Upcoming Sunday Worship Services
November, 2008
The Sunday Worship Services and Religious Education Program begin at 10:30 a.m.
November 2: All Souls Sunday Bruce Taylor
On this Sunday, in recognition of All Souls Day and the Day of the Dead, we call into blessed memory those who have lived and gone before us; and we offer thanks for the gift of life. When we lose people we love, we do not have the comfort of certainty: we do not know what happens after death. But the relationship continues to live. To contemplate this is to encounter the sacred. Our worship this Sunday will include a Litany of Remembrance for those among us who have died and yet continue to exert a profound and loving influence on our lives and on this church community. The storyteller this morning is Laura Stevens, and the choir will be singing.
November 9: A Post-Election Reflection Patricia Tummino
With the world economy in a shambles and with our nation engaged in two wars, the November election is arguably one of the most important in our nation’s history. Today we will consider the challenges we face as we move together with our new president. Laura Stevens is our storyteller today.
November 16: Mind The Gap Bruce Taylor
When the train arrives, London Underground passengers hear the familiar announcement to "mind the gap." This week's sermon explores some of the gaps we encounter in our daily lives: necessary gaps, which allow trains and people the freedom to move; gaps that need to be respected and sometimes bridged between people and groups in conflict; and the gap of the unknown, which we may choose to enter despite the risk in order to move beyond our current limitations. Our storyteller this morning is Marilyn Thayer.
November 23: Thanksgiving – An All-Church Service Of Celebration Patricia Tummino
The church school children will remain upstairs for this intergenerational Service of celebration. Guest At Your Table Boxes will be distributed, and we will also share a cornbread communion. The choir will be singing.
November 30: Surrounded By Stories Patricia Tummino
One reason the Bible has always been a bestseller is that it is chock full of good stories that teach us concepts like right, wrong, love, courage and peace. We don’t think of mother earth as a storyteller – but she brings extraordinary stories to life. Today we learn why it is so very important to tell her stories. Laura Stevens is our storyteller today.
Large print hymnals, plus hearing assistance devices, are available. Nursery care is provided. Bring a friend!
The
Minister’s Corner
Let me begin by saying, “VOTE!” Be sure that you vote, and encourage your adult children and friends and your neighbors to vote, too.
Someone told me recently that the stress of our historically flagging economy and the anxiety of this election cycle have caused her to start biting her nails for the first time since she was in college.
If you have the time, after you cast your vote, maybe the best thing you can do for yourself is to decompress. With your vote cast, you’ve done what you can do for now; so let your thoughts of the election go for a while. Take the dog for a walk at Pratt, and let yourself breathe and enjoy the remnants of the beautiful fall foliage - or go to the ‘Y’ and loosen up with some exercise.
My friend and I have been making rueful jokes that if our candidate doesn’t win, we’ll have to move to New Zealand or Canada; and we’ve had animated discussions about their relative merits as places to live. We enjoy the drama of our conversation because it underscores how strongly we feel, not that we mean a word of it.
The U.S. and the world will be altered by the election’s outcome, but the truth is whatever happens November 4th, our local lives will go on pretty much as usual. At our house, Larry will still leave for Boston early each morning; and I will still be seeing to it that the cats are fed. Each of us will celebrate or mourn as our conscience dictates, and then we will go back to living.
No matter who wins the election, the next four years will still be very tough. The world economy is still historically weak, and it’s unclear what will fix it. There will still be homeless needing shelter, hungry needing food and violence needing to be stopped.
No election is the total solution or dissolution of life in our nation. Let us remember that the quality of our lives day to day will still be determined largely by our kindness to one another.
See you in church!
Tricia
NOVEMBER DUES DRIVE
November
is dues drive month. The $75 you pay towards annual membership in our
denomination helps keep our faith a healthy and vibrant force for love, justice
and spiritual growth in the world.
Today when the world is so troubled, it is more important than ever to keep the liberal religious voice of Unitarian Universalism healthy and vital. So please pay your dues today. Write your check to FUUSM - clearly mark it DUES in the memo line. You may drop it in the plate or mail it in. If dues are a hardship, please call or drop a note to Tricia and the church will pay for you.
JOTTINGS FROM JANET
Here
we are in fall…..the season that causes many people, myself included, to feel
like I can take on multiple tasks with ease. Perhaps this feeling is Mother
Nature’s way of helping us to prepare for the coming winter.
We certainly
have already had multiple things happening at church. The Team Lexie Walk, new
baby Eva, the Lakeville Arts Festival, and our first auction. Our committees
and discussion groups are meeting again, and our RE and music programs have not
missed a beat. All of this activity takes many hands. If you are unsure of how
to add yourself into the mix, please let me know. You are needed to help keep
our church a functioning, vibrant place.
For those of
you whose joy of fall is diminished by the thought of the coming winter, I share
this quote by George Santayanna…. “To be interested in the changing seasons is
a happier state of mind than to be hopelessly in love with
spring.” - Janet Walkden, President
GOING GREEN, REDUCING OUR CARBON FOOTPRINT,
HEATING THE CHURCH THIS YEAR
In thinking about the upcoming heating season for our church, the Parish Committee is asking committees and members to rethink their winter meeting times. Some ideas are:
· Work with other committees on meeting times and space so we are not heating for one committee for an hour meeting.
· For small groups, meet at someone’s home during the winter.
· Have your meeting on a Sunday after coffee hour. Maybe make it a potluck lunch meeting. You might get some new members.
The Building Committee will be working with Valarie setting and monitoring the heat when the church is not in use and making sure Sunday service is comfortable for all. We are going to set the temperature to 55 degrees when the church spaces are not in use. Please keep in mind the heat will have to run for at least a few hours before your meeting to warm up the church for your committee. Rentals from November to March will be asked to pay a heating fee of $25 plus $4.50 per hour.
-
P.C. and Building Committee
A SUCCESSFUL FUNDRAISER!
On October 4 our church hosted a fundraiser luncheon at the Lakeville Arts Council Fall Festival in the center of Lakeville. This was a first time venture for our church; and many, many of you helped out with food, supplies, and labor. Thanks to you and beautiful weather, we raised $1,612 - $1,278 in food and $334 from JR's popcorn stand. In addition to all the generous donations from so many of you, Equal Exchange donated freshly brewed coffee and all the “fixins'.” Gala and McIntosh apples came from Red Tomato. Happily, we came out just about exactly right in most of the food we sold. Every last drop of Cheryl and Rose's delicious kale soup was consumed. We think the yummy smell of the warming soup brought many people through the doors. Thank you to all of you who helped and to those who attended the festival - this was a successful venture from a financial, community and fun-factor viewpoint. Thanks to the Lakeville Festival Committee who invited us to join them this year. We had fun.
- Cheryl MacQueen, Barbara Bancroft, Cindy Benard
Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. – Marianne Williamson
The world’s religious traditions honor humility, and with good reason. When people value themselves above others, they are alienated from fellow human beings and from the basic goodness of human nature. Self-deprecation can have the same result. But humility is not self-deprecation: it is authentic recognition of both limitations and gifts. The story is told of a rabbi who kept two verses from the Torah with him, one in each pocket. On the days when life did not seem worth living, the rabbi reached into one pocket and read the verse that said: “For my sake, the world was created!” On the days when he felt puffed up with pride, he reached into the other pocket and read: “I am but dust and ashes.” It is important to keep both of these statements in mind. Both are true. In what sense, then, are we powerful beyond measure?
At the heart of Creation is the spirit of divine play, expressed in the Sanskrit word lila – which also means love. The Genesis story tells us that humanity has been created in God’s image. We partake of the divine nature, which is love and creative power.
There is a secret door that leads into the central place, where the Creator of life and the God of the human heart are one in the same. – Howard Thurman
This secret door is the human capacity for imagination. It spans the gap between what we think we know, and what the heart is telling us; between the limited perspective of the ego, and the limitless horizon of possibility. We evoke this capacity through our spiritual practices in all their diversity: art, contemplation, prayer, and working for change. Creative imagination operates at the edge of the intellect and conscious control: it is open to collaboration with the unknown.
As there is no screen or ceiling between our heads and the infinite heavens, so there is no bar or wall in the soul where we, the effect cease, and God, the cause, begins.
– Ralph Waldo Emerson
There is an element of risk in the cultivation of vision: God may speak through us. We may be irrevocably changed. We may be led to places we never expected to go. We may accept the opportunity to change the world around us, and the responsibility to use this gift.
– Bruce Taylor, Ministerial Intern
CRANBERRY CLUSTER
On Wednesday, November 12, at 6:30 p.m., we will journey to the First Parish Church in Duxbury ($7 per person). An audio-visual presentation by Ben Cowie-Haskell will follow dinner. The presentation will focus on protecting our planet and ourselves: “Changing The Dream.”
Reservations may be made by contacting Bud Soule (508-947-1918). He must call in a Middleboro total by Thursday, November 6. We will pool our rides and plan to leave the church around 6:00 p.m. - Bud Soule
RELIGIOUS
EDUCATION PROGRAM
Sixty years ago this year, the countries of the world made some promises about basic rights they thought everyone should have - rights such as everyone is born free, everyone is equal in dignity, and everyone has a right to peace. They called these promises the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. This month the children will be learning about some of these rights and what the Unitarian Universalist Service Committee does to help people around the world support human rights. The children will be distributing Guest At Your Table boxes at the Thanksgiving Intergenerational Service on November 23.
Coming In
December!
Save the date! The RE Christmas party and tree decorating will be on Saturday, December 6, from 2:00 to 5:00 p.m. We will be making ornaments and then decorating the tree with them. Laura Stevens
JUNIOR YOUTH GROUP NEWS
Our
Youth Group kids are busy. They are getting to know each other better. They have
been rewriting the covenant of “rules to live by” for the group, planning an
upcoming service project trip to the Shaw Home in December, and looking ahead to
fun trips like the roller skating party they are anticipating in January. They
are also sharing their deeper thoughts on such topics as forgiveness, friendship
and gratitude. The energy, creativity, zaniness, introspective-thinking,
kindness and spirituality of these kids is wonderful!
We are happy to announce that Larry Tummino will be assisting with our group. Welcome, Larry!
- Cindy Benard
The Atkins Family is looking for a home for their dog, Sunshine. Sunshine is an 8-year-old female bulldog. She is housebroken, loves people, doesn’t jump, needs attention, and she is great with other dogs and cats. See Tricia.
MOVIE NIGHT
Movie Night will be held once again on Saturday, November 8, at 4:00 p.m. at the Flagship Cinema in Wareham. There will be a light supper after at Annie McLaughlin’s home. Please call Annie at 508-763-9008 or email her at anmcl@vtrocket.com by Friday night, November 7, to let her know if you can make it.
- Annie McLaughlin
ADULT SQUARE DANCING
Sundays, November 9 & 23 at 6:30 p.m. Masonic Hall, Bridgewater
We continue to dance to caller Bob Butler and the Cupid Squares at the Masonic Hall in Bridgewater. Bob has introduced us to some new calls this fall: Recycle, Spin The Top, Tag The Line, Pass The Ocean, Eight Chain Four, etc. We dance for about an hour and a half to two hours as beginners and then join the Cupid Squares to see what we can remember. It’s always a lot of fun and good exercise with a break taken for refreshments and conversation. - Bud Soule
CUUPS
One way to learn more about Paganism is to write a ritual for a holiday or other event. This is a rewarding but sometimes overwhelming task. This month’s CUUPs meeting will be an educational meeting on writing Pagan rituals. There will be a short presentation followed by a discussion. Please join us on Monday, November 17, at 7:00 p.m. - Laura Stevens
GREETERS
November 2: Carole LeBlanc and Kate Corbett
November 9: Marc and Cheryl MacQueen
November 16: Janet Walkden and Adrienne Williams
November 23: Jim Norris and Tom Sypek
November 30: Andrea and Ed Priest
BIBLE
STUDY
Care to join?
The Bible study, which ran from February of last year until June, is starting back up after the summer break – so this is a great time to join! This year the Bible study will meet twice a month - on the first and third Tuesdays, from 7 :00 – 9:00 p.m. (PLEASE NOTE: Our next class, because it is election night, November 4, will meet from 6:00 - 8:00 p.m.)
The group uses The Daily Message by Eugene Peterson, a “user-friendly” contemporary Bible that brings the characters and plot of Biblical stories alive. Each week the first hour begins with a reaction to the reading (about 5 pages a night). That conversation is followed by a short session of lectio divina, or divine reading. In the second part of the class, after a break, we listen to an audio or watch a DVD.
The Daily Message, which can be purchased online for about $20, is structured so that, by devoting ten minutes a day, the entire Bible will be read in one year. There will be a sign-up sheet on the Parlor Table. See Tricia Tummino, Brian Sullivan or Jim Noyes if you have questions.
- Tricia Tummino
DON’T FORGET!
Turn your clocks back one hour Saturday night, November 1!