PLEASE NOTE THAT THERE WILL BE NO SERVICES AT THE FIRST RELIGIOUS SOCIETY THIS MORNING. However, the Sunday morning Current Events Forum will be meeting in the Conference Room at 9:00 a.m. Also, Young Church Choir members will meet at 9:00 a.m. in the Parish Hall and proceed to the Central Church from there.

Diana Eck is Professor of Comparative Religions at Harvard. She is the founder of the Pluralism Project and author, most recently, of Encountering God: A Spiritual Journey from Bozeman to Banaras. (Harold Babcock is one of Prof. Eck's former students.)

Steeple Lighting - The steeple lighting this week is donated by Dorothy and Howard Fairweather in honor of Albert Schweitzer.
The Current Events Forum: "To Imagine Our Ideal World." Join us 9:00 a.m. in the Lower Meetinghouse for a film viewing and discussion focused on "living consciously, buying wisely, and making a difference." The video was created by the Center for a New American Dream (www.newdream.org). Part of the discussion will be centered on the question, "What does your ideal world look like?" and working on ways of living our values to shape our ideal world. (After our discussion we will head over to the Congregational church for our MLK Community Worship Service.)

Steeple Lighting - The steeple lighting this week is donated by The Badger/Bowditch family in hopes of a happy and peaceful New Year.

Chalice Lighters - Jessica Brown and Brent, Ryan, and Elise Mitchell.

Coffee - Human Services Committee.

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.

We have reserved 10 tickets at the annual Martin Luther King Jr. Breakfast to be held at Georgetown Country Club on Route 133 in Georgetown, MA. (There are no table reservations this year.) The cost of $20.00 per ticket includes a donation toward the attendance of a local teen. Please call the church office to reserve a spot (first come, first served). You may also be able to purchase individual tickets from the YWCA.

Holiday Pageant Thanks
Thank you to the many children, youth, and adults who made our holiday pageant such a spirited, inspiring morning. Group leaders and assistants were Anne Poirier, Stephanie Steeves, Mindy Sheehy, Alicia Raddatz, Laura Roberts, Ellen Wolff, Alison Chatfield, Ann Ganzenmuller, Kim Gallagher, Liz Morris, Amy Smith, Mackenzie Mathieu-Busher, Wendy Ford, and Edson Worden. Special thanks to Jon and Laura Roberts for donating, preparing, and serving the delicious soup and bread at the lunch after the service. Sales of bowls made by children in the "Empty Bowls" service project group and donations for the lunch raised $892 for Oxfam America. Wow!

Save Your "UU & Me"
I am collecting copies of "UU & Me," the children's pullout section in the UU World. I would like to share copies of it with visitors and newcomers. Please feel free to leave copies in my mailbox (this is an ongoing request, applicable for all issues). Thank you!

Mambo Italiano (February 18) Angelo Barberini is the oddball son of Italian immigrants Gino and Maria, who inadvertently ended up in Canada rather than the States. Angelo shocks his parents by moving out on his own without getting married, and shocks them further still when he reveals he's gay. But his boyfriend, policeman Nino Paventi, isn't as ready to come out of the closet, especially not to his busybody mother, Lina. (Source: http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0330602/)

A Touch of Pink (March 18) Alim is an Ismaili Canadian who lives in London, thousands of miles from his family, for one very good reason: he has a boyfriend. His ideal gay life begins to unravel when his mother shows up to find him a proper Muslim girlfriend and convince him to return to Canada for his cousin's extravagant wedding. (Source: http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0374277/)

Sabrina, Ben, Josh, and I thank you all for your cards, gifts, and good wishes during the holiday season! It is a joy to be your minister.

For the rest of the church year there are only two opportunities left for Steeple Lighting and 12 opportunities left for flowers. These are splendid ways to memorialize relatives, friends, or ideas. Just call the office at 978.465.0602 to make arrangements.

• Why do we come together over the natural disaster in the Pacific, yet do nothing about the genocide taking place in the Sudan? The same number of people are being killed, one by nature, one by mankind. Can we make sense of it?
• If you had not chosen the ministry, what profession would you have followed, or been drawn to?
• What is the most important prayer?
• Sitting in church sometimes wells up sadness inside me. Why is this?
• A UU view of marriage: Is it a lifelong commitment? Or. . . .
• Tell us about small ministry groups. What are they?
• What is your favorite part of being a minister?
• From a physical perspective, we have rules for optimum health including getting eight hours of sleep, getting twenty minutes of exercise, and flossing. What should we do every day to maintain optimum spiritual health?
• When we pray to God, is it the same God who sent the tsunami to kill all those people?
• In It's a Wonderful Life, the glorious question is: What would Bedford Falls be like if George Bailey were never born? What would Newburyport be now if the FRSUU never existed?
• If the "quest for truth is our sacrament," why do we continue to include in our worship music that exalts and perpetuates the myth over the man? Are not language and action our basic tools for communicating our message?
• There are philosophers who believe that organized religion is self-defeating, as it develops a "culture" of unspoken rules that cause the members to seek a sense of belonging and acceptance instead of a sense of spirituality. Do you think it is possible to have a church without these negative aspects?
• Does being a Unitarian Universalist obligate us in any way, or is this a religion that only makes suggestions?
• What do you consider the three most fundamental religious questions, and what are your answers?
• (Paraphrase): I am troubled by our lack in the church of a strong voice on the war in Iraq, which I consider to be a moral and legal issue . . . it's addressed, if at all, only obliquely. Does this bother you, too, as the minister, or do you feel it's just what must be, given the whole context? And is there any way we might have a greater forum for discussing such issues as a congregation . . . ?

On Sunday, January 16, our Young Church Choir and our Teen Choir will be joining the youth choirs from Central Congregational Church, Belleville Church, and First Parish Newbury in singing at the Martin Luther King Jr. service at Central Congregational Church.

On the morning of January 16, all Young Church Choir and Teen Choir members are asked to meet at 9:00 a.m. in the Upper Parish Hall at our church for warm-ups. We will then walk down the street to Central together for a rehearsal with the other singers. The service at Central is at 10:30 a.m.

Feel free to call or e-mail me with any questions you may have.

Our committee has issued the once-every-five-years Every Member Survey. We need high participation from the congregants, member or not, to be able to gauge the thoughts and wants of the parish and to plan boldly to respond. You can download an online version by pressing here. Please help us by filling out the survey. It is the best vehicle we have to obtain a broad look at where the parish would like to go over the next five years.

Emmaus House in Haverhill received $465.96, thanks to your generous contributions to the loose plate in December. Thank you!

For the last three Sundays of January, one-third of the Loose Plate will go to Women in Transition, a pre-release facility program that 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.

Would you be interested in purchasing your Equal Exchange coffee or tea from the Social Action Committee on a regular basis (monthly, bimonthly)? A portion of the proceeds from the sale of coffee through our committee will benefit the UUSC. If you are interested, please contact me.

• what membership in a UU church should mean;
• creating stronger leadership;
• building more successful stewardship initiatives
• 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.

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

The HS Committee would like to extend two very special thank-you's to a couple of our volunteer members, Bruce Esposito and Ann Power. Bruce organized the November food drive, and Ann coordinated the collection of Christmas gifts for the kids at Turning Point. Both of these very important activities turned out to be huge successes! When you see Bruce or Ann, tell them thanks for their hard work for those in our community in need.

On a separate note, January 20, 2005, is our turn to host the Friendship Table at the Salvation Army. We will be serving Chicken Stew (sometimes called Brunswick stew), salad, and dessert. I will be taking signups on Sunday for cooks and servers. During the week of the dinner, Patrice O'Brien will once again make reminder calls to everyone who signed up. Food must be dropped of at the Salvation Army no later than 4:45 p.m. on the day of the dinner; servers need to arrive by 5:00 p.m. and are generally through with cleanup by 6:00 p.m. at the latest. If you plan to leave a pot or dish that you want back, write your name on it, and I will bring it back to the church kitchen for you to pick up. Please see me at Coffee Hour to sign up for this bimonthly event. If you wish, I'll even give you my recipe for Brunswick stew!

Finally, if you haven't had the opportunity to turn in your Unitarian Universalist Service Committee (UUSC) Guest at Your Table box or envelope, there is still time. I plan to send the money to UUSC on January 15. You can drop off your box or envelope at the church office, or mail your envelope to the church.

Date: Saturday, January 15
Time: 3:00 to 5:00 p.m.
Place: First Parish Church, 20 Lexington Road, Concord, MA

Meet with Director of the National Department of Peace Campaign, Dot Maver, for an update on Department of Peace legislation (HR 1673) and current strategies for establishing a Cabinet level U.S. Peace Department.

Participate in the planning for a February event to feature MA 3rd Congressional District Representative, James McGovern, and to launch a campaign to petition other MA Representatives to co-sponsor the bill.

Sponsored by
              First Parish Concord Social Action, Dave Dunn at djkcdunn@earthlink.net
              Grass Roots Action for Peace, Carol Dwyer at dwyerjandc@aol.com
              First Parish Concord Denominational Affairs Committee, Pat Simon at psimon@gis.net
              UU Women & Religion, MBD
              First Parish Concord Green Sanctuary Committee

The second concert of the music series will be on Sunday, January 30, at 4:00 p.m. Tickets are $15.00 at the door.

ENSEMBLE CHACONNE will perform music on historical baroque instruments. The group will present "A Musical Portrait-Thomas Gainsborough and His Circle" celebrating the great English painter's passion for music, including dazzling rococco selections by J.C. Bach, Carl Friedrich Abel, and Rudolf Straube. The concert also includes "Sweetest Bard," a piece by African composer Ignatius Sancho, who was born on a slave ship and rose to become a London composer and man of letters." Celebrating its 19th season, the Ensemble Chaconne has performed at Jordan Hall, Boston's Museum of Fine Arts, Wellesley College, Peabody Essex Museum, and other premier venues.

You can still support the series. Send your checks made out to "Jean C. Wilson 2005 Music Series" to the FRSUU, 26 Pleasant St., Newburyport, MA 01950.

We have thirty left. The months are in Hungarian, and the pictures are by John Mercer. All profits go toward the $3,000 we need to bring our Partner Church minister and his wife and the church president and his wife here on a visit this spring. The calendars are $25.00, of which $15.00 will be the profit.