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This Week at First Church in Boston
Friday, February 28, 2020
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March 1, 2020
Rev. Stephen Kendrick, Senior Minister
"Are We the Modern Gnostics?"
"Well, we UU's pride ourselves on being modern heretics, and I think that's fine, in that the translation for 'heretic' is 'to choose.'--and that choice lies at the heart of our faith. When in the l970's scholars started to read and reflect on ancient Christian texts, particularly the Gnostic 'Gospel of Thomas,' there was among us a sense of excitement that maybe these long ago heretics were forerunners of our way of doing religion. In the fifty years since, how is that working out for us? Are these Wisdom texts our true beginnings? Let's do some exciting excavation this week!
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Music Selections
Prelude:
Fugue no. 4 in c# minor, Op. 156 no. 8 (2019)
Larry Thomas Bell (b. 1952)
Musical Meditation:
Spirit, Thou Source of Grace Divine
Melchior Franck (c.1579-1639)
Offertory:
O Love Divine
George Frideric Handel (1685-1759)
Postlude:
Carillon
Louis Vierne (1870-1937)
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Sunday, March 8, 2020
Rev. Kendrick
"Let Your Yes Be Yes"
Sunday, March 15, 2020
Daniel Lawlor, Ministerial Intern
"From Selma to Boston"
Sunday, March 22, 2020
Rev. Kendrick
"Being Good Enough"
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Children's Religious Education
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Sunday, March 1, 2020
With Lent already upon us, we will discuss its role in the lead up to Easter. We will talk about Ash Wednesday and the significance of ashes applied to peoples foreheads in the shape of a cross. Ashes remind people of Jesus and the possibility of forgiveness, and the children will be invited to talk about God, and the sacred wholeness and mystery of this time of year.
We will finish the lesson with a story and craft. Brianna and Brooke will be here to support the younger folk!
See you all Sunday!
Liz Coughlan
Director of Religious Education
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Pastoral News / Updates and Transitions
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For those who have not received Rev. Kendrick's letter of last week, and/or would like to be able to access it on-line, here is a link.
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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Social Justice News
1) Election Day! This Tuesday, March 3. Please take the opportunity to make your choice in this Presidential primary.
2) The March Social Justice meeting is this Sunday, March 1, in the chapel at 12:20. Please join us for updates and plans for our climate initiative, the GBIO health care campaign, and more. Also you’ll be able to peruse the UUA selected ‘common read’ for this year, The Indigenous People’s History of the United States by Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz. We’ll be offering these for sale at a reduced cost during coffee hour in March and will have an after church discussion in May, date TBA.
All are welcome at this meeting and we’ll do our best to end by 1:45 (or sooner?) with snacks available.
3) A very interesting GBIO discussion with Rep. Jay Livingstone was held at First Church on Monday this week with at least 8 FCB members in the group of about 30 voters attending. On Sunday March 1 you can join the campaign for improved mental health and substance use disorder care, decreased prescription costs (especially for drugs needed to treat chronic conditions such as diabetes), and the end of “surprise billing”. We’ll have a letter available during coffee hour that you can send to your state rep, and if you don’t know who that is we can help identify them.
4) Envirnomental Justice and Black History Month
“Part of my role is to hold people’s feet to the fire to have those tough conversations that go beyond transactional and become transformational.”
-Rev Mariama White Hammond
Boston's own Rev. Mariama White Hammond has been in the news for her work connecting environmental and racial justice, including with Unitarian Universalists. Check out this powerful interview clip from Boston 25.
Music
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.
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 9:50 to 10:30 AM; Saturday April 11 from 9:00 AM to noon; and on Easter itself, April 12, from 9:00 to 10:30. Our music director assures us that the piece will be challenging.
First Church Leap Year Potluck
Reminder:
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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