Steeple Lighting: The steeple lighting for this week has been donated by Jennifer Badger and family in memory of Dotty, Lee, Anna, Will, Betty, and Bill.

Ushers: Jane and Richard Nocera.

Coffee Hour Hosts: Ben and Linda Labaree, Ruth Lang, Kathleen Langone, and Jean and Nick Lanham.

Current Events Forum: Lower Meetinghouse Conference Room at 9:30 a.m. -- Immigration and the Aftermath of New Orleans.

Flowers: The flowers this Sunday are given by Katie and Rebecca Nye in loving memory of Esther and Blaire Macomber and of David and Cynthia Macomber.

Steeple Lighting: The steeple lighting for the week has been donated by Betty Creed in memory of her husband, William.

Ushers: Barbara Boulay and Kathryn Tolley.

Coffee Hour Hosts: John Lavoie and Raymond Coutu, Peg and Ray Nicol, Richard and Jane Nocera, and Phyllis Leonard.

UU Ministry for Earth
UU Ministry for Earth (formerly the Seventh Principle Project) is an affiliate organization of the Unitarian Universalist Association. Its mission is to facilitate and support the work of Unitarian Universalists by affirming and promoting the Seventh Principle of the UUA, "Respect for the interdependent web of all existence of which we are a part." Members believe that the Earth is in peril from human activities, and for us as people of faith, this is a moral and spiritual crisis of utmost importance.

They sponsor the congregation-based Green Sanctuary Program, which provides a framework for study and reflection and encourages individual and collective action for responding to the call to heal the Earth. In addition, their annual programs and exhibit booth at General Assembly provide hundreds of Unitarian Universalists with education and collaboration opportunities on critical environmental issues.

A growing number of congregations across the continent have environmental groups that conduct environmental activities for their members, including earth-based worship and spiritual practice and educational programs on a wide variety of environmental issues. UU Ministry for Earth provides links to technical and organizational resources as well as networking opportunities for UU activists to support these critical efforts.

While individual steps to protect and improve our environment are important, these efforts alone are not sufficient. The "Great Work" (as Thomas Berry calls it) requires our collaborative efforts to address deep-seated and systemic problems that affect the health of the living planet. Our work in our faith communities is an important part of that healing.

The Church of the Larger Fellowship
In 1944, the American Unitarian Association (AUA) appointed a committee "to make a study of the possibility of the re-establishment of the Unitarian Church of All Souls." This Church of All Souls, organized in 1903, had carried on correspondence with isolated Unitarians, also producing pastoral letters, sermons and pamphlets. At the time, another correspondence link, the Unitarian Women's Alliance's "Post Office Mission," was in decline, so it was clearly the time for action.

The Church of the Larger Fellowship grew quickly, when hundreds of Unitarians isolated in small towns and overseas eagerly joined up to receive materials by mail.

The CLF developed an Independent Study Program in response to requests for materials that would lead individual members step-by-step through a course of liberal religious study-a program that was eventually published as "Challenge of a Liberal Faith," still a best-selling book about Unitarian Universalism.

In 1971, the UUA could no longer subsidize CLF as part of its extension department. CLF would have to go out of business or find a way to fund itself! CLF was then chartered as an independent Unitarian Universalist congregation.

The meeting will take place on Sunday, April 22, 2007, from 3:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m, at the home of Rob Burnham.

We are confident we'll reach our goal because we know you all will follow through and make your pledge. Send in your pledge card, or even better, call John Mercer at (978) 465-0602 ext. 404 and leave a message. Please do it today.

Our van stops in the Lower Ninth Ward. We exit in awe as we take in our surroundings. This is the first destination of our New Orleans tour. I can assure you we are not in the French Quarter.

Hundreds of shiny plastic signs are nailed to dilapidated homes and stressed electric poles. They read: "We Buy Homes," "Prudential Real Estate," "We Demolish," "Concrete Slab Removal," "Mold Inspection." Official spray-painted graffiti marks water-stained facades where the Feds came and went, leaving notice of their search for stranded people, bodies, and animals. Yards are littered with debris. Broken windows reveal cluttered rooms with heaps of furniture, strollers, and clothes. I feel like an intruder and I wonder if I am really in North America.

Perhaps one in every 10 to 15 houses is undergoing reconstruction. Each home is a small beacon of hope for the thousands of people who were displaced after Hurricane Katrina. We are invited into Miss Mary's (Mary Fontenot, director of UUSC partner ACT) house, who is also leading our tour. This is one of the promising ones on the vacant block. She is living in a FEMA trailer park several miles from here. Her friends and family came together to help rebuild her house that sat for weeks under 10 feet of water. Aside from the frame, nothing was salvageable. But that was the past and Miss Mary only exudes hope and energy for a new future.

Mary, like many other community organizers, is devoted to bringing back the neighborhoods of New Orleans. She speaks openly and passionately about the challenges they are up against and the endless battles they have fought to regain the homes that they own. The stories she relays are tragic and truly unbelievable. She reiterates again and again how they have "fought tooth and nail" for the little progress that has been made. She tells us that the first health clinic since Katrina is about to reopen down the block. The delays have come from insignificant details concerning governmental building codes. The small building sat for months unoccupied because the handicap ramp was an inch off.

It is difficult to even begin to understand the hurdles these communities face. There are no churches, no hospitals, no schools, and no businesses left to offer the basic communal necessities. Even if families come home and manage to fork out the necessary money to gut and rebuild their homes, where do they find work? Where do their children go to school? Many of these communities still don't have potable water or electricity.

The government continues to turn a blind eye to its people as plans for industrial expansion and an airport are in the works for the Upper Ninth Ward where most homes were totally obliterated or demolished. In this case, developers, contractors, and surveyors were allowed into the ward even before the original homeowners.

Mary's voice is taxed as it is probably the most important tool she has. She apologizes for her hoarse throat, smiles, and hugs her friend with whom she shares a "temporary" trailer. Despite their odds they are reaching out and moving forward. They are organizing community meetings, disseminating information, listening to the needs of their neighbors, taking action, and most importantly keeping their faith knowing that the situation can only get better.

We turn to get back on the bus. We have two more hours of driving through New Orleans. Twenty more miles of another half dozen neighborhoods that are in better or worse shape than the Lower 9th. A mockingbird calls as a bulldozer speeds through the empty streets. We turn the corner and Mary points out the freshly painted health clinic. I, too, feel a sense of hope and an overwhelming admiration for the people of these communities.

The auction database is now online at www.frsuu.org. Save the date! Besides supporting the church, the auction is a terrific fellowship event and lots of fun. Please attend, and bid with spring fever!

America's Morality Tales - Classic Westerns
High Noon (1952) - "Do not forsake me . . ."
Friday, April 20 at 7:00 p.m.
Led by Lynn Kettleson & Catherine Garnache - Lower Meeting House
Children often get their ideas from movies. For those growing up in the years of the classic western - from 1948 to 1962 - the movies affected how they looked at the world. The main characters of many of those movies set out expected standards of behavior, but they also reflected a particular world view of the time. Please plan to join us for some fun and discussion.

The New UU: Those interested in preparing for membership or simply learning more about Unitarian Universalism or the FRS should sign up for "Exploring Unitarian Universalism and FRS Membership." It is broken into three parts:

• "Getting to know you" - Sunday, April 15

• "Getting to know the FRS" - Sunday, April 22

• "Getting to know UUism" - Sunday, April 29.