Steeple Lighting - The steeple lighting this week is donated by Ed Metcalf in loving memory of his wife, Beverly Ross Metcalf.

Chalice Lighters - Members of the Senior Youth Group.

Coffee - The Welcoming Congregation Committee.

The Current Events Forum invites members to join in a discussion at 9:30 a.m. The topic will be "Can a liberal be fiscally conservative?" Once again, the Current Events Forum invites conservative members of the Society to participate. Please join us for what will prove to be an interesting and educational discussion.

Flowers - The flowers for today's service are donated by Dorothy and Howard Fairweather in loving memory of Dorothy's mother, Emma Woodley.

Steeple Lighting - The steeple lighting this week is donated by John B. Fox in memory of the Rev. Thomas B. Fox, a former minister of the parish.

Chalice Lighters - Members of the Senior Youth Group.

I will collect questions on all subjects from all parishioners. I'll respond to as many of the questions as I can during the sermon time. Please fill in the box below for the Question Box Sermon and put it in the offering over the next two Sundays or drop it off at the church office. I'm even willing to take written questions on January 2, but won't promise I'll get to them all. Spontaneity is the goal!

Flowers - The flowers for today's service are donated by Marj Babcock to honor Harold and Sabrina's 26th wedding anniversary.

Steeple Lighting - The steeple lighting this week is donated by Susan Ricker and Bill Zarakas.

Coffee - Justin & David Turner.

Steeple Lighting - The steeple lighting this week is donated by Nancy Herbison-Evans to honor her beloved 92-year-old foster mother, Barbara Coots LaPlante.

All Ready for the Messiah Sing
Photo courtesy of Kathleen Langone

From the FRS Music Director: Many thanks to all who made the Messiah Sing a success: ushers, church decorators, bulletin makers, publicity projects, riser crew, and certainly not least - the singers!

I visited Eleanor Bailey several times in the past year before she died. She lived on Point Shore in Amesbury in the house where Len Johnson and Helen Bailey Johnson raised their children. She had help, but was able to live at home almost until the end.

During our visits, Mrs. Bailey told me about her family and about her round-the-world travels with her late husband, Edwin. She saw her family members regularly and spoke glowingly of their accomplishments.

Born Eleanor Sanborn, Mrs. Bailey had a long life filled with accomplishment, with duty, and with romance. She lost her first husband in World War II, but made a career of librarianship at the Amesbury High School, where she was known as Mrs. Penny. After her husband died, she lived with, and took care of, her parents. When Edwin Bailey asked Eleanor to marry him during this time, she turned him down as, in fact, she had done before her first marriage. Edwin's first wife had died, so when Eleanor turned him down again, he married another. Time passed, and when his second wife died, he asked Eleanor to marry him a third time. This time, she said, "Yes." Bert Steeves performed the ceremony.

Eleanor and Edwin Bailey traveled widely during their relatively short marriage. She was a longtime member of the Universalist Church in Amesbury, which she served as Clerk and as Treasurer. When the Universalist Church dissolved, she became a member of the First Religious Society. By leaving a bequest to the First Religious Society, she has helped this church after her death, as she had done so faithfully during her life.

Our hearts go out to Chris and Jean Snow on the death of Jean's mother, Elizabeth Barton Bailey, 80 years old, a Mayflower descendant.

David Breitman will play the Beethoven Appassionata and Schubert Impromtus on his fortepiano. Pianist and fortepianist David Breitman may be best-known for his collaboration with baritone Sanford Sylvan, spanning twenty-five years and including hundreds of concerts, as well as four CD's (two of which were nominated for Grammy awards), but his career has many other facets. One unusual project was a complete Beethoven piano sonata cycle shared among seven fortepianists. The brainchild of Malcolm Bilson, this series of eight concerts was held at New York's Merkin Hall In 1994 and led to a critically acclaimed recording. Since then, the seven performers have made two pilgrimages to Italy, reviving the series at the "Accademia Bartolomeo Cristofori" in Florence in 1999 and for the "Amid della Musica" in Palermo in 2002. Mr. Breitman received his early musical training in Montreal, then briefly turned away from music, earning a Bachelor's degree at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He continued his piano studies with Patricia Zander at the New England Conservatory, then pursued the specialized study of the fortepiano and eighteenth-century performance practice with Malcolm Bilson at Cornell University. Mr. Breitman now teaches at the Oberlin Conservatory, where he directs the Historical Performance program.

Curtis Rising grew up in the UU tradition. His interest sparked by a film on Alan Watts, Curtis began his study of Tibetan Buddhism in his first year of college. He has taken his Refuge, Boddhisattva and preliminary Vajrayana vows with the Venerable Ato Rinpoche. Curtis has worked as the Buddhist Staff Chaplain and is currently Interfaith Chaplain at Massachusetts General Hospital.

This three-part discussion will focus on the very foundation of all Buddhist teachings: the three marks of existence. These three marks are impermanence, egolessness and suffering. We will cover one mark per week and ground each mark in our daily lives, discussing how it pervades us and the world around us.

FRS Church History with Bert Steeves, three sessions, on Saturday mornings at 10:00, starts January 15

The course starts with Rev. Thomas Parker arriving from England by way of Ipswich, and continues with the founding of the first version of the FRS, the Third Parish of Newbury. You will compare Salvation Murray with Damnation Murray, and investigate our most famous minister, Thomas Wentworth Higginson. The course will conclude with the Ministries of Lawrence Hayward and Bertrand Steeves. Readings will be from the two-volume history of the FRSUU.

Bert Steeves was the minister of the First Religious Society from 1956 to 1994. He is well-versed in the history of our church.

Meditation with Chris Morton, six sessions, on Thursday evenings at 7:30, starts February 3. There will a charge of $50.00 for these six sessions.

• Hear an overview from UUPCC President Barbara K. Beach and Executive Director Cathy Cordes on developments in the partner church movement.
• Meet UUs from other partnered churches to share resources, plans and ideas.
• Talk with Denny Davidoff, former UUA Moderator and Chair of the Economic Fairness and Awareness Task Force. Give feedback on the draft recommendations regarding money matters and partnership.
• Meet Professor Richard Ford, Clark University, and experience firsthand tools that help communities assess and plan for community-driven development. Learn how you can shift the focus of partnership from a charity-driven model to a capacity-building, sustainable development model.

For registration information see our website. Please don't miss this opportunity! Register today as space is limited.

LOOSE PLATE
In January, one third of the Loose Plate will go to Women In Transition, a pre-release facility program which serves women offenders. Women in Transition, located in Salisbury, houses 24 women and provides services for 12 women who are on electronic monitoring status. The Goals of the Women in Transition program are to help women identify the reasons why they went to prison and identify solutions, as well as to help the women make a successful transition back to their communities by encouraging aftercare treatment. Our donation will help inmates purchase books and other personal items.

Thanks to everyone for contributing to the Loose Plate in November. We were able to send $503 to Pettengill House in Salisbury!!

And here's a letter from the YWCA:

Thank you for your generous contribution to the YWCA Greater Newburyport. We are moving forward into an exciting and challenging time in our efforts to achieve our two-fold mission of eliminating racism and empowering women. Your tax-deductible donation of $464.67 is an important part of that effort.

As a strong community partner, the YWCA of Greater Newburyport provides services which include safe, affordable housing, breast and cervical cancer screening and prevention education, health and recreation programs, financial fitness programs, leadership training, affordable child care, summer camp programs and much more.

Your contribution, and that of other caring individuals and businesses, allows us to continue to offer a variety of programs for thousands of individuals each year. Our ability to respond to the needs of women and their families in the Greater Newburyport area is directly dependent on your support. Once again, we thank you.

Sincerely, Arlene M. Santa Fe
Executive Director

• what membership in a UU church should mean;
• creating stronger leadership;
• building more successful stewardship initiatives; and
• why outreach and long-range planning go together hand in hand.

REGISTRATION: $350 per congregation. The fee includes admission for as many people as your church would like to send, morning and afternoon - refreshments, lunch, and a copy of The Almost Church: Redefining Unitarian Universalism for a New Era for each attendee.

The First Religious Society will be registering for this program. Alex Mezey came back from this past summer's General Assembly recommending that all members of the Parish Committee read The Almost Church, and they are doing so. Believing that Mr. Durall has interesting and useful ideas for the future operations of UU churches, the FRS Administrator has made the registration fee available from the administrative professional development budget. All interested members of the FRS are invited to attend and should call 978.465.0602 before January 15 to sign up.

Michael Durall is principal of the Commonwealth Consulting Group and the author of three books about congregational life: Creating Congregations of Generous People, Beyond the Collection Plate, and The Almost Church.

If you missed an opportunity to sign-up in the fall, please consider joining us in March. You may sign-up at the Church office or contact Allyson Lawless by phone or by e-mail at alawless@comcast.net.