From the Minister –
When you are sorrowful look again in
Your heart, and you shall see that in truth
You are weeping for that which has been
Your delight.
—from The Prophet, Kahlil Gibran
Ordination/Installation: The day for our big party is fast approaching. We have a great program with wonderful music, great preachers (all speaking VERY briefly!), and a fine table set after. Please arrive a little early as we want to start promptly at 4 p.m. Please park across the street at Wilder Nursery School to leave plenty of room for the many guests we expect that day. NOTE THAT we will have our regular service Sunday morning at 10:30 as usual.
An Inconvenient Truth: Some 4,000 churches nationwide are taking advantage of a generous offer to show this film. We will be having two showings on Thursday, October 5th at 1 pm and 7:30 pm and one showing on Sunday, October 8th at 2 pm. Please sign up in Cushing Hall if you have a chance. We’re also inviting other churches in the area to join us, so we expect to have a good turnout. We’ll watch the film and then talk about our reactions and any actions we might want to consider undertaking.
Reading the Bible Through Unitarian Universalist Eyes: We’ll launch our first adult class on Thursday, October 19th at 1 pm and also at 7:30 pm, continuing for 8 weeks. Please sign up (or let Sandi know) if you wish to join us, even if you will be unable to make all of the classes. We are welcoming members from other area UU churches to join us for this as well. I will generally teach on Thursdays and Ken Read-Brown of Old Ship on Wednesdays. This fall, Ken will teach a class entitled Ebenezer Gay and American Unitarianism starting on Wed., Oct. 25 at 7:30 pm continuing for 4 sessions. Ken says, “Our third minister, Ebenezer Gay, has been described as the father of American Unitarianism. We’ll learn the story of Gay’s life and ministry, and read some of his writings.” I’m planning to attend because Gay was good friends with our first minister, Daniel Shute; I would love to have other members join me there. For more information or to sign up contact Ken Read-Brown at 781-740-4979; oldshipkrb@comcast.net.
Visiting: I’ve made my email even simpler; you can reach me at minister@secondparish.org. Except for Monday, my day off, I can generally be reached (or get a message) at the church, (781) 749-1671 or at the parsonage (781) 210-2016. I’m planning to get around visiting as many of you as I can this fall, but please also call anytime you want to talk about anything or just to have a get-acquainted chat.
In Faith,
Paul
Community
Welcome News
One thing we could all agree on at the retreat in August which included Committee on Ministry, Leadership Board, and Religious Education is that our priority of focus this year has to be church growth.
We are happy to announce a new Second Parish work group: The MembershipTeam:
Alice Brewer
Dinah Collins
Chip King
Mariann O'Connor
Jane Shute
Our goal is to increase newcomers to our church. Some of the ways we plan to do this now, are by developing/clarifying the greeters' and ushers' roles and by making our entries more inviting. We are also looking at follow-up with visitors, a newcomers' packet, and publicity.
Offers of help and information have been very supportive. We welcome all suggestion, ideas, and involvement.
Let me know any additions or deletions you'd like to see and I'll get the end result to Sandi.
-Thanks, Dinah Collins
Men’s Breakfast
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Book Group
The next meeting will be Tuesday, October 17, at 7:30 p.m. at The Belknaps’ home. The book for September is The Black Dahlia by James Ellroy. Any questions call Jennifer Love at 781-749-3243.
(Note to Allan Viden from Jennifer: He is not to take any vacations that extend over Leadership Meetings because I need people to come to book group!)
Guest Ministers
Paul is scheduled to be out of the pulpit one Sunday a month. Anyone with suggestions of guest ministers or speakers should contact Julianna Lovell or Stephanie Kelsch. If anyone is interested in helping organize ministers/speakers, please join us! The Guest Minister for October 15 is The Rev. Barbara Welch.
-Thanks, Julianna Lovell
Fund Raiser for Cancer Research held by William Raveis Real Estate
As we mourn the passing of yet another member of our Church community to this horrific disease, I am proud to be working for a company who is doing a small part to help raise funds to donate to research for a cure. If you would like to make a contribution, and possibly win a fabulous prize, please contact me. I will bring tickets to Church each weekend between now and October 30. I am also willing to make a visit to your home. The cost is $10.00 per ticket. I thank you in advance for your support. With hope for a cure, Mariann O’Connor
Announcement from the UUA:
As a supplement to periodic mailings, Friends of the UUA will be conducting a fundraising phonathon beginning the week of October 9th and continuing through mid- November. Outreach Associates, a telemarketing firm located in Pittsburgh, will be phoning members who are currently active Friends of the UUA to ask them to renew their support and to consider becoming Sustaining Friends. (As you may know, Sustaining Friends agree to provide recurring monthly contributions, which increase the efficiency and effectiveness of donations as we reduce the frequency of solicitations to that group.) Our contract with this firm requires that all callers must be courteous, respectful, and succinct as they offer identified Unitarian Universalists an opportunity to support our Association directly. Your feedback about the calls will help us to monitor their quality. We have established a Friends Phonathon Hotline to facilitate that feedback: Members may call (617) 948-6525 to leave a message to ask to be placed on the "no call" list or to share a comment directly with a UUA staff member.
Your willingness to support the UUA enhances our ability to provide services and programs to member congregations and presents avenues for future growth of Unitarian Universalism throughout the country. If this phonathon is occurring at an inappropriate time for Friends of the UUA to be contacting members of your congregation, please let me know by return email before September 25th. With gratitude, Cynthia Salloway, Director Friends of the Unitarian Universalist Association Stewardship & Development A personal note to our colleagues in ministry: Leaders of congregations may be sensitive to financial requests at any time, but especially in the current economic and political climate. However, the Friends program is an essential fundraising component which provides about 7% of the UUA operating budget each year to help subsidize services to congregations.
Your continuing support of each of our balanced approaches to fundraising is vital to the success of our collaboration. Thanks for your partnership with our efforts. -The Rev. Dan King, Director of Campaigning
Education
News from our Cooperative Religious Education Program
I am very happy to report that the Primary, Intermediate and Junior classes are all off to a great start. Families have received information about the curricula and the activities. In particular, we mailed them our beautiful new RE brochure. Please take a look at it on our church web site, www.secondparish.org or on the RE bulletin board. If you wish to take a copy from the entry hall to read at home, please pass it on to a family that may be interested in our offerings.
We are very grateful to all who participated in the creation of the brochure. Credits go in particular to Sean Gallagher for the lay out (done in Australia this Summer!), Westongraphics for the printing, Pam King for the pictures and of course the RE committee. (Now you are starting to understand the meaning of "Cooperative" in our name!)
In answer to expressed desires to create opportunities for our children and youth to sing, I am delighted to announce that we now have a Junior Choir. Under the talented leadership of Katie Weintraub, the Junior Choir will practice in the sanctuary, twice a month during Coffee Hour, and will perform during Holiday services.
Instead of a general teacher training session, I have been meeting separately with each team of teachers: Suzette Droster and Sue Viden for the Primary class; Julianna Lovell and Helene Soini for the Intermediate class; and Pam King and Kurt Weisenbeck for the Junior class. This allows us to focus on the special needs of each curriculum and group.
The Coming of Age program Fall sessions, taught by Heidi Brieger and Richard Bowker is to start on September 24.
The next RE Committee meeting is scheduled for Sunday, September 24, at 12:15 PM upstairs.
I taught the Primary class recently and the children were just wonderful.
Finally, I wish to thank the following people who offered contributions in response to my previous article wish list:
Heidi Brieger, Sarah Phillips, Paul Sprecher and Susan Weisenbeck.
Please contact me for further information. I am looking forward to seeing you on Sundays.
-Liliane Verdier, Acting Director of Religious Education Lilianevhing@aol.com, 781-749-9581