Join Rev. Anne this Sunday when she will preach that “Being Human is a Guesthouse.” As people of faith we are called to be welcoming – as individuals, as households, as a sacred community. Yet sometimes we are not as welcoming as we want to be. Rumi encourages us to be open to every arrival to our ‘guesthouse’ – to “be grateful for whoever comes, because each has been sent as a guide from beyond.” Service begins at 10:30.

First Parish will welcome guest baroque cellists Timothy Merton and Jennifer Morsches, co-directors of the Sarasa Ensemble. They, with Rip Jackson on organ, will play Domenico Gabrielli’s energetic “Allegro” (from Sonata in G major) and Antonio Vivaldi’s haunting “Largo” (from Sonata No. 6 B flat major, RV 46) for the centering music and postlude. They will join soloist Julia Jaffe and the sanctuary choir in presenting Antonio Vivaldi’s “Domine Deus, Agnus Dei” (from Gloria). The choir will also sing Brian Tate’s exuberant UU anthem “Connected.” For the introit, Austin Burns and Beth Walsh will sing John M. Dye’s plaintive shape-note song “Wayfaring Stranger.”

Click here to listen to last week’s homily by Rev. Anne Mason, “Welcome Home.”

After the church service this Sunday at noon, we’ll be having an all-church picnic on our property on Harrington Rd., adjacent to the Fortmann’s house just to the right as you face the church. We will have tables set up for food and will provide cold drinks and napkins. If needed, you can leave your food in the kitchen refrigerator downstairs during the church service.

What you can bring:

– Food to share (see below for instructions)
– Folding chairs or a blanket

– As we are a Green Sanctuary, please bring your own plates and cutlery to take back home later. We will provide back-up supplies, if needed.

Please, NO NUTS in the food you bring to share. There are congregants with allergies.

We look forward to this fun event when we can see old friends and make new ones!

If your last name begins with A through I, please bring a salad or appetizer to share. If you last name begins with J through R, please bring a main dish. If your last name begins with S through Z, please bring a dessert.

All are welcome!

2017 marks the 250th anniversary of Georg Philipp Telemann’s death, one of the Baroque era’s most prolific and popular composers. The Sarasa Ensemble’s opening concert for the 2017-18 season presents Telemann’s music in the context of the influences by his predecessors and contemporaries, joined by leading British period instrumentalists and featuring music by Telemann, Händel, Lully, Corelli, Campra and JS Bach. Performers include Annabel Knight, recorders and flute; Richard Earle, oboe; Alison Bury, violin; Timothy Merton & Jennifer Morsches, cellos & piccolo cello; and Robin Bigwood, harpsichord. For more info visit http://www.sarasamusic.org. Tickets are $25 general, $20 senior, $10 student, and free for children.

The Social Action Ministry (SAM) at First Parish comes from our Unitarian Universalist faith based on the values of love, justice, community and responsibility. We do this within the supportive environment of our broader church community and the mission of First Parish “…to act on our values to serve the larger community and create a more just and loving world.”

Please come to the first Social Action Ministry meeting of the church year this Sunday, September 17th at noon in Parker Hall. Find out what the SAM will be doing this year and how you can help. Join Elaine Hylek, chair, and other dedicated First Parishioners as we put our values to work.

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The SAM would like to involve the children in the church in our long-standing efforts to collect food for the Lexington Interfaith Food Pantry. In order to bring more visibility to the ongoing food collection, on the first Sunday of each month there will be a basket in the sanctuary for canned good donations.  By encouraging the young people to voluntarily bring in canned goods on that day, we hope to raise their awareness about hunger and to lead the adults with their example.  

With the new church year comes updated documentation, including social hour host assignments, hosting instructions, and the First Parish directory.

The directory has been updated using our new database, Breeze. You will notice a formatting difference, as the Breeze template produces directories that read alphabetically across rows rather than in columns. Please check your information and email Jane Foley in the office if anything is incorrect.

To view these documents, please go to our Members Page.

This is the last Sunday to sign up for fall potluck dinners.

Dinners will begin in October, following signups during social hour in September. Please visit the piano during social hour, choose which evenings are possible for you, and indicate whether or not you could host a dinner. After signups are complete, groups of 8-10 people will be formed and begin gathering in October in a group membersʹ home on a weekday or weekend evening once a month for four months. The same people remain in the same group for each dinner. There are also options for family potluck dinners where children have their own dinner together, separate from the adults.

All are welcome! Sign up during coffee hour throughout September. Questions about fall potluck dinners? Please contact Linda Coyne.

Tomorrow evening, Thursday, September 28th, is the kick-off event for the new Thursday Evening Adult Programs! All are welcome to a drop-in facilitated conversation lead by Rev. Anne Mason and Lisa Maria Steinberg, Director of Religious Education. Let’s discover together what we hope to learn about Unitarian Universalism. Join us from 7:00pm to 8:30pm.

On the following Thursdays – October 5, 12, 19, 26, November 2 and 30 – come view the fantastic DVD series Long Strange Trip with us to learn about Unitarian Universalism’s development as a progressive faith tradition from early Christianity to the Transcendentalists of New England and beyond. What is the story of Unitarian Universalism? How did two distinct faiths rooted in Christianity become a faith home for Christians, Buddhists, Jews, Muslims, atheists, agnostics, humanists, and more?

Popcorn will be served during the movie and a brief discussion facilitated by Rev. Anne Mason and/or Lisa Maria Steinberg, Director of Religious Education, will follow. RSVP to the Facebook event for the October 5th viewing here.

The memorial service for First Parish’s beloved member, Satt Oishi, will take place on Saturday, October 7th at 4pm in the Sanctuary. Please join Rev. Anne and Satt’s family as they celebrate and honor him.

We also mourn the loss of Tom Peterson who passed away on Tuesday, September 12th. Information will be forthcoming about his memorial service. In the meantime, please keep Arlayne in your prayers.

Got a Great Protest Story?

This year’s first “Voices on the Green” event, on Saturday, October 28, will focus on songs, speeches, and stories of protest. If you have a compelling personal story of protest, we want to hear it! We already have a great line-up of local speakers and storytellers, and Nick Page, a great UU music director and prophet who grew up in First Parish, will lead us in singing classic protest songs old and new.

But we have a problem. Most of our present storytellers will be telling stories about their participation in protests that are relatively public – even national. We would like to have at least one storyteller who focuses on a protest that is intimate, private, familial, e.g., a story about a child’s protest within a family, a classroom protest at school, an elder’s protest against family wishes, etc. As usual, we are looking for stories that enlighten and enliven the evening’s theme from different perspectives – moving us to tears, to laughter, to thinking.

If you think you have such a story, email David Rose.  If it fits in the evening, we will work with you to help shape the story as one of the next Voices on the Green.

“Voices on the Green” is a series of programs introduced last year for the congregation and our surrounding community to address critical issues in our individual and communal lives from multiple perspectives, in multiple media, borrowing from models such as Ted Talks and Moth Stories, with the addition of music and a time for refreshment and conversation. We hope that all First Parish folks will put this date, Saturday, October 28, on your calendars and unite in fellowship and outreach.

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