Your Weekly Link – News and Updates 3/31/2016

Weekly Link 3/31/2016

Church

This Week in Worship

Sunday, April 3rd 10:30 am in Meetinghouse

A funny photo showed up on a clergy web-site on Monday. It had an image of the empty tomb, with the stone rolled off to one side and the words “Dear Jesus, since you no longer need this do you mind if I lie down here for a while? ~ Clergy everywhere”

It is true that for clergy who celebrate Easter, the days and weeks after that holiday tend to be slower, but not here! Nope we have a lot, A LOT, going on. Want to attend a fun party with an auction? We’ve got that. Want to help clean up the church? We got that. Want to meet and hear the candidate for ministry Oh yeah we got that too! So much excitement, so much to do. So much life going on in this place!

So hang onto your hats, it’s going to be a whirlwind of events coming up!

Rev. Hank

Religious Exploration

Classes as usual this Sunday. The nursery is open for children 4 and under. (No Children’s Church)

From the Youth Group:

1. Easter Egg return

A big thank you to everyone who helped make this year’s First Parish Easter Egg Hunt a huge success! We are asking those that participated in the Easter egg hunt to please return the plastic Easter eggs so that they may be used again next year. There will be a labeled storage bin in the kitchen where the empty plastic eggs may be left.

2. An adjustment to the care package project

It’s almost time for the college age care package project to come to a close! The Caring Committee and Youth Group are request mailable baked goods and other donated trinkets or treats be brought to church this coming Sunday, April 3rd, so they may be packaged and mailed to First Parish connected college age youth. There will be a table with youth group members in the Parish Hall where donations will be collected. We are also still accepting cash donations in order to cover postage! Please contact Sara Elizabeth Santa Cruz, the Youth Advisor, if you have any questions.

Stewardship

Your pledge will help determine our plans for worship, social action, religious exploration and so much more … and provide a strong foundation for our next settled minister.

Please pledge today!

Pledges as of March 29, 2016: 192,916 representing 70 households

News from the Ministerial Search Committee

Candidating Week is April 24th through May 1st

By the time you read this, your Ministerial Search Committee expects to have concluded its decision-making, though we won’t yet be able to tell you who our candidate will be. We must wait until Thursday April 7th to extend a formal offer and then wait for our candidate’s acceptance (which hopefully will not take long).

In the meantime we have already begun planning for Candidating Week—Sunday, April 24th through Sunday, May 1st—when our candidate will visit First Parish for the week and preach on both Sundays. There will be multiple opportunities over the course of the week for as many of the congregation as possible to meet the candidate. Stay tuned here for a developing list of those opportunities.

At the end of the service on May 1st, all those present who are formal members of First Parish will be invited to vote on whether to call our candidate to be our next settled minister. Please remember that you must a member and must be present in order to vote. Please contact the church office if you have questions about your membership status.

Once again, thank you all for your support during this process. We feel you behind us!

Debbie Alsebai, Charlie Franich, Franc Graham, Elise Henricks, Jim May, Brigitte Miller, and Tracey Robinson

News and Announcements

THIS SATURDAY — April 2nd — 7 to 11 PM @ the Parish Hall

Don’t Forget to RSVP to our First Parish Silent Auction FUNraiser!!

Check out the vacation homes here.

RSVP here.

DON’T FORGET YOUR CHECKBOOK

Meditation Sundays at 9 am and Thursdays at 7pm

Come enjoy quiet contemplation or meditation in our lovely children’s church for 30 minutes. We meet Sunday’s at 9am and Thursday evenings at 7:00.

Questions? Contact Tracey Robinson.

“IT’S STRINGTIME” At First Parish

When: Sunday, April 3

Symphony Hall come to Milton! On Sunday, April 3rd at 4pm Milton Community Concerts presents BSO violinist Bonnie Bewick Brown, Boston Pops cellist Jennifer Lucht, and pianist Timothy Steele in an entertaining and virtuostic program of classical and fiddle music. Tickets are $20 general, $10 seniors 65 and over, Free for 18 and under. See miltoncommunityconcerts.com for more information.

Save the DateSave the date:

First Parish’s annual Passover seder will be held on Wednesday, April 27th at 6:30pm. Look for an evite with more details in the weeks to come! This is an intergenerational event.

 

 

Social Action News – from UU Urban Ministry

From: Rev. Rebecca Hinds

Director of Congregational and Volunteer Engagement

I am writing because Michael Curry, president of the Boston NAACP and recent speaker at our UU Urban Ministry Anti-Racism Summit has asked for our help and support. Attorney Curry says:

“I’m on the National NAACP Board of Directors and involved in a national rally and protest planned in Washington D.C. from April 16 – 18 to urge Congress to act on repairing the Voting Rights Act. At a recent meeting we were discussing James Reeb and the Boston NAACP’s history of working with faith communities to mobilize activists. I mentioned our local efforts to reestablish those partnerships, especially as we face challenges, locally and nationally. Well, I’m emailing now to see if we can get your help filling a bus to D.C. to attend the Democracy Awakening event in April. We plan to secure a bus, leaving early on Sunday, April 17 and returning late Monday, April 18. The National NAACP and the other national partners have secured local churches in D.C. that will house the riders overnight on Sunday.”

Here is the link to the website for this effort.

As a partner of the NAACP, the UUUM would like to help and support this vision of getting a multi-racial, multi-generational bus full of people from the Boston Area for the Democracy Awakening Rally in DC. The NAACP specifically asked for UU’s to join them on the bus. Any chance you or your congregation would like to support this effort?

Support the NAACP and Democracy Awakening in one of three ways:

1. Get on the bus!

2. Donate food, snacks, and water for riders to take on the bus

3. Donate money to offer scholarships (it costs $40 per person) Checks can be made out to the NAACP

Please feel free to share this information widely in your newsletters, orders of service, etc.

In faith,

Rebecca

Social Action Committee Ongoing Activities:

Looking for Cooks and Servers for Father Bill’s

When: April 9 & April 23

Please contact Pat Gallivan if you can help.

Family Friendly Volunteer Opportunity!

Next Date: April 16

Please join us the 3rd Saturday of every month (April 16, May 21, June 18) at 9:00 AM at First Parish Milton’s parking lot. We will then caravan into Roxbury to help unload, sort and distribute fresh produce to an underserved community. This is a family-friendly event… kids of all ages are welcome. Feel free to stay for 30 mins or 3 hours!” Very happy to report 15 First Parish volunteers participated in March.

How to Make a Pledge

  • Electronically (Via our webpage)
  • Go to www.fpmilton.org
  • On Home Page – Click on Members Page
  • Login: Enter username and password (if you do not know it, please contact us).
  • Scroll down on Left Side until you find Donations
  • Then click on Online Pledge Form
  • Top of the page reads: Stewardship FY2017, Financial Commitment
  • Complete the form

The old fashion way (Paper)

Alternatively you can complete a paper pledge form and return to the office via snail mail 535 Canton Ave., Milton, MA 02186 or drop off in the gray box outside the office in person. Pledge forms are available in the narthex, the Parish Hall foyer, and on the bulletin board next to the office.

Questions? Check with Kiki Giatis

KikiKiki’s Corner

The spring is a time for UU congregations to gather for a variety of annual meetings.

First Parish Milton is no different. Our own annual meeting will be May 15. The Mass Bay District is April 23 in Lexington , MA. The UUA General Assembly is June 22 – 26 in Columbus Ohio.

The Parish Committee is already preparing for the Annual Meeting on May 15, 2016 after worship. Committee Chairs have already been asked to prepare their annual reports. We are already working on identifying committee needs for next year. If you may have interest in committee work as a way to share your talent with the congregation, please let me know. You may also contact Chris Pitt or Chris Clifford. You must be a member of the congregation to vote at the Annual Meeting.

First Parish in Milton is part of the Massachusetts Bay District (MBD). Our own Melinda Collins is a member of the board of directors and offered a reflection about the UUA and the District during worship in February. The Annual Meeting of the Mass Bay District will be held from 9 am – 1pm on Saturday, April 23 at First Parish Church in Lexington, MA. Our congregation may send up to three voting delegates. Please let me or Melinda know if you want to be a delegate. You may register for the event through the following link.

UUA General Assembly (aka GA) is in Columbus, OH from Wednesday, June 22 through Sunday June 26,2016. Milton is authorized a number of voting delegates for the business meeting. There are lots of special programs for Youth and workshops for all. There is lots of information the uua website. The link to register is here. Please let me or Chris Pitt know if you are interested in being a delegate.

REMINDER: Any forms or notes you want to leave should go into the gray box next to the office. This includes pledge forms, caring committee forms, notes for Kiki or Miriam, checks that did not make the offeratory. This insures that your papers are getting to us.

STAY CONNECTED

Follow First Parish on Facebook and get updates, poems, announcements and more. You’ll be glad you did!

EVERY SUNDAY

Worship, 10:30am in the Meetinghouse

Silent Prayer & Meditation, 9:00am in the Children’s Church

THE SUNDAY PLANNER

Please consider volunteering for important Sunday worship positions like ushering, hosting social hour, providing flowers for worship, and lighting the chalice. Sign Up Here!