December 14, 2022

TABLE OF CONTENTS

  • Sunday Worship Service
  • Photos from the Annual Christmas Pageant
  • Candlelight Services
  • 2023 Daily Muse Calendars Available!
  • Photos from Last Week's Church Activities
  • Historic Church Tours and Cookies for Peace a Big Success
  • FRS Youth Trip Fundraiser Update
  • A Visualization of Peace Photo from Rob Burnham
  • Co-creating Joy this Holiday Season
  • UU Wellspring
  • Steeple Mugs Are Back!
  • Ways to Donate and Volunteer
  • Upcoming Fellowship Programming
  • December Worship & Events Calendars
  • Weekly Wellness Programming
  • Monday Night Meditation
  • Tuesday Spiritual Practice
  • Wednesday Guided Relaxation

Annual Ministry Theme: Peace


December Ministry Theme: Earth


Time spent among trees is never time wasted.

-Anonymous

Sunday Worship Service

December 18, 2022

Sunday, December 18, 2022

Wintering: a celebration of darkness, creativity, and rest

10:30am, Zoom only

 

“That’s what winter is: an exercise in remembering how to still yourself then how to come pliantly back to life again.” — Ali Smith

 

This service, led by guest minister Rev. Alix Klingenberg, celebrates the Winter Solstice. The darkest time of year can offer opportunities for rest, allowing us to prepare for times of flowering and creativity as the days begin to grow longer. Rev. Alix is a UU minister, spiritual director, and published poet. Alix leads creative writing workshops and works 1-1 with people to help them develop their own spiritual life and creative practices. She lives in Melrose, MA with her family, two black cats, and a ridiculous dog named Cricket. 

 

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This Months Sunday Shared Collection


This month’s Shared Collection partner, Community Action Inc. Energy Program, provides heating assistance, based on household income and size, to residents of Amesbury, Boxford, Georgetown, Groveland, Haverhill, Merrimac, Newbury, Newburyport, Rowley, Salisbury, and West Newbury. Need help? You can check if you are eligible and make an appointment online at www.communityactioninc.org. Let’s keep all our neighbors warm this winter. Thank you.


Half of each Sunday’s collection not designated as a pledge supports a local partner working to transform our region.

FRS Annual Christmas Pageant

Annual Candlelight Services

Saturday, December 17, 7pm

Sunday, December 18, 7pm

A Newburyport tradition since 1925, the annual Candlelight Service returns to the FRS sanctuary this December! The Candlelight Chorale is excited to share music for the Christmas season live and in-person. The ensemble has been working hard since October to prepare this special program.


The selections will feature classics of the Christmas season, including Gustav Holst’s Four Old English Carols alongside music written by Unitarian Universalist composers, including FRS’s very own Barbara Owen, who led the music for this service for over 30 years. We are excited that congregational singing will return for the first time since 2019! Make sure to get ready for the joyous singing of “O Come, All Ye Faithful,” as well as many other well-loved carols.


The Candlelight Chorale hopes that you will join them in person on Saturday, December 17 or Sunday, December 18 at 7pm in the sanctuary.


To keep both singers and congregation safe from serious winter illnesses this year, masks will be required. If you would rather attend virtually, both performances will be livestreamed.


As we near 100 years of Candlelight, we are grateful to be able to continue this tradition in new ways as we respond to the changing world.

2023 Daily Muse Calendars Available!

 

I will not allow my life’s light to be determined by the darkness around me. (Sojourner Truth)

 

This might be precisely the message you need on January 20. Or on March 7, how about:

 

The wound is the place where the Light enters you. (Rumi)

 

The Daily Muse is a collection of 365 inspirational quotes—one for each day of the year—packaged as a standing flip-book calendar for easy display.

 

Quotes were solicited from the congregation, resulting in a strong mix of quotes representing a diversity of people: Elie Wiesel, Sonia Sotomayor, Anaïs Nin, Greta Thunberg, James Baldwin, Frank Lloyd Wright, Ella Fitzgerald, Zora Neale Hurston, Fred Rogers, and many more.


And the day came when the risk to remain tight in the bud, was more painful than the risk it took to blossom. (Anais Nin, June 11)


The Daily Muse calendars make excellent holiday gifts and stocking stuffers, are currently available for $20 each. Plan to pick one up after church on December 18, at the office, or order one here: https://bit.ly/FRSDailyMuse2023.

Photos from Last Week's Activities

Our Annual Holiday Tea

FRS's Joy of Giving Volunteers

Justice Sunday with soup and salad, and hot cocoa!

FRS Hosts Cookies for Peace and

Historic Church Tours

Last Friday night, FRS hosted Cookies for Peace and Historic Church Tours during the City of Newburyport's Holiday Invitation Night. Both events were a huge success and lots of fun was had by all who participated!


Vern Ellis, who leads FRS's Stewardship Committee, writes:


"Thank you to all the bakers, greeters, setup and breakdown crews as well as the shoppers. We sold all the cookies!


The Cookies for Peace Cookie Walk event brought in $1,800, with $900 going to the Unitarian Universalist Service Committee Emergency Fund to help Ukrainians who are fleeing the war."


The Historic Church Tours raised over $100 in donations; approximately 30 guests joined tours given by Justin Murphy-Mancini, Director of Church Music.

Fabulous volunteers directed traffic to the

Cookie Walk

Our beloved church

Participants enjoying the church tours

Youth Trip Fundraising Update

Thank you to all who donated so generously at this past Soup Sunday! Our delicious soups raised over $400!

 

Our envelope drive is ongoing. Please note that our envelope display is on the right-hand (as you are facing out) exterior door of the vestibule. We’ve decorated envelopes and invite you to take one denoting a dollar amount you’d like to donate. Return the envelope to the basket by the display, or give to a trip participant or to Julie Parker Amery. Thank you, again, for your generosity!

 

The new year will bring a couple of fun fundraisers, including the return of the FRS bake-off! Keep an eye out here for dates and details.

 

Our fundraising goal for the year is $6,000, which will ensure that all youth who wish to participate in the trip to the Pine Ridge Reservation in June will get to do so. This is our first justice learning youth trip in four years, and we couldn’t be more excited!

A Visualization of Peace

Photo submitted by Rob Burnham "Love is Peace"

An Invitation from Program Council


This year's annual ministry theme is peace and we invite you to submit a photo that best represents your visualization of peace - a personal representation or a broader representation of peace in the community or the world.


You can email your photo to cynthia.walsh@frsuu.org or text your photo to 978-701-5352. Please provide a photo caption and your name.

Co-Creating Joy this Holiday Season

 

First offered in the depths of the pandemic in 2020, our “Co-Creating Joy” program has been so meaningful for participants, that we offer it again, for the third time. We invite you to participate in this program designed to spread a little joy. 


How will it work? First, indicate your interest in participating by December 15 by signing up here: bit.ly/FRSCo-CreatingJoy.


You will be randomly assigned another participant for whom you will leave a small token of joy. Be creative! It could be a baked good, a photograph or piece of art you've created, a copy of a favorite poem, a book that you find especially meaningful, even found objects from nature. Please do not purchase anything extravagant. Let the gift be an expression of you!

 

You, in return, will be the recipient of someone else's joyful giving. All exchanges will ideally be in December—but after the holidays is a fine time, too! We can help transport if necessary. 

 

Questions? Contact Julie Parker Amery, Director of Faith Formation and Spiritual Exploration at julie.amery@frsuu.org.

UU Wellspring is Coming to the FRS

When: Starting in January!

Second and Fourth Mondays, 4-6pm

 

“Wellspring was not only faith-changing, but life-changing… seeds were planted during that year. I didn’t know it, but those seeds were growing in me and things were changing deep within...”  –FRS member Lea Pearson in her Journey of Faith (12/4/22), speaking about the Wellspring program.

 

UU Wellspring is a 10-month spiritual deepening course for Unitarian Universalists, used in congregations across the continent since its development in 2005. The program begins in January 2023, meeting twice a month (excluding July and August). Participants experience deep listening and spiritual reflection in a small group of about ten, inspiring personal and community transformation. Participants read, view, and respond to pre-session assignments that are focused on spiritual topics and UU Theology. 

 

In addition to the meetings, participants engage in a spiritual practice of their choosing, and find a spiritual companion to meet with outside of the sessions.

 

Some of the themes explored in this first offering of Wellspring include: Everyday Theology, Your Own Prophetic Voice: Vulnerability and Courage, Nature as Spiritual Guide, Good Without God, and UU Perspectives on Death and the Afterlife. To learn more about the Wellspring program, you can check out the website here: https://uuwellspring.org/.

 

This program will be offered in person and will meet the second and fourth Mondays of the month, beginning January 9, from 4-6pm. If you’re interested in participating or would like to learn more, please email Julie Parker Amery, Director of Faith Formation and Spiritual Exploration at: julie.amery@frsuu.org.

Steeple Mugs are Back!


And just in time for the holidays. The FRS Men’s group will be hosting a table before and after church where you can purchase beautiful 15 oz. coffee mugs, printed with a graphic of our beloved steeple against a cobalt blue night sky. No inflation here! They are being offered at the same price as two years ago: $10 each. Supply is limited, so we suggest you purchase early. If you cannot make it to church or want to reserve yours, contact Bruce Deveau at bdeveau2@comcast.net or 978-314-1354.

Ways to Donate and Volunteer

Habitat for Humanity

When: Saturday, December 17


FRS Habitat is a team of volunteers building homes for qualifying families affiliated with Habitat for Humanity.


The FRS team joins these Habitat families and other volunteer groups on the third Saturday of the month at Habitat’s building site at 22 Old County Road, Salisbury. No specialized skills are needed.


Click here for more information.

Upcoming Fellowship Programming

Serenity in the Sanctuary: Peaceful Contemplation

When: December 20-24, noon, Sanctuary

 

Take Peace! Beauty, peace, and calm can be found in the midst of holiday madness. The

Sanctuary will be open for short programs of poetry, guided meditation, silent meditation, and blessings.


Click here for more information.


Tuesday Short Story Group

When:1st and 3rd Tuesdays of the month, Lower Meeting House (Zoom option available)


Click here for more information.

Friday Book Group

When: Fridays from 10-11:30am, Lower Meetinghouse Room A and on Zoom


We meet weekly and read both fiction and non-fiction books chosen by the participants. Each book is read and discussed over a period of several meetings, with the reading for each determined by the group. 


We have are reading the novel ON BEAUTY by Zadie Smith. This past Friday, discussion included questions of race and identity, and on how characters were drawn in this (comic? satirical?) novel. For our meeting on December 16, we will be reading through page 194 (sections 1-5 of the second chapter). New and used copies of the book are readily available!


For more information, click here.

December Worship & Events Calendars

Events
Worship Services

Weekly Wellness Programming

Monday Night Meditation
Tuesday Spiritual Practice
Wednesday Guided Relaxation 
Click for Latest News & Events

If you would like to publish an announcement or event in the Steeple,

please send information to cynthia.walsh@frsuu.org by Sunday.

Minister–The Reverend Rebecca Bryan; Affiliate Minister–Rev. Stan Barrett; Affiliate Minister–Rev. Helen Murgida; Affiliate Minister-Rev. Jane Tuohy; Minister EmeritusThe Reverend Harold Babcock. Staff: Director of Church OperationsRob Authier; Office AdministratorDiane Carroll; Audio-Visual EngineerRob Close; Director of Children's MinistryMara Flynn; Director of Church Music–Justin Murphy-Mancini; Director of Faith Formation and Spiritual ExplorationJulie Parker Amery; SextonDonny Rogers; Director of Congregational and Community Engagement–Cynthia Walsh. Parish Board: Chair–Tina Benik; Vice Chair-Jim Supple; Finance Chair–Renée Wolf Foster; Governance ChairTom Himmel; Endowment TreasurerKim Kenly; Finance Treasurer–Laurie Evans-Daly; Stewardship Chair–Vern Ellis; Parish Clerk–Kathy Desilets; Holly Cashman, Marissa Dewey, Minnie Flanagan, Michelle Kimball, Annie Maurer, Tom Stites.

First Religious Society, Unitarian Universalist | 26 Pleasant St., Newburyport MA 01950

978-465-0602 | frsuu.org