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The FRS Swoosh
a member of the Unitarian Universalist Association,
26 Pleasant Street, Newburyport, MA 01950
Office Hours: 9:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m., Monday through Friday
Church Phone: (978) 465-0602 - Minister's Line: (978) 465-6504 - Fax: (978) 462-0384
Web Page: www.frsuu.org - e-mail: frsuu@netway.com
The Rev. Harold E. Babcock, Minister The Rev. Bertrand H. Steeves, Minister Emeritus
Rev. Harold Babcock
Taking Darsan in Minnesota
My sermon this morning concerns a special way of seeing. The Hindus call it "darsan," or seeing the divine image. There is nothing quite like it in the western religious tradition, except perhaps in Orthodoxy. But maybe we can learn something about "seeing" from our Hindu friends. The sermon will investigate the possibility of "taking" darsan in Minnesota, or anywhere else, for that matter. I hope to see you in church!
Flowers: The flowers for today's service are donated by Mary Haslinger in loving memory of her mother, Peggy Morrill Wilkins, and her father, Dr. Robert W. Wilkins.
Chalice Lighter: YRUUs.
Current Events Forum: Meeting at 9:30 a.m. in the Conference Room. The topic is "Corporate Morality?"
(Please note time change)
Clean-up Sunday
We will begin with a brief worship service at 8:30 am, followed by a morning of clean-up activities around the church. There will be both inside and outside tasks. Come dressed to work, and bring a lunch if you wish to hang around and visit. Please bring cleaning and yard work supplies. All ages welcome!
Flowers: The flowers for today's service are donated by Jennifer Day and Marc Cendron.
Steeple Lighting: The steeple lighting this week is donated in memory of Bob Tesar from his family.
Tasks for Clean-up:
- cleaning the upper galleries in the church
- cleaning the choir room
- cleaning the kitchen in the Parish Hall
- landscaping, especially the area behind the Parish Hall
- organizing the Religious Education areas
- picking up trash area behind Parish Hall
- washing the lower Parish Hall windows
- cleaning the silverware in the Parish Hall and washing out the drawers
- cleaning the refrigerators in the Parish Hall and in the Meeting Hall
- cleaning out the closet in the Parish Hall by handicapped-accessible bathroom
Looking Ahead: Sunday, June 19, is the closing Sunday of the church year. Harold Babcock's sermon will be "No Greater Love."
June 14, 2005
Let's meet at a central place, then car pool to Coddie Fraser's for the picnic. It makes sense to meet at the Port Plaza, by Hyman's shoes. We could leave some cars there or nearby and share the ride.
Young Church Orientation: A Young Church orientation will be held on Sunday, June 5, at 11:45 a.m. This is an opportunity for parents new to FRS to learn more about Unitarian Universalist religious education philosophy as well as our Young Church program. Come, meet other families, enjoy food and coffee, and have your questions answered. The session will be informative and also relatively brief. Childcare provided.
Save Your Water! Young Church children are asked to get a small sample of water from someplace their summer travels may take them: a lake, the ocean, a pond, a puddle in the driveway. The water will be used in our annual Young Church water communion service in September, when the waters of our separate journeys are mingled into one bowl. This is a service common to UU congregations across the continent and has been celebrated in our Young Church for four years. A film canister is an appropriate size.
Congratulations to Charlotte Hyde: Charlotte raised $57.71 for the Heifer Project. Charlotte initiated this fundraising campaign on her own, and the money she raised will be added to the money raised at the Young Church Heifer Hooha on June 19. Thank you, Charlotte!
Thank you to the Young Church 2nd-3rd grade class: They created our beautiful "Kids As Peacemakers" mural, now on display outside the meetinghouse.
Young Church Field Trips: The YC Animal Welfare group will be taking two field trips in June: to Wheelerbrook Farm in Georgetown on June 5 and to the Stone Zoo in Stoneham on June 19. Parents should have received a permission slip by e-mail, or at church this past Sunday. If you have not received a permission slip and wish for your child to be included on the field trips, please contact Julie Parker Amery.
Denes Jakab, brother of Rev. Zsolt, writes to Peg Nicol
Dear Peg, My visit to the US was important. As you can imagine, not everybody can enjoy the opportunity to travel in the US. My colleagues and friends -- everybody -- feel some envy. Of course, I appreciated my trip in itself since I could form a real, though partial, picture of American life. I was curious to see the country and had high -- even false -- expectations about America, gained mainly from movies, fashion books, and documentaries. I thought America would be more perfect, but finally I see that we -- all humans -- are similar, having our day-to-day problems of survival. Of course, America has a big advantage, but the gap between East Europe and the US is not infinite. With some capital injection we can advance and come near your life style. It is strange that while you find the romantic simplicity of our life valuable, we expend immense efforts to approximate the kind of capitalism, with the alienation that you regret now. This is the route that History is gonna walk.
I experienced a lot of friendship. It was interesting to discover the culinary differences. The Acadia National Park in Maine and the Atlantic Ocean were indeed impressive, and New York is a huge and complicated city. I regret only that we could not take a boat ride on the Merrimack or Powow River; there is so much water around Newburyport. Otherwise, I have so many photos that it will be impossible ever to forget this trip.
Are your children excited about coming to Transylvania? I hope so. Please give my best regards to everyone in your family. Sincerely, Denes
Dear folks at the FRS, I recently came by the church to have lunch and catch up with Harold, and John suggested I send you an update of what I've been doing since I served as the Student Minister in 2002-03. Last May, I graduated from Episcopal Divinity School in Cambridge, and was awarded one of the two preaching prizes given to graduating students. This year I am serving in a full time internship at the First Parish in Lincoln, a church affiliated with both the UUA and the UCC, and I am loving working in parish ministry, just as I did when I was with you. I recently saw the Ministerial Fellowship Committee, whose job it is to interview and credential UU ministers. The MFC interview is a kind of "oral exam" for ministry. I'm happy to say that I passed, and now I'm in preliminary fellowship as a UU minister. This means I can now start looking for a place to work, which is what I'm doing. I'll be ordained at South Church in Portsmouth on September 10. I'll send an invitation when the time is closer, and I hope some of you might come! My family is still very happily settled in Portsmouth, so I'm hoping to find a church to serve that's close to home. I have such fond memories of the FRS. You taught me well, and I loved the time I had with you. Maybe I'll see some of you at GA!
Join the Fun
A small but earnest ad-hoc group has been meeting to plan events to celebrate Harold's tenth anniversary at the FRS on the weekend of September 30, October 1 and October 2. So far a Friday night party has materialized, as has a special church service and coffee hour. At some point during the weekend, the original ministerial search committee will reconvene, and a book of Harold's sermons from his first ten years at the FRS will be offered up for sale. Any other ideas? Want to help Jane and Richard Nocera, David Turner, Tom Stites, and John Mercer? All you need to do is show up at Caffé di Siena at 8:00 a.m. on Sunday, June 5. Bring ideas, energy, and vision.
Our Annual FRS Yankee Homecoming Book Sale is scheduled for August 5 - 7th, 10:00 a.m. - 4:00 p.m. To make the sale as stunning a success as it was last year, we will need lots of volunteers, and donations must be plentiful! We are asking for books in good condition as well as specialty magazines if you have complete sets (National Geographic, Gourmet, and the like). CDs are welcome, too. Also, let's try to improve our children's section this year with wonderful books and movies for the young ones. Please start bringing in your gently used donations NOW. It will be a great way to help the church and to wrap up your spring cleaning. You may leave your donations in Classroom D in the Lower Meetinghouse. Last year was tremendous fun. Please join us! For questions or to volunteer your time, please call or e-mail us.
-Ann Chase a.chase@verizon.net
Have you ever noticed how so many people move through life, scowling at the sidewalk as they trudge along, as though the weight of the world were bearing down on them? They could benefit from the teachings of Thich Nhat Hanh, whose new book, The Blooming of a Lotus, Guided Meditation Exercises for Healing and Transformation, is in the FRS library. Based on the amazingly effective practices of conscious breathing and mindfulness, the exercises in this handy little volume are designed to bring practitioners at all levels into closer touch with the state of our physical bodies, our inner selves, and the elements of the world around us. With gentle wisdom, Thich Nhat Hanh presents exercises for men and women, children and parents, humans and the earth. Other exercises reveal the pain brought on by our pursuit of material goods. We are also led to contemplate life's impermanence. Learn how the meditation practitioner gains insight, or wisdom, and becomes more aware and fresher, more alive in our daily existence. The energy of mindfulness is constantly produced, nurtured, and strengthened during meditation. This book may help you along the path, to see how the three gems of the Buddhist tradition are already in your heart. From the practice of the exercises in this book, you will generate the energy of mindfulness.
A Unitarian Universalist Service Committee (UUSC) Campaign
The UUSC initiated its Stop Torture Permanently (STOP) Campaign in response to the human rights crisis created by the U.S. torture and abuse of detainees in Afghanistan, Iraq and Guantanamo Bay. The STOP Campaign began its efforts with a formal statement in the New York Times on June 25, 2004.
The right to be free of torture is one of the most fundamental human rights recognized by the global community today. In the United States, torture has been deemed abhorrent to our values and legal principles since the framing of the constitution. Patrick Henry himself spoke passionately on the subject, insisting that the rack and the screw were barbaric practices which must be left behind in the Old World, "or we are lost and undone." It is the firm position of the Unitarian Universalist Service Committee that any government sponsored acts of torture under any circumstances are immoral, unjustified, and illegal. This includes any such actions by the United States.
The STOP Campaign will primarily focus upon the official authorization and use of torture, whether mental or physical, direct or "by proxy," by United States officials, agents, military personnel and contractors abroad. "Indictment Ceremonies" are being held around the country entailing reading the indictment of US officials who have "aided, abetted, ordered and conspired to commit the illegal physical and psychological torture of detainees in U.S. custody in Iraq."
The STOP Campaign is planning a "Call for Justice" weekend in DC the last weekend in September to which all are invited. It will include workshops about torture, a mock trial of US officials who have sanctioned torture, and visits to Congress. For further information about the Campaign and to register for the weekend in Washington, visit the website at: http://www.uusc.org/programs/STOP/index.html
Joys . . .
Kathryn Tolley, Katrina Turner, and Liam Wilbur are participating in this month's Northeast Massachusetts Junior District Music Festival in Lowell. These students endured an extensive audition process competing against hundreds of other singers. They will be singing in many styles; Classical, Gospel, Folk and Baroque; also singing in different languages (German, English and Latin).. . . and Sorrows
Our heartfelt sympathies to Susan Ricker and her family on the death of Susan's sister on Monday, May 16.And our condolences, as well, to Gary Raddatz and his family on the recent death of his father.
from the FRS Welcoming Congregation Committee
Announcing the summer film series on Wednesdays, August 3, 10, 17 and 24, at 7:30 p.m. in our air-conditioned Lower Meetinghouse. No charge. All are welcome . . . well, of course.
from the FRS Historical Committee
We need someone to clip articles and pictures about the FRS and to keep Steeple Biweeklies and any special programs from events attended. This would be very helpful to the committee. If you're interested, please call one of us.
-Lindsay Cavanagh
More Canvass Results
We have additions to our previous canvass lists: Louise Van Bokkelin and Donna Johnson & Lance Wisniewski. Thanks to you and to all of this year's pledgers.
2005 Summer Services at the Hampton Falls UU Church
|
June 19 |
- Rev. Henry Stonie |
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June 26 |
- Rev. David Blanchard |
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July 3 |
- Rev. Richard Kimball |
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July 10 |
- Rev. Janet Bowering |
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July 17 |
- Rev. Bertrand H. Steeves |
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July 24 |
- Rev. Deborah B. Knowlton |
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July 31 |
- Rev. Holly Baylies |
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August 7 |
- Rev. Connie Pirnie Sternberg |
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August 14 |
- Rev. Kenneth Clark |
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August 21 |
- Rev. Terry Burke |
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August 28 |
- Rev. Harold Babcock |
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September 4 |
- Rev. Joseph Bassett |
Services begin at 10:45. The church is located on Route 88, near Applecrest Farms. Parking in the rear of the church.
