This Sunday, guest pianist Yukiko Sekino will join baritone David Meharry in sharing their musical gifts during worship. David will sing Moses Hogan’s lovely arrangement of “Deep River” and Haydn’s passionate “Rolling in Foaming Billows” (from The Creation). For the centering music, offertory and postlude, Yukiko will pay Ludvig van Beethoven’s fiery “Prestissimo” (from Sonata in F minor, Op. 2 No. 1) and Robert Schumann’s lyrical “Posthumous Variation IV” (from Symphonic Etudes, Op. 13) and his serene “Des Abends” (from Fantasiestücke, Op. 12). Praised for her “thrilling, inspirational performance” (Florida Sun-Sentinel) and “elegance of line, leaping energy” (San Jose Mercury News), Yukiko Sekino’s career  encompasses a wide range of interests. She made her debut with the Boston Symphony Orchestra at age 16, and has since performed with the New World Symphony and Harvard-Radcliff Orchestra, among others. Dr. Sekino graduated from Harvard University and the Julliard School, and holds a doctoral degree from SUNY Stony Brook. She has given master classes in the US and China.

Listen to the story from the All Ages Thanksgiving Service last week as told by Rev. Anne Mason, Lisa Maria Steinberg, LRE, and members of the congregation.

Dear Friends,

As we begin preparing food or packing the car to visit family and friends for Thanksgiving, many of us may be feeling concern. How are we going to engage in conversation at the dinner table with people who may have voted for a different candidate from us, one who challenges the principles of our Unitarian Universalist faith? Rev. Meg Barnhouse offers a thoughtful article in the UUWorld Online called, “Here come the awkward holidays.” You can read it here.

Thanksgiving Blessings to you and yours from the staff of First Parish!

It’s time to plan for a festive sanctuary this holiday season! First Parish will be accepting orders for poinsettias from Wilson Farm.

The cost is $10.00 for a 6 1/2″ pot, with proceeds going towards the purchase of greens for holiday decorating of the church. Order forms and payment (cash or checks made payable to First Parish in Lexington) are due on Wednesday, November 30th. Orders will only be accepted with payment.

After the Christmas Eve services, you may take your poinsettia home. If you’d like your plant to be in honor or in memory of someone special, please include a message, which will be printed in the Christmas Eve order of service.

To place an order, please download and print the order form here, or fill out an order form at the piano, and return with your payment to the church office by Wednesday, November 30th. Please contact Jane Foley in the church office with any questions. Thank you!

I want to personally thank Rev. Anne and Lisa Maria for organizing Sunday’s Transgender Day of Remembrance. Over 80 Parishioners marched onto the Battle Green after the Sunday service to honor the memory of those whose lives were lost in acts of anti-transgender violence. Rip and the choir led the Parishioners in song on the walk from the church to the Green, singing “Siyahamba” (“We are marching in the light on God”). On the Green, we were honored to hear from Grace Ann Stevens, who spoke of her experiences as a transgender woman. Parishioners read the names of 25 transgender persons who lost their lives to violence and hate during the past year.  We closed by singing “We Shall Overcome”.

As the proud parents of two LGBTQ children, Suzanne and I were deeply touched by the event, as I know everyone else was.  Thank you Rev. Anne and Lisa Maria.

In the spirit of community,

Tom Rich

Board Chair

This year’s Great Fall Auction was held last Saturday night, and I’m very pleased to report that we raised $24,000 for the church.  I want to thank everyone who helped make this year’s Great Fall Auction a success:

Work off that Thanksgiving Dinner!  Come to a Church-Wide Work Party!

On two upcoming Saturdays, December 3 from 8:00AM to 12:00PM, and December 10 from 8:00AM to 12:00PM, the Buildings and Grounds Committee is running a Work Party to get the interior and exterior of the church cleaned up and ready for winter.

You may have noticed that the church gets “used”:  windows get dirty; small things get broken or don’t work right; leaves fall on the driveway—just like at your house.

Hoping you see this as your “home” too, you are invited to join the committee to help get the work done.

Tasks include leaf raking and yard cleanup, window washing, cleaning the many folding tables around the church, minor repairs, and small shelf construction.  On the 10^th, come to the Holiday Workshop in Parker Hall first, and then come upstairs to do a different kind of work, but just as important!

So bring your rake, your bucket, chamois, rubber gloves and squeegees, your tool kit, your energy and your love for your church!  In order to plan our projects well please just send a quick note that you are coming, and when, to: BuildingGrounds@fpcuu.org.

Please join Dan Fenn as he reads Charles Dickens’s “A Christmas Carol.” All are invited to gather in front of the fireplace in Parker Hall, drink hot cocoa, eat cookies, and be transported back in time with this Christmas classic on Sunday, December 4th from 4pm to 6pm.

Published in 1843, Dickens’s timeless tale of the curmudgeonly miser Scrooge and his transformation to benevolent benefactor following visits one Christmas Eve from the ghosts of Christmas Past, Present and Yet to Come, was an instant classic that still enchants audiences today.

Reading this story has been a tradition in Dan Fenn’s family: his grandfather and father read it before him, and for several years now Dan has shared this tradition at First Parish. With a real storyteller’s skill, Dan brings Dickens’s colorful language alive, to many a chuckle by the audience.

Refreshments will be served.

Al Jacobson / Communities Without Borders Traveling Fellowship
December 4, 2016 Deadline

The Al Jacobson / Communities Without Borders Traveling Fellowship supports First Parish youth and adults as FP/CWB liaisons, strengthens First Parish’s commitment to CWB, and provides financial support for youth service trips. It sponsors two First Parish high school students or adults annually to travel with CWB and support its mission in Zambia. Each year, two fellows will be selected and awarded $2000 (about half of the cost) to participate in the annual CWB service trip to Zambia.

Who is eligible?
All First Parish high school, college-aged and adults are welcome to apply. Each year two people will be selected by the AJ/CWB TF Advisory Committee through an application process.

What is the timeline?
Applications are due on December 4, 2016. Interviews will follow in December and January. Applicants will be notified by February 1, 2017. Travel takes place every summer in late June and early July for a two-week service trip.

Where do the CWB travelers visit?
The AJ/CWB Traveling Fellows travel with CWB to Zambia, including Lusaka, Simukanka, and Victoria Falls.

How do I apply?
Applicants submit and complete applications, including 2 letters of references, to FP Office by December 4, 2016.

Click here for the application.

Lesley Benson, Margie Gibbons, Elaine Hylek, Al Jacobson, and Cherie Noe
Al Jacobson / Communities Without Borders Advisory Committee

Questions? Please contact Margie Gibbons at gibbons5@rcn.com.

Pieter Svenson, Boy Scout wreath salesman for Troop 119, will be selling wreaths during social hour over the next few Sundays, through December 4th. If interested in placing an order, please see him at the wreath sale table.

World music choral ensemble The Halalisa Singers present Stars of Wonder, a concert of contemporary choral classics for the holiday season, on Saturday, December 3, 8 pm, at First Parish Church, 7 Harrington Road, Lexington and Sunday December 4, 3 pm, at First Parish Church, 327 Concord Road, Sudbury. The ensemble is led by First Parish Member and Artistic Director Mary Cunningham and accompanied by Trevor Berens, piano.

Join the community conversation Thursday, December 8 at 7:00 p.m. at Temple Isaiah and grapple with the challenge of promoting positive race relations and a more fair justice system. Come engage with speakers Rev. Dr. Ray Hammond M.D., M.A. and his daughter, Rev. Mariama White-Hammond, in the sacred and serious work of talking about race and moving to action.

Rev. Ray Hammond is the founder and pastor of Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church (AME) in Boston; Chairman and Co-Founder of the Ten Point Coalition; and member of the Executive Team of the Greater Boston Interfaith Organization and the Executive Committee of the Black Ministerial Alliance. Rev. Mariama White-Hammond is a Minister at Bethel AME Church and a racial justice and climate justice activist. She was Executive Director of Project HIP-HOP (a Boston youth social justice arts organization) and is currently a leader in the MA Interfaith Coalition for Climate Action, Green the Church, and other grassroots efforts.

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