This Week in Worship

Sunday, June 19 @ 10:30 am in Meetinghouse

Flower Communion

It has been a dreadful week. I don’t need to go into why, we have all seen the news. My dear friend David Riley wrote this response to the tragedy in Orlando. I think it perfectly captures how so many of us feel and yet turns the grief into a call for action.

I look forward to seeing you all in church for Flower Communion and the church picnic.

Until then,

Hank

“Keep your moment of silence.

There could be no less fitting tribute to mark the deaths of LGBTQ people than a moment of silence. Silence, the stalking servant of fear, has always been our enemy. It was silence that kept us from complaining, silence that kept us apart, silence that kept us compliant. It was silence that kept us in closets and in the shadows, that kept us less-than-fully-human and ruled our lives like a tyrant.

It was silence that we heard when HIV/AIDS was just “gay plague” and we died. And today, it is silence our legislators give us, their mouths gagged by NRA “contributions” while the gun deaths mount. And, perhaps, silence between a homophobic father and his increasingly disturbed son that provided motive for this latest tragedy.

Keep your silence. I will not give you one more moment of silence. I will cry. I will scream. I will rage. And in the end, I will dance because where there is no silence there will be music.”

– David Riley

Religious Exploration

Sunday, June 19 – Flower Communion

• All Children & Youth to attend the Service
• Nursery available for children 4 and under.
• No children’s programming and no nursery care June 26 – September 4.

News and Announcements

Please join the First Parish Great Blue Hill CUUPS for the Litha Summer Solstice Celebration

When: Saturday, June 18, 7pm in the Parish Hall.

As usual, we follow our ritual with a pot luck social hour.

All are welcome.

The heat steams from the earth, the waters grow warm, and the breezes bring heat with them as well as rain. The rains fall and bring with them warmth, making the air wet and soaking the earth. The heat makes the earth shimmer under our feet, and the rain steams as it hits the ground. The hot breath of the sun fills our lungs; and the fertile smells of blossom, decay and growth are the bouquet of life.

Summer solstice marks the time when the sun stands still, offering us our longest daylight and our shortest night. All are welcome to join the Great Blue Hill CUUPS pagans for a ritual of joy. We will celebrate the great circle of life and the sun – giver of life and energy through all living things. He warms our world without fail; we can reflect this great gift within our lives and out into the world.

Note: Bring magazine or catalog cutouts of what summer looks like to you for our craft project
Blessed Be,
Pam Dorsey

COME SING THIS SUNDAY

On this Sunday, June 19th the choir is going to close the service and our church year with the Hallelujah Chorus from MESSIAH. Any members of the congregation are welcome to join the choir for this. All you have to do is show up for a brief rehearsal in the Meetinghouse at 9:30. Music will be provided. Please join us!

Annual Church Picnic – Sunday, June 19

Enjoy our traditional picnic on Father’s Day. Our Building and Grounds Committee will be grilling and the Membership Committee will be providing the hot dogs, etc, drinks, and other good stuff. Feel free to bring something to share. It is also Flower Communion Sunday and our last service in the Meetinghouse until after Labor Day. Contact Richard Venable or Deb Larson Venable for more information or if you want to help out that day.

General Assembly, Columbus, Ohio June 22 – June 26

Dave Egan and Leslie Macpherson Artinian are delegates from First Parish Milton to GA. You have an opportunity to watch live when there are events in the session hall. You might be able to catch Dave & Leslie in the Parade of Banners on Wednesday evening. Check out http://www.uua.org/ga/off-site/watching on the UUA website for all the technical details.

Caring Ministry Notice

Theodore Parker Church

June 15, 2016

Dear friends,

I want to invite you all to our Conversation on Loss this Friday evening in the parish hall, from 6:00 to 7:00 p.m. It feels as though we have all lost something very precious just now in light of the Orlando deaths. We will gather
Quaker-style, with candles and time to share as we are each moved. The time is open to all — feel free to bring friends.

I also encourage you to invite neighbors, family, and friends to our service on Sunday. While Friday will be a quiet time, Sunday will be full of music and the joyful expression of love, to which we must always return.

In faith,

Rev. Anne

Theodore Parker Unitarian Universalist Church, 1859 Centre Street, Mail to: P. O. Box 320001, West Roxbury, MA 02132

First Parish Milton ~ Summer Services 2016

Services held in the Parish Hall

No nursery services are provided during the summer
but you are welcome to bring your child(ren).

• *June 26 – Myrtle Flight ~ “Justice”. A former practicing lawyer, Myrtle will investigate the broad topic of justice.
• *July 3 – Jeff Stoodt ~ “Spiritual Independence Day” – Using Ralph Waldo Emerson, Jeff will investigate the question of whether or not spiritual independence is possible or even desirable.
• *July 10 – Jennie Mulqueen ~ “Social Justice and the UU Sabbath”. Jennie is an MDiv student at B.U. and her service will be Part I of the series “Social Justice, Death, and Sex: UU Sermon Series on Sabbath Theology and Practice”
• *July 17 – Dave Egan ~ “Our Beloved Community” – Dave is an MDiv student at Andover-Newton and his service will be looking at how we create the beloved community within our congregations… while at the same time reaching out of our comfort zones to help those in need.
• *July 24 – Elise Henricks ~ “Walking a Labyrinth” – Elise will lead a discussion and a walk around First Parish’s portable labyrinth.
• *July 31 – Rev. Hank Peirce ~ “Endings”. This will be Rev. Hank’s final service as interim minister at First Parish.
• *August 7 – Erica Long ~ “We Are Lonely” Erica, a recent graduate of Harvard Divinity School and ordination- track UU describes her service this way: “Loneliness has a way of creeping into our lives no matter where we are or how many people we have around us. Together, let’s explore loneliness, acknowledging that it is an active agent in our spiritual lives.”
• *August 14 – Matt Weinstein ~ “The Game” An ordination-track, second-year MDiv student at Harvard Divinity School, Matt will explain how a simple child’s game could help you live the life you want to live.
• *August 21 – Mallory and Diana Digges ~ Israel, Palestine and the spiritual aspects of UU activism
• *August 28 – Leslie MacPherson Artinian ~ “A Very Good Friday” – Leslie is the Chair of the Worship Committee at First Parish. Her service will investigate the issue of topic of “holy days” and weeks. She asks: Our roots are Christian, so what does that mean for UUs?
• *September 4 (Labor Day weekend) – Rev. Patty Hatch ~ “Gathering Coconuts” Rev. Patricia Hatch is the Minister of Christian Education at First Parish of Westwood, UCC. In her service, she will answer the question: How is practicing mindfulness similar to gathering coconuts? Rev. Patricia will invite you to reflect on mindfulness and to experience mindful practices during the worship service.

Fiscal Year 2016 ends June 30, 2016

Just to remind you of – and thank you again for – the pledge you made to First Parish for 2015-2016. Pledges are a significant source of income, so we hope that you can pay any outstanding balance by June 30, 2016.

Kiki’s Corner

Committee Chairs (both ingoing and outgoing)

KEYS –Typically we have given current committee chairs a key to the building. If you are an outgoing committee chair, please pass you key to the incoming chair. If your committee has no incoming chair, please return the key to the office.

LEADERSHIP MATERIALS — Also incoming chairs, please check out our Members page on the website to see a vareity of resources available to you. Some may be updated in the next month to reflect changes and updates in church documents. We are grateful that you are serving our church community in a very special way.

EVENTS ALREADY PLANNED? — A soon as you have established either committee meeting dates and/or event dates, please email the information to office@fpmilton.org and director@fpmilton.org. This information will confirm meeting space requirements as well as get your event on the master calendar. We want to be able to produce an all church event calendar when the program year begins in September.

Summer schedule:

Office Hours: 10:30 – 2:30 Monday – Thursday

Office Closed June 27, July 4, July 20

No staff on-site Sundays

STAY CONNECTED

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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!