Second Parish Unitarian Universalist
Hingham, Massachusetts
Glad Tidings
From the Minister –
So Soon?
Our church year is drawing rapidly to its close. By the time you receive this, we will have celebrated our Coming of Age youth, and Memorial Day and the official start of summer will be right around the corner. Our last service will be on June 17th, when we will celebrate our Flower Communion (everyone bring flowers from your garden or from the fields to share with each other) and reflect on “Walking Together” over these past years and for the years to come.
In many ways this has been a very happy year for us here at Second Parish. Our public events have been wonderful and generally been well attended, including the Christmas Bazaar, wonderful (and crowded!) Christmas Eve and Easter Services, superb organ concert and the smashing Art Show, just packing up as I write this. Our Covenant Renewal this year has been very successful, and our members and friends have shown by their pledges of time, talent and treasure for the coming year that Second Parish is important and deserves our vigorous support. We have seen some new faces and added some new members. Deedee and I are happily snuggling into our life here in Hingham and remain as much in love with the parsonage as when we moved in.
The year has not been without its sorrow, alas. The loss of Sandi Shaw, Judy Belknap and Jim Reavey over the past year has been difficult for all of us. It is the fragility of each of our lives which reminds how important each day is, how much we need to cherish each other and care for each other while time permits. Such losses also bring us together here at Second Parish, our community of memory and hope. We are reminded how much we need each other when we mourn, how much we depend on each other in our grief. I’m particularly happy that we’ve been able to ensure that we can care for each other as a community with our Outreach group of Diana Meigs, Stephanie Haff and Mary Collins (with the help of Dinah Collins from the Leadership Board), always ready to pay a visit, bring by a dish or make sure that others in the congregation are available when help is needed. Please make sure Sandi or I aware of any opportunities to help; you can also send an email to outreach@secondparish.org.
I will be close at hand for much of the summer; I will be leaving for Professional Days and the UUA General Assembly in Portland, OR, the day after our last service and returning a week later. I will be available for calls or visits during July and then on vacation in August. However, Sandi will always know how to reach me, so please let her know of any emergencies.
Thank you all for a wonderful first year of our ministry together.
In Faith,
Paul
From the Committee on Ministry
As
part of an evaluation of Paul's first year of ministry, the Committee on
Ministry is seeking broad feedback from the congregation. There are two
aspects to this year's evaluation:
1. The COM performs an annual review with input from Leadership, other committees, and the congregation. This is used to guide an end-of year discussion with Paul and to help us plan for the coming year.
2. As new minister, Paul is going through a three year probationary process before receiving his Final Fellowship credential with the UUA. As part of this process, we are required to submit an evaluation at the end of each of Paul's first three years of settlement.
You should have received a feedback form in the mail. Please take the time to fill it out and return it by June 3. Even if you don't have comments on the specific questions on the form, any general comments you have would be very helpful. If you did not receive a form and would like to fill one out, please let someone on the committee or Sandi know.
-Heidi Brieger, Pam King, Kurt Weisenbeck, Becky Weston
Community
Book Group
The book group is finished
until September. The September meeting is on the 18th at 7:30 p.m. at the home of Gene
Chamberlain, 29
Pleasant Street.
The book for that meeting is The World is Flat by Thomas Friedman. Any
questions call Jennifer Love at 781-749-3243.
Art Show Summary
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The 51st annual Art Show and Sale was another great success. It was a beautiful show--the quality of the entries seems to improve every year. We sold over $16,000 in paintings and crafts, which resulted in over $8,000 in profit to the church, including revenue from advertising, entry fees, patrons and sponsors. Thanks to Lou Belknap for another year of figuring out the monies due to the artists!
The winner of the Frank Vining Smith Award was Tina Watson from Cohasset, for her oil painting “The Weir River Farm”. Sally Weston, a friend of Second Parish, purchased the winning painting. Congratulations to Tina, and to Deedee Agee Sprecher who sold all of her framed entries and several unframed pieces and greeting cards.
Many thanks to everyone who helped in so many ways to make the art show a success. The opening receptions, sponsored by Mariann and Len O’Connor and Jane and Phil Shute, were lovely and very well attended. In addition to being a major fundraiser for the church, the art show is a great public relations event, bringing artists, parents of the junior artists and many people from around town into our lovely building. Our dedicated hosts and hostesses always provide such welcoming faces to Second Parish. If you didn’t have a chance to volunteer at the desk this year, make a point to save the time next year. It’s a great way to spend a few hours!
-Submitted by Becky and Sandi
UUSC
announces 2007 Civil Rights Journey
UUSC
is excited to announce the 2007 Freedom Summer: A Civil Rights Journey, a JustWorks
camp that will take you to the most significant sites of the civil rights
movement.
Join UUSC for
the fourth annual Civil Rights Journey to Atlanta, Selma,
Montgomery, and Birmingham, July 7-14, 2007. During this
intergenerational trip, we will travel together by bus to visit historical
sites that were significant to people who worked, often at great personal
peril, to register new voters during Freedom Summer 1964. Participants will
also hear inspirational stories of people who were there.
The Civil
Rights Journey will conclude with electoral-related skills training that will
equip participants to return to their communities and campuses as activists.
Freedom Summer
2007: A Civil Rights Journey (intergenerational 14 and over), fee $500. For a
flyer you can download and post in your congregation, visit http://www.uusc.org/info/flyer07.pdf
Join us for
this or one of our other JustWorks camps, meaningful social justice experiences
and action opportunities for people of all ages. For more information, visit www.uusc.org/justworks.
Friends of the UUA Phonathon
Friends of the UUA will be conducting its End of Fiscal Year Fundraising Phonathon beginning June 4th and continuing throughout the month of June. Members (within the United States) who have previously donated to Friends will be called upon, with the exception of those who have requested that they not be contacted by phone by our telemarketing agency, Outreach Associates of Pittsburgh, PA. We have been working with Outreach Associates for a number of years and have found them to be respectful and considerate in their dealings with us and with congregation members.
Second Sunday Collection
It has become a custom at Second Parish to donate our non-pledge collection on the second Sunday of each month to our surrounding community. On June 10th the collection will go to: Humanitarian Assistance for Imam Masood.
Last November, Imam Masood and his son were arrested on immigration charges. Pending the resolution of this matter, the Imam’s work permit was revoked, as required by law. This has left the Imam without means to support his wife and eight children, three of whom are American citizens. It has also left the Islamic Center of New England without a spiritual leader and no one to perform marriage ceremonies, counseling, or religious services.
Imam Masood has resided in the United States for nearly twenty years, and for the last ten has been a respected and active member of the Sharon Clergy. Members of Sharon Clergy and Interfaith Action are therefore looking to provide humanitarian assistance to help the Imam and his family through these difficult days. We leave it to the legal system to adjudicate a just decision.
How You Can Help
We invite you to help us provide financial assistance to the Imam and his family. Your contributions will provide immediate assistance for food, clothing, and shelter. Tax-deductible contributions can be made to: Temple Israel of Sharon, Rabbi’s Discretionary Fund. Please write “Imam” on the memo line and mail your contribution to Rabbi Barry Starr, Temple Israel, 125 Pond Street, Sharon, MA 02067. We are grateful to Rabbi Starr for his assistance in this effort. Since the Imam is prohibited from working, the family’s financial need is immediate.
Thank you all so very much for your concern and past efforts. They have meant a great deal to the Imam, his family, and his congregation. Our coming together to offer help is what community is truly about.
Janet Penn, Interfaith Action
Rabbi Barry Starr, Temple Israel of Sharon
Rev. Deborah Cayer, Unitarian Church of Sharon
Stewardship
Covenant Renewal Summary
We are wrapping up our Covenant Renewal in which members and friends have made their financial and volunteer pledges to the church for the coming year. The response has been overwhelming! At the time of this writing, we have achieved 92% of our ambitious goal of $96,400 in pledges and donations. Many thanks to everyone for their very generous support for the coming year. If you have not yet made your financial pledge, please do so as soon as possible so it will be included in the budget we are preparing for the Annual Meeting to be held after church on June 10.
Members and friends have also been very generous in volunteering their time and talent for the work of church. Our new volunteer coordinator, Sue Viden, is in the process of organizing that information and will be passing your name on to the person in charge of any activity in which you expressed an interest.
-Submitted by Susan Weisenbeck
News from our Cooperative Religious Education Program
Thank you very much to Dinah Collins for thinking about us and donating supplies we can use in our RE programs.
The Ballou Channing District Peace Wave Festival on May 12 was a very successful event with wonderful music, crafts, dancing and most of all, warm feelings of Peace and Community. Cedar Hill was the perfect location for such a delightful family event. My husband and I enjoyed helping kids make their own peace kites to fly at the beach.
On May 6 during the service, the Junior class made a presentation about their valuable accomplishments this year in conjunction with their curriculum: "A Questing Year".
On May 20, our young children welcomed the congregation to the Coming of Age service with live music and an honor guard of splendid spring blooms. The lovely service included the sharing of statement of beliefs by our youth participants, Dana Mackey, James Bowker and Mark Bowker and a special thorned rose ceremony, which was particularly well received. A great festive reception, generously offered by Religious Education Committee members, Tasha Allen, Pam King, and Sue Viden, followed. It was delightfully scrumptious! We are very grateful to Rev. Paul Sprecher as expert presenter, mentor and minister; Gene Chamberlain and Kim Shaw as dedicated volunteer mentors; and Heidi Brieger and Richard Bowker as COA committee members and leaders for their contributions to this very successful COA program.
The teachers will have the day off for Memorial Day week-end. Liliane will present a special "green" session for all children present. This will be a prelude to dedicating several activities to our environment and our seventh principle about The Web of Life next year.
Everyone who has contributed to the success of this year’s Cooperative RE program in ways large or small, is invited to attend the June 3rd service which will include a brief but important Recognition Ceremony during the Time for All Ages. Teachers will resume their RE classes after the Time for All Ages.
We are starting to plan the RE brochure for next year. We would love to have your pictures, particularly of special events such as Christmas, Easter, Coming of Age Sunday, and the Recognition Ceremony. Please e-mail them to me at Lilianevhing@aol.com. Thank you very much.
Best regards,
Liliane Verdier
, Acting Director of Religious Education Lilianevhing@aol.com, 781-749-9581
Tutorial Help
Katie Weintraub, High School Senior at Fontbonne Academy, is available for summer tutoring in her home in Weymouth. $20/hour *Math *English *History *Science *Latin - Phone: (781) 337-3678. –Submitted by Anne McGuire