Second Parish Unitarian Universalist
Hingham, Massachusetts
Glad Tidings
From the Minister –
Now that our worship services are well-launched for the year, we are starting up a series of classes, groups, social events and fundraisers, listed inside. I want to highlight three here: Back to the Beginning: Reading Our Life Stories in Genesis. This course starts on Tuesday, Sept. 22 at 2 – 3:30 pm and meets in the Derby Clubhouse Music/Classroom at Linden Ponds and will meet for 12 weeks, but you can join up at any time. Each week we will consider one of the stories from Genesis using a combination of traditional interpretation, stories told over the ages which fill in the stories we find in the first book of the Bible, and mapping our own life stories to come to a deeper understanding of the meaning of these ancient stories. We will be using Bill Moyers’ PBS Special Genesis: A Living Conversation as one of the key resources in getting our own conversations about Genesis started. Please contact me with any questions.
We will be starting up Connections at Second Parish again early in October. We had a great group meeting on Wednesday evenings last spring, and I will be contacting everyone who expressed interest in joining a Connections group to find one or several good times for meetings this fall. The purpose of these groups include the following:
• Spiritual Seeking. To deepen our spiritual lives and build on the benefits we receive from our regular worship
services.
• Community Building. To foster positive connections among all members and friends, and to help new people
connect with us.
• Ministry. To extend the ministry at Second Parish by caring for and ministering to one another.
• Intellectual Exploration. To expand our understanding of the world and ways to demonstrate our UU
principles in our lives.
• Living Our Values. To engage in service projects to benefit the Second Parish community, the neighborhood,
or the larger society.
Finally, make sure to mark your calendars for October 18th at 3 pm for the Installation of Rev. Kim Preveza as our Minister of Religious Education. This will be a wonderful time for us to lift up our commitment to our children and to formally enter into a covenanted relationship with Rev. Preveza. We will be inviting friends and guests from all around the area to join us on this happy occasion.
SERVICES: October 4th: To Life! Healing and Health Care It’s almost impossible to avoid the clamor of conflicting voices on Health Care these days. What light does our faith have to shed on our public commitments to each other? October 11th: Standing on the Side of Love This Sunday we will celebrate Association Sunday with many of our other Unitarian Universalist congregations, and talk in particular about our recently launched campaign, “Standing on the Side of Love.” October 18th: Suffer the Little Children We will celebrate Children’s Sabbath on this Sunday, an opportunity to celebrate children as sacred gifts of the Divine, and to renew and live out our moral responsibility to care, protect and advocate for all children. Our celebration of our own Religious Education program continues at 3 p.m. with the Installation of Rev. Kim Preveza as our Minister of Religious Education. October 25th This Present Moment Amidst all of the distractions of our lives, we talk about finding time to be present to ourselves and to each other.
In Faith,
Paul
Special Events for October at Second Parish
Homecoming Pot Luck Supper
Saturday, October 3, 5:30 p.m.-8:00 p.m.
See details in box on next page
Rev. Kim Preveza’s Installation
Sunday, October 18, 3:00 p.m.
See more in Rev. Kim’s article
Not Your Average Yard Sale
Saturday, October 24, 9:00 a.m.-1:00 p.m.
See details in this newsletter
Celtic Concert- Sunday, October 25, 3:00 p.m.
See Letter/Return Form on last page of this newsletter
LEADERSHIP NOTES
Property
The big news for the month is that we have contracted with Wilcox Corp. to construct our new accessible bathroom on the rear of Cushing Hall. The ability to leave our wooden fire escape stairs intact not only saved us the cost of replacing them, but also allowed us to get fixed prices for the remainder of the project. Our total costs should be just over $49,000…with a slight possibility of some contingencies. Ben Wilcox has obtained the required building permit and we should be seeing work commence shortly.
Our other project is to repair the rear fire escape. The work, performed by J.G.L Welding, has already started and is scheduled to be completed by the end of the September. The next step will be the scraping and painting…bids are being obtained now.
-Submitted by Len O’Connor
Finance
There are three major objectives for our finance programs this year.
The first is to build on our Covenant Renewal (i.e. annual pledge drive) process which was so successful earlier this year to ensure that we once again realize enough pledge income to support all of our programs. We greatly benefited from seeking and using new people and new ideas, and while the process won't change significantly, we will, of course, look for ways to tweak it.
The second is to form a small, informal working group whose objective will be to identify ways in which we can better support our people who plan and manage those special events (ie. auction, holiday fair, art show, etc) which have a major financial impact so as to maximize, within reasonable bounds, our income from that set of sources.
And the third is to convene regular – probably bimonthly – meetings of the finance committee - treasurer, invested funds chair, leadership board chair, finance commissioner – in order to take a more focused look at our church's financial priorities and look a little more into the future with respect to the financial resources which will be required.
-Submitted by Kim Shaw
Community
Men’s Breakfast
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The next Men's breakfast will be on Saturday, October 10th at 8:00 a.m. in Cushing Hall with the usual delicious menu. All men in the Parish are welcome and encouraged to join us for an hour of conversation. Come prepared to talk about whatever is on your mind. Please let Chip King know if you will attend by phone at 781-749-3348 or by email at dking98@verizon.net.
Roommate
Wanted
Do you have a friend who is looking for an apartment? Sarah is looking for a roommate to share the parsonage, and
would appreciate hearing from anyone who might know of someone, or have
suggestions where to look. Many thanks!
-Sarah Phillips 781-740-4004
Saturday October 3rd
5:30 p.m. until 8:00 p.m.
Everyone is encouraged to attend this year’s first Social Gathering at Second Parish!
We will have a food filled evening, seasoned with a bit of business intended
to leave you with a great taste in your mouth.
What exactly is the agenda, you ask??? It’s simple. Talk about the year ahead at our Church,
what is on the calendar and what needs to happen to get these things accomplished!
Sign up sheets for the pot luck are in Cushing Hall.
You can also call the Church office (749-1671) or Mariann O’Connor (749-9896)
We will hire a babysitter if there is a need. Please let us know right away.
BE SURE TO SIGN UP SOON!!!
News from our Cooperative Religious Education Program
We are off to a great church year.
We have a wonderful team of lead teachers: Suzette Droster, Julianna Dunn, Pam King and Baba Shetty. Many people have also volunteered to be assistants. Thank you to everyone for helping make this another great year.
We opened the church year with an ice cream social and welcomed our returning families and new families. We have six new children so far. It is a wonderful and energizing time.
We have a few exciting thing happening this month.
On October 18th we will celebrate Children’s Sabbath. On this day, thousands of interfaith communities across the country hold special worship services, education programs, and advocacy activities. We will celebrate children and families and have the opportunity to commit to efforts that improve children’s lives.
One such way will be through doing a Reverse Trick or Treat. Hundreds of groups of Trick-or-Treaters in the United States and Canada will unite to help end forced/abusive child labor in the cocoa industry, promote fair trade, and protect the environment. This is done by giving out Fair Trade Chocolate and information while trick-or-treating.
Our Installation Service will be on October 18th as well. This will happen at 3:00. We choose this date as a connection with the Children’s Sabbath. Working on a Unitarian Universalist version of the Children’s Sabbath with the Unitarian Universalist Service Committee and the Children’s Defense Fund was my first UU job back in 1992.
During the installation we will make commitments and covenants as a church community and as Minister of Religious Education. And of course, we will celebrate our Religious Education Program and our children. We also celebrate our broader connections to our Ballou Channing District and our Unitarian Universalist Association of Congregations.
Children are invited for sure!
Many blessings of a new year,
Rev. Kim Preveza
Music schedule for October:
10/4: Elizabeth Morrell, soprano
10/11: Choir
10/18: David Whiting, baritone
10/18: Rev. Kim’s Installation-Choir
10/25: Choir
NOT YOUR AVERAGE YARD SALE
SATURDAY, October 24th 9:00 A.M. until 1:00 P.M.
This is not a Street Fair where you drop off your stuff and someone else sells it, rather you sell your own stuff and donate as much of your proceeds to the Church as you wish!
A win – win situation.
You get to Clean out stuff you don’t want, Spend a day with your friends at Second Parish
and help Raise Money for a very good cause.
All Donations will benefit the Second Parish Church.
We need lots of people to FILL UP tables with gently used stuff to sell!
I have some suggestions that might help us make more money.
· How about a baked goods table? Which means we need someone to staff the bake table.
· What if we had a book table? Gene Chamberlain will staff this for us – this will likely be inside.
· Donations of bottled water and can sodas to sell. We could also think about coffee and cider.
· Maybe we could try to get pumpkins and mums at a discounted price somewhere and sell them.
All the money from these table sales would go to the church.
What we won’t need.
We don’t need anyone to move stuff in and out of the barn or go to the dump!! We will start setting up early Saturday morning, say 7:00 a.m. Of course, many hands make light work.
REMEMBER: If you bring it to the yard sale, you either sell it, give it away, or take it home!
YOU DON’T GET TO LEAVE IT BEHIND!!!!
So, find a buddy, start thinking about new or gently used items you may wish to sell and get ready for a wonderful day. If you need help pricing, you can call Mariann.
We have a limited number of tables available to use so reserve one early!!!!
There is a sign up sheet for tables in Cushing Hall. You can also bring your own if you like.
If you need help getting a larger item to the church let me know. Limited transportation is available a day or two before but we’ll need to leave it in Cushing Hall until the event.
We need to know who plans to participate. THE COST OF A POLICE DETAIL FOR 4 hours is $185.70. If there is not enough interest it might not be worth the expense.
PLEASE Call Mariann O’Connor A.S.A.P. 781-749-9896
Suggestions or ideas are always welcome. Maybe someone would like to do face painting for the kids.
Donations will be gratefully accepted. Let’s make this a huge success!
If anyone is willing to help Co-Chair this with me let me know. I’d appreciate
any help! Thanks, Mariann
September, 2009
Dear Friends,
Second Parish in Hingham would like to invite you to be a patron of our annual concert to celebrate our Wissinger organ on Sunday, October 25, 2009 at 3:00 p.m. As a patron, your name will appear in the program and your $25 donation will entitle you to a ticket to the concert as well as an after-concert reception. The concert is open to the public and tickets will be sold at the door for $10.
This year we are pleased to present the violin and piano duo of Calum Pasqua and Susie Petrov who will entertain us with a program exploring the vast possibilities of the Scottish fiddle repertoire. Both Calum and Susie are classically trained performers, yet each has decades of experience playing and sharing Scottish music with the world. From stirring reels to heart-wrenching laments, the duo delivers an emotional performance of Scotland's traditional music complete with the history, composition style and origin of the specific tunes. The concert will also feature our own organist Mark Slawson.
The program celebrates the release Calum and Susie’s new CD, “In Conversation.” This is a must see for fans of Scottish music! If you wish to be a patron, please fill out the attached form and mail it with your check. We thank you and look forward to seeing you at the concert.
Sincerely,
2009 Organ Concert Committee
Mariann O’Connor
Sandy Peavey
Sarah Phillips
Mark Slawson
Kurt Weisenbeck
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Yes! I/we would like to be patron(s) of the Second Parish Organ Concert.
_____________________________________________________________ ____________________________
Name(s) Phone
Please enclose your check for $25 per person or $50 per couple made payable to the Second Parish in Hingham
and send by October 16th to:
Second Parish Unitarian Universalist
Organ Concert Committee
685 Main Street
Hingham, MA 02043
Thank you for your support.
We hope to see our whole congregation at the installation.
Church school families, please take note that the children
will have a part to play in the ceremony.
SECOND PARISH UNITARIAN UNIVERSALIST
685 Main Street, Hingham, MA 02043
Minister: Reverend Paul Sprecher, Email: PSprecher@uuma.org
Minister of Religious Education: Reverend Kim Preveza, Email: mre@secondparish.org
Paul: (781) 210-2016 – Home and Office
Church: (781) 749-1671 Email: secondparish@yahoo.com
Website: www.secondparish.org
Paul’s Office Hours: Mon. & Wed. 9:00 am-noon, Fri. 3:00 pm-6:00 pm
Church Office Hours: Mon., Tues., Thurs, 7:00 am-noon
Sunday Service: 10:00 a.m.
The newsletter is published monthly.
The deadline is the 3rd Monday of each month.
Next Newsletter Deadline: October 19, noon
Production Date: October 27, 10:00 am
Newsletter Team: Alice Brewer and Sandi Smith
Editor: Lou Belknap
Edition: October, 2009
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