Guest At Your Table Boxes will be handed out this morning. This fundraiser for the Unitarian Universalist Service Committee is a long time Thanksgiving tradition at the First Religious Society. Also, our Teen Choir will sing. I look forward to seeing you in church!

Steeple Lighting: The steeple lighting for this week has been donated by Pat Skibbee and Michael Fosburg in fond and thankful memory of Ralph Lang and Bob and Euvenza Fosburg.

Coffee Hour Hosts: Sherry Evans and Andy Rosen, Max and Meredith Russell, Anne Chisholm Sandt and Mark Sandt, and Cindia Sanford.

Ushers: Anne Comeau and Ned McClung.

FRS Current Events Forum: 9:30 in Lower Meetinghouse Conference Room. The topic is "Can politics in the United States have a moral compass without religion?"

Steeple Lighting: The steeple lighting for this week has been donated by Marj, Sabrina, and Harold Babcock in loving memory of Marj's mother, Gertrude, on her birthday, November 30, and of Philip Babcock.

Coffee Hour Hosts: Coffee Hour is hosted by Doug Saurman, David and Elaina Sayles, Philip Sayles, and Cindy Schartman.

Ushers: Pat Bashford and Erika Cohen.

Congratulations to Walter and Ann Power, whose daughter, Brenda, delivered a 7lb. 13 oz. baby girl on November 8.

First Friday Family Night
Friday, December 7, from 6:30 to 8:00 p.m.
Christmas Caroling
Join us for an evening of favorite carols, hot chocolate, and cookies. All are welcome!

Volunteers Needed for Young Church Holiday Term
We need group leaders for our holiday term groups, which all prepare something for the annual holiday service in Big Church. This year, each group will focus on a different winter holiday from the major world religions. It's fun and a great way to get involved! The commitment is three Sunday mornings, November 25, December 2, and December 9. Please call Julie Parker Amery if you can help out.

You are the chorus! Bring along your own score.

Through this special tradition, Unitarian Universalist communities celebrate the worth and dignity of all people and learn how to put these values into action. The Guest at Your Table experience of families learning together has built lasting connections to UU values for generations of UU youth.

Guest at Your Table has been an important part of UUSC, and of UU culture, since 1975. The program made its UUSC debut following then Institutional Advancement Director Warren Salinger's trip to the Netherlands. While there, he was inspired by a similar organization's program, entitled "Gast aan Tafel," to educate its supporters about its work and to raise vital funds. That program used colorful boxes that the whole family could enjoy. Warren immediately began work with UUSC's staff in Massachusetts to adapt the idea for use in Unitarian Universalist homes nationwide - and even worldwide! Each year since 1975, involvement in Guest at Your Table has grown tremendously, strengthening UUs' connections to our shared principles and helping to challenge injustice throughout the world.

You can keep this spirit and tradition alive. Put a Guest at Your Table box on your family's table and discuss together what it means to welcome a guest to your table.

FRS Administrator, John Mercer, moved nearly to tears by this note, performed a thorough search, discovered the peregrinating pillow, returned it to Pew #33. It's all spiritual work here at the FRS.

Food Drive Collection for November: Our annual Newburyport Community Services Food Drive takes place during November. There is a table in the vestibule to receive your donations in the coming weeks. We also have shopping lists for you to pick up on the table. The items most needed this fall are peanut butter, jelly, rice, spaghetti sauce, boxed potatoes, coffee, crackers, cereal, canned meats (spam, chicken, deviled ham, tuna) and cookies. Please be sure that expiration dates are current. The need has increased this year (they ran out of peanut butter and jelly last month) so whatever you can drop off will be greatly appreciated. We thank you for your support.

Located in the courtyard of the First Religious Society church on Pleasant Street, the kopjafa, a traditional Transylvanian wooden carved pole, serves as a reminder of the significance of cross-cultural strength. Originally used as a cost-effective gravestone, the kopjafa is now a cultural symbol of peace and generosity.

"It's extremely important to me and significant to spiritually deepen faith cross culturally," the Rev. Harold Babcock of the First Religious Society said.

A plaque located on the pole reads "Newburyport Partner Churches Ujszekely Transylvania, God is One Egyazisten," signifying the First Religious Society's strong connection with its sister church in Ujszekely. Transylvania, formerly a part of Hungary, was given to Romania at the end of World War I. Although Romanian because of the location, Transylvania maintains a strong Hungarian population, and the sister church is a Hungarian Unitarian Church located in the village of Ujszekely.

The First Religious Society formed a partnership with the Transylvanian church after communism came to an end in Eastern Europe in the early 1990s. The church felt the need to give support and reconnect with Unitarian churches negatively affected by communism, but due to language barriers the partnership began with a slow start.

In 1995, as Babcock was settling in to life in the First Religious Society, the Rev. Zsolt Jakab was adjusting to becoming leader of the Ujszekely Unitarian Church. Jakab spoke some English, and with that a strong partnership began. Since 1995 Babcock has visited Transylvania six times, and 16 adult members and 12 children have also visited. Ujszekely Unitarian Church members have come to Newburyport, as well.

Max Russell, a 24-year member of the First Religious Society who owns Russell Orchards in Ipswich, watched for a week as Ujszekely Unitarian Church member Andras Jakab carved the pole at his farm. Built during the orchard's busier summer season, many would stop and watch as Andras Jakab transformed a 12-foot long, 15-foot diameter oak tree trunk into the kopjafa. Russell has travelled to Transylvania five times. Using his passion for building - Russell is a regular volunteer with Habitat for Humanity - Russell has helped reconstruct buildings for Ujszekely Unitarian Church members.

"I would like to continue the understanding, and this is a symbol of their church," Russell said.

When visiting Transylvania, members of the First Religious Society have helped build a guest house, repair the church, bring constant hot water to the parsonage, raise funds and bring over numerous donated items. The church members bring over tools, nonprescription drugs, clothing and children's toys among other small items.

"This is one of my passions," Babcock said with a wide smile.

WHAT: You are invited to attend a workshop on skillful and caring ways to offer emotional and practical support to residents of the Gulf Coast region, and to de-brief from prior service trips.

WHO: This workshop is designed for and open to all people from the greater Boston area who volunteer in New Orleans and the Gulf Coast region.

PRESENTERS:

• Rev. Susan Suchocki-Brown, UU minister, chaplain to the Leominster Fire Dept., member of the Mass. Corps of Fire Chaplains, and co-founder of the UU Trauma Response Ministry Team
• Natalia Warburg, bereavement and crisis therapist, trainer of volunteer chaplains and grief support counselors for over 25 years, Sonoma County, CA
• David Warburg, member of Twin Hills Volunteer Fire Dept. and first responder, trauma counselor, Sonoma County, CA
• Rev. Mary Harrington, UU minister, President, Gulf Coast Volunteers for the Long Haul, Haverhill, MA. Reservations are essential.

Name:

Amount enclosed:

Small Poinsettia __

Large Poinsettia __

Wording