Dear First Universalist Friends,

What a gift to see so many of you in real life this past Sunday during our first in-person worship service of 2022, (and my 10th in-person service with you since beginning here in August 2020). 

After the upsetting events of the week, more than a few of you shared with me the dual feelings you experienced as we gathered in our sun drenched sanctuary after a long time apart. You were at once awash in happiness to be together again, and on the other hand tormented by the violence in Ukraine. 

And more than a few of you wondered if it was okay to feel such joy and such inner peace, as such terror and violence was being perpetrated across the world.

To each of you, I responded, “Yes, it is ok,” and, “Yes we must still let ourselves feel joy and peace when suffering abounds.” 

Because, friends, if we just let the misery, the disappointment, the rage, the violence of the world take up all the space in our hearts and minds, how will we have the resolve, the hope, the strength to enact changes that relieve this suffering? 

In her book Pleasure Activism, trauma-informed healer, doula, and activist adrienne marie brown explains that “pleasure must be centered as the organizing principle” in all of our liberation movements. “What you pay attention to,” she reminds us, “is what grows.”

Pleasure Activism is a thick text, rich with ideas, descriptions, and practices to help us discover and engage pleasure in all aspects of our lives. To brown, this is liberation and justice work in action. 

“Create more room for joy, wholeness, and aliveness (and less room for oppression, repression, self-denial and unnecessary suffering) in your life,” she writes. “In justice work, center pleasure as an organizing principle. This means feeding people great healthy food that nourishes them when they come together. When you hold a meeting, work to meet the needs of everyone gathered in the space. Take time to affirm the gathered people and affirm the learning that sometimes masquerades as failure. Be unconditional in your commitment to movement, be transformational in every area of your life and work, and center pleasure and joy as resistance: laugh, dance, taking time for relationships. When people find movements that meet their needs, welcome them whole, affirm them, commit to their transformation and actually feel good - they stay, and the movement grows.”

First Universalist is a place where we can - and often do - center such liberatory pleasure. Let’s never stop! Let’s do this more! All the time!

And friends, just a note - Centering pleasure does not mean escaping, ignoring or denying suffering. The pain of the world is real, we need to see it, feel it, and know it, however, if we let it, this pain will consume us whole. This is why we must center our joy and pleasure and affirm each other’s joy and pleasure. It is our happiness that keeps us strong and will enable us to keep on moving forward towards our bright call of peace and friendship. 

Yours - truly - in the joy and pleasure of peace and friendship,

Rev. Hillary 

As of March 1, 46 families have offered $122,000 in commitments towards our next church year. Thank you!

We are still waiting to hear from 29 families, and hope to reach our goal of $160,000 in the coming days. Please let us know your intention via the website, or have a conversation with a board or stewardship member. Gifts of EVERY SIZE are greatly appreciated! We look forward to hearing from you! The Board can then begin preparing a responsible budget for the church year that begins July 1

To make your commitment or watch the annual campaign video, please visit our website.

Please click and review our updated Covid Safety Policy so you know all the guidelines about stuff like masks, social distancing, and no food or drink in the building. We will still provide zoom access for anyone who needs or prefers to stay home.

Come to our annual celebration of faithful old pi (3.1416…) and our feast of sweet and savory pies. Please bake and bring a full size pie of any kind you would like, traditional, vegan, or gluten-free, sweet or savory, Come and eat a slice (or two) of pie! There will also be boxes available to go if you prefer.

As we joyfully return to our beloved Sanctuary, our first instinct was to fill it with lovely cut flowers to celebrate. Many of us are increasingly aware, however, that cut flowers are often produced in ways that have a huge carbon footprint, violate human rights, and involve heavy pesticide use, and we've decided that it's time to bring some creative thinking to ways to beautify the Sanctuary. There are lots of possibilities, and we'd like to encourage anyone interested in helping out to contact Jeanette Newton (318-9135) or Anne Turner (415-3644) if you'd like to participate. All ideas welcome!

During our next “What Do UU Think?” discussion hour, we consider a recent Sojourners article, “What Reparations Is Costing My Church” by Rev. Michael Woolf, Senior Minister of the Lake Street Church, a baptist church outside of Chicago. If you plan to attend our group discussion, please arrive with at least one question, one thought, and one line that stood out to you while reading Rev. Woolf’s essay. If you have any trouble accessing the article, let Rev. Hillary know and she will make sure you can read it. 

Spend the day (or morning) in support of Wabanaki sovereignty and talk with legislators in person. Bring a friend. Contact me for details: Nancy Read, nafread@gmail.com or 829-3285.

Protecting Democracy’s Guardrails: The March 12th MUUSAN network meeting will feature Former Maine Secretary of State, Matt Dunlap, Representative Nicole Grohoski and other speakers discussing how we, as Maine UUs, can best protect democracy in this challenging time. Register here.

On Wednesdays from 12:00 - 1:00 pm Rev. Hillary will be holding an outside drop-in space at our church picnic tables. All are welcome to come by and check-in. (Weather permitting.) Throughout the week, Rev. Hillary will be holding office hours for individual conversations. These conversations can be on Zoom, over the phone, or in-person. Please reach out to Rev. Hillary directly to schedule a conversation, firstuminister@gmail.com. Note that Rev. Hillary is not available to meet on Saturdays and Mondays.