Annual Ministry Theme: Unity
February Ministry Theme: Integrity
“It takes courage to create a meaningful life of integrity. It also requires good company. And practice.”
-Shelly Francis
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Table of Contents
- Sunday Worship
- Information on Sunday's 30-Minute Social Following Worship
- Invitation to follow UUA LGBTQ+ Ministries
- Ways to Volunteer and Engage in Fellowship
- Community Human Services Market Basket Gift Card Drive
- Congregation Conversations
- Upcoming Events
- Weekly Wellness Programming
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Sunday Worship
February 27, 2022
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Coming Face to Face
10:30am in-person and streamed on YouTube
Did you know that when we Unitarian Universalists are asked to describe ourselves, a significant portion of us say that we are “mystics”? I’m sure that’s not how many of us would self-identify. Yet if it does say something about us, I think that’s because we trust direct experience of the great mystery more than the thoughts and words – the theology – we use to talk about it. Our UU Sources of Our Faith first lists “Direct experience of that transcending mystery and wonder” before it mentions “Words and deeds of prophetic people” and “Wisdom from the world’s religions.” We lean toward trusting experience over theology, especially if it seems to be constricting or pinning down experience too much. I like to say that a mystic is one who wants to taste God rather than just talk about the Holy Mystery.
Service will focus on spiritual experience, and on cultivating or inviting such experience through intentional spiritual practice. Rev. Stan Barrett will deliver the sermon and he hopes it will help us to celebrate the mystic in all of us.
The Rev. Stan Barrett is an Affiliate Minister of FRS. This June, he and his wife Leslie will have been members at FRS for 20 years. Stan retired three years ago after 15 years as a hospice chaplain. Before that, he was a local church minister and a pastoral counselor in private practice. He is enjoying having time for reading, playing (mostly) Bach on the piano, connecting more deeply with longtime friends, and doing housework. He enters his eighth decade (age 70 on February 25) with some trepidation. His latest discoveries are Audible (if you haven't heard War and Peace read aloud, you haven't lived!) and a novel by 20th Century Russian author Vasily Grossman, Life and Fate. Stan is pretty sure that, in person, he's not nearly as boring as the previous sentence might suggest. Stan and Leslie enjoy a beloved companion, a Welsh Springer Spaniel, Emma. They look forward to meeting for the first time, hopefully this spring, a new grandnephew, Quinton, born in Austria late last October.
Attend service in person or join on YouTube:
To attend services, you must wear a mask and be vaccinated. Those who are unvaccinated are welcome to attend the service online. Children may attend the service as well and will, after the service gets started, go down to the Lower Meetinghouse for Young Church.
Starting Sunday, the choir will be singing in person at the front of the church. No congregational singing is being planned at this point.
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30-Minute Fellowship on Zoom Following Sunday Worship Service
Meeting ID: 936 5374 9041
Passcode: 729630
One tap mobile:
+13017158592,,93653749041# US (Washington DC)
+13126266799,,93653749041# US (Chicago)
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Invitation to Follow UUA LGBTQ+ Ministries |
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Would you like to keep up-to-date with the work the UUA and Welcoming Congregations are doing in areas of LGBTQ+ justice and inclusion? Get frequent updates by subscribing to UPLIFT, a quarterly newsletter featuring UAA LGBTQ+ voices, written and compiled by the Rev. Michael J. Crumpler, the UUA's LGBTQ and Multicultural Programs Director. You can also follow the UUA LGBTQ+ Ministries vita Twitter by following @UUA-lgbtq.
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2021 Giving Statements
With the new year and the anticipation of spring comes tax season. 2021 giving statements, which detail all tax-deductible gifts from your household to FRS during the 2021 calendar year, are available to you through one of the following options:
- Log onto FRS Connect/Realm and click on “2021 Contribution Statement” in the blue box on the right, above “Giving Information.” Then click “Print” and you will have the option to either download the statement or print it.
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Contact Diane Carroll at diane.carroll@comcast.net or 978-465-0602 ext. 401. She will email your statement to you or send it by postal mail if you prefer.
If you would like to set up login access to your FRS Connect profile, please contact Cynthia Walsh at cynthia.walsh@frsuu.org. Thank you for your support!
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Ways to Volunteer and Join in Fellowship |
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Volunteer to help with the FRS Spring Auction
Join in for some fun, fellowship, and fundraising. This event will take place on Friday, May 20th and all proceeds will go to support the operating costs of our parish.
With enough volunteers, we can hold a successful event that benefits everyone. So, check out the ways you can pitch in and be sure to sign up by March 6 using this link: https://forms.office.com/r/JEtkD2qEAF
It takes teamwork to make the dream work!
We know everyone’s busy and will help if they can. There are lots ways to support the event and all help is truly appreciated.
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Serve as a Steward for our Annual Giving Campaign
FRS' Annual Giving Campaign will officially kick off with our first Giving Sunday on March 6, 2022 and will be followed by three more Giving Sundays.
During this 4-week fundraising initiative, our parish raises funds to cover the majority of our operating costs, which in turn will enable us to achieve our goals as a congregation!
Stewards help to shepherd the giving process by making calls/sending emails to engage people in the pledge process. Whether you have 1 hour or 5 hours, serving as a steward is a wonderful way to volunteer and serve, meet new people, and build connections with the church.
The stewards training will take place on Tuesday, March 1 at 6:30pm on Zoom:
Join Zoom Meeting
Meeting ID: 858 3692 5017
Passcode: 643821
One tap mobile
+13017158592,,85836925017#,,,,*643821# US (Washington DC)
+13126266799,,85836925017#,,,,*643821# US (Chicago)
Please let us know if you are willing to help by emailing Tina and Greg Benik. Tina's email and cell phone are: tiben1989@gmail.com, 401-263-4076 and Greg’s cell phone is 401-480-2782.
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**Annual Giving Campaign Mailing To Be Done by Printing Company**
Thank you very much to the folks who offered to help with the Annual Campaign mailing. The Annual Campaign team has decided to have the printing company handle the entire process - printing, stuffing, and mailing - so we will not be stuffing envelopes on March 1st. Thanks again for your support! - Diane Carroll
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Create a Welcoming Shawl!
No knitting skills necessary, just your creativity and love for bringing joy to people. Participants will be provided materials to create a welcoming wrap that we will gift to members of the Mirzayee family. This family has six girls and three boys ages 3-19, as well as the mother and father.
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Welcome Shawls created by parishioners with love! |
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Community Human Services Gift Card Drive!
If you’ve gone food shopping lately, you know that feeding a family is getting more expensive! Community Human Services will be having a Market Basket Gift Card drive during February for our Afghan guests. Cash donations also welcome.
Other churches in Newburyport will be having similar gift card drives in the coming weeks, as we collectively support our growing community of Afghan families!
At our in-person service on February 27, members of the Community Human Services committee will be in the vestibule collecting gift card and cash donations. You can also mail donations to Cynthia Walsh at First Religious Society, 26 Pleasant Street, Newburyport, MA 01950.
Many thanks for your continuing kindness and support!
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Welcoming Congregation Workshops
Preemptive Radical Inclusion – March 24, 6-8pm
Inclusion is frequently misunderstood as an outcome, a destination, a goal. CB frames Inclusion as a process that calls upon us to preemptively and radically create the conditions for inclusion. The successful outcome of this process is increased equity and then justice. This interactive workshop will offer opportunities to listen, share, and reflect.
Constellations of Gender – April 24, 12:30-2:30pm
This interactive workshop will explore varieties of how people experience gender. We will use the framework of Preemptive Radical Inclusion as a way for individuals and congregations to be present, bear witness, and identify actions that will embody love.
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Congregational Conversations
FRS is launching an important initiative having to do with how we talk with one another. This work is an outgrowth of our annual meeting last year, the proposed bylaw changes, and our discussion about pronouns.
Everyone is invited to a series of congregational conversations designed to help us live into our Affirmation of Faith. We won’t be attempting to resolve issues around pronouns or bylaws. We’ll be learning to listen to and talk with each other respectfully, with open hearts, in order to reach vital agreements that will benefit our church and community.
The congregational conversations will be both in person and via Zoom.
3/6 Sunday, 12:00 – 2:00 in person
3/7 Monday, 6:30 – 8:30 on Zoom
3/9 Wednesday 6:30 – 8:30 on Zoom
3/11 Friday 10:00 – 12:00 in person
3/16 Wednesday 6:30 – 8:30 on Zoom
3/18 Friday 10:00 – 12:00 on Zoom
If you’d like to join one of these conversations, please click on the following link to register: https://bit.ly/3HbFxAP
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How To Save a Planet
A Climate-Change Podcast Discussion Series
When: Thursdays (February 24-April 14 - no session on March 24), 7-8pm on Zoom
Climate change. We know. It can feel too overwhelming. But what if there was a show about climate change that left you feeling... energized? One so filled with possibility that you actually wanted to listen?
Join Julie Parker Amery and members of CAP (Climate Action Project) for a discussion of smart, inspiring stories that explore climate change from various perspectives, and specific steps we can take to start to make a difference. Each week we'll listen (independently) to an episode of the series, then come together to discuss, and check in with whatever actions we've taken from the week before. We'll also covenant to spend time engaging with the natural world on our own each week—through walking, photography, watching the sunrise, reading poetry, whatever it is that will connect us with the beauty and wonder of our Earth.
Topics might include: What are the causes of wildfires and what can we do to address them? Are electric vehicles really better for the environment? Is recycling all that it's cracked up to be? How will we reach President Biden's goal of 100% clean electricity by 2035? How does climate action relate to Indigenous rights, Black Lives Matter, and gender justice?
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This Land Is Their Land Book Discussion
When: Wednesday, March 2 at 7pm (in person, or on Zoom—TBD based on COVID protocols)
Didn't get to the Community Read book in the fall? It's not too late! We'll be having a discussion of this book about the Wampanoag Indians, Plymouth Colony, and the "first Thanksgiving" in early March.
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Soul Stories
When: Sundays (February 27-April 10) from 3:30-5pm (in person, pending COVID protocols)
"The universe is made of stories, not of atoms." ― Muriel Rukeyser
We are made of stories, and it's by sharing our stories that we come to know each other at a deep level. In this program, we'll have prompts each week to work with to help us mine the stories of our lives, then come together on Sunday afternoons to share them.
If you have questions about any of the above programs, please contact Julie Parker Amery, Director of Faith Formation and Spiritual Exploration, at julie.amery@frsuu.org.
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FRS Habitat for Humanity Speaker Event
When, Tuesday, March 8 from 5:00 to 6:00 pm on Zoom
Our FRS Habitat team invites you to an informational meeting with Willie Gerard, a new Habitat homeowner at the Habitat site in Salisbury, and Heather Johnson, a staff member at Habitat.
This meeting will be informative for experienced FRS Habitat volunteers as well as people exploring Habitat for the first time. We will share information on the Salisbury build, brief you on new projects throughout Essex County, and describe what it’s like on a typical volunteer day at the build site. And we will identify other volunteer roles available through FRS Habitat.
No Registration is required. A Zoom link will be shared closer to the date. Please email questions to FRSHabitat@gmail.com.
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Conversations from the Heart
When: 2nd and 4th Tuesday from 10-11am on Zoom
You are invited! An FRS discussion group called Conversations from the Heart is seeking new members.
Our long-time members are: James Funston, Kathy Welch, Russ Seidel, and Paula Francese. We gather to discuss topics which we take turns selecting. We follow Chalice Circle protocols (confidentiality, deep listening, etc.) while exploring topics relating to spirituality, art, poetry, creativity, life stages, and so forth—whatever we think the group will be interested in. It’s a relaxed, enjoyable couple of hours each month which keeps us in touch with each other, expands our friendship and, most important, our commitment to FRS.
We are interested in welcoming new members to the group. If you think this is something you’d like to know more about, please contact any of us or message Paula directly via email at paulafrancese@comcast.net or send her a text (603-380-5678). We look forward to hearing from you.
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Weekly Wellness Programming |
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Click on the boxes below to learn more about these wellness programs! |
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Thank Our UUs
Once a month we will publish a list of thanks to all who help to make our day a little brighter and our community stronger!
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Minister–The Reverend Rebecca Bryan; Ministerial Intern–David Livingstone; Affiliate Minister–Stan Barrett; Affiliate Minister–Helen Murgida; 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–Holly Cashman; Vice Chair–Tina Benik; Finance Chair–Tim Fountain; Governance Chair–Juliana Beauvais; Endowment Treasurer–Kim Kenly; Finance Treasurer–Micah Donahue; Parish Clerk–Kathy Desilets; Vern Ellis, Minnie Flanagan, Michelle Kimball, Lucy Litwin, Annie Maurer, Jim Supple, Renée Wolf Foster.
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First Religious Society, Unitarian Universalist | 26 Pleasant St., Newburyport MA 01950
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