This Friday! You won’t want to miss the next Voices on the Green. Doors open at 6:30 for beverages and socializing; event begins at 7:00pm.

What two things do Chris Hess, Katie O’Hare Gibson, Marshall Wilensky, Katherine Rose, Regie O’Hare Gibson, Al Jacobson, and Tom Daley have in common? They are all great local storytellers, and each has a great personal love story to tell. Fortunately for you, you can hear their stories at Voices on the Green.

This popular series explores one theme – in this case, modern love – through many different voices. In addition to the stories, the evening will feature varied love songs by popular singer and humorist Don White and a presentation on the neuroscience of love by Allison Posey (also of Lexington). This latest Voices on the Green event will be at turns both touching and humorous. All of this with “hearty” refreshments and easy access, right here at First Parish church on the Green. 

To purchase tickets, click here!

Our Parish Board Co-Chairs, Katie O’Hare Gibson and David Rose, will share the sermon this morning as we continue to explore what it means to be a Unitarian Universalist Church in the changing environment in which we live.  As a preamble to our “Imagination Cafe”, Katie and David will share what it means to them to guide a Board who exists to fulfill the mission of the church. Boldly we imagine together what First Parish can become, and consider how we will get there.  

This Sunday, our alto soloist Julia Jaffe will provide beautiful operatic music for the worship service. She will sing Christoph Willibald Gluck’s lovely aria “Divinités du Styx” (from Alceste). She will also sing Antonio Vivaldi’s bold aria “Qui Sedes” (from Gloria). For the centering music, Rip Jackson will play J. S. Bach’s lyrical organ arrangement of Vivaldi’s “Adagio” (from Concerto in F Major, “L’Estro Armonico”). And for the postlude, he will play Bach’s powerful “Fuga in c minor, BWV 549.”

There are Sunday school classes for Pre-K through 8^th grade. The nursery is open for infants and toddlers.

Click here for Rev. Anne Mason’s sermon from last week, “Up Periscope.”

In partnership with Minuteman Indivisible, First Parish in Lexington invites you to an interfaith panel of lay people in sharing how their faith tradition calls them to respond to the issues raised in Lappé and Eichen’s book, Daring Democracy, on Thursday, January 25th at 7pm in Parish Hall.

We are excited to be joined by Marci Cemenska, Suresh Sundaram, Colm McGarry, and John Bell on the panel sharing how their spiritual practices call them to act in our community in support of democracy. First Parish’s Director of Lifespan Religious Education Lisa Maria Andreoli Steinberg will be moderating our discussion.

It is not necessary to have read the book to enjoy this event. Questions? Contact Lisa Maria by email.

The first Imagination Café is happening this Sunday, January 28th. If you have not yet signed up and wish to come, the deadline is tomorrow, Thursday, January 25th at 12pm (for ordering lunches). Please phone/email Jane Foley at the office before noon at 781-862-8200 x1. If you cannot attend this Sunday, do plan to come to the second, identical Café on Sunday, February 11th. Please sign up at imagination-cafe-first-parish.eventbrite.com or by calling the office. Kids and youth are welcome to participate. Childcare will be provided for those who wish to use it.

At the Imagination Cafés, we will be addressing one open question for the whole congregation:

      How should we re-imagine our community’s activities and facilities in order to promote spiritual and personal growth within our community?

In addition to good food and company, the Café will encourage table-talk about three sub-topics of that question:

      Looking ahead, who do you imagine as in “our community”?

Do you imagine “our community” to mean primarily members of First Parish, of nearby towns, the nation?  Who is missing, or unwelcome, from our community?  Should FP try to mirror the demographics of our surrounding communities?

      Looking ahead, what do you imagine are the most important programs or activities (to promote spiritual and personal growth) for that community?

What new kinds of services or programs should we offer? What should we reduce?  How should we differentiate our activities from those of others? What would spiritual and personal growth mean especially for us?

      Looking ahead, how do you imagine we should prioritize and allocate our limited resources (to promote spiritual and personal growth)?

How should we change the priorities for staff, for volunteers, for financial resources? How should we re-imagine the purpose, design, or configuration of our spaces? What new kinds of facilities or capabilities will we need?

The Senior High Youth Group (SHYG) is excitedly planning for their Service Trip this June to Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota! Please see below for ways you can support SHYG and their service trip!

Kids’ Night Out

When is this event? Saturday, February 10th

Sign up by Wednesday, February 7th!

What time? 5:00 – 8:30 pm

Where is it? First Parish Lexington

What will the kids be doing? Fun games, a movie, and crafts; Pizza and Snacks also included!

Who will be watching the kids? SHYG Youth and Adults

How old do the kids need to be? The event is for kids in Kindergarten through 5th grade

How much will it cost? $25 for one child; $35 for two children; $40 for three children

Contact Youth Program Coordinator Katie Camire at youth@fplex.org to sign up or for more information!

Save the Dates:

Two other events hosted by SHYG to support their service trip coming this Spring:

Themed Dinner on March 24th and Trivia Night on May 5th

Details coming soon!

Other Ways to Support SHYG:

Please visit the SHYG table at coffee hour on Sunday mornings for a great selection of soup and Equal Exchange fair trade organic coffee, tea, and chocolate!

Registration is still open for the new Adult Program in the New Year: Beloved Conversations: a collaboration with First Parish in Concord. Small groups have been developed from the availability of the current registered members. Please consider participating in this innovative new program.  The small groups are: Monday Nights (2^nd and 3^rd), Tuesday nights (1^st and 3^rd), Monday Mornings and Wednesday afternoons, the latter biweekly schedule TBD.  Please email Elisabeth Jas (svenjas@msn.com) to register. You can learn more about the program on our website.

Developed by Meadville Lombard UU Theological School, this highly acclaimed program begins with a thought provoking retreat facilitated by a trained Fahs Collaborative staff. Small  groups of 8-10 members from both congregations will then meet together biweekly for 8 structured sessions that connect both the sources of inspiration as well as the challenges of race/ethnicity and provide a space to re-form/fuse the brokenness of racism into new patterns of thought and behavior ushering in social and spiritual healing. Registration begins January 7th (limited availability, full commitment required). For more information see  http://www.meadville.edu/beloved 

Questions? Contact Elisabeth Jas (svenjas@msn.com) or Rev. Anne Mason (minister@fplex.org ).

On Sunday, January 28th at 2:30pm, tenor Austin Burns and pianist Rip Jackson will present a concert of music from the “Gilded Age.” The Gilded Age was a term coined by Mark Twain and refers to a society which is “gilded” or thinly coated with a gold layer while under the surface lies the poor working conditions of the lower class. Sets from the program reflect the struggle of the 99% and the forgotten voices of women, African Americans, and refugees, and confronts the history of oppressed groups while acknowledging white privilege. A freewill offering will be taken.

Coats! Jackets!

You may have noticed the disappearance of the coat rack usually kept in the rear vestibule at the top of the stairs. In the interest of safety, your Building and Grounds team has relocated the rack to just inside Parish Hall. A parishioner almost took a tumble down the stairs, and it opens up this often-crowded space for greeters to greet!

Please use this one, or if you prefer, there is a coat room at the base of the rear entry stairs and also one outside the lower level men’s room. During the week when dance classes and other events use Parish Hall, you will find it in the Common Room.

Thanks for your flexibility!

Toni Tasker, for B&G

Al Jacobson, who has decided to enter into hospice care based on some longer-term health considerations, is currently doing well and welcomes your greetings! You can email him here.

There’s still time to sign up for Spring potlucks. Those who sign up are assigned to one of several groups of 8-10 people who gather for a potluck dinner in a member home on a weekday or weekend evening once a month for four months. The same people remain in each group for the four months.

The dinners are a great way for newcomers to get acquainted with others in the church. When you sign up, please indicate which evenings are possible for you and whether or not you could host a dinner. There are also options for family potluck evenings where children are included and usually have dinner together separate from the adults.

The small groups will be formed based on the information you put on this signup list, and the monthly potlucks will begin in March and run through May.

Sign up this Sunday, or contact Linda Coyne.

Here are some wise words to ponder from this month’s SOUL MATTERS materials on the theme: “What does it mean to be a people of INTENTION?”

Wise Words

It is not enough to be busy. So are the ants. The question is: What are you busy about?

-Henry David Thoreau

Those who have a why to live for can bear almost any how.

-Friedrich Nietzsche

Cat: Where are you going?

Alice: Which way should I go?

Cat: That depends on where you are going.

Alice: I don’t know.

Cat: Then it doesn’t matter which way you go.

-Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland

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