Weekly Update

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The email newsletter of First Parish in Lexington is published on Wednesdays at 4 pm. Submissions are due on Mondays at 10 am. Email submissions or inquiries to the church office.
  • Sunday Service

    Drawing from the work of Stephen and Ondrea Levine, the Tibetans, and Ram Dass, Lisa Perry-Wood will guide us to look at ways to face death and dying with grace and gratitude. And we will consider: How differently would we live our lives if we weren’t afraid to die? Please join us at 10:30am.

    Lisa Perry-Wood, Worship Leader

    Guest musician will be Yukiko Sekino.

    Yukiko is a graduate of Harvard University and the Julliard School, and holds a doctoral degree from State University of New York at Stony Brook. She previously taught at Colby College, and currently teaches piano at Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the New England Conservatory Prep School.

    Click here to hear last week’s sermon by Lisa Perry-Wood, “Staying Present to Injustice: Lessons from a Prison Ministry”

  • A Note from our Director of Music
    I hope everyone is having a fun summer! I miss seeing you all and look forward to another exciting year at First Parish this fall!
    On Thursday, I will be heading to Arlington, Virginia, to attend the Unitarian Universalist Musicians Network’s annual conference. The title of the conference is “Beyond the Wall:  Expanding the View of Music Ministry in Your Community.” Music and Worship are the cornerstones of the UUMN and the centerpiece of the annual conferences. This year, a worship design team chosen from numerous applicants will create and model transformative worship practices. The conference choir will be led by the always-inspiring Brian Tate. They will offer three reading sessions of UU-appropriate music which we all can take home to use with our congregations. The UU Church of Arlington will be the conference church this year. This 800-member congregation will welcome the many UU musicians from around the country for workshops and worship. Networking, round table discussions, workshops (conducting, improvisation, composing, etc.), concerts, and worship services will be offered each day. I am really excited to see what other UU churches around the country offer musically for worship and community outreach!
    Next month, I will be publishing the starting dates for all of the fall choirs. If you are interested, email me in early September and I can tell you more about the fabulous music making we have to offer.
    Blessings,
    Rip
    Director of Music
    First Parish in Lexington
  • This Saturday – Sewing for Days for Girls

    JOIN US TO SEW for

    DAYS FOR GIRLS

    SATURDAY JULY 29TH FROM 9:00 A.M. TO 1:00 PM

    AT FIRST PARISH UNITARIAN UNIVERSALIST IN LEXINGTON

    Days for Girls is an organization that provides health education and feminine hygiene kits to girls and women in more than 100 countries who otherwise would not have access to either. Their mission states, “Days for Girls is dedicated to creating a more free, dignified, and educated world, through providing lasting access to feminine hygiene solutions and health education.” Visit their website to learn more information.

    Join us to sew reusable cloth kits for girls who do not otherwise have access to sanitary products. Please bring your sewing machine! Supplies will be provided.

    Questions? Contact Amy Breiting or Roberta Pittore for more information.

  • From the UU Urban Ministry
    Message from the
    Executive Director and Senior Minister
    Dear Friends of the Urban Ministry,
    So much is in bloom right now: lilies and hydrangea and daisies. When conditions are right – abundant sun and enough rain – they dazzle.
    In this and every season, we ask ourselves at the UU Urban Ministry how we can live into our potential for partnership and for social justice. And we seek to be good soil for others to live into theirs.
    We strive to put our extraordinary campus in Roxbury to its fullest use serving this community.
    • We partner with the Makanda Project jazz band to provide lively and free summer concerts on our green.
    • We welcome The City School for their summer teen leadership classes, and some days every classroom and nook and cranny is full of life with young people talking, planning, learning.
    • We partner with Roxbury Community College as they undergo renovations, and welcomed their Summer Intensive Arts summer camp into our historic Meetinghouse. It is one of the programs children in our summer campership program attend (another is an arts camp in Brookline). The program culminates with a performance here in August.
    And we work to ensure our UUUM core programs provide the resources for individuals to blossom, too.
    •  In September, after two years of research, planning and development, we launch our job readiness program for trauma survivors. This is an extension of the longtime work we have done serving domestic violence survivors in our Renewal House shelter. Classes will be held on our Roxbury campus for about 30 survivors at a time.
    • We will launch a re-envisioned youth program that focuses on life skills and social/emotional well-being. We have provided safe and nurturing space to high school students for decades. After a lengthy strategic planning process, we are gearing up for a reinvigorated program that offers young people the tools, support and opportunity to live into their potential, too.
    We rely on our friends, volunteers, and donors to make this possible – to enrich this soil so that all those who enter reach, stretch, grow, and dazzle.
    Thank you for being part of our work and UUUM community.
    Summer blessings,
    Mary Margaret

    To make a donation to support UUUM, click here

    To learn more about the UUUM, click here

  • News from UUJEC

    UUJEC Logo

    Friends,

    Continuing in our series of briefing webinars on Healthcare Justice as a UU Value, UUJEC in collaboration with Unitarian Universalists for Social Justice (UUSJ) is proud to present Prof. Jerome Dugan who will be speaking on The Affordable Care Act (ACA) and the Senate’s Better Care Reconciliation Act (BCRA): Long term issues for the American economy.

    Wednesday, August 2, 8:00pm Eastern Time

    The ACA and the Senate’s Better Care Reconciliation Act (BCRA):

    Long term issues for the American economy

    Dr. Dugan will speak to the economic considerations of the ACA and BCRA. If the BCRA negotiations are still live, then attendees will hear an economic and systems based analysis that will look specifically at what legislators have to contend with on healthcare and the economy. If something is passed, the lens will be on what legislators need to consider in reaction, for the economy, and the follow-up legislation that would be precipitated.

    Time: Aug 2, 2017 8:00 PM Eastern Time (US and Canada)

    Click on this link to join the Zoom meeting: https://zoom.us/j/162242742

    You should be at a laptop, computer or mobile device with a camera and Internet access to participate.

    Plan to sign in early to make sure you have enough time to download the Zoom platform, if necessary.

    You may also join by phone, if you prefer:

    Dial: +1 408 638 0968 (US Toll) or +1 646 558 8656 (US Toll)

    Meeting ID: 162 242 742

    Jerome Dugan, PhD, Assistant Professor, Department of Health Systems and Sciences Research, College of Nursing and Health Professions, Drexel University; Assistant Professor, Department of Health Management and Policy, School of Public Health, Drexel University. His research focuses on optimizing the structure and regulation of healthcare and welfare markets and modeling individual and system-wide costs of economic and health disparities. Dr. Dugan received his MA and PhD in Economics at Rice University and his BS in Economics from Clemson University.

    We look forward to joining you on this very important webinar.

    Join UUJEC

  • Water for Ingathering Sunday

    The annual Water Communion will take place during Ingathering on Sunday, September 10th at 10:30am. Wherever you will be in your life this summer, please save some water and bring it with you to this special service.

     

    Water, deep source,
    embracing the earth,
    rushing, confronting,
    transforming this shore;

    Water, dear source,
    cradling haven,
    crystalline beauty,
    rain on parched land;

    Water, sweet sources,
    linking the eons,
    stirring our memories
    roots for our growth;

    Water, warm cauldron
    of our revolution,
    for love of life that
    brings a sea-change;

    Water, sweet message,
    nourish our spirit,
    christen and bless
    the new air we breathe.

    ~Pat Simon

     

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