Your Weekly Link – News and Updates 5/1/2020

Weekly Link 5-1-2020

This Week in Virtual Worship

Sunday, May 3rd, 2020

“Choose to Pay Attention”

Rev. Lisa Ward

Our YouTube account is First Parish in Milton UU.  Please subscribe by hitting the subscribe button on our Youtube channel and you’ll get notifications of when new videos are posted.

Please be on the lookout for an Order of Worship which will be emailed to you on Friday, 5/1.  We’ve added the offering to the service with a new way to give- text to giving! 

Sunday’s offering will go to the Louis D Brown Institute — The Mother’s Day Walk for Peace is a beloved Boston (and FPM) tradition and celebration of our potential to create more peaceful communities. It is the Louis D. Brown Peace Institute’s largest fundraising event to support their services, advocacy and training. 

You can donate anytime between April 30th and May 3rd. See below for  text donation instructions.  It will be good to worship together.

Do join us on Sunday if you can.

**********************************************************

Below in the Link:

1. Minister’s Message

2. RE Message

3. Annual Meeting via Zoom

4. Clapping for Medical Professionals

5. Sunday Donation Info

6. Volunteer Opportunities

7. Green Gleanings

8. Meditation Info

9. Office Q & A

Minister

Rev. Lisa Ward

minister@fpmilton.org

Hello stalwart people, sheltering in place yet another week.  We are coming to understand new levels of endurance and anxiety, uplift and fear, community and isolation.  There is much to learn from these times, lives to honor, efforts to encourage.  We do not know what will emerge after the pandemic has passed, but we do know we have each other to companion this transformation.

The live stream worship services are helping with a continuity of gathering.  Please do consider staying on zoom for any length of time to share in the virtual coffee hour. 

One aspect of our in gathering worship services is not as possible in a public live stream service: the specific prayer requests.  Feel free to contact me with requests, which I can lift up in my heart in the open silence at the end of the pastoral prayer.  Furthermore, I will begin offering a zoom space on Wednesdays at 5:30 pm for people to gather and share their prayer requests.  It will be a combination of prayers and short meditations.  I will keep the zoom room open for  one half hour and linger longer if requested. A zoom link will be sent out the day of (Wednesday).  You are welcome to “zoom” in whether you have a prayer request or not.

Feel free to contact me with any queries or comments about how First Parish in Milton can serve these times.

Be Well

Sending Love, Rev. Lisa

Religious Exploration

Options for Children and Middle Schoolers: We are offering multiple short virtual programs throughout the week so that families feel connected to each other and to the heartbeat of First Parish Milton. We are exploring the following options:

Show & Tell: Wednesdays at 3:30 pm

Storytime: Tuesdays and Thursdays at 7:00

Middle School Hangout: Tuesdays and Thursdays at 4:00 pm

See the RE family newsletter for more information about each option and the Zoom links to join in. Each session is password protected, participants will be admitted via waiting rooms, private chat will be turned off, and screen sharing and white board use will be restricted to the co-hosts. We will ensure that two adults are present before children or youth are added from the waiting rooms. Please let Laurel know if you need the family newsletter.

We are all learning and adapting to new ways of connecting and sharing. I welcome feedback about what feels possible and helpful as we experiment with virtual RE.

~ Our bodies may not be touching, but our hearts are still connected.

Virtual Youth Chat: All youth should have received Zoom links to join two online Youth Chat sessions each week. Each session will give youth an opportunity to connect and share what is on their hearts and we will play fun group online games. Please let Laurel know if you need the link info.

Bi-weekly sessions are on Thursdays at 7:30 pm and Sundays at 1:00 pm.

Events, News and Announcements

The Annual First Parish meeting this year, not surprisingly, will be held by Zoom teleconference.

While this is not ideal, we have had wonderful Sunday services using Zoom (huge thanks to Eric Miler) and are confident that the Annual Meeting will run smoothly.  We want this change in format to be as uncomplicated as possible and are working plans that allow members to participate, vote, ask question – everything that would normally happen – while sitting in your living room. Even though its broadcast over Zoom we hope that otherwise it will feel similar past Annual Meetings. There will be more information in future editions of the Link and an email invitation to the meeting.

If there are any questions about how to use Zoom, ask questions or vote – any questions at all about the technology – please let us know.   We want everyone to participate.  Feel free to send an email to office@fpmilton.org or call 617.698.6329 with questions, concerns or for assistance.

#ClapBecauseWeCare

Friday, May 1st at 7:00 PM

Let’s come together to show our appreciation for all front-line workers: healthcare professionals, grocery store employees, delivery drivers, cooks, food pantry workers, and more. Come out onto your front step, or open your window, and applaud, ring a bell, or bang some pans together for five minutes to express your appreciation.

Church bells will be rung as well. Post a video of your celebration on social media with the #ClapBecauseWeCareMiltonand make sure that the video is set to ‘public.’ Milton Interfaith Clergy Association will be compiling these into a video to share with healthcare workers and others on the front-lines.

Let’s do this EVERY Friday at 7:00 PM, starting now and until we come through on the other side of this.

Last Sunday’s Donations

Last Sunday, we collected donations for the YMCA.

Thanks to your generosity, we were able to donate $222.08.

From today 4/30 through 5/3, we are accepting donations for the 

Louis D Brown Institute — The Mother’s Day Walk for Peace is a beloved Boston (and FPM) tradition and celebration of our potential to create more peaceful communities. It is the Louis D. Brown Peace Institute’s largest fundraising event to support their services, advocacy and training. 

HOW TO GIVE: Simply text (617) 539-7576 with the amount that you’d like to give. Do not add words, simply put the amount. You’ll get an automatic text message back, asking you to do a 1-time set up to create an account with your credit card/debit number. After the one time set-up, you can simply text the number with an amount to give, and it’ll be automatically debited from the account of your choosing. This is contained and safe — it goes directly to a designated First Parish account. We will write one check of the compiled donations to the organization.

Volunteers needed       

IT TAKES A VILLAGE….

FPM Mainspring Lunch program is up and running! We have now completed 3 deliveries to Mainspring thanks to all our generous volunteers!  Of course, new volunteers are always welcome to join us!  Next two delivery dates are

  • May 6
  • May 20

We are asking volunteers to make and contribute 10, 15, or 20 lunches – whatever you can manage!  Contact Peter Schneider peterlschneider@gmail.com to sign-up, for detailed instructions, or if you have questions.

Mother’s Day VIRTUAL Walk-A-Thon for Peace

First Parish Milton has been participating in the Walk for Peace for many years.  We will have a team “virtually walking” again this year and hope you will join us.  The Mother’s Day Walk for Peace is a celebration of our potential to create more peaceful communities. Every year, families from across the state and region unite toward peace. Join us this Mother’s Day online! 

For more information or to register for the FPM team, go to the website: http://www.mothersdaywalk4peace.org.  Sounds like the registration is a bit complicated so if you have problems,  contact Pat Gallivan.

THANK YOU for being part of OUR VILLAGE.

 Green Gleanings

A MESSAGE FROM BROOKWOOD COMMUNITY FARM:

OUR ANNUAL SEEDLING SALE IS ON &

WE’RE FOLLOWING PROPER SAFETY GUIDELINES

To browse and shop:

https://sites.google.com/brookwoodcommunityfarm.org/2020-seedlings-shop-and-sched/home

This is an annual rite of Spring locally — more meaningful than ever right now.  Online ordering with advance payment will lead to a contact-less pick-up process (May 9-10), scheduled in advance with limited vehicles in the parking lot and loading up orders from a table nearby.  

CSA shares (a community supported agriculture contract) are going quickly. Sold out already are Egg, Spring and Summer shares, with limited supply of Flower, and Summer Fruit shares.  Now that people are more concerned with where their food comes from, we hope they enjoy it, the farm, and learn a bit about the process of growing organically and the deep connection we have with our community.  Stay tuned for word on the Saturday Roslindale Farmers Market, an important source of our revenues.

Like so many others, we will continue to work toward the best possible outcomes while upholding a safe environment.  Brookwood will strive to connect what is harvested on the farm with those in the surrounding communities and continue our fresh food donations to those in need.  We have some Summer and Fall shares reserved for SNAP recipients (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, administered through USDA). ​ — to receive an application form for that list, contact Cathy Smith, President, Brookwood Community Farm, president@brookwoodcommunityfarm.org .

Meditation gather

We have resumed a group meditation practice which will be available 

online Sunday mornings at 9am and Thursday evenings at 6pm.  

This is a time for us to gather together, in spirit, even if we are not physically in the same space.  

This is a time for quiet reflection:

Some of us practice mindfulness meditation, 

others take time to rest in silent prayer, 

some choose to simply ease into a shared and peaceful quiet.   

If you are interested in joining us please email Tracey Robinson 

at tdr02186 @ gmail.com and I will send you an official invitation.

Office Q&A

We’ve gotten a few questions from members this week that we thought we’d answer here- as if one person has them, many do!

1. Can I still send mail to the church?

Absolutely. Sherri is here Monday-Thursday, Susan on weekends. If you are sending checks, please just note that it may take a tad longer to deposit than typical. For staff safety, we are only going to bank 2x a month.

2. Is the Solar Panel Project still slated to start this summer?

Yes. We are in the middle of the permitting process. We are expecting things to go a bit slower than hoped, as ordering materials and gettings permits is more challenging when businesses are on limited hours. However- we are still expecting solar panels up in the summer 2020.

3. I need a directory. Can I get one?

As long as you are a member or contributing friend, yes. Send an email (office@fpmilton.org) and we’ll get a physical copy out to you. Copies are available on the password protected section of the website as well.