 11-19 on study leave

Susan DeMinico, Office Manager

Tuesdays/Wednesdays 8:30-4:30, Thursdays 8:30-12:30pm

Megan Benders, Administrative Assistant

In the office on Tuesday-Thursday 11:00am-2:00pm

Laurel Whitehouse, Director of Religious Education

Working regular hours July 14-21

Sara Elizabeth Santa Cruz, Youth Advisor

Back in the Fall

Tim Steele, Music Director

Back in the Fall