First Parish Cohasset

First Parish Unitarian Universalist Cohasset

E-mail Update – May 19, 2010

One of my favorite objects is a kaleidoscope.   From childhood on, I couldn’t resist the appeal of this “toy” that holds tiny slivers of color shifting into pattern after pattern, like an infinite series of stained glass windows.   Kaleidoscopes speak to me: “Change is wondrous.  Behold it.  Let it be.  Move with it.  Flex it as you will, with a mere turn of the wrist.”   Transformation is in the eye of the beholder—its beauty and otherwise.

You and I are amid not just transition of role and relationship; we are amid the eternal transition that simply is.   As Dan and I beheld our newborn grandson this past week, little Forrest’s trusting fragility recalled that of little Oliver just over two years ago.   Within a seeming nanosecond, he will sit up, turn over, giggle, cry with even greater gusto, crawl, stand, walk, run, and on it goes given good health and good fortune.   Love and care provide the foundation for Forrest and Oliver and for us all.

Amid the change that we know every nanosecond of our living, may our foundation be love and care, love and care for each other and love and care beyond each other into a world hurting so badly from their lack.   In loving justice, may we move ahead, finding ourselves like the patterns of the kaleidoscope, in a web of intricate patterns that is different because of a mere breath somewhere in the universe, different because of how we navigate our own twists and turns across transitions conscious and subliminal.

Change is forever.   So is love.   May the change over which we have even the slightest power be infused with all possible love.

Love to all,

Jan

Spring Fling May 22 2010 – 7:30 PM

The Spring Fling promises a lively service auction, splendid refreshments, and entertainment to wow you!   Tickets will be available at the door for $20/couple, $10/person, which entitles you to a glass of wine or beer and yummy sweets; flavored waters will also be available.  You’ll also enjoy an evening of great entertainment and a silent auction with a couple of live auction items.  If you have a donation, please contact Bev Burgess at bevburgess@aol.com.   Think babysitters, soloists, carvers, carpenters, artists, yard workers, caterers, and knitters—for starters.

Allegra Martin notes that performers are still wanted!   If you play an instrument; if you would like to tell a joke; if you have a little humorous monologue or dialogue to share, or even just a memory of a particularly moving or hilarious moment from a past Spring Fling, we want to get you on stage!  Our younger members are particularly encouraged to come up with something inventive.  Allegra wants performances to reflect the talent of the entire congregation, not just the choir, so please volunteer yourself (or someone else) to share a little tidbit with us!  You can reach Allegra at allegra.martin@gmail.com.

NEEDED FOR THIS SUNDAY – USHERS & FLOWER PROVIDERS & COFFEE HOUR HOSTS!

And needed for the balance of May & for June!

Usher/flower openings include: May 23 & 30 and June 13 (ushers only), & 20.  Coffee hour openings include: May 23, & 30 and June 20.

Please contact Sandy Bailey at 781-383-1100 or sbailey@firstparishcohasset.org and let her know what you will do when.  Hospitality is you!   Being there with flowers, a welcoming smile and handshake, coffee and refreshments after worship all matters immensely to how folks feel about us when they worship with us.  Thank you!

The events of this week are as follows:

Tuesday, May 18

10:30 AM – Staff Meeting – Minister’s Study

Thursday, May 20

10:30 AM – 3:00 PM – 175^th Annual Meeting of the Unitarian Universalist Urban Ministry – First Church in Roxbury

Our delegates this year are Eric Kluz and Chartis Tebbetts.   To learn more about our UU Urban Ministry, visit www.uuum.org.

7:55 PM – Choir Practice – Meeting House

Saturday, May 22

8:00 AM – Carriage House Nursery School Fundraiser – Parish House

7:30 PM – SPRING FLING – Parish House/Trueblood Hall (see above)

Sunday, May 23

8:00 AM – Circle Ministry (group led by Bill Baird & John Kornet and meeting on the 2^nd & 4^th Sundays)

9:45 AM – Childcare for our youngest.  All other children will join their parents and the full congregation for the first part of worship in the Meeting House and then leave for RE classes, which extend to 11:15 AM.   Our Whole Lives (OWL) meets for their final session at 9:45 AM at First Parish UU in Scituate.

10:00 AM – Worship in the Meeting House

Worship will be led by Rev. Dr. Judith Campbell, who will preach on “Doors, Windows, and Black Holes…..Opportunities and Challenges in a Time of Transition.”  Ron Wallace will serve as liturgical host.

Rev. Dr. Campbell was the Unitarian Universalist minister on Martha’s Vineyard for seven years and now serves as the Ministerial Settlement Representative for the Ballou Channing District of the Unitarian Universalist Association.   She is also a retreat and workshop leader locally, nationally, and in Great Britain and is the author of the Olympia Brown mysteries, soon available at bookstores.  Children and youth will be present for the first part of worship.

All are invited for refreshments and fellowship in the Parish House directly after worship.

Jan will be visiting the UU Congregation of the Catskills in Kingston, NY, where she will begin this coming August as interim minister.

What else?

Our Cohasset Food Pantry needs you to help hungry neighbors!  Please contribute.

Economic challenge continues for so many among us and for so many of our neighbors.   Local food pantries provide if we continue to provide for our local food pantries.  We can do this through our Cohasset Food Pantry.  Our Outreach Committee reminds us to keep those baskets in the Meeting House and at the entrance to the Parish House full.   Items needed are posted at both locations.

For more information on activities at First Parish Unitarian Universalist in Cohasset, refer to our December newsletter, The Common, and to our website at www.firstparishcohasset.org.

We have a faith worth sharing and a church worth growing!

Come, and bring your children and your un-churched neighbors!

First Parish Unitarian Universalist Cohasset

E-mail Update – April 21, 2010

Tomorrow Earth Day turns 40!

I know that sounds a bit strange, since the earth itself is estimated to be about 4.54 billion years old.  It’s seen countless life forms come and go.   Most of us grew up learning about “extinct species” or species “at risk of extinction.”   Now it’s us, folks.  We who are homo more-or-less-sapiens

have demanded so much from our Mother Earth, that she’s just about had it.   Maternal patience can’t go on forever after all.

How to change our behavior and make peace with Mother Earth?   Riding a bike just to burn calories or buying eco-friendly toilet paper probably won’t be enough to appease her.   What if we begin by pondering how the earth began?

According to the Okanogan Nation of North America, the earth was once a human being.  The Creator, called “Old One,” made her out of a woman and charged her to “be the Mother of all people.”  While this Earth woman is still alive, she has changed much.  When we walk on the soil, we tread on her flesh.  When we sit on a rock, we adorn her bones.  When the wind cools us, we feel her breath.  When we lie in the grass, we nest in her hair.  If she moves abruptly, we have an earthquake.

After transforming this unsuspecting woman into the earth, Old One shaped her flesh into forms that became the inhabitants of the early world.  They were people and animals both, but all could speak and had greater powers than just animals or people.  Then Old One formed people and animals as we recognize them and blew into them the breath of life.  They were, we are told, the most helpless of all creatures.  It was in this way that “all living beings came from the earth.  When we look around, we see our Mother everywhere.”

Carrying the story a bit further, I wonder if “our Mother” sees us and looks askance at her children betraying her trust—drilling her oil dry, destroying her water table with our agribusiness, driving our SUVs, dumping our trash into her oceans, spoiling her harvest with concoctions toxic to the entire Earth family.   “And Earth Day,” she asks?   “One day a year you give me and call yourselves green?”

Hmmm….what if 365 days a year were dedicated to honoring our Mother Earth?  This would leave one day every four years for us to act out and act up, to disrupt and dishonor.   We could proclaim February 29 as “Act Out/Act Up Day” for Mama Earth’s kids.  I wonder.  Would we forget how to act out and act up?   Would we find such joy in all the other days that it just wouldn’t be worth it to go back to our bad habits?   We could even let go of the practice that suggests Mother Earth deserves just one day a year for us to say, “Uh-oh!”

What do you think?  What will we do?

Jan

Coming this Sunday, April 25^th at 10:25 AM

Union Sunday at First Parish UU/Old Ship in Hingham, 90 Main Street

“Old Threads, New Textures: Growing from Our History”

Be sure to bring your kids and join us for this annual service that brings together five Unitarian Universalist congregations on the South Shore—First Parish UU/Old Ship Hingham, Second Parish UU Hingham, First Parish UU Norwell, First Parish UU Scituate, and First Parish UU Cohasset.   Our ministers will lead worship, and our choirs will form the Union Sunday choir.  Children will begin in the Meeting House and then leave for “old school games” in the Parish House.

Joan Kovach is off to Haiti and could use our help to pack!

On April 30, with a team of four other psychiatric nurses as part of a group of 20 medical personnel, I will travel to Haiti.  We are headed for Hôpital Sacré Coeur, in Milot, Haiti, a private hospital in the north supported by the CRUDEM foundation, a Catholic organization located in Ludlow, MA.  The hospital has been there 24 years, and was undamaged in the quake.  Soon after January 12, this 75-bed hospital added tents and 400 cots to care for quake victims who began to be airlifted to Milot.  Many hundreds were treated and now the hospital census is shrinking, and remaining patients are learning to accept long term health problems and disabilities.  Still some earthquake victims and all the regular patients remain.

The hospital issued a wish list.  Here are some of the items we could take in our bags when we leave later this month:

Of course we have weight limits, but there are five of us with room in our suitcases for some things.  Especially if you have any of these items at home that are not being used, kindly drop them off at the church in front of Sandy’s office.  If you would like to chip in for meds, that would be great too, since we’ll be buying and bringing some.  CRUDEM has an in-kind tax exempt donation form I can send you.  The deadline for drop off is Wednesday April 28.

Many, many thanks—

Joan Kovach

joan_kovach@hotmail.com

Welcoming Congregation Action Request

The Welcoming Congregation Committee urges you to contact the owners of KISS 108 radio station (a Boston station) and ask them to stop the airing of Dawson McAllister’s show.  The station is owned by Clear Channel. The McAllister show is billed as a place for “those 25 and younger to call in and talk about their lives, deepest needs….broken families…depression, addiction, …” etc. What they don’t tell you is that when young LGBTs call in and speak off air to one of McAllister’s representatives, they are told that their homosexuality is no better than drug addiction, prostitution and murder; that being gay will condemn them to hell; and that the only solution is for them is to be “cured” of their homosexuality through God.

Vulnerable young callers are then directed to Exodus International where they ‘will receive the help they need’.  Exodus International is the ‘Ex-Gay’ ministry that claims to convert LGBTs into being straight.  Exodus’ conversions are universally discredited by mainstream psychiatrists and psychologists. It is despicable that the Dawson McAllister show hides its affiliation with these anti-gay religious extremists.

You can register your opposition to the owners by contacting:

Marc Mays, CEO ClearChannel
Executive Assistant: caroleadamek@clearchannel.com 210-832-3306
LisaDollinger, Communications Director, Clear Channel: lisacdollinger@clearchannel.com
Executive Assistant: stacieiverson@clearchannel.com 210-832-3348

Thanks for your support.

The events of this week are as follows:

Tuesday, April 20

10:30 AM – Staff Meeting – Minister’s study

7:30 PM – Parish Committee – Atkinson Room

7:30 PM – “The Almost Church Revitalized” – A Webinar Conversation with Michael Durall

Hosted by Peter Bowden, our Ballou Channing District’s growth consultant.  To learn more about the work of Michael Durall, visit http://www.vitalcongregations.com.  To register go to http://durall1bcd.eventbrite.com/.  Registration is only available on –line with credit card.  A webinar utilizes both a telephone conference call (LD charges paid by the participant) and the UUA’s Persony webinar website (free).  Sign-in information will be e-mailed to registrants 24 hours before the webinar.

Wednesday, April 21

9:00 AM – Ballou Channing District UUMA – South Shore Cluster – Atkinson Room

9:00 AM – Circle Ministry group led by Polly Cowen & Linda Daignault and meeting usually on the 2^nd & 4^th Wednesdays will meet this month on the 3^rd & 4^th Wednesdays – April 21^st & 28^th.

Thursday, April 22

7:55 PM – Choir Practice – Meeting House

Saturday, April 24

9:00 AM – Ballou Channing District Spring Conference & Annual Meeting – First Unitarian Church, One Benevolent Street, Providence, RI

“Can Unitarian Universalism survive?” is the core question for the 9:00 AM – 1:00 PM Annual Conference.  Through presentations and discussion-centered workshops, we’ll look into the future and explore what changing culture and demographics may mean for our congregations.  The annual meeting will follow at 1:15 PM.   Registration fee: $22 for adults; $7 for youth.   You can register on-line at http://bcdfaithforward.eventbrite.com/.  For a mail-in form and more conference information, please see the front bulletin board in the Parish House, ask Jan, or visit, www.bcduua.org.

5:00 PM – Memorial Service for Susan McVeigh – Meeting House

We’ll celebrate the life of Susan Channing Higginson McVeigh, a longtime member of First Parish Unitarian Universalist and native of Cohasset.  Susan died on March 23.  Our hearts go out to her family.

Sunday, April 25

8:00 AM – Circle Ministry (group led by Bill Baird & John Kornet and meeting on the 2^nd & 4^th Sundays)

9:45 AM – Our OWL (Our Whole Lives) Class will meet at First Parish UU in Scituate.

10:25 AM – Union Sunday at First Parish UU/Old Ship in Hingham – Old Ship Meeting House, 90 Main Street – “Old Threads, New Textures: Growing from Our History” (see above)

Refreshments and fellowship in Old Ship’s Parish House will directly follow worship and RE.

12:30 PM – Circle Ministry Facilitators – Atkinson Room

What else?

Hospitality needs you!    Ushering, providing flowers, hosting coffee hour—it all matters! For May and June we hope to fill all hospitality slots with ushers and flower providers and coffee hour hosts.  May openings for ushers/flowers are: May 2, 23, & 30.   May openings for hosting coffee hour are: May 16, 23, & 30.   Won’t you please give Sandy Bailey a call at 781-383-1100 or e-mail her at sbailey@firstparishcohsset.org and let her know what you will do when?   Thank you.

Sunday, May 2 – Plan now for the Second Annual First Parish Clean-up Day

Plan now to stay after church on this first Sunday of May to help with the Second Annual First Parish Clean-up, a festival of rolling up our sleeves, enjoying one another’s company, and spring cleaning our church home and grounds. We’ll begin right after coffee hour and work until about 3:00 PM.  Wear your work clothes to church.   A light lunch will be provided for workers early in the afternoon.   This is coordinated by the Circle Ministry groups led by Annie Spang & Nancy Robertson and by Jack & Carol Martin.

Circle Ministry Group Is Calling All Gardeners – Third Annual Mother’s Day Plant Sale

Spring is here and the worms are up!  Time to dig, transplant and divide in preparation for the third annual Mother’s Day plant sale. We are happy to accept anything you bring us; but please bear in mind that orange day lilies, fever few, etc. don’t sell very well, whereas tomatoes and other vegetable or annual seedlings and most perennials are popular. Members of the Wednesday morning Circle Ministry group (led by Polly Cowen and Linda Daignault) will be at the Parish House on Saturday, May 8, from 3 to 5 pm to receive your contributions, but LABELED plants may be left there any time that Saturday. If delivery is a problem, call Polly Cowen at 383-0400. All proceeds go to the Parish House Landscape Fund. Happy digging!

Our Cohasset Food Pantry needs you to help hungry neighbors!  Please contribute.

During this time of continuing economic challenge, more and more of our neighbors are turning to local food pantries.   May those of us with an ample store of food and more share with those of us who are struggling.   We can do this through our Cohasset Food Pantry.  Our Outreach Committee reminds us to keep those baskets in the Meeting House and at the entrance to the Parish House full.   Items needed are posted at both locations.

Sunday, May 2 – Plan now for the Second Annual First Parish Clean-up Day

Plan now to stay after church on this first Sunday of May to help with the Second Annual First Parish Clean-up, a festival of rolling up our sleeves, enjoying one another’s company, and spring cleaning our church home and grounds. We’ll begin right after coffee hour and work until about 3:00 PM.  Wear your work clothes to church.   A light lunch will be provided for workers early in the afternoon.   This is coordinated by the Circle Ministry groups led by Annie Spang & Nancy Robertson and by Jack & Carol Martin.

For more information on activities at First Parish Unitarian Universalist in Cohasset, refer to our December newsletter, The Common, and to our website at www.firstparishcohasset.org.

We have a faith worth sharing and a church worth growing!

Come, and bring your children and your un-churched neighbors!

First Parish Unitarian Universalist Cohasset

E-mail Update – April 13, 2010

Earth Day Sunday! We’ll celebrate it here this coming Sunday, April 18^th, the closest Sunday to Earth day, April 22^nd, for which there aren’t other plans.   Yes, I know April 25^th is closer, but on April 25^th, we’ll celebrate Union Sunday with five South Shore Unitarian Universalist congregations joining in worship at First Parish UU/Old Ship in Hingham.   So…this Sunday’s the Sunday to open wide our hearts and minds in reverence and commitment to the well-being of our earth home.

Lay leaders JoAnn Mirise and Eric Kluz will lead our worship.   JoAnn will offer a homily, “A Story, Rewritten.”   Eric will lead other segments of the service—in addition to offering our chalice reflection.  JoAnn is an advocate and practitioner of permaculture—along with her husband, Kevin, and their children Willow, Perrin, and Sunny.   Surrounding their home, you’ll find a thriving eco-system with vegetables and herbs and fruit trees and chickens and even bees!   It’s all “family managed.”   Eric is a celebrated “green architect.”  At the 2008 General Assembly of our Unitarian Universalist Association (UUA), Eric received the President’s Award for Distinguished Volunteer Service to our UUA.   Additionally, Eric has served as our Ballou Channing District’s president and as President of the District Presidents’ Association and has provided highly valued counsel to our UUA leaders on eco-friendly practices.    Our choir will be back and with eco-friendly music.

It may not be “easy being green,” but it’s one of the core ways in which we honor our earth mother and our mission statement that includes, “working for a safe, just, and sustainable world.”  So come, bring your kids, bring your un-churched friends and neighbors, and worship together on this Earth Day Sunday.

Where will I be?  In Montpelier, VT at the baby shower of our daughter, Sarah.  She and husband Robb are expecting their first child, a boy, just four weeks from Friday.  We hope that this newborn and all our children grow up in a world that is still friendly to humankind.  It can only happen if we as humans are kind to this earth of which we are a part.

Love you—

Jan

Sunday Ushers & Coffee Hour Hosts Needed – May & June!

Hospitality is the first step to growth.  Won’t you agree to usher and provide flowers or to host our coffee hour sometime during May or June?   All Sundays of both months are open, except for June 27^th, when summer worship begins and worship leaders agree to provide simple refreshments.  So please, think any of the following Sundays: May 2, 9, 16, 23, 30 or June 6, 13, or 20^th.    Then simply contact Sandy Bailey at 781-383-1100 or sbailey@firstparishcohasset.org with “Yes, I will and here’s what I can do when!”  Thanks for all you do to make First Parish UU Cohasset even more hospitable!

The events of this week are as follows:

Tuesday, April 13

9:15 AM – Circle Ministry (group led by Annie Spang & Nancy Robertson and meeting on the 2^nd & 4^th Tuesdays)

11:30 AM – Staff Meeting – Minister’s study

7:30 PM – Circle Ministry (group led by Jack & Carol Martin and meeting on the 2^nd & 4^th Tuesdays)

7:30 PM – Music & Worship Committee – Atkinson Room

Wednesday, April 14

Note: The Circle Ministry group led by Polly Cowen & Linda Daignault and meeting usually on the 2^nd & 4^th Wednesdays will meet this month on the 3^rd & 4^th Wednesdays – April 21^st & 28^th.

10:00 AM – Ballou Channing District UUMA Executive Committee – Minister’s Study

7:00 PM – Circle Ministry (group led by Jane Goedecke & Lisa Marder and meeting on the 2^nd & 4^th Wednesdays)

Thursday, April 15

7:55 PM – Choir Practice – Meeting House

Sunday, April 18

8:00 AM – Circle Ministry (group led by Joan Kovach & Susan Meikleham and meeting usually on the 1^st & 3^rd Sundays, but during April on the 2^nd & 3^rd Sundays)

9:45 AM – Childcare for our youngest.  Youngsters from third grade up will join their parents and the full congregation for the intergenerational service in the Meeting House.  Our Whole Lives (OWL) meets at 9:45 AM at First Parish UU in Scituate.

10:00 AM – Worship in the Meeting House – Earth Day Sunday

JoAnn Mirise will offer the sermon, “A Story, Rewritten.”  Eric Kluz will lead worship with JoAnn.

(see above column for details)

Refreshments and fellowship in the Parish House will directly follow the service.

Note that Monday, April 19^th, is Patriots Day in Massachusetts.  Church offices will be closed.

What else?

Our Cohasset Food Pantry needs you to help hungry neighbors!  Please contribute.

During this time of continuing economic challenge, more and more of our neighbors are turning to local food pantries.   May those of us with an ample store of food and more share with those of us who are struggling.   We can do this through our Cohasset Food Pantry.  Our Outreach Committee reminds us to keep those baskets in the Meeting House and at the entrance to the Parish House full.   Items needed are posted at both locations.

Register now for our Ballou Channing District Spring Conference & Annual Meeting

Saturday, April 24 – Conference: 9:00 am–1:00 pm; Annual Meeting: 1:15–3:00 pm

First Unitarian Church, One Benevolent Street (corner of Benevolent & Benefit), Providence, RI

Community Service Project for non-delegates: 1:00-3:00 pm

Can Unitarian Universalism survive?  At the morning conference, we’ll look into the future and explore what changing culture and demographics may mean for our congregations.  How might we have to transform our worship, our approach to spiritual exploration, and faith formation and education to meet the changing dynamics of our society in this decade?   Through presentations and discussion-centered workshops, participants are invited to explore these matters.   The annual meeting will follow at 1:15 pm.

Registration fee: $22 for adults; $7 for youth.   You can register on-line at http://bedfaithforward.eventbrite.com/.  For a mail-in form and more conference information, please see the front bulletin board in the Parish House, ask Jan, or visit www.bcduua.org.

Sunday, April 25 at 10:25 AM – Union Sunday at First Parish UU/Old Ship in Hingham

Union Sunday is for the whole family, with some exciting activities for children.   Come, gather with members and friends of five Unitarian Universalist congregations on the South Shore, as our choirs join their voices and we all join across congregations in worshipping around “Old Threads, New Textures: Growing from Our History.”

Sunday, May 2 – Plan now for the Second Annual First Parish Clean-up Day

Plan now to stay after church on this first Sunday of May to help with the Second Annual First Parish Clean-up, a festival of rolling up our sleeves, enjoying one another’s company, and spring cleaning our church home and grounds. We’ll begin right after coffee hour and work until about 3:00 PM.  Wear your work clothes to church.   A light lunch will be provided for workers early in the afternoon.   This is coordinated by the Circle Ministry groups led by Annie Spang & Nancy Robertson and by Jack & Carol Martin.

Sunday, May 2 – Plan now for the Second Annual First Parish Clean-up Day

Plan now to stay after church on this first Sunday of May to help with the Second Annual First Parish Clean-up, a festival of rolling up our sleeves, enjoying one another’s company, and spring cleaning our church home and grounds. We’ll begin right after coffee hour and work until about 3:00 PM.  Wear your work clothes to church.   A light lunch will be provided for workers early in the afternoon.   This is coordinated by the Circle Ministry groups led by Annie Spang & Nancy Robertson and by Jack & Carol Martin.

For more information on activities at First Parish Unitarian Universalist in Cohasset, refer to our December newsletter, The Common, and to our website at www.firstparishcohasset.org.

We have a faith worth sharing and a church worth growing!

Come, and bring your children and your un-churched neighbors!

First Parish Unitarian Universalist Cohasset

E-mail Update – April 6, 2010

Colorful and mesmerizing describes the music of Easter Sunday and next Sunday!   How our choir soared with the Alleluias that sounded in the Easter Morning Meeting House.   How our bell choir chimed in and our organist pulled out all the celebratory stops.  How our children raised their voices along with choir and congregation to what has become an Easter tradition—Oh, Bells in the Steeple, Katherine Davis’ song of Easter and bells and daffodils.   The daffodil-laden altar offered visual accompaniment before children distributed them to all, and the radiant yellow beamed like a garden from the laps of all present.   Kudos to Allegra Martin and First Parish Choir, to our First Parish Bell Choir, to organist Carrie Bates, to our children, and yes, to the whole congregation who sang in full force.

The music continues this coming Sunday morning, even with our choir “on vacation.”  Maureen Hague will be our pianist and Jordan Holt, a young student of Maureen’s, will be our guest soloist.    I’ll preach on “God, the Movie!”

And come Sunday afternoon at 4 PM, we hope the Meeting House fills with congregants and more as Zefiro, a professional vocal ensemble based in Boston and Providence, will perform “The Spirit and the Flesh,” a concert of Renaissance music.  This is the final Meeting House Concert of the season, so we hope to see you streaming in with family and extended family, friends and neighbors.  Kudos to Allegra for your amazing leadership in overseeing the Meeting House Concert Series this past year.

May the sound of Meeting House music lift our spirits and open our hearts as we gather in this community of faith and song.

Sing on—

Jan

HELP!  HELP!  HELP!

Sunday Ushers & Coffee Hour Hosts are Needed!

Hospitality is what it’s about.   Won’t you agree to usher and provide flowers or to host our coffee hour this coming Sunday, April 11^th?   Or perhaps April 18^th or any of the Sunday of May or June?   Please contact Sandy Bailey at 781-383-1100 or sbailey@firstparishcohasset.org with your “Yes, I will and here’s what I can do when!”  Thanks for all you do to make First Parish UU Cohasset even more hospitable!

The events of this week are as follows:

Tuesday, April 6

10:30 AM – Staff Meeting – Minister’s Study

11:00 AM – First Parish Common Hope Vision Team – Hingham Library

Our Common Hope Vision Team offers a reprise of their memorable service of January 24 at First Parish, this time at the Hingham Library.   With stories and slides and music, Margie and Steve Brown, Carol and Jack Martin, Kay Mixon, Bev Burgess, Pat Baird, and Dee Lehner recount the story of their volunteer work trip to Guatemala this past October.  This event is open to the public and made possible by the Osher Life Long Learning Institute (OLLI) at UMass Boston.

6:30 PM – Leadership Development Committee – Atkinson Room

Thursday, April 8

7:00 PM – Forum on “Why We Can’t Get Ahead: Job Challenges for the American Worker – co-sponsored by the UUSC and the Tellus Institute for a Great Transition – 6 Eliot Street, Jamaica Plain

Join us for a discussion with Steven Greenhouse, New York Times business and economics correspondent and author of The Big Squeeze: Tough Times for the American Worker.  Since the recession’s peak, the U.S. unemployment rate has been hovering around 10 percent. But the challenges to the American worker go beyond the current economic crisis. Steven Greenhouse will talk about how American companies have squeezed millions of workers by clamping down on wages, cutting benefits, and violating labor laws. He’ll also offer a practical set of solutions that government, business, and labor leaders could implement to help working people.  For more information, visit the Jamaica Plain Forum’s website and follow the link: http://jamaicaplainforum.org/.

7:55 PM – Choir Practice – Meeting House

Saturday, April 10

10:00 AM – 1:11 PM – BCD Workshop “Electronic Social Networking” – Cape Cod Community College, West Barnstable

(For details, please see the April newsletter, The Common.)

Sunday, April 11

NOTE:

Today is the Cohasset Road Race.  We can legally park on the Common until noon.   After that, parking is available in the lots across from the Post Office and off the main roads.

8:00 AM – Circle Ministry (group led by Joan Kovach & Susan Meikleham and meeting usually on the 1^st & 3^rd Sundays, but during April on the 2^nd & 3^rd Sundays)

8:00 AM – Circle Ministry (group led by Bill Baird & John Kornet and meeting on the 2^nd & 4^th Sundays)

9:45 AM – Childcare for our youngest.  All other children will join their parents and the full congregation for the first part of worship in the Meeting House and then leave for RE classes, which extend to 11:15 AM.   Our Whole Lives (OWL) meets at 9:45 AM at First Parish UU in Scituate.

10:00 AM – Worship in the Meeting House – Sermon: “God, the Movie”

3:00 PM – UU Urban Ministry Donor & Volunteer Appreciation Tea – First Church in Roxbury

The invitation:

To show our gratitude for your support of the UU Urban Ministry, we are cordially inviting you to attend our Second Annual Donor and Volunteer Appreciation Tea.
This year’s event will feature a selection of delicious Asian teas and desserts. Guest speakers will highlight the important work of the UU Urban Ministry and how your generosity has changed lives. This Afternoon Tea is simply an appreciation for all that our supporters do for the UU Urban Ministry. It is not a fundraiser, so please just come and enjoy!

Directions are at http://www.uuum.org/templates/System/details.asp?id=42140&PID=771779.

RSVP to Greg Friedman, Development Coordinator,
at 617-318-6010 x201 or gfriedman@uuum.org.

4:00 PM – Meeting House Concert – Zefiro

Zefiro, a Renaissance vocal octet, will perform works by Josquin, Palestrina, and others.  Zefiro is based in Providence, RI and is an ensemble of truly exquisite musicians.  This is our final Meeting House Concert of the year.  Tickets are available at the door and are $15 for adults and $12 for senior adults and children. Don’t miss this concert of classic choral repertoire!  (See above column for more details.)

What else?

Our Cohasset Food Pantry needs you to help hungry neighbors!  Please contribute.

During this time of continuing economic challenge, more and more of our neighbors are turning to local food pantries.   May those of us with an ample store of food and more share with those of us who are struggling.   We can do this through our Cohasset Food Pantry.  Our Outreach Committee reminds us to keep those baskets in the Meeting House and at the entrance to the Parish House full.   Items needed are posted at both locations.

For more information on activities at First Parish Unitarian Universalist in Cohasset, refer to our December newsletter, The Common, and to our website at www.firstparishcohasset.org.

We have a faith worth sharing and a church worth growing!

Come, and bring your children and your un-churched neighbors!

First Parish Unitarian Universalist Cohasset

Weekly Update – February 2, 2010

I t’s not quite a religious holiday, Groundhog Day.   And I’m always confused about whether six months of winter or an early spring will follow the groundhog seeing his shadow or not.   I think here in New England, it’s either six more weeks of winter or half a dozen weeks of chilly weather.   No, Groundhog Day holds no particular religious message….unless, that is, you happened to see the film version.

In “Groundhog Day” (1993) Bill Murray, plays Phil Connors, a self-important TV reporter from Pittsburgh, on assignment to cover Groundhog Day in Punxsutawney, PA, where Phil the groundhog burrows out every February 2 while a whole village and reporters from afar stand in wait to find out whether furry Phil will see his shadow and they can expect a long winter or an early spring.   The hitch in the story is that Phil the reporter goes to bed that night and wakes up the next morning to…the same morning, another February 2, another Groundhog Day; but only he is aware that he’s lived it before.   This recycles many times, with Phil the reporter slow to learn that he’s being given chance after chance to turn his life around.   The plot marches to a conclusion that I won’t give away, promise.

Why not consider instead how any of us would respond if we had a second, third, or fourth chance to relive a day or even a lifetime?  Only we would be aware of the recycling.   No one else around us would have a hint of what was going on.  What would we do differently?   Not that we should or shouldn’t change an iota of our behavior.   I’m just wondering.

While we probably won’t get our very own “groundhog day” revisited, every morning that we get out of bed is another chance to live our lives.   Maybe we’ll have many thousands of such mornings.  Perhaps this will be the last one.   Will we live it differently?   Again, I’m not saying we should or shouldn’t.  I’m just wondering.

It’s another morning, and for all we know, we’ve been here and now before.  Then again, it’s probably a brand new day that has never been, no less a miracle than if we were spinning in time.

I love you each and all,

Jan

Haiti – First Parish continues to respond generously!

Beginning this next Sunday, February 7, 25% of our non-pledge plate offering will go to the UUSC/UUA Haiti Earthquake Relief Fund, as per the thoughtful decision of our Outreach Committee.   We’re building on generosity you’ve already shown on January 17 and 24, when our entire non-pledge plate offerings went to this fund and we raised $1,150!   What we all give permits our UUSC to partner with indigenous groups in Haiti, reaching the most marginalized and complementing the massive aid program of larger emergency response organizations.  To learn more, visit www.uusc.org and check the most recent UUSC update appended to this week’s e-mail update!  Thanks so much!

HELP!!!  Can you host coffee hour this coming Sunday?

We have a blank in our sign-up chart for coffee hour hosts this Sunday.  If you can help, please phone Sandy Bailey at the Parish House ASAP (781-383-1100).   Coffee hour hosts are also needed for February 14 and 21 and ushers and flower providers for February 14.   These are such delightful ways to be hospitable.  Please check your calendars and call Sandy to let her know what you will do when.

The events of this week are as follows:

Tuesday, February 2

10:30 AM – Staff Meeting – minister’s study

4:00 PM – Jan leads worship and discussion for UUs at Linden Ponds, Hingham

6:30 PM – Leadership Development Committee – Atkinson Room

Thursday, February 4

7:55 PM – Choir Rehearsal – Meeting House

Friday, February 5

1:30 – 6:30 PM – American Red Cross Bloodmobile – St. Anthony’s Parish House

If you’d like to make an appointment, please contact Vernita Bryant at 781-383-6713.

Saturday, February 6

9:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. – Don’t Hit Back: Responses to Button-Pushing Behaviors

with Rev. Dr, Ken Reeves, a clinical psychologist, UU minister – First Parish Unitarian Universalist Canton, 1508 Washington Street, Canton, MA

A look at how congregations can handle behavior that blocks progress or that hurts others or escalates conflict, while still valuing freedom and the inherent worth and dignity of everyone.  Primarily designed for congregational lay leaders, ministers, staff and committee chairs.

Registration fee: $20 per person or 3 for $50.

Sunday, February 7

8:00 AM – Circle Ministry (group led by Joan Kovach & Susan Meikleham and meeting on the 1^st & 3^rd Sundays)

9:45 AM – Childcare for our youngest.  All other children will join their parents and the full congregation for the first part of worship in the Meeting House and then leave for RE classes, which extend to 11:15 AM.   Our Whole Lives (OWL) meets at 9:45 AM at First Parish UU in Scituate.

10:00 AM – Worship in the Parish House – “Afterlife” – Our children will join us for the first part of worship.

Everyone is invited for refreshments and fellowship in the Parish House right after worship (IF we have coffee hour hosts!).

Noon – 1 PM – Circle Ministry Facilitators – Atkinson Room

What else?

HomeShare apartment family moves on

Our HomeShare Apartment Committee reports that Beth and her son Christopher, who have lived in the HomeShare Apartment for not quite a month, moved last Wednesday into their own apartment in Pembroke, just five minutes from her job.  Christopher can now ride a bus to school, saving Beth hours of time.  Beth says that she hopes to visit the Farmers’ Market in Cohasset this summer and see it in the fall when the leaves change!  Be assured that we made a positive difference in providing this family with needed transitional housing. Thanks to all who helped make Beth and Christopher feel at home. We wish them well.

Some minor repairs are underway in the apartment, so we’re all being asked by our HomeShare Committee to stay clear of the apartment and the bathroom for awhile (2^nd floor of the Parish House across from Jim’s office).     Thank you!

UUSC Update on Direction of the UUSC-UUA Joint Haiti Earthquake Relief Fund

For more information on activities at First Parish Unitarian Universalist in Cohasset, refer to our December newsletter, The Common, and to our website at www.firstparishcohasset.org.

We have a faith worth sharing and a church worth growing!

Come, and bring your children and your un-churched neighbors!