Against her better judgment, guest preacher the Rev. Lara Hoke will take a stab at revealing the answer to the biggest mystery of all in her sermon, “So, What Is the Meaning of Life?” Lara has been the consulting minister of the Unitarian Universalist Congregation in Andover since 2009. Lara is a graduate of Harvard Divinity School and Cornell University and is a veteran of the US Navy. She has been a healthcare chaplain and has worked for environmental and youth-services non-profits. She lives in Lowell, Massachusetts with her wife Emily Ferrara and their 17-year-old dog, Xena.
This Sunday, the sanctuary choir will sing Jeremy Geffen’s profound and beautiful song “Mystery” (from Paul Winter’s Missa Gaia) with soloist Elizabeth Walsh and Mark Miller’s poignant setting “I Believe” (words were found etched into the wall of Auschwitz) with soloist Chelsea Cannon. Guest pianist Deborah Yardley Beers will join Rip Jackson in playing Antonín Dvořák’s gorgeous four-hand piano piece “Slavonic Dance Op. 72, No. 2 in e minor.” Deborah will also play 2 movements from Mozart’s “Piano Sonata No. 18 in D major, K. 576.”