We will gather on the front lawn - with masks and social distancing and GREAT JOY! - to welcome each other and Rev. Hillary Collins-Gilpatrick to First Universalist Church.

Have two or more last names in your family? Please feel free to come altogether and choose which time slot works best for you.

Our Ingathering service this year will happen 'live,' with Rev. Hillary Collins-Gilpatrick, Minister and Sam Chandler, Music Director streaming on Zoom from the Sanctuary.

Our theme for September is renewal. How can we be renewed by our friends, our faith, our wonder, our differences, and our opportunities to forgive? This month, as we gather in a new virtual way within a well-known sanctuary, we will consider what it means to be a people of renewal. Join us.

Please click on this link any time after 10:20 am and enter the password: WORSHIP. You can also dial-in by calling: 1-646-558-8656, entering the meeting ID: 987 0674 6228 and passcode: 4934717. The service will also be recorded and available for viewing later.

Virginia Woolf

Dear First U Friends,

This year, First Universalist has joined up with many UU churches across the continent to participate in the Soul Matters Sharing Circle, a monthly subscription of Worship Arts, Religious Education, and Small Group Ministry resources. These resources include everything from hymn suggestions and activities for preschoolers, to chalice lightings and Youtube links that might inspire a sermon. The packets are compiled by fellow UU ministers, educators, chaplains, and lay persons. 

Soul Matters has been used in all the churches I’ve served, and though I admit that the resources can be hit or miss at times, what I appreciate the most about the sharing circle is it’s annual calendar of monthly themes. In my experience, the best part of our faith is the most complicated part of our faith - we have no lectionary! No liturgical or lunisolar year of high holy days and preparatory periods! The beliefs, interests, agreements and dissents of our UU community are vast and ever-changing! This is SO awesome, and also it’s a lot for a UU minister (whose beliefs, interests, agreements & dissents are also ever-changing) to consider when putting together a weekly worship service. Thus, the monthly Soul Matters themes provide a wonderful, non-confining yet organizing framework to shape the arc of the year. (And they also lay some groundwork for those Sundays when a Jewish high holy day falls upon an important Christian holiday, and it’s also April Fools and something crazy happened in the world… You guffaw - but It’s happened! 

The Soul Matters theme for September - the month when we gather to officially start up a new church year, the month when many of us begin or return to school, the month of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, the month of the Autumn Equinox - is Renewal. 

I look forward to exploring this theme with you starting this Sunday(!!!) during our virtual Ingathering Service - our first official service of the new church year and my first serving as your settled minister. The Sunday service will be available through Zoom and will be streamed live from the Sanctuary. Sam, Gwen, and Anna will all be there along with me to renew and begin our new year together. 

Join us. (And do, also swing by Saturday afternoon in person or virtually for our Ingathering welcome event. All the details you need about this event are listed at the top of this week's Channels!) 

Yours in a whole lotta new-ness and a whole lotta love, 

Rev. Hillary 

Learn about this new year's church budget in advance of the vote to happen at the Annual Meeting happening on Sunday, September 27. This is your chance to ask questions and be informed! A link to participate will be sent out in advance of the meeting.

The church's Annual Meeting, rescheduled from this past June, will take place on September 27. At this meeting will be a vote on the budget and updates about the church year. A link to participate will be sent out in advance of the meeting.

Hopefully, you've received your letter from First Universalist with details about our upcoming church year - if you didn't, please contact the church office or a member of the Worship Council and we'll send one your way!

Remember to come tomorrow, Saturday, 9/12, during your time slot for Ingathering: Part One and pick up your supplies for children in K-4th grade.

Children's Chapel - begins September 20th! - Sundays, 10 - 10:20 am

Junior Youth Group - begins October 4th! - Sundays, 11:15 am - 12:00 pm

Adult RE - begins in October! - Sundays, 11:15 am - 12:00 pm

Senior Youth Group - begins October 4th! - Sundays, 4 - 5 pm

Junior and senior youth groups are invited to launch their youth group year with apple picking at Thompson's Orchards in New Gloucester. Families are welcome to accompany their junior and senior youth group members to pick apples, too - but please know that our youth groups will be using that time to bond and connect. Masks and social distancing will be required.

The Anti-Racism Working Group have purchased, for the use of First Universalist members, friends, and attendees:

Recommended donations for bumper stickers are $5 each, yard signs with a metal stake are $12, and copies of AntiRacist Baby are $12. Checks should be made out to the First Universalist Church and sent to the church with a note on the line for bumper sticker, yard sign, or book - or some combination of the three.

Anyone interested should contact Sarah at sarahcoffinwitte@gmail.com and she can arrange with you to pick up or drop off the bumper sticker, yard sign, or book. If we run out of bumper sticker or yard signs we will order more.

Would you like to help boost turnout this Election Day among voters of color in voter suppression states? Can you print legibly? Then join Rev. Hillary and friends from Faith in Action for a postcard-writing party on Saturday, September 19 from 10:00-noon outdoors at the church. Tables and chairs (socially distanced!) and snacks provided—or you can bring your own. (Special arrangements possible for those who want to participate but cannot stay for the party.) To enable us to order supplies, please let us know if we can expect you by emailing janemakela@gmail.com.

You can now submit your online request for an Absentee Ballot for the November election! Don't wait, put in your request now: Request Absentee Ballot - NEW fixed link!

Ballots will be mailed out about 30 days before the election; but putting in your request now helps your town clerk’s office anticipate the absentee ballot volume they will face in the month before the election.

Worried about the Mail? Those of you in Yarmouth or Falmouth can drop yours off at your town hall. In North Yarmouth and Cumberland, you can drop yours off in the drop box located at each town halls' entrance.

Join the ACLU of Maine on Thursday, September 17, at 3 p.m. for their annual event, We the People: Democracy Depends on Us. They are celebrating our power to make our voices heard through the cornerstone of our democracy – voting. RSVP here.