The Steeple Biweekly

This year I will not be attending UUA General Assembly at the end of June, as I normally do. However, I will be returning to Transylvania for a week in July (along with our Administrator, John Mercer, and our member Max Russell) to continue the work on our guest house project at our Partner Church in Ujszekely. John and I will also be traveling together to Germany after we leave Transylvania to spend several days with friends in Freiburg, where I spent a delightful few days last summer. Such journeys are a time of rest and renewal for me, and I look forward to the "plotless now" that they represent.

In early August, Sabrina and I will be heading down Maine to help celebrate her sister's 50th birthday. During much of the rest of the time I will be in town performing weddings and on call in case of emergency. Vicki or John (in the church office) will know how to reach me or my ministerial back-up.

In the meantime, I wish you gentle summer breezes along the way! I hope that you all have a wonderful summer, and I look forward to seeing you either at the Yankee Homecoming service (August 1) or in the fall.

Steeple Lighting - The steeple lighting this week is donated by Carol Young, who says, "Thank you for being there."

Chalice Lighters - Richard and Josef Nocera

Special Coffee Hour - The Heifer Hoo-Ha. Following the service, as part of the Social Action program for Religious Education, we will be holding a Heifer Hoo-ha in the Lower Meetinghouse and new Patio, featuring international foods and crafts by our Young Church children and families. Funds raised will help purchase a cow and other farm animals for Bura, Newburyport's sister village in Kenya, through the Heifer Project in conjunction with other local churches. Vicki Dyer will serve coffee.

• Sunday, August 1 - Yankee Homecoming Service
• Sunday September 12 - Resumption of regular worship, with our now traditional flower procession.
• Sunday, September 19 - Resumption of Young Church classes and choirs

The week of July 11 by Elizabeth Gillette in memory of her parents, Rachael and Russell W. Gillette.

The week of July 18 by Betty Swanson.

Make sure that the Social Action Committee hears your voice when selecting charities for next year's loose plate donations. For the last two Sundays, Social Action has collected suggestions of which charities to donate to and will be doing so for one more Sunday, June 20. You may also make your choice by e-mailing your suggestions to the church administrator at frsuu@netway.com.

We are joining a growing list of Unitarian Universalist congregations around the country that have adopted this charitable practice, including the nearest UU church north of us, South Church in Portsmouth. Its co-minister Will Saunders reports that half of each Sunday's loose plate has been given to charities for the last four months-and that giving, spurred by members' charitable impulses, has doubled. This means the church treasury is keeping almost exactly the same amount as it did in the corresponding month a year earlier. Some churches report even greater increases in cash giving. Pledge checks and cash payments in pledge envelopes, as always, will go entirely to the FRS budget.

The FRS Social Action Committee expects several benefits, in addition to the obvious fact that our dollars will be doing good in the world:

• Increasing FRS's connections to the community as an institution.
• Providing busy FRS members and friends with an opportunity to live out UU values within their worship experience.
• Emphasizing the religious nature of generosity and acting to affirm the inherent worth and dignity of every person.

We are also looking for Volunteers to sign up for two- to three-hour hour shifts to set up, sell and clean up. This is going to be GREAT FUN so JOIN US!

Get in touch with Ann Chase (a.chase@verizon.net) or Mindy Sheehy (mindysheehy@hotmail.com) to volunteer or to ask questions. Also, you may sign up at coffee hour June 20th.

There are throw pillows of various sizes which could use covers. The intention is to cover the existing pillows with material that can be easily removed, and washed on a periodic basis. If there is anyone interested in making these covers during the summer months, please contact Cecilia Healy for measurements, etc. at caphealy@comcast.net.

Peter Litwin and Patrice O'Brien: Peter is originally from Long Island and I hail from the great coastal town of South Weymouth, MA. We live in Amesbury with our daughter Lucy (the first UU child in either family!) and our dog, Sammy; it is unclear what Sammy's denomination is since we adopted her. I came from a Catholic upbringing and Peter from an ultra-reform Jewish family. We decided that we didn't quite fit our religions and sought to find a church that reflected our liberal views and accepted and respected both our backgrounds, a church where it was ok to question things. Lucy's recent dedication happily completed our family's commitment to UU. Peter is a clinical psychologist in Andover; I am a probation officer in Boston.

Josie Seymour: I grew up in a Quaker home in a small college town in Pennsylvania. Participating in Friends Family Work Camps and volunteering to work for the American Friends Service Committee in Norway and Switzerland were important experiences in my life. Silence and poetry define spirituality for me. I was married in the Friends Meeting House where my mother, sister, and cousin were also married. My husband and I taught school in Philadelphia before moving to North Haven, Maine to teach. Our two children grew up in Maine and both have moved back there after adventures in California and elsewhere.

It was in Brunswick, Maine where we first attended a Unitarian church, and where we became members about twenty-five years ago. We were impressed by the religious education offered, the Reverberations during Sunday worship, and intergenerational activities like picnics, Easter breakfasts, and sledding parties.

From 1995 until the winter of 2001, 1 attended Unitarian services in Rhode Island, Cambridge, and Nantucket. Once I found the First Religious Society in Newburyport, I made a very quick decision to move here. I have participated in evening groups led by Harold and Frank Clarkson, Spiritual Autobiography led by Harold and Julie, and attended Circle Dinners. The opportunity to travel to Transylvania with Harold and other members of this community last summer was much more than I expected! We are hopeful that the family with whom Peg Nicole and I stayed will be able to visit here soon. I also have visions of teaching English in Romania some day.

 

Nancy Colby: I grew up in Newburyport, and went to catholic school. I came to FRS after my divorce, when I began questioning things in my life that just were not working. I was church shopping, and I found that the UU experience fit with my new way of looking at things. I have two grown sons, and two beautiful grandchildren, who live here as well. I work as a real estate broker, and I live in the South End. I'm part of the group that will be starting a shared ministry group in the fall.

This fall, the FRS, like many UU churches, will start forming Shared Ministry Groups (SMG) that will provide an opportunity for people in our congregation to address these issues. The groups are not personal support groups, therapy groups or adult education offerings. Instead, they are opportunities to explore life's big questions, questions of ultimate meaning in a small group format where trust and respect has been established.

An SMG steering committee has been meeting this spring to lay out the groundwork for starting our Shared Ministry Groups program. Each group will have eight participants who meet regularly and follow a pre-defined format. Meetings will begin with opening words, and then there is a time for personal sharing and check-in. Next is a discussion of a topic selected by Harold Babcock. The topics will address issues of spiritual importance such as issues covered in Harold's sermons, Stages of Faith, Forgiveness, Friendship, Heaven and Hell, and Living and Dying. Toward the end of the meeting, there will be an opportunity to express likes and wishes about the topic or any other part of the gathering, followed by a closing reading.

The SMG committee is enthusiastic about this new concept and encourages your participation! They will be available at coffee hour June 13th. If you have questions, any member of the committee will be pleased to answer them. The committee members are Alexandra Mezey, Rick Anderson, Linda Tulley, Allyson Lawless, Harold Babcock, Nancy Colby, and Peter Litwin. If you are interested in joining a group in the fall, please send Peter e-mail at pmlitwin@juno.com or sign up at the church office.

You are the reasons I continue to volunteer my time to accompany your beautiful young voices. I said it during the service, and I mean it ... you give me more than I give you. You inspire me. Thank you for the material gifts, but more importantly, thank you for sharing your talents and love of music with all of us.

I started this relationship with the youth of our church because I thought I could contribute to my own daughter's musical experience here. Many of you know that I started accompanying the (then only one) choir 10 years ago. I'm so very happy to still be involved, even after Whitney's involvement ended.

Keep smiling. Keep caring for each other. Keep those hugs coming. And keep singing! You are absolutely awesome.

• Accepted the reports of the standing [constitutionally mandated] committees as written

• Approved the budget as presented, after much discussion, especially of the one-year-only reduction in retirement benefit for staff members from 14% to 12% of salary

• Accepted the recommendations of the Nominating Committee, without discussion

• Approved the recommendation of the Social Action Committee to commit one-third of the loose plate [contributions not traceable to an individual] each Sunday to a selected local charity, a different charity being chosen each month

• Approved a bylaw change allowing a member to serve on the Nominating Committee for two consecutive years

• Accepted the recommendation of the Parish Committee to remove from membership in the FRS forty members who had been inactive for many years.

Mentors and Mentees
Pat and Alison	Justin and Rick
Elysia and Leanna	Jack and Tom
Linda and Mackenzie	Zak and Michael
Pat and Meril