This Week in Worship

Sunday, September 8, 2019

10:30am – 11:30am in the Meetinghouse

“Embrace the Journey”

Minister

Rev. Lisa Ward

A colleague sent me a note from Akaya Windwood, founder of Wisebridge, a global transformative consulting agency.  The timing could not have been better.  “The cycle of birth, growth, decline and death is a natural metaphor for what is happening on the global political stage…,” she writes, “I suggest that rather than poke around in the gore and continually make ourselves sick from toxic exposure, we  attend to our collective well-being – remembering to care for each other and the earth, and to make art and love as we resist, mourn, heal and build.”

This speaks to my anticipation of our gathering in faith community for the full service church year.  We do this by engaging in vibrant dialogue, sharing our gifts and talents with others, entering with a spirit of learning and an embrace of discovery.  We find our resilience and agency, our joy and courage in each other and in the spirit of life about us.  We come to inspiration and ways to find hope in the opening of Spirit known in our worship gatherings.

We each bring important wisdom, longing, experience and wonder to our faith community.  It is important that we recognize, affirm and assure each other of our shared endeavor to build a just and healthy world with faith, love, and compassion.  All this, simply, by choosing to come together and intending to find life abundantly for all.

It is good to be together.

Blessings Be, Rev. Lisa

Religious Exploration

Nursery care will be available from 10:15 to 11:45 am in the Link hallway for infants and toddlers up through age 3.

On Sunday, September 8, all children from preschool through grade 8 will attend the whole congregation Ingathering worship service in the Meeting House. Our youth will be hosting the annual Pancake Breakfast before the service. Please join them at 9 am in the Parish Hall. Attendance is free and the food and fellowship are fabulous!

September 15 will be a Children’s Church Sunday. Children from preschool through grade 8 will begin in the Meetinghouse and then move to the Children’s Church for a multi-age worship service.

Religious Exploration classes will begin meeting on Sunday, September 22. All classrooms are located downstairs. Preschool through grade 1 will be enjoying Spirit Play in the Preschool classroom. Grades 2 and 3 will be exploring the UU Principles during the fall and the Passages program beginning in January, meeting in the Primary classroom. Grades 4 through 7 will be continuing the two-year Friends and Neighbors curriculum, learning about various faith traditions through videos and visitors. This group will meet in the Activity room. Grade 8 will be participating in the Coming of Age program this year.

It is time to register your child or youth for classes this fall! The Religious Exploration Committee requests all families to register your child or youth before September 22. Please use this link to our online form: Online registration form (or paper registration forms are available on the RE bulletin board in the Link hallway).

Child care opportunities at FP Milton: Please email restaff@fpmilton.org if you are interested in being part of the child care team. We have occasional opportunities during the year for child care assignments after the service on Sundays or on afternoons/evenings throughout the week.  In your email please give us your first and last names, email address, cell number, and confirm that you have completed a babysitting certification program.

Sunday, September 8th at 9:00 am

Pancake Breakfast before the Ingathering Service!

Calling all pancake lovers! The youth of First Parish will help us kick off the congregational year with a great breakfast before our first regular fall worship service. Please come and reconnect with one another while munching delicious pancakes and bacon! Gluten-free pancakes and veggie bacon will be available. No cost to attend! Breakfast begins at 9:00am in the Parish Hall.

This Sunday, September 8, the youth will be hosting the whole congregation welcome back Pancake Breakfast. We need all youth to help prepare, serve, and clean up the breakfast. Youth should bring a  contribution of fruit for our fruit salad and arrive in the kitchen by 7:30 am on Sunday. After the breakfast is cleaned up the youth will join the whole congregation Ingathering Service in the Meetinghouse.

Youth Chat will begin on Sunday, September 15. Youth are invited to begin arriving at 10 am to make a hot beverage and settle in. Formal Youth Chat programming runs from 10:30 to 11:30 am three Sundays a month.

Coming of Age for grades 8 through 10 will also begin on September 15 with an Opening Worship for youth and their parents from 6 to 7 pm in the Children’s Church. Ongoing COA classes will be held in the youth room from noon to 1:30 on most Sundays. All COA youth need to link up with a mentor before September 22.

Music This Week

This week the Meetinghouse choir will be singing “Into A Time” by African-American composer Adolphus Hailstork, a native of Albany, NY, with a text by the Reverend Randolph W.B. Becker.  A trio of singers will also be singing “I Am Willing” by Holly Near, with an assist from the choir and (hopefully) the congregation. 

For anyone who’d like to see what it’s like to sing in the choir, now is the perfect time to find out. No auditions needed, no long-term time commitment required. Just come at 8:45 to the choir loft and join in.

Events, News and Announcements

The Autumn Equinox is a magical time when nature’s color pallet changes to autumn hues of the warming colors of summer’s end.  It is a time when days and nights are of equal length and time for you to bring your life back into balance too.  It is a time of gratitude, turning inward, and seeking out what has been hidden as we prepare for the shorter days to follow.

Join the Great Blue Hills Chapter of CUUPS on Saturday, September 21^st at 3 pm atFirst Parish Church Milton, as we commune with the cyclical nature of time, and prepare ourselves to embrace the mystery of the darkening year.

Our ritual will include the traditional Water ceremony, so please bring with you a small vessel of water that holds positive energy, a happy memory of your summer that just passed.  It doesn’t have to be from that particular place, but bestow upon it that energy and bring the story behind it with you. 

As always, our celebration will conclude with a feast from our gardens, fields and vines so please bring a dish and drink to share!

“To Return is To Become”

Blessed Be

We need the help of 1-2 people for approximately 30 minutes in the morning next week, on Tuesday, Wednesday, or Thursday.

We need help lifting the portrait of Rev. Stebbins back into his spot in his parlor. If you’re able to help, please let Susan (manager@fpmilton.org) know a time/date you are free.

Your help is much needed and appreciated!

September Event

The Roots and Fruits of Protest Music from Negro Spirituals to Hip-Hop

Directed by: Dr. Dennis Slaughter, PhD

Date and Time: Tuesday, September 17th from 7:00 PM – 9:00 PM
Location:St. Michael’s Episcopal Church (112 Randolph Ave, Milton, MA 02186)

Brother Dennis will explain the history of protest songs and how they have been used in America through presentation and music. Join us in an interactive evening where members of the audience are invited to listen to and participate in protest songs.

Summer Projects- the Wrap-up!

by Susan DeMinico

As summer comes to a close, we look forward to welcoming everyone back to services in the meetinghouse this Sunday. While the pace of summer services slows a bit June-August, the pace of projects for office staff speeds up! In the summer, we have the opportunity to do projects that are difficult during the year when so much of our space is utilized 7 days a week. The projects we completed this summer:

–Meetinghouse External Painting- Two sides are completely done. The crew will be finishing the two remaining sides in late September, once the humidity dies down a bit. The two completed sides contrasted with the incomplete sides is stark. It’s going to look great when done. 

– Parish Hall Repair and Painting– We had to repair a wall damaged by the ice dams, all the walls, ceiling, trim are getting a fresh coat of paint. The room looks so bright and welcoming. 

–Stebbins Parlor– The crumbling ceiling in Stebbins was replaced, and ceiling and walls painted. We refurbished and repaired the table in Stebbins parlor as well as repaired and reupholstered the two antique chairs. The space looks brand new. 

– Window Replacement– In the youth room, we had two small windows that were difficult to open, and undersized for a safe escape in case of a fire. We replaced the two windows with one larger sliding window that opens left to right. The space is much safer for our youth.  

–New Gutters– To the right of the parish hall, the gutters and downspouts were consistently overflowing and causing water damage on the walls. We redesigned the gutter and downspouts to draw water away from the parish hall walls.

–External Wall Replacement– After we fixed the gutters, we replaced the external walls that were damaged by the water. 

–New Phone System– if you called First Parish a lot, you’d notice there was a lot of squeaking on the lines, and our voicemail didn’t always work. We replaced the aging phone system with a VoIP system. We have voicemail! We can transfer calls! It’s been a joy for the office staff.

–New Server– Over the summer, our server started to have issues with stalling out and stopping. We decided to purchase a small server that will suit our current needs, but the goal is update more of our programs to be cloud based.

A very productive 12 weeks of work! I hope you all enjoy these updates!

Sign-up for Church Directory Photos!

First Parish Members ~ You are probably aware that the church has been working on creating a new directory for all of us to use. We had our first photography session in August and the other two dates are coming up quickly. There are still a lot of you who have yet to sign up.  If you have been meaning to “get to it”, THIS IS IT!  You are running out of time. Spaces are available on Friday, September 13th from 2-9 pm and on Saturday, September 14th from 10 am-5 pm. Please go online and select a spot. We want all our faces represented!!  Reach out to Leslie if you have any questions. lesliecmacpherson@gmail.com

Please use this link to choose your spot:

https://booknow-lifetouch.appointment-plus.com/yr4jj9pk/

UU Retreat for Women

Womensphere, a Unitarian – Universalist women’s group in south-eastern New England, invites ALL women to the 2019 Fall Retreat “Circle of Women – Circle of Friends” at Senexet House in Woodstock, CT, on Saturday Sept. 28th – Sunday, Sept. 29th. Come, explore ritual in our lives and honor Gaia and our world. Join singing, dancing, crafts, games, meditation, and sharing. 

For more details, email bcdwomensphere@gmail.com

Milton Change Makers Fundraiser

Protest and Change Through Music , Story, Song

Food-Drink-Raffle-Entertainent

Thursday, October 3, 2019 

7-10pm

Milton Arts Center

334 Edge Hill Rd, Milton, MA 02186

Suggested donation $20

more info: email kdghoran@gmail.com