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TABLE OF CONTENTS
- Sunday Worship Service
- Special Congregational Meeting, December 4: Please Register!
- FRS Earns Renewal as a Welcoming Congregation
- December Justice Sunday with Soup and Salad (sign up to make soup)
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Christmas Poinsettias
- A Visualization of Peace Photo from Mackenzie Rafeldt
- Steeple Mugs Are Back!
- Ways to Donate and Volunteer
- Upcoming Meetings
- This Week's Fellowship Programming
- Weekly Wellness Programming
- Monday Night Meditation
- Tuesday Spiritual Practice
- Wednesday Guided Relaxation
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Annual Ministry Theme: Peace
November Ministry Theme: Justice
“Never forget that justice is what love looks like in public.”
-Cornel West
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Sunday Worship Service
November 27, 2022
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Sunday, November 27, 2022
"Allyship as a Demonstration of Faith and Justice"
10:30am in person and YouTube
This service is created and led by members of our Welcoming Committee. We are proud to announce our recertification of being an inclusive and welcoming congregation for LGTBQ+ and celebrate this commitment together. Members will share their experiences and understanding of what it looks like and means to be an ally in this critical work.
Attend on YouTube: http://bit.ly/FRSyoutube
This Month's Sunday Shared Collection
Essex County Habitat for Humanity brings people together to build affordable homes, strengthen families, and foster hope. Habitat families buy their homes after they provide between 240 and 360 “sweat equity hours” to build their own home and other families’ homes. Since 1985, 114 new homes have been built and 41 homes rehabbed. This includes a current project in Salisbury. Please give so that one day everyone will have a decent place to live.
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Special Congregational Meeting
Sunday, December 4
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Please RSVP today!
On December 4, at noon, FRS will hold a special congregational meeting to ask that the congregation vote to extend the Mirzayee family’s use of Parish Hall as their home through June 30, 2024.
Register for the meeting: https://bit.ly/CongMeeting12-4-22
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FRSUU Earns Renewal as a Welcoming Congregation | |
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FRSUU is pleased to announce that our congregation has successfully completed the UUA’s Five Practices of Renewal for 2022 and have been renewed as a Unitarian Universalist Welcoming Congregation. The Five Practices of Renewal are five core areas of congregational life in which we demonstrated a commitment to uplifting issues of importance to queer and transgender congregants and the LGBTQ+ community at large. These areas include offering worship services, recognizing days of observance, providing religious education, and supporting the work of LGBTQ+ charitable organizations. FRSUU supplemented these renewal guidelines with other activities and efforts such as hosting our youth-led GSA (Gender Sexuality Alliance), participating in Seacoast area Pride events, and supporting Newburyport Youth Service’s efforts to host a teen LGBTQ+ dance in Newburyport, among others.
FRSUU earned its first designation as a Welcoming Congregation in 1996 during the early days of the UUA’s program, and has earned renewal designations at least twice in subsequent years, most recently in 2017. The UUA’s Welcoming Congregation program is now an annual process and, moving forward, FRSUU will follow the Five Practices of Renewal guidelines on an annual cycle.
If you’d like to become involved in FRSUU’s efforts to foster a climate of inclusion for the LGBTQ+ community, please reach out to Welcoming Committee chair, Christine Doherty, at christine.doherty@comcast.net. All are welcome to be involved. Thanks go out to members of the Welcoming Committee and GSA who thoughtfully undertook the work of renewal this year.
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Learn. Act. Connect. Live your faith.
Join us for Justice Sunday!
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As Unitarian Universalists, we’re called on to advocate, organize, and act for justice as we strive to live out our faith in the world. Unitarian Universalism challenges us not only to seek our own truth and meaning, but to walk a path that honors the inherent worth and dignity of every person, as well as the interdependent web of all beings.
Our Justice Sundays bring together the cornerstones of Unitarian Universalism: normal Sunday worship to feed our spirits followed by time enjoying lunch together as a community to grow in fellowship, and justice learning and action to help us live our faith.
On these once-a-month Sundays, join us in the Lower Meetinghouse after the worship service for a communal lunch of soup and salad and return to the sanctuary (or to a designated location in the community) at 12:30pm for an hour of justice learning and action.
Please consider signing up to make a soup and or bring bread. To sign up to bring a soup in December or another month, please click on the blue button below! Soup makers are asked to prepare soup for 8-10 people and keep soup in a crock pot that can be plugged in.
December’s Justice Sunday will focus on bipartisan legislative efforts to end gun violence in the United States.
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Christmas Poinsettias
Order your Christmas poinsettias in memory or in celebration of friends or loved ones to decorate the sanctuary for the Candlelight and Christmas Eve services. The cost is $25 for a large plant. A list of donors and their dedication messages will be included in the Candlelight Service and Christmas Eve Service programs. You may pick up your plant after the Christmas Eve Service to enjoy in your home.
The deadline for orders is noon on Monday, December 12th.
Order your plants and submit payment by clicking on the buttons below. When submitting payment, please select "Poinsettias for Holiday Services" from the fund dropdown menu and make sure that the dollar amount equals the total of your order - $25 (for one plant) or $50 (for two plants).
You may also mail or drop off a check to the front office. Checks should be payable to FRS, with "poinsettia" written on the memo line.
Questions? Please contact Diane Carroll, diane.carroll@frsuu.org. Thank you!
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2nd Photo submitted by Mackenzie Rafeldt for a series called "overwhelmed with gratitude to live in such a beautiful place" | |
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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.
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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
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Ways to Donate and Volunteer | | |
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Volunteers Needed for Coffee Hour
Looking for 1-2 people to host coffee hour on Sunday, December 4 following service.
We have all the supplies; we just need volunteers to brew the coffee in house and set up the table.
Instructions will be provided. Please contact Cynthia Walsh at cynthia.walsh@frsuu.org or call or text 978-701-5352.
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Holiday Letter Volunteers Needed!
When: Friday, December 2, Lower Meetinghouse Main Room, 10am
Can you give an hour or two of your time to help stuff the envelopes for Reverend Rebecca’s holiday letter? This is a fun opportunity to help and socialize with fellow congregants.
Many hands make light work! If you can help, please contact Diane Carroll,
diane.carroll@frsuu.org. Thank you!
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The Joy of Giving
Get your donations ready! Once again, this year we will be collecting new/unused gifts so the children of Kelleher Gardens can holiday “shop” for the important adults in their lives. Do you have lotions, gloves, decorations, tools, hats, jewelry, kitchen items, etc. that you’ve been given and never used? Can you pick up one or two small items while out holiday shopping? Donations of gift bags and tissue paper are also needed. Donations can be left in the back of the Sanctuary (look out for the sign and gift packages).
Questions? Email Nancy Crochiere at ncro27@comcast.net.
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Cookies for Peace
When: Friday, December 9, 4:30–8pm, Lower Meetinghouse Main Room, during the second downtown Newburyport Invitation Night
This is a new FRS Holiday event, and we are seeking many bakers and other volunteers to ensure this fundraiser is a success. Half the proceeds will go to the Emergency Response Fund to support peace in Ukraine through the Unitarian Universalist Service Committee (UUSC). Please visit the sign-up table after church or click on the blue button below.
Historic Church Tours
When: Friday, December 9, 4:30-8pm
Twenty-minute tours will start every fifteen minutes. Free to all. Donations welcomed.
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Holiday Program – Family to Family
Each year, the Community Outreach Group of FRS supports the Family to Family program sponsored by Newburyport Youth Services and the YWCA. You can participate by becoming an “Elf” helping to fill the wishes of families in need in the Greater Newburyport community. Last year, the Family to Family program served almost 400 families and over 1,300 people in the Greater Newburyport community. This year there continues to be many families struggling and needing help.
Please visit www.newburyportyouthservices.com or www.ywcanewburyport.org to sign up. For more information, email Barbara Garnis at: barbaragarnis@comcast.net.
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Monthly Animal Bereavement Support Group Begins on Friday, December 2
When: First Friday of the month, Lower Meetinghouse Main Room, 6:30pm
If you have ever had to say farewell to a beloved animal companion, then you have known the heartache and grief that follows such a loss. Yet as a society, we don’t recognize, understand, or honor how heartbreaking that experience is, nor the impact it can have on someone’s emotional and physical well-being. Those who grieve often feel isolated, afraid to talk about their loss, and risk being embarrassed for caring so much about “just” an animal. There are many in our beloved community and beyond who have had this experience and felt the need to carry their grief in silence – for far too long.
Rev. Rebecca, Nancy Kidd, and Renee Wolf Foster invite you to come together on Friday, December 2, at 6:30pm to share our stories, our photos, and our sorrows in a loving, listening group of kindred spirits. All are welcome.
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This Week's Fellowship Programming | |
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Tuesday Short Story Group
When:1st and 3rd Tuesdays of the month, Lower Meeting House (Zoom option available)
Click here for more information.
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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 are currently finishing The Peabody Sisters by Megan Marshall, and have selected our next book. For more information, click here.
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The 3rd Annual William Lloyd Garrison Lecture, delivered this year by historian Kabria Baumgartner
When: Saturday, December 10, 2022, 7pm at Old South Presbyterian church, 29 Federal Street, Newburyport or livestream on YouTube
This lecture will examine the lesser-known role that Garrison, and his radical antislavery newspaper played in teaching Black youth communication arts skills that they used to advance the antislavery movement and their own careers in diverse occupations.
For more information click here.
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Weekly Wellness Programming | |
If you would like to publish an announcement or event in the Steeple,
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Minister–The Reverend Rebecca Bryan; Affiliate Minister–Rev. Stan Barrett; Affiliate Minister–Rev. Helen Murgida; Affiliate Minister-Rev. Jane Tuohy; Minister Emeritus–The Reverend Harold Babcock. Staff: Director of Church Operations–Rob Authier; Office Administrator–Diane Carroll; Audio-Visual Engineer–Rob Close; Director of Children's Ministry–Mara Flynn; Director of Church Music–Justin Murphy-Mancini; Director of Faith Formation and Spiritual Exploration–Julie Parker Amery; Sexton–Donny Rogers; Director of Congregational and Community Engagement–Cynthia Walsh. Parish Board: Chair–Tina Benik; Vice Chair-Jim Supple; Finance Chair–Renée Wolf Foster; Governance Chair–Tom Himmel; Endowment Treasurer–Kim 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. | |
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First Religious Society, Unitarian Universalist | 26 Pleasant St., Newburyport MA 01950
978-465-0602 | frsuu.org
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