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This Week at First Church in Boston
Friday, February 21, 2020
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February 23, 2020
Rev. Stephen Kendrick, Senior Minister
"Infinite Love"
"For lots of complicated reasons, a long-planned sermon on the Universalist side of our heritage, which is often ignored or overlooked, got moved away from its previous slot attached to Valentine's Day. So simply adjust your inner calendars to open yourselves to the topic of Love, eternal, infinite, boundless love: and who doesn't need that?
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Music Selections
Prelude:
Variations on a Genevan Hymn Tune
Klaas Bolt (1927-1990)
Musical Meditation:
Come, Let's Rejoice
John Amner (1579-1641)
Offertory:
Dona Nobis Pacem
John Knowles Paine (1839-1906)
Postlude:
Postlude on a Genevan Hymn Tune
Klaas Bolt
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Sunday, March 1, 2020
Rev. Kendrick
"Are We the Modern Gnostics?"
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Children's Religious Education
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Sunday, February 23, 2020
Brianna and Brooke will be leading this week’s lesson as I am out of town. I am looking forward to seeing you all again next week.
Best,
Liz Coughlan
Director of Religious Education
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Pastoral News / Updates and Transitions
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A service for Graham Sterling will be held tomorrow, Saturday, February 22, 1:00 PM, at Burke's Funeral Home in Wellesley. A service at the gravesite will follow.
Anna Thal-Reno continues to recover nicely at home from her knee surgery.
If you have pastoral updates and news you would like to share with the congregation, please contact editor Peter Banos. Even if you don't want your concern or joy in the Friday e-news, our ministers always want to hear from you. Thanks!
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Happy Birthday!
Sunday the 23th will be the last Sunday in February - it's always a short month, even with Leap Year - so it is about time to celebrate all members and friend of First Church who have February birthdays. So if your birthday is this month, you may announce yourself if you choose; but in any case, get your cake while it lasts!
Social Justice News
Plate Collection
This Sunday's plate collection is allocated to Black Lives in Unitarian Universlism (BLUU). Woullard Lett, Lead of the New England Region of the UUA, will speak about the collection and recipient in Sunday's service.
Special Lecture
Beyond 400 years: The Black Arts Movement
Thursday, February 27, 2020
6:30 PM – 7:30 PM
West End Public Library (near Massachusetts General Hospital)
151 Cambridge St, Boston MA 02114
 What lessons can we learn from the post-war Black Arts Movement? Join members of First Church as we learn from L'Merchie Frazier, fiber artist and Director of Education and Interpretation for the Museum of African American History, about this vibrant post-war arts and community movement at a special, free lecture at Boston's West End Library!
Climate Justice Conversation
Sunday February 23 After Church
The Climate Justice ad hoc group will be meeting this Sunday, after church, from 12:40 pm in the auditorium. We will converse and brainstorm potential ways First Church can support Environmental Justice in our worship, community, and advocacy. You are welcome to join the conversation. We will share our conversation with the Social Justice Gathering in March.
And to learn more about Climate Justice,
Feb. 26 at 7 p.m., Climate Crisis & Faith Speaker Series
UU Church of Greater Lynn
101 Forest Ave, Swampscott, MA 01907
“Climate Change is a Social Justice Issue: What it Means for the North Shore”
Dr. Marcos Luna- Salem State University
Please join the UU Church of Greater Lynn on Wednesday, February 26, at 7:00 p.m. for the second in our three-part series exploring how our faith calls us to respond to the climate emergency.
Greater Boston Interfaith Organization (GBIO) Health Care Campaign
Monday, February 24
6:30pm-7:45pm
Sanctuary
First Church Boston is hosting Representative Jay Livingstone, this Monday, February 24. At this forum, representatives from Old South, Church of the Covenant, King's Chapel and First Church among others will join together to meet with Representative Livingstone and discuss our hopes for health care reform- specifically expanded mental health care access and prescription drug reform.
You are welcome to attend and share your voice and presence for change!
Opportunities to Make and Hear Music
Easter Sunday
Members and friends of First Church are invited to sing in Verdi's Te Deum at our Easter service, Sunday April 12. Rehearsals will be held on Sundays March 15, 22, and 29, and April 5, all from 10:00 to 10:30 AM, and Saturday April 11 from 9:00 AM to noon. Our music director assures us that the piece will be challenging.
Special Concert
First Church member Larry Bell's Twenty-four Preludes and Fugues will be performed Sunday March 8 at 4:00 PM in our Sanctuary.
Art and Spirit
 The artist Joey Free is exhibiting now and through February. At left: his painting of Nelson Mandela. See more of Joey's paintings and murals at https://www.imaginaryvisioniv.com/.
First Church Leap Year Potluck
Reminder:
Memoir Reading and Discussion Group
The Group will meet on Wednesday evening, February 26 at 6:30 PM in the Parlor.
Newcomers are cordially invited!
The book Coming of Age in a Hardscrabble World will be on sale in the Narthex after church this Sunday.
nancycatwood@gmail.com
Intern News
Ministerial Intern Daniel Lawlor Going on Travel Seminar to Montgomery, Birmingham, and Atlanta
Our ministerial intern, Daniel Lawlor, will be participating in a week long Boston University travel seminar from March 7-14 to meet with veterans of the Civil Rights Movement and to study the institutions -from colleges to churches- that helped shape the US Civil Rights Movement of the 1940s through 1960s. Daniel looks forward to sharing books and stories in conversation with our congregation!
And save the date:
Saturday, May 16th, at 3:00 PM
First Unitarian Church of Providence
Corner of Benefit and Benevolent Streets [gotta love it]
Ordination of our former Ministerial Intern Lisa Garcia-Sampson
Lisa writes,
"Dear First Church Boston,
Greetings from Durham, North Carolina! Ry and I are doing well in our new home. Ry is loving residency at Duke Family Medicine and I am now serving as the Executive Director of Forward Together, The UU Justice Ministry of North Carolina. But I miss you all, dearly.
I’m glad to share the news that in December I passed the UUA’s Ministerial Fellowship Committee and am now in preliminary ministerial fellowship. Truly, I could not have done it without all of your support. Recently, my home congregation, The First Unitarian Church of Providence voted to ordain me and now the date has been set for Saturday, May 16th at 3:00!
First Church Boston will always have a very special place in my heart. It is where I learned how to be a minister, and I am so grateful to each of you for the role you have played in my ministerial formation. I know it’s a long trek down to Providence, but I would be deeply honored by your presence at my ordination.
Hope to see you on May 16th!
With love,
Lisa Garcia-Sampson"
Unitarian Universalist General Assembly
Would you like to meet Unitarian Universalists from around the world?
As Unitarian Universalists, we believe that democracy is a religious value.
To practice democracy, each year the Unitarian Universalist Association of Congregations has a General Assembly where Unitarian Universalist delegates from congregations across the nation and the world meet and discuss our values, sing, read and celebrate music, share best practices on justice work and education, learn about our history, and vote on common commitments.
Resolution are presented and voted on by delegates from different congregations. The Resolutions and resulting actions can inspire hundreds of congregations to take action, such as the Green Sanctuary program, which creates support for congregations to become more environmentally conscious.
Each congregation can send members in proportion to their population. First Church can send 4 delegates including clergy.
This year (2020) General Assembly will take place in Providence, Rhode Island. Anyone who wishes to be a delegate should contact First Church Boston Denominational Affairs Chairman, David Reno. Contact David at: atreno@verizon.net
Chancel Flowers
 Wouldn’t it be great to have the opportunity to add beauty to the Sanctuary in honor, or in memory, of someone you love? Or, in recognition of a meaningful event in your life?
We’d like to invite members of the congregation to offer a flower arrangement for the chancel table for Sunday worship. The person or event being honored, or in whose memory the gift has been given, will be noted in the order of service.
Those offering the flowers can either arrange for the flowers to be delivered from a florist of their choosing, or request that the office do so, and then simply write a check to cover the cost.
Please add your name and contact information to the sign-up sheet Sunday morning, along with a Sunday date that you’d like to make your gift, or simply email office@firstchurchboston.org.
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