TABLE OF CONTENTS
- Sunday Worship Service
- Upcoming Opportunities to Explore Unitarian Universalism
- Upcoming Events: The Jean C. Wilson Music Series 2022
- Stories from the Congregation
- Church Programming Updates
- Ways to Connect, Engage, and Grow
- FRS in the Community
- Thank a UU
|
|
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
|
|
SUNDAY WORSHIP
February 6, 2022
|
|
Sunday, February 6, 2022
“Rainbow Stitches, Golden Lacquer”
10:30am livestream on YouTube
What are we called upon to do as a community of integrity? Often, our work of cultivating lovingkindness can be demanding, even daunting, especially in the light of the responsibilities and trials we may be facing as individuals. This week, we seek to explore what it means to have compassion for others, and for ourselves, as we continue to work towards building a caring community, and a just world.
Reverend Rebecca leading worship with David Livingstone, Ministerial Intern preaching.
“I know you suffer, and that is why I am here for you.”
-Thich Nhat Hanh
As you may know, Thich Nhat Hanh passed away quite recently. His words have had a profound impact on so many, and his beautiful teachings are gifts that will continue to heal and guide for a long time to come.
All services are virtual currently. The plan is to go back to a combination of in-person and virtual worship services on February 20th.
|
|
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)
|
|
UPCOMING OPPORTUNITIES TO EXPLORE UNITARIAN UNIVERSALISM |
|
Sources Of Our Faith: Monthly Discussion Groups with Reverend Rebecca
|
|
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?
|
|
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.
|
|
The Jean C. Wilson Music Series 2022
When: Sunday, February 13 at 4pm online
Carduus – This Boston-based group will present a program of early music for voices featuring the Missa fortuna desperata by Josquin des Pres. They will perform Josquin’s extraordinary work alongside Gregorian chants and related motets.
Purchase tickets for this concert:
Because of the rapidly changing circumstances, all of the programs are subject to change. All concerts will again be virtual, as in-person gatherings in the FRS Sanctuary have been paused out of an abundance of caution.
|
|
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.
|
|
STORIES FROM OUR CONGREGATION |
|
Meet Holly Cashman, Educator, Activist, Baker, and Chair of FRS's Parish Board
By Cynthia Walsh
It was just before Christmas when Parish Board Chair Holly Cashman (she/their) and I met over Zoom for this interview. Holly had just finished an annual tradition of baking a gingerbread house for the Annual Gingerbread House Contest sponsored by the Portsmouth Historical Society. This is a labor of love for Holly, as everything must be 100% edible, she explained. During my one-hour conversation with Holly, I could tell she enjoyed challenges and adventure. Afterall, she starts each day with the NYT Crossword Puzzle.
Growing up in Cheshire, Connecticut, Holly spent their summers visiting family in York, Maine and would go to Hampton Beach, and even once visited Newburyport. She wanted to study environmental law although she fell in love with learning Spanish. Before entering graduate school, Holly took a year off and worked as a travel agent where they could employ their Spanish skills. From this experience, Holly decided to become a Spanish teacher and jetted off to the University of Michigan for graduate school. After a short stint as an elementary school Spanish teacher, Holly moved to Arizona where she landed their first college professorship position at Arizona State University. Just as she was up for tenure, she decided to launch a job search with hopes of moving back East. This is how she ended up in their current faculty position at the University of New Hampshire where she teaches Gender and Queer Studies.
Since 2011, Holly, their spouse Heather, and their two dogs “Fenway” and “Tula” have called Newburyport their home.
Being new to Newburyport, Holly came to FRS in search of community, and fell in love with it. Growing up in the United Church of Christ, Holly began to feel more and more isolated from their faith, feeling like she had to leave a certain part of who she was at the door, because she did not fit in. However, it was the openness of Unitarian Universalism that appealed to Holly. She remembers reading in an order of service “What is a UU,” and thought, “My gosh, I can’t believe this is real.”
Holly came to FRS just before the congregation launched an effort to reimagine its mission and vision, which resulted in the development of FRS’ Values, Mission, & Ends (VME). which you can view here. This work resonated with Holly and soon she was invited by a fellow parishioner and Board Member to join the Parish Board. As Holly recalls this moment, she laughs thinking how she went from one day being new and attending service to the next day serving on the Parish Board.
Serving on the Parish Board has been a lot of fun for Holly -- she loves the way the work is distributed and how engaged everyone is. Reflecting on their time serving on the Board, Holly feels as though she has learned a lot about being their authentic self, organization, and being prepared. She is inspired by fellow Board Members and the teachings of Reverend Rebecca and looks forward to continuing their faith and spiritual path in social justice work, especially focusing on anti-racism.
|
|
FRS Governance Authority
By Tom Stites
So what was it that the Puritans, our religious forebears, wanted to purify?
In the 16th and 17th centuries, the Church of England wasn’t Protestant enough for them, and they wanted to purify remaining Catholic doctrine out of it. They weren’t successful, and many headed for New England as a religious refuge so they could have churches that met their strict standards. These Puritan churches evolved into Congregational churches and, in the 19th century, many Congregational churches adopted Unitarian theology. That would include us, and some practices the Puritans held dear remain foundational to Unitarian Universalism four centuries later.
When the Puritans reached these shores they’d had enough of bishops, so they set up their churches with no hierarchy at all. Each church was independent, as UU churches are to this day. The Unitarian Universalist Association cannot tell us what to do. The members of this congregation are its ultimate authority. Our ministers are not sent to us; we call them by vote.
Annual membership meetings held near the end of each church year elect members of the Parish Board and delegate to them the authority to conduct the congregations’ business. The membership also votes to approve the budget the board proposes for the coming church year. We also vote on bylaw changes and other business that comes before the membership.
The Parish Board members elect a chair, who is the FRS’s highest-ranking volunteer; Holly Cashman holds this crucial position this year. Our bylaws – every word has also been approved by vote of the membership – lay out a governance system by which the board sets policy; the staff and volunteer members then carry it out.
There are practical advantages to this – no outside authority can send us a predatory priest, for example, or impose a doctrine we disagree with – and there are spiritual advantages as well.
The bedrock of Unitarian Universalist theology is the understanding that it is by coming together and agreeing to be in charge of ourselves that we summon the holy. We are all different, but we must work together, and in the inevitable tension we learn from one another. As we say every Sunday in our Affirmation of Faith, this is how we “grow into harmony with the divine.” We do this ourselves, as individual religious people in congregation, each contributing to a holy process with our own energy and spirit. We await no pronouncements from on high.
How is it that the UUA can’t tell us what to do? Its full name is the Unitarian Universalist Association of Congregations. UU congregations pitch in to create this association to do tasks too big for any one congregation to do by itself – credential ministers, publish the hymnal, run a public relations office that presents our faith and values to the wider world, and much more. The association does the bidding of the congregations, not the other way around. This is known as congregational polity – a gift to us from the Puritans that keeps giving after four centuries.
|
|
CHURCH
PROGRAMMING UPDATES
|
|
FRS' MUSIC PROGRAM
by Justin Murphy-Mancini, Director of Church Music
The music program has adapted to the ongoing challenges of the pandemic. We look forward to the time that we can welcome back the Adult Choir to the sanctuary. The choir continues to rehearse and record music for services, taking the opportunity to explore the FRS music library and our hymnals. The online Wilson Music Series began on January 16 with an organ recital from Nicole Keller and continued with the Danny Harrington Quartet on January 23.
There is still time to purchase tickets for the third concert of this year’s season, featuring Carduus, a Boston-based vocal ensemble: https://bit.ly/2022-02-13Wilson
Highlights from these programs are available on the church’s YouTube channel, which is regularly updated with both music and many other offerings from church events.
|
|
ADULT FAITH FORMATION AND SPIRITUAL EXPLORATION
by Julie Parker Amery, Director of Faith Formation and Spiritual Exploration
Growing Community, Growing Spirits
This past fall, we launched a new adult faith formation program, Spirit Groups, meant to be something between a structured small ministry group and a completely organic conversation. Something akin to the care pods created at the beginning of the pandemic, which resulted in some rich bonding experiences for a good number of parishioners. The difference with Spirit Groups would be that the groups would receive a prompt each week for the focus of their gathering, whereas care pods each functioned independently and were completely on their own to determine what they wanted to talk about.
The goal of Spirit Groups is to help participants forge relationships while exploring their personal values and beliefs. The theme of the fall was “Big Questions.” Topics included: Are we born with a calling or mission? Are humans inherently good? What happens when we die? And, what is the role of art? I sent out a prompt relating to the question the week before (an article or video, for instance), along with an opening reading. The hour-long session included a personal check-in, responses to the prompt, then open discussion.
“Spirit Groups embody the UU salute that we're better together. Sharing one's thoughts on matters of heart and soul is what community building is all about,” says John Gibson, a fall Spirit Group participant. “We engage in community to lend a hand doing good works and become changed in the process.”
Many participants expressed deep appreciation for the opportunity to get to know other parishioners with whom they might not otherwise cross paths. “My thanks to those in the group I shared with for their openness, caring, and kindness that made it happen,” John continued. “Respectful listening is a great teacher as one journeys with others on the path to wholeness.”
A new series of Spirit Groups will be starting up the first week in February. The theme is “If Questions for the Soul” and will be an opportunity to explore questions of a philosophical nature. (Example: “If you could eliminate one scientific discovery or invention for the betterment of the world, what would it be?”) Groups are randomly assigned (with four to five people in each), and each group determines its meeting day and time. Sessions are held on Zoom. So, no worries about not being able to work it into your schedule—YOU will determine when you’ll meet!
I hope you’ll consider participating in this fun program that will allow you to meet some great people while having good conversation and digging into your values.
|
|
YOUNG CHURCH UPDATE
by Mara Flynn, Director of Children's Ministry
In January Young Church went back on Zoom. We shared in games and ritual, including sharing joys and sorrows (or “rose, bud, and thorns”), a wonderful way to connect with each other amidst the challenge of virtual gathering.
We also read and discussed stories that connect us with our world and with the opportunities for faith in action happening in our congregation.
In the lead up to the FRS Food Drive for the First Parish Newbury Food Pantry, we read Saturday at the Food Pantry by Diane O’Neill. This nuanced story is about a girl named Molly who goes with her mom to a food pantry for the first time, and it reminds us that everyone needs help sometimes.
On MLK weekend we read Change Sings: A Children’s Anthem by Amanda Gorman, a triumphant call to action for everyone to use their abilities to make a difference.
Knowing that the Mirzayee family was settling in and that the children were enrolling in the local schools, we read I’m New Here by Anne Sibley O’Brien (donated by Jean Noonan), which follows the experiences of three children who are immigrants from other countries, as they navigate the challenges of starting school in America. Through self-determination and with encouragement from their peers and teachers, the students learn to feel confident and comfortable in their new school without losing a sense of their home, language, and identity.
Climate Justice Rally: Earth Day 2022
Before the holidays, congregant and member of the FRS Climate Action Project Lance Hidy reached out to me looking for meaningful ways to engage children and youth in the environmental challenges we face. In collaboration with CAP, we are now planning for a community-wide event to be held on the Newburyport Waterfront on Earth Day, April 22, 2022! Our goal for this all-ages event is to build awareness and foster deeper engagement with the climate challenges we’re facing and to offer resources and opportunities for action.
Please save the date and keep an eye out for ways to get involved!
|
|
WAYS TO CONNECT, ENGAGE, AND GROW |
|
Friday Book Group
When: Friday, February 4 from 10-11:30am on Zoom
Please join us this Friday as we vote for our next book.
Everyone is invited. We meet every Friday!
|
|
Retired Old Men Eating Out (ROMEO)
When: Wednesday, February 8 at 12pm, Loretta, Newburyport
Due to Omicron, reservations are required. Please RVSP to Ed Budelmann, by phone, 617-818-5544 or email ebudelmann@gmail.com.
Please bring money along with yourself.
"It is unbecoming to stoop too much to one's meat. Keep your fingers clean & when foul, wipe them on a corner of your table napkin."
-George Washington, Rules of Civility #96.
|
|
Climate Action Project
When: Wednesday, February 9 at 7pm on Zoom
Mission & Goals:
An informed citizenry insistent on urgent government action to slow climate change! In response to this need the FRS Climate Action Project plans to:
- Think globally, work locally, act personally.
- Raise awareness within FRS and the local community on the urgent need for climate action by organizing a series of events, discussions, and communications on key climate change topics.
- Grow the reach and effectiveness of our small group by attracting more FRS members and friends to join with us in this cause, and by collaborating with other like-minded local organizations and agencies of government.
- Publicize concrete actions by which concerned citizens can combat climate change in their personal lives, through government channels, and/or by participating with advocacy groups.
|
|
Short Story Group
When: 1st and 3rd Tuesdays at noon
The short story group focuses on reading and discussing anthologies.
All welcome to join!
|
|
Exploring Elderhood Together
When: Thursday, February 17 from 1-2:30pm on Zoom
Writing a Spiritual Will with Julie Parker Amery, FRS Director of Faith Formation and Spiritual Exploration.
A spiritual will (also known as an ethical will or a legacy letter) is similar to a regular will in that it passes assets on to those we leave behind, and to future generations. But while a will is concerned with material assets, a spiritual will offers an account of our values, what we have lived for, what has mattered to us—the wisdom we have accumulated through years of living.
Join us for a rich, lively, and life-affirming program that will begin to lay the groundwork for preparing your own spiritual will. We invite you to come prepared to tell or share a (brief) story from your life, based on one of the following prompts:
- a life lesson you learned from someone else
- a loss or failure, and how it impacted you
For those interested, Julie will offer a series of three additional small group sessions (dates and times TBA) where you can continue to be guided on writing your spiritual will.
|
|
The Morning Show: Resettling Afghan Families
When: Thursday, February 3 at 9am on WJOP (FM 96.3)
Rev. Dr. Jerred Mercer, rector of St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, and Rev. Rebecca Bryan, minister of the First Religious Society, Unitarian Universalist Church will visit the show this Thursday to discuss the resources their communities are devoting to resettling Afghan evacuee families in Newburyport, including converting space in the church buildings into comfortable and private temporary housing.
Rev. Mercer and Rev. Bryan will talk about their decision to welcome and provide aid to the families; about how the wider community in Greater Newburyport has been helping and identifying opportunities to continue helping; and ongoing, long-term goals to provide permanent homes and livelihoods for adults, and schooling for children.
Live broadcast at 9 AM on Channel 9 and on WJOP (FM 96.3); or watch the live streamed interview on YouTube at www.NCMHub.org, click on YouTube.
|
|
Film Screeening: FLEE
When: Sunday, February 6 at 7pm at the Screening Room in Newburyport
Since 2021, over 600,000 Afghans have been forcibly displaced either internally within the country's borders or externally as refugees. Amid and international efforts to provide assistance. Several families have been sponsored locally to make new homes here in Newburyport.
To offer a subjective look inside one Afghan refugee's experience, the Screening Room will show the incredible new documentary, FLEE. Following the screening there will be a brief discussion about local resettling efforts with guest speakers Joanne Morris from West Newbury Congregational Church and Mary Sortal from FRSUU.
Tickets range from $10-$12.
|
|
FRS Habitat for Humanity Will Organize a Team for Spring Builds!
Save the Date: Join us on March 8 for a special program on Habitat's Impact in Our Community. This program will take place via Zoom.
|
|
Give the Gift of a Book to FRS' Little Free Diverse Library (LFDL)
Help us amplify and empower diverse voices and stories in our community by donating a book to our Little Free Diverse Library on Pleasant Street.
|
|
THANK A UU!
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!
|
|
Thank you to those who made The Daily Muse possible! To Mary Sortal for bringing the idea to us and for leadership through much of the process; to Vern Ellis for his time and skill in undertaking the entire production side of the project; and to Linda Harding for her assistance in vetting many of the quotes. Thank you to all who contributed favorite quotes, and to Melissa Mills, Kathy Straubel, Christine Doherty, and Maryalice Groves for assembling them. The finished product was beautiful-- truly through the efforts of many.
-Julie Parker Amery
|
|
Thank you to everyone who continues to support the Mirzayee Family, and a special shout out to Annie Maurer, Ann Haaser, Lee McLaughlin, and Mary Sortal!
-Cynthia Walsh
|
|
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.
|
|
First Religious Society, Unitarian Universalist | 26 Pleasant St., Newburyport MA 01950
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
