Vespers will continue throughout July on Wednesday evenings on Zoom from 7 - 7:30 pm (with an optional time for fellowship following, 7:30 - 8:00 pm). Join lay leaders each week for a quiet, contemplative, meditative midweek connection. Join Vespers on Zoom; password: PEACE.

While plans are still being formed, we anticipate come August that there will be opportunities to participate in Vespers both on Zoom and in person.

Happy Summer, First Universalist!

May your July and August days be bright, sweet, restorative, and adventurous. We can’t wait to see you in the fall.

Yours in peace and friendship,

Rev. Hillary, Gwen, Sam, Andrea, and Todd

This Sunday, take a virtual road trip to GA and worship with UU's from around the world! Sunday Worship is free and open to the public.

Many UU ministers in the area take vacations in the summertime. Rev. Hillary, Rev. Justine Sullivan of UU Brunswick, and Rev. Donna Dolham of Allen Avenue have organized a rotating on-call schedule for pastoral emergencies while they each take some time off.

Rev. Hillary will be offline and on vacation from July 3rd to August 3rd. If you have a pastoral emergency during this time, below is our on-call schedule of ministers to contact.

What brings you joy? Laughing with my adult children and grandchildren

Why did you choose First Universalist as your spiritual home? UU philosophy of inclusion, and individual spiritual growth appealed to me. Also, Frank and Nancy Read are good friends.

Where do you find a sense of calm or peace? The UU Sanctuary while Sam is playing. I also love walking in the woods, and sailing.

What are you most proud of? My children and what wonderful parents they turned out to be. 

What are you most passionate about? Personally, I love to paint, and spend time researching my ancestors. In the bigger picture, I’m passionate about ways to make our world kinder and more caring. 

This newsletter will be on summer vacation starting the week of June 28th and returning the week of August 2nd. Wednesday emails with details of how to access online Vespers services will continue throughout the summer. Some notes about deadlines:

If you have empty jam jars from last year’s harvest, and don’t need them for yourselves, I would welcome any of them to return to command center for “Joy's Jams”, so that they can be used for this year’s jam production. Strawberries are already picked (first round!), as is rhubarb, and lots more to come I hope. It seems that stores are still very short of all sorts of canning supplies, and I’m not sure what summer will offer.

I am putting a box near the side entrance to the office area, and if you leave any jars there, I can collect them. Many thanks, and I look forward to seeing what crops are good this year.

With plans for reopening underway, this coming September, we'll need some folks to sign up as greeters/ushers to welcome everyone back into the church building. This involves a brief training on welcoming (about 30 minutes) and the commitment is minimal: show up on a Sunday morning that you've signed up for just about 15 minutes before the service begins and assist in passing around the collection plates during the service. Ready to sign up now? Just use this link!

The day is bright, there's a light breeze, and you feel comfortable in your body and peaceful in your soul. In the distance, you can hear people chatting, enjoying the day. More present is the sound of gentle, moving water. You pick up the book you were starting to read and while you feel present in this moment, you can still look forward to discussing it this fall amongst friends.

What book, you ask? Why, a First U summer read! This summer, you'll have the opportunity to read one (or both!) suggested books and then be able to participate in a book discussion when we gather together again in the fall.

Our two books, chosen by your RE Council, are:

The deadline has passed for ordering a copy of these books for a discount through Royal River Books, but you can still purchase your own copy or find a copy at a local library, if you're interested in reading either or both of these books this summer.

The most ground-breaking information about north America’s history of slavery, and the experiences of individuals who were enslaved Africans can be found in the regular webinars, talks and community research projects which are described by the Atlantic Black Box Project.

The Atlantic Black Box Project was developed by four individuals interested in slavery and the history of enslaving Africans and transporting them to North America.

The four individuals include a History Professor from Brown University, a researcher of Slavery for the National Museum History and Culture (Smithsonian), a history Professor at the Maine College of Art, a history buff who studied for the priesthood and is now devoting his time to teaching history and researching for the project plus a teacher who taught history for 40 years.

These four individuals have encouraged students and others to do crowd sourcing history research to understand local history regarding slavery.

I would encourage readers of Channels to check out Atlantic Black Box, subscribe and participate in the online webinars, history lectures and fascinating programs of the Black Box Project.

When Channels resumes regular dissemination I will resume suggesting anti-oppression and anti-racist topics to become familiar with.