Calendar
Next Issue: September 23
Deadline: 3pm September 18
Wednesday, September 17
12:30pm Alliance boat trip.
(Meet in parking lot to carpool
to Concord.)
7:30pm Women's Gr. Lib.
Thursday, September 18
6:45pm Nova Choir. Sanct.
7:30pm Sci & Spirituality. CR.
7:30pm SGM. Library.
7:30pm Youth Cte. cl5.
8:00pm Knitting Circle. cl4.
Friday, September 19
7:30pm Coffeehouse. PH.
Sunday, September 21
9:25am Sr. Choir. Parish Hall.
12:30pm COA. Library.
12:30pm Summer's Pilgrimages.
Parlor.
4:00pm Men's Group. Libray.
6/7pm YAC/YG. Parlor/UH.
Monday, September 22
6:30pm Jr; 7 Chan; 7:45 Youth.
7:00pm SAC. cl5.
7:30pm Min. Programs. CR.
8:00pm Meditation. Library.
Tuesday, September 23
7:30pm Worship Cte. CR.
Wednesday, September 24
7:30pm FCBook Gr. Library.
Looking Ahead
Sept 26: Women's Potluck
Link to church calendar |
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This Sunday
Music: September 21, 2014
Prelude: Dedication
-Richard Blake (contemp.)
Alfa Joy Radford, organ
Offertory Solo: Ave Maria
-Pietro Mascagni (1863-1945)
Melanie Bacaling, soprano
9:00 Postlude:
Mary Beekman, organ
11:00 Sr. Choir: Salmo 150
(Psalm 150)
-Ernani Aguiar (b. 1949) Brazil
11:00 Postlude: Count On Me
Words & Music by Heather Quay and Jon Svetkey
Heather Quay & Jon Svetkey, Folksingers
The flowers this Sunday are given by Laurie Graham in loving memory of her mother, Nancyann. In gratitude for her caring, nurturing, "mothering" of all those she met and appreciation for all she contributed to our family UU congregation in Arlington...Virginia.
Ushers: Members of the New Connections Ministry
Welcome & Announcements:
Sara Oaklander & Catherine Claypoole |
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SAVE THE DATE!
Men's Fall Potluck Supper
Fri, Oct 3, 7pm, Upper Hall
Our annual gathering in the fall to re-connect with old friends and make new ones. All First Church men are welcome to attend and bring a dish (appetizer, main course, salad or dessert) AND a beverage to share. RSVP to Jim Staton at jstaton@uubelmont.org. |
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Universalism - There Is No Hell
Doris Hunter & Edwin Taylor
Sun, Oct 5, 12:30-2pm, Lib
We are Unitarian Universalists. Traditionally Universalists believe that everyone is saved, because God has the time, the power, and the loving spirit. So what is the moral demand placed on us when we come from a tradition that believes love is more powerful than hate? Is that why we are Unitarian Universalists? |
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Social Action Corner
ACTION IS OUR PRAYER |
Grow Clinic! Grow Clinic!
More than 200 children each year benefit from the Grow Clinic services; 90% of those fully recover; average treatment time is 19 months. "Many of these children would not be alive today were it not for the Grow Clinic." (The Boston Globe) FOOD: ONE OF THE MOST IMPORTANT MEDICINES
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Volunteer Opportunities at the Urban Ministry
The UUUM is currently looking for volunteer RYP tutors who would be able to tutor a teenager one day a week from 4-6pm. We have an especially high need in September for homework help. Come check us out! Even if you can only drop by a time or two.
We are also looking for a volunteer to design and implement a Resume Writing Workshop with our high school students. This would be a limited commitment: one hour on Nov 18 and one hour on Nov 25 from 6:30-7:30pm.
Renewal House: We are currently recruiting English as a Learning Language (ELL) tutors to work with our group of women who have transitioned out of our Renewal House shelter. Volunteers sign up for one morning a week, either Monday or Wednesday from 10am-12pm.
If you are interested in any of these rewarding opportunities, please contact Rebecca Hinds, 617.318.6010 x214 or rhinds@uuum.org.
Jericho Road Roxbury at the UUUM is currently in need of a volunteer who knows QuickBooks, and we are always building our pool of volunteer professionals. If you have skills to share, please contact the program director, Sandy Martin, smartin@uuum.org.
Urban Ministry Interfaith Open House - Sunday, Sept 24, 2-4:30pm
Come learn what's happening at the oldest place of worship in Roxbury and at one of the newest! We will start at the First Church in Roxbury, founded in 1632. Explore the 1804 meetinghouse, climb up to the steeple for a stunning view of downtown Boston, ring the Paul Revere bell, and participate in a scavenger hunt to learn the history of this storied congregation. Learn, too, about the many ways in which the UU Urban Ministry, stewards of the First Church, puts our faith into action through direct service, education and outreach to Roxbury and surrounding communities.
We will then walk down the hill to tour the Islamic Society of Boston Cultural Center, the largest mosque in New England and a dynamic cultural center. Our tour guide will speak to the architectural and spiritual features of the Center. We will also learn about Islam and the Boston Muslim community, and have an opportunity to discuss how we can all foster interfaith dialogue. Please join us! For more info, email openhouse@uuum.org.
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The Unitarian Newsletter
Submission Guidelines
Please submit articles for the newsletter to Susan Street in the following format:
- Times New Roman font, 10 point.
- jpeg for photos
- pdf for attached documents
- sample@uubelmont.org for e-mails.
- avoid phone numbers unless their owners don't mind them being published on the FCB website.
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First Church Office
:: 617-484-1054 |
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5 Things To Know This Week
- Second Friday Coffeehouse, September 19
- First Church Book Group, September 24
- Women's Fall Potluck Supper, September 26
- "Eating Our Values" at The Community Table, September 30
- Youth Group Babysitting Fundraiser
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Sunday, September 21
Money: The Spiritual Aspect
Rev. David M. Bryce
9:00 & 11:00 Church Service
Childcare for infants and young children
(For weather-related Service and Children RE class cancellations, please check 617.484.1054 x250.)
Some who know me are aware of the fact that I do not like talking about money.
I suspect some of you share that feeling.
But we ought to talk about it, and ought to do so regularly.
So here are some thoughts I have been having about money and, more importantly, how money and spirituality intersect.
** Next Sunday, September 28 **
Rev. David M. Bryce preaching
Sermons in text and audio format can be found at uubelmont.org/sermons
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Reflections from Rev. David Bryce, Senior Minister
Changes
Change comes in many forms.
Sometimes, after implementing change, it becomes evident that it was not really a great idea-or not the right time for the great idea.
This year we will not have 9 am services on the Music Service Sundays (December 14 or March 29).
I like consistency, and over the past few years I have tried to ensure that there are two services on each of our "regular" Sundays between September and June. That included having a service last year and the year before prior to the Music Service. These were held in the Parish Hall.
While I do believe this is a good idea, we also have to weigh the "costs" of time and energy put into having such a service.
After consulting with the Worship Committee last spring, we agreed that the efforts and energy of the minister were better spent elsewhere.
So, for now, those services have been eliminated.
It is good to be open to change in all areas of life, even when that "change" is sometimes returning to what once was.
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Music Notes from Alfa Radford
ATTENTION YOUTH & CHILDREN'S CHOIRS!
MONDAYS: Same sched every Mon (not published henceforth)
6:30-7:00pm-Jr Choir (K-Gr4) JR. CHOIR Groups will be formed soon!
7:00-8:30pm-Upper Cast (Gr5-up) (NOTE:Mon reh's are shorter after play.)
CHOIR PARENTS: Please mail or bring play Registr Fees & Forms!
BYE BYE BIRDIE (BBB) Rehearsals for Chancel & Youth Choirs (Gr 5-up) Chancel/Youth Choirs rehearse together, and are called UPPER CAST.
UPPER CAST SCHEDULE: (Gr 5-up)
MONDAYS: 7:00-8:30 (same every Monday)
THURSDAYS: "Time Window" 3-6:30 (i.e. Reh's will start/end at various times)
SUNDAYS: "Time Window" 3-6:30 (i.e. Reh's will start/end at various times)
Watch your Email AND The Unitarian newsletter.
Weekly Sched also posted on Parish Hall door (Parish Hall is the room with the Stage).
NOTE to UPPER CAST: Detailed Sched will be sent, weekly, via EMAIL to each family.
SNACKS Thursdays & Sundays:Thespians should bring a non-messy snack.We'll provide water.
Questions? Contact Alfa at 781-646-2123 or alfajoy@uubelmont.org.
NOTE to Choir Families: BYE BYE BIRDIE is our only Fall project, so all reh's thru Nov 9, pertain to it. After that, Choirs rehearse Holiday music, and those who missed "BB BIRDIE" will re-join the ChoirsJ
Holiday Calendar Items: All Youth/Children's Choirs sing in church Services Dec 21 & 24.
Echoing joyful melodies, ALFA
REGISTRATION for YOUTH & CHILDREN'S CHOIRS:
ONLINE Registration is open for all Youth & Children's Choirs and for the Fall musical, Bye Bye Birdie. Go to our church website, www.uubelmont.org to find the link. OR you may send in the blue paper form contained in the postal mailing.
IMPORTANT: Last year's choristers also need to register.
Questions? Call or email Alfa Radford 781.646.2123 / ALFAJOY@uubelmont.org. |
 Babysitting Fundraiser
Due to popular demand--3 dates this year!
Sat, Nov 15 Sat, Dec 6 Sat, Mar 14
Attention parents! The Youth Group is organizing a babysitting fundraiser. If you sign-up, 2 members of the YG will come to your house at 6pm to care for your children. 2-6 hours: you choose! $15/hr. Proceeds benefit the Youth Group's Biennial Service-Learning Trip. This year the YG is headed to the Navajo Nation in Arizona!
Sign-up in the RE wing after church services in September or contact Julie Ennis, Director of Youth Programs, at jennis@uubelmont.org. |
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Caring Connection
The Caring Connection is a group of Church members and friends who provide support to members of our community who find themselves in some difficulty and need short-term help. Please let us know if you could use some assistance, or know of someone who would benefit from our support. You may fill out a Caring Connection card, available in the hymnal holders and drop it in the collection basket, or contact Laurie Graham at caring@uubelmont.org or Susan at the Church, 617.484.1054 x201. |
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Among Us
Diane Lopez invites you to join her and her children, Arturo and Ayla, in a remembrance and celebration of the life of Ruben Casanova, beloved husband and father, on September 27, 2014 at The First Church in Belmont. The service will begin in the Sanctuary at 2pm and a reception will follow in the Upper Hall. |
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Lay Pastoral Care Team
As members of the lay pastoral care team we are called to be present with you, members and friends, when you wish a compassionate listening ear during times of transition and stress whatever form it might take. We support those who are adjusting to change, loss, illness or death. We share in moments of celebration and happiness. We reach out to those who are unable to get out and who would like a visit. We share in situations that require a special touch of human kindness and an open ear. Please contact us if we might be of help or comfort. We count on the congregation to keep us in touch with pastoral needs of our community. - Janet Amphlett, Devon Beckett, Nancy Davis, Steve Saar, Martha Spaulding, and Tom Neel |
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Appreciation for Summer Services
The Worship Committee would like to thank all the people who made it possible for us to continue lay-led services throughout the summer in the absence of our professional staff. Ariane Frank, chair of the Worship Committee, was the leader of the summer services program and organized an inspired group of worship leaders including: Tony Smith, Siobhan O'Neill and Karsten Küppenbender, Ann and Will Cordis, Valentin Frank, Richard Waring, Edwin Taylor, Tom Neel, John Kolterman, Bruce Dame, Laurie Carter Noble, Eva Patalas, Patricia Garcia, Doug Burden and Judy Ashway. These leaders were assisted by Jackie James, Louise Bray, Edwin Taylor, Jenni Edgerton, Carolyn Fedigan and Ariane Frank; musicians Jackie James, Rowan Wolf, Margaret Scharff, Vickie Livermore Larry Melnick and Charlie Smith; tech support Stefan Frank, Roger Miller, and Ed Yee; childcare providers Bennett Vogt, Alex Griffin, Elisabeth Deese, and Julius Frank and our sexton extraordinaire, Luis Carrion. Thank you one and all for providing a variety of meaningful worship experiences and helping us welcome visitors and members of our community during the delightful New England summer months. We are truly blessed to have so many people willing to contribute to this very worthy cause. |
Did You Know ... ?
... our Second Friday Coffeehouse is greater Boston's first and longest-running (entering our 30th season!) all-benefit coffeehouse?
... our wonderful church family purchased fifty-eight (58!) Season Tickets last year to insure support of our worthy beneficiaries?
... and TOGETHER we can do it again (60 or more?) as we celebrate and honor being a model program for social action outreach!
Please join your friends and renew or begin your support! Bring your checkbook or cash to coffee hour after church, buy at the door September 19 or October 17, or send your check for $99 (nearly a 50% discount) made out to First Church in Belmont (memo line marked Coffeehouse) to First Church in Belmont UU, P.O. Box 113, Belmont, MA 02478. Result? Admission (for two!) to nine great (actually fabulous and extraordinary!) shows, starting September 19, support for ten important beneficiaries, and the deep personal satisfaction of giving significant help to those who truly need it!
Heartfelt thanks from your Second Friday Coffeehouse Committee: Richard Curzi, Lauraine Dalton, Kathy Dunlap, Patricia Garcia (on active leave), Monte Grob, Jim Hall, Roger Miller, Anne Selman, Lanier Smythe, Jim Staton, Jim Sugarman, and Deborah Youngman! (Click here for complete season details.)
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CLIP OR PRINT AND SAVE!
Second Friday Coffeehouse schedule for 2014-2015:
SEPT 19 (3rd Fri) JAN 2 (1st Fri) APR 10
OCT 17 (3rd Fri) FEB 13 MAY 8
NOV 21 (3rd Fri) MAR 13 JUNE 5 (1st Fri)
See www.uubelmont.org for more information on performers and beneficiaries! |
KNITTING CIRCLE
Nancy Davis and Eva Patalas - Thur, Sept 18, 8-9:30pm, cl4 Come join us in the fun and fellowship of knitting with a genial group. Projects could include knitting for non-profit organizations such as Caps for Kids, making small gifts for the Holiday Fair or working on personal projects. Everyone is welcome and no commitment is necessary. Contact Eva with any questions. |
SCIENCE AND SPIRITUALITY
Ken Bernstein and Edwin Taylor - Thur, Sept 18, 7:30pm, CR
Edwin Taylor will lead a discussion on Jim Holt 's book Why does the World Exist? This must be the basic existential question. As Leibnitz phrased it: "Why is there something rather than nothing?" Two obvious alternative answers: (1) God made the Universe from nothing, or (2) If nothing existed, this question would not be asked. A brief 25 pages of reading: John Updike 's take on the question, a meditation on our inevitable "Return to Nothingness," and an evening stroll across a Paris bridge. For the reading, go to eftaylor.com/sands and download the file WhyWorldExist.pdf |
SECOND FRIDAY COFFEEHOUSE
The Second Friday Coffeehouse is kicking off its 30th season, September 19 at 7:30, with a BANG! Performing are the BluesRockers with coffeehouse soundman Jim Sugarman. Their high energy jams had people dancing in the aisles last year, and they promise no let up this year. Opening is PJ Rogue with Lorenzo Fine on bass. PJ first played the coffeehouse 20 years ago and we are thrilled to listen to his songs spanning folk, pop, jazz, and other styles. This month's featured beneficiary is the Barton Center for Diabetes Education which provides support, camp, and family program of children and young adults stricken with diabetes. Click here to see the flyer! |
"SUMMER'S PILGRIMAGES"
Catherine Stalberg - Sunday, Sept 21, 12:30pm, Parlor
When David Bryce told us in June, "Your summer assignment is to go on a pilgrimage," did any of you take him up on it? If so, what did you do? Was it physical, did you travel? Was it emotional/mental/spiritual, perhaps with no traveling? Has your pilgrimage ended, and if so how? Was it in any way a UU pilgrimage? What did you learn from it? Join Catherine Stalberg in sharing your summer stories. Those who wish to listen only are welcome too. Refreshments provided. |
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FIRST CHURCH MEN'S GROUP
Will Cordis and Joe Weiss - Sun, Sept 21, 4-5:30pm, Library
Welcome to all First Church men who are interested in meeting and getting to know others to share experiences, issues, and joys from the heart on a regular basis. The group meets on the first and third Sundays of each month with a check-in and topic for dialog. This month we will examine, among other emergent topics "What do men need, and many times do not get, in intimate relationships?" If you are interested but cannot attend this meeting, contact either Will Cordis wcordis@uubelmont.org or Joe Weiss jweiss@uubelmont.org. |
FIRST CHURCH BOOK GROUP
The Book Group will meet on Wednesday, September 24, at 7:30pm in The First Church Library to discuss Brooklyn by Colm Toíbín. In its review of Brooklyn, The New Yorker said: Tóibín's brief novel, following his bravura rendering of the life of Henry James in "The Master," seems modest at first. A diligent young woman with few opportunities in nineteen-fifties Ireland is packed off by her family to Brooklyn . . . Tóibín creates a narrative of remarkable power, writing with a spareness and intensity that give the minutest shades of feeling immense emotional impact. Seen through his protagonist's cautious eyes, even hackneyed tropes of Brooklyn life, such as trips to Ebbets Field and Coney Island, take on a subtle strangeness. Purging the immigrant novel of all swagger and sentimentality, Tóibín leaves us with a renewed understanding that to emigrate is to become a foreigner in two places at once.
The Book Group is always open to new members and does not require a continuing commitment. Please contact Anne Stuart at astuart@uubelmont.org to confirm attendance if you are interested in participating.
Looking ahead: On October 22, the Book Group will discuss The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America's Great Migration by Isabel Wilkerson. |
WOMEN'S FALL POTLUCK SUPPER
Friday, Sept 26, 7pm, Upper Hall
A warm welcome to all First Church women and friends who would like to join us to share a meal together. This is a true potluck so bring whatever you like to eat and a beverage to drink. This is a wonderful opportunity to see old friends and make new ones and find out what is happening within our community. RSVP's to landerson@uubelmont.org so we'll know how many places to set. |
"EATING OUR VALUES" at THE COMMUNITY TABLE
Rachel Greenberger - Tuesday, Sept 30, 7:30pm, Library
Why do we care so much about the food we eat and serve? Community Table is a two-year-old social innovation developed by Food Sol at Babson College (www.foodsol.org) for sparking relevant and actionable community interactions on important topics connected to food. The theme of our Community Table will be "Eating Our Values" and UU member Martha Spaulding's daughter, Rachel Greenberger, Director of Food Sol, will facilitate. Limited to 25 people. To register contact landerson@uubelmont.org.
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THE UNITARIAN
Our primary method of distribution for the Unitarian is e-mail. If you are not currently receiving the Unitarian by e-mail, please provide Susan Street ( sstreet@uubelmont.org) with your current e-mail address. The newsletter is also posted each week on the First Church website at uubelmont.org. Click on the Newsletter button just under the banner at the top of the home page.
First Class Mail - Some First Church members and friends may prefer a printed copy of the Unitarian, which we will send via first-class mail, and ask for a small donation of $20 per year to offset first-class mailing costs. The church will cover the mailing costs for those who indicate that this presents a financial burden.
To receive the Unitarian via first-class mail, please fill out the form below and mail to The First Church in Belmont, P. O. Box 113, Belmont, MA 02478. Checks should be made out to The First Church in Belmont.
Please note that you may receive both electronic and mailed versions of the Unitarian simply by checking more than one of the boxes below.
*** Clip and Mail ***
___ I would like to receive the Unitarian via first-class mail. Enclosed is my donation of $20 to cover mailing costs.
___ I would like to receive the Unitarian via first-class mail. This presents a financial burden, so please cover the costs from church operating funds.
___ I would like to receive the Unitarian via email. My email address is _____________________________ (or simply email Susan Street, sstreet@uubelmont.org). |
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