Rev. Lisa Ward has been our settled minister since August of 2016. Ordained in 1992, Rev. Lisa has served congregations in New York City, Queens, White Plains, NY and Harford County, MD. A graduate from Union Theological Seminary in NYC, she has engaged in social justice initiatives throughout her career… 
Table of Contents
- This Week in Worship
- Message from Rev. Lisa Ward
- Music
- Religious Exploration
- News & Announcements
- Events
- Social & Environmental Justice
- Beyond First Parish
Sunday Service June 14th Service
June Worship Theme: WELLBEING
“Fare Thee Well”
Worship Associate: Dottie Pitt
Faith Reflection: Dottie Pitt
Social Hour: Annual Picnic
Audio: Holden Driscoll
*Next Sunday starts summer service. 1st service will be held in Children’s Church.
Note time change to 9:30am. See schedule below.
This week’s offering be given to the International Rescue Committee. The IRC has helped people affected by conflict and disaster for over 90 years. Their work addresses malnutrition, infectious diseases, and critically needed healthcare in disaster areas, and they have been particularly impacted by US AID cuts. Some of the areas they are currently serving are Gaza, Nigeria, Afghanistan, and Sudan. Cynthia Guise, will speak on their behalf.
Prayers: If you are attending the service on Zoom and would like a prayer included, please email Rev. Lisa at minister@fpmilton.org by 5:00pm on Saturday.
Flower Communion during Worship June 14th
Congregants bring a flower to share. We gather the flowers in the beginning of the service, and then invite people to bring home a different flower, as an offering of shared beauty and blooming. Please bring extra flowers if you can.
I am looking forward to our last worship service and picnic together! It will be a multi-gen worship service, full of music, rituals and good cheer.
As many of you know, the process for ministerial transition is a bit of a discipline. When I leave on June 30th, I will be out of reach for at least a year. This is designed to help the congregation and interim minister look forward without my input. It’s hard, but it does help with the transition, focusing the congregation on your future endeavors. Pastoral coverage for July with be navigated by the co-chairs of the caring committee. Rev. Bev Waring will be starting on August 1.
Though this Sunday is my last worship service, I will be available and periodically in the office till June 30th. Appointments are welcome.
I am so grateful for our ten years together, not always easy while navigating the pandemic and political upheavals, yet ultimately rewarding. It seems you feel that too. It is a gift to leave a congregation on a good path, ready to continue to learn and flourish. I will most certainly miss you, and I have many wonderful memories to take with me.
Ever sending love, Rev. Lisa
Music
This Sunday the choir is happy to join Pastor Lisa in singing “The Road Not Taken”, by Randall Thompson, on a text by Robert Frost. This is a favorite of hers, and the text speaks of difficult choices we all make as we travel our journey of life. Our four Hunsaker soloists will also be offering an anthem of farewell and best wishes to her on the next step of her journey, “Wherever You May Go” by Timothy G. Bushong.
HALLELUJAH CHORUS THIS SUNDAY
This Sunday please join the Meetinghouse Choir in singing the Hallelujah Chorus from Handel’s MESSIAH to close our worship service. You may bring your own music, or scores will be provided. No rehearsal necessary!
Religious Exploration
Summer RE Update: Flexible Fun and Community Connection
Thank you to everyone who expressed interest in our RE Summer Program. After reviewing enrollment numbers, we’ve made the decision to cancel the program as originally planned. While we will no longer offer the RE Summer Program, our goals continue to be providing opportunities for children to enjoy summer activities, deepen their UU values and identity, and build meaningful relationships with one another and the wider community. In listening to the needs of our community, we’ve chosen to focus on drop-in gatherings that are easy to attend, welcoming to friends and newcomers, and adaptable to busy summer schedules. These opportunities will also allow for more off-site adventures and greater flexibility for volunteers.
Families who have already paid a deposit will receive a full refund. No registration is required at this time for any of the events below—just show up and bring a friend! If any event has an associated cost, details will be shared in advance through the Weekly RE Update.
Playdates & Popsicles
Sundays, July 5, July 19, August 16, and August 23
10:00 a.m.–12:00 p.m.
Locations TBA
Join us at local playgrounds, parks, and outdoor spaces for relaxed summer fun. We’ll bring bubbles, chalk, popsicles, and other goodies. Have a favorite spot you’d like us to visit? Let us know!
Family Game Night & Pizza
August 9, 5:00–7:00 p.m.
Parish Hall
Bring the whole family for games, pizza, and a chance to connect with other First Parish families.
Messy Outdoor Games Day
Tuesday, August 25, 9:00 a.m.–12:00 p.m.
at Steve and Guy’s place!
Get ready for messy Twister, outdoor games, and plenty of laughter!
We look forward to a summer filled with friendship, play, and meaningful community connection.
Want more ? Find all things Kids and Youth on the RE Linktree. For more information on any of the above contact Susannah at redirector@fpmilton.org or call 470-223-0337
News & Announcements
We are pleased to announce that Reverend Beverly Waring will join First Parish of Milton on August 1st for two years as our Interim Minister. Many thanks to the Interim Search Committee Members Lisa White, Mark Ostrem, Jeff DellaRovere, and Jen Pinkus. We were joined by Susan DeMinico and Susannah Bales. Since February the team worked to develop our Congregational Profile (for review by interested candidates), our interview questions and protocol to come to the best possible decision-making process. The process, managed by the UUA, resulted in six candidates for our review. During a ten-day period in May we reviewed, interviewed, checked references and identified our top candidates. And we are thrilled that Rev Bev is our match! She brings the right skills at the right time for First Parish with a wealth of experience in Interim Ministry.
Rev. Bev Waring is an Accredited Interim Minister (AIM) currently finishing her ministry at the First Universalist Society in Franklin, MA. She has served as an interim minister in seven diverse congregations in Massachusetts and NY State.
Rev. Bev’s journey to ministry has been a winding road. She received an undergraduate degree in Computer Science at the State University of New York at Brockport, and it was her first engineering job that brought Bev from Western New York to Massachusetts. Twelve years later, feeling the need to connect more with people instead of machines and numbers, Bev changed careers and earned her Master of Social Work degree. Her social work experience ranged from working with people experiencing psychiatric emergencies to assisting mentally ill and addicted homeless people access services to a specialty in hospice social work. She is also a trained mediation consultant. When her call to ministry came, Bev went back to school and in 2009 received her Masters in Divinity degree at Andover Newton Theological School.
Bev describes her personal theology this way: “I feel a kinship to much of what defines a Humanist. I embrace free will, reason, ethics, and justice as essential for a moral code. My approach to spirituality does not assume the concept of a supernatural being but rather finds that which is holy and sacred in between and among human beings and the natural world while being equally interested in living daily life in a rational, ethical and purposeful way. The final piece of my theology comes from Process Theology which asserts that the unfolding present is not yet concrete but is ever changing. In Process Theology, divine energy, or the spirit of life, or God, is an energy, which lures us towards what is good.”
Beyond her professional life, Bev is a devoted geocacher and enjoys puzzles of all kinds including jigsaw, Sudoku, logic and crosswords. She is an avid reader and volunteers for a local cat rescue group. Bev lives in Marlborough, MA with Donna, her spouse of 44 years. Experienced dog-rescue fosters, they are awaiting their next dog to “find them” as many others have done in the past.
Summer Services Schedule
9:30am Start Time (note earlier time)
6/21 Penny Partridge & Tracey Robinson: Share A Poem
(in Children’s Church)
6/28 Robert Mussey: One for All and All for One
7/5 Geoff Wilkinson: Fire
7/12 Dan DeAngeli: The Journey Through Memoir
7/19 Cynthia Guise, Natalie Monroe, & Deb Larson-Venable:
Standing with Our Migrant Neighbors
7/26 Steve Yakutis: Meditation and Me (A Semi-Silent Service)
8/2 Amy Kavadlo & Jennie Mulqueen: Hymn Song
8/9 Leslie MacPherson: What It Means to Be a Unitarian Universalist
8/16 Katie Vhay: TBA
8/23 Songs of Protest (in courtyard)
8/30 Chris Clifford: Blue Hills Forest Bathing* (location TBA)
9/6 Elise Henricks: Walking Our Labyrinth* (in courtyard)
Join us online from anywhere; but if you can, please come in person.
* Not available online
Legacy Giving @ First Parish
Generations of First Parish members and friends have honored the First Parish community through a legacy gift.
A legacy gift is a commitment to make a future donation to First Parish Milton. The most common legacy gift is a bequest in your will.
Gifts of any amount build and sustain the First Parish legacy. Our vibrant community, our activities and programs, and the beautiful campus, meeting house, and children’s church could not be maintained without legacy giving.
Consider a gift that embraces and sustains the values and future of this vital place.
For more information visit our website page https://fpmilton.org/members-page/legacy-giving/ or contact Susan Diminco (manager@fpmilton.org), or a member of the committee: Mike Bello, Roger Gray, Andrew Maloney, Roberta Williamson, or Allison Zippay.
Thank you for your generosity.
Events
New Member Sunday June 14th
We will be welcoming new members as they officially join the church.
Annual End of Year Church Picnic
June 14, 2026
June 14th will be Rev Lisa’s final service with us AND our picnic. This wll be a pot luck, as we have done the last few years. Please let us know what you would like to bring. NO ONE does Pot Lucks as well as First Parish, so let’s send Rev Lisa off to retirement with a memorable meal.
Here is the sign-up
Social & Environmental Justice
June Eleventh Hour Standout For Democracy
Thursday June 11
Assemble by 6:00pm
First Parish Front Lawn
BYO signs, flags, chairs, “Singing Resistance” voices, percussion, friends, and neighbors. 30 ENERGIZED minutes to amplify our message of continued resilience.
NEXT DATE IS June 17th
First Parish makes and delivers lunches to MainSpring (Fr. Bill’s Brockton site) at two locations in Brockton. We provide 70 lunches on the third Wednesday of each month. The drop-off location will remain at the lower parking lot of FP, and will take place between 12:40 and 1:00. Cynthia Guise will be driving this day – any questions can be directed to her at clguise@comcast.net
The Social & Environmental Justice committee thanks you for your continued participation in this effort.
Pat & Tracey
Beyond First Parish
Hello Neighbors – Celebrate Black History in June!
~Juneteenth in Hyde Park – Sat. June 13th, 10am-2pm, Martini Shell on Truman Pkwy Click here for more information
~5th Annual Juneteenth – Sat. June 20th, 4pm-7pm, Eustis Estate, Milton click here for more information
~Community Reading of Frederick Douglass, Thurs. June 25th, reception 6pm-7pm, reading at 7pm, with Introduction by Winston Daley
sign up here to read a small part of the speech.
Reading Frederick Douglass Together
Thursday, June 25, 2026 6:00PM – 7:30PM
A special evening of music, theater, and a community reading of Frederick Douglass’s speech, “What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?”
Co-hosted with Courageous Conversations Towards Racial Justice, this outdoor tented event will begin with live classical music and light refreshments, followed by a short excerpt from the play, “This Is Not a Bill,” by Boston playwright Alexia Rowe. The play tells the story of an enslaved couple escaping from the South along the Underground Railroad during the threat of the Fugitive Slave Act.
The community reading will begin at 7:00 pm with volunteers taking turns reading individual paragraphs from Douglass’s speech. Everyone is welcome and encouraged to participate. Sign up by clicking the button below.
This program is made possible by a grant from Mass Humanities, which provided funding through the Massachusetts Cultural Council (MCC).
The Historic Meetinghouse Tour
Jun 25, 2026, 6:00 PM – 7:30 PM
First Church Roxbury (UU Urban Ministry), 10 Putnam St, Roxbury, MA 02119, USA
A guided tour of the historic First Church in Roxbury, led by Executive Director of UUUM, Rev. Mary Margaret Earl. Explore the rich legacy and recent refurbishments of this landmark building at the heart of the UU Urban Ministry.
Stay Connected
Follow First Parish on Facebook and get updates, poems, announcements and more. You’ll be glad you did!
CHURCH OFFICE HOURS
Monday – Thursday 10:00 am – 1:00 pm
Other times by appointment
MINISTER OFFICE HOURS
Tuesday – Thursday 10:00 am – 2:00 pm
Other times by appointment
The Church office is closed on Fridays
Sundays through mid June
- Worship, 10:30 am in the Meetinghouse
- Choir Rehearsal (most Sundays) at 8:45 am
SIGN UP GENIUS (formerly known as the Planner)
The link to SignUp Genius is: https://www.signupgenius.com/go/4090D44ACA728A02-57884860-20252026#/
You can sign up for one our our Sunday volunteer positions.