This Week in Worship

Sunday, September 7, 2014

10:30am in the Meetinghouse

“Come down off the ladder. Wash out that paintbrush. Shake the sand out of your shoes. Get up off your muddy knees, and give the garden a morning off. Fold up the newspaper. Turn off the coffeepot. Close up your calendar, already filled with dates, and times, and people, and places that claim you. This church is ready for you to fill its rooms, to create its spirit, to generate its warmth, to kindle its light. This church is ready for you to make community, to create beauty, to bend it toward justice, to serve its ideals. This church is ready for you to be here, honoring our past, invigorating our present, and dreaming our future. This is your church. Here we are home. Here we are whole. Let us begin.” – Rev. Tom Schade

Friends, Sunday is our Homecoming celebration and I want to make sure you don’t miss all we have planned. Ever since I was a child the start of the church year signaled to me the revitalization of the beloved community that we build together. As Rev. Schade’s words remind us “this church is ready for you to fill its rooms, to create its spirit…to make community…to serve its ideals.” Will we be able to get to all that in this first Sunday service? Come and find out.

Please join us after pancakes at 10:25 outside the church for our opening celebration and then we will enter our church building singing and kick off the church year in grand style!

See you in church!

Rev. Hank

News and Announcements

Welcome Home!

When: Sunday, September 7

Time: 8:30am – 10:00am PANCAKES!

Come join us for pancakes, real maple syrup, bacon of all kinds and fellowship before the worship service!

Choir members are encouraged to have a pancake in the Parish Hall at 8:30 and then gather for rehearsal at 8:45 am in the Meetinghouse to prepare for Morning Worship music.

This yearly event is put toghether by the Youth Group.

And with Pancakes comes BACON!

Don’t forget that a pound of bacon is donated by every committee.

Please bring your COOKED pound of bacon to breakfast Sunday morning.

Thank you!!

AN OPEN INVITATION TO ANYONE WHO HAS EVER CONSIDERED SINGING IN THE MEETINGHOUSE CHOIR FOR ONE SUNDAY OR FOR MANY SUNDAYS:

Choir rehearsals are at 8:45 on Sunday morning beginning on September 7th. The choir will be singing for three Sundays each month this year, and Tim Steele will be leading the charge (he can be contacted HERE). Come anytime and give it a try. No audition needed.

Dinner & Singing at Lucy Stone Coop

The Lucy Stone Coop is an intentional community of people committed to living UU values in shared housing in Roxbury. On Sunday, September 14, a group of us from First Parish will visit Lucy Stone to share food and song, and also to learn more about the coop, plans for future growth, and some of the exciting new ways Unitarian Universalism is being lived out in greater Boston. We will leave Milton at a bit after 6 and return at appx. 9:20. If you’re interested, or for more details, contact Tony Dutzik via email or at 617-291-4685.

Saturday, September 20th 7:00 PM

Join the Great Blue Hill chapter of CUUPS(Covenant of UU pagans) as we gather in circle and ceremony at the home of Pam Dorsey, 27 Gibbons Street in Milton to celebrate Mabon, the Fall Equinox

As always we will share a potluck feast…please let Mark Whall know if you think it likely you will attend (markonwall@gmail.com 617 282 4075)…see ya!…blessed be!

REMINDER! Items for The Link are due Tuesday at 5 pm. Please email both Miriam and Kiki at the office to make sure your item is included.

The Link is a primary way to communicate to the congregation. If you have announcements for The Link, it needs to be submitted by Tuesdays at 5 pm. Items generally should be church related, or an event to be held on the church campus. Please add a title and offer a graphic if possible. Brevity is a good thing.

September is just around the corner, so get your calendars out and save the Date!

• Saturday, September 6 – Youth Group Lock-In
• Sunday, September 7 – Pancake Breakfast followed by Worship in the Meetinghouse
• Sunday September 14 – RE Teacher Training
• Sunday September 14 – Dinner & Singing at Lucy Stone Coop (Meet at 6 pm at the church)
• Saturday, September 20 -Mabon Equinox Celebration
• Sunday, September 21 – Religious Exploration Classes Begin
• Friday, September 26 – All Church Council (6:30 pm)
• Friday, October 24 – Halloween Party
• Saturday, October 25 – Haunted House
• Saturday, November 15 – Harvest Supper and Silent Auction (please note change of date)

Religious Exploration News

CLICK HERE to view our new RE Newsletter. It’s a great way to stay up-to-date on everything RE.

With the desire to keep all connected and informed we have created an RE Newsletter that will be available the beginning of each month. It will be emailed and also posted on our website. A special edition was emailed last week to parents with the following letter from the RE chair, Lisa White:

Dear Parents,

We are excited to welcome your children to the RE program for this new church year!
If you attended the annual meeting last May, you may recall a discussion about charging a fee for RE programming in order to help with budgeting our limited resources.

After further discussions in both the Parish and RE committees, we have instituted a modest fee for our RE classes. The cost will be $25 per student for the year, from the nursery up through youth group. For students in OWL and Coming of Age, there will be an additional $50 fee.

If this fee is a burden for your family, please speak privately to Rev. Hank Peirce, our interim minister. We do not want the fee to prevent anyone from participating and will gladly make accommodations as needed.

We look forward to seeing all the children and youth in their classes on the first day of RE, September 21. In the meantime, if you have any questions, please feel free to contact any of us on the RE Committee, Miriam, or Rev. Hank.

Lisa White, chair
Donna Drewes
Brigitte Miller
Bridget Sitkoff
Becky Stiles

Youth Group Registration and Religious Exploration class registration is available online HERE. A vanco link with a line for RE has been set up. On-line payments can be made by clicking HERE.

All Youth must be registered to be able to participate in the Lock In this coming Saturday.

Kiki’s Corner

Welcome Back to another church year at First Parish. We are off to a great start. You may see some changes around the building. Rev. Hank Peirce began his interim ministry in mid-August. His office is Parisa’s former office. Tim Steele is in place as Music Director this coming year. His office is behind the Meetinghouse close to the piano and the organ. I have moved to the former Music Office. The Library has a repurposed rug and a new configuration. Sara Elizabeth Santa Cruz continues to have a work space in the Library. Miriam Febres, Kevin Harnden and I made an effort to clean things out little by little over the summer. Hopefully others will notice the subtle changes.

THANK YOU to Anita Penta & Jen Pinkus for preparing the kitchen for our Welcome Back Sunday. We have wonderful Hospitality Co-Chairs! Thanks to them we will have lemonade and cookies following the Welcome Back Service on Sunday. On that note…

SOCIAL HOUR HOSTS NEEDED VERY IMMEDIATELY: We have many openings for Social Hour hosts in September, October and November. Check your calendar and sign up. If you keep forgetting to use the Sunday Planner, you can select your dates and sign up during the Pancake Breakfast and Social Hour on Sunday.

There are many Sunday morning volunteer positions available. Usher, Greeter, providing Flowers, Chalice Lighters…

The link to SignUp Genius can be found HERE.

Committee Chairs and Members. You are invited to attend the All Church Council on Friday evening, September 26. Please mark your calendars! There are several committees that have already arranged their meeting schedule for this coming year. Please let the office know when you are planning to meet so we can put it on the calendar (even if you meet offsite). Thanks to our Committees for providing the bacon for Sunday morning.

GRATITUDE TO ALL OF THOSE THAT VOLUNTEERED THIS SUMMER

Thank you Worship Committee for leading worship from June – August. Thank you Religious Exploration Committee for planning classes, workshops and events for our children, youth and adults for the coming year. Thank you Parish Committee for spending 36 hours on retreat to have time to contemplate the many things that will happen during this interim ministry period. Thank you Roger Gray for helping on Building and Ground issues that inevitably need attention over the summer. Thank you Membership Committee for keeping the greeter program going and having a local retreat to plan for the year ahead.Thank you Music Committee for literally making the move happen for Tim. Thank you Caring Committee for taking such good care of the congregation. Thank you Kathy Fagan and Brian Bauer for cleaning out the storage area. Thank you Judity Darrell Kemp for taking a look at furniture to determine if they are part of our treasures and sprucing up the Stebbins Parlor and Library. And thank you to anyone I might have missed. The pace may be different and more relaxed but there are many of you working to make the upcoming year fun and rewarding.

STAY CONNECTED

Follow First Parish on Facebook! “Like” our page www.facebook.com/FirstParishMiltonUu 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!