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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
Christina Sillari, Ministerial Intern
'Tis the season.
Intergenerational Worship Service
"Celebrate"
Come to our annual intergenerational holiday service, brought to you by Young Church. We'll learn about various winter holidays from the world's major religions. This is always a fun and festive service, with our annual rendition of 'The Twelve Days of Christmas'. Please join us!
Flowers: The flowers for this holiday season are donated by Marjorie Babcock, a joyous holiday to all; Carol A. Young, in appreciation of Rev. Babcock's kindness and comfort; the Madden family, peace; Carol and Stan Kilty, in memory of their parents; Ruth Whittemore, in loving memory of Lee Whittemore Sylvester; Lynda and Mickey Koplove, in loving memory of son and brother, James Esoldo; Carolyn and Ross Keller, in memory of Marion Martin and Maude Strawn; the Ricker and Zarakas family; and Charlie and Betty Baker in memory of Ralph and Jean Ghormley and Charles and Eleanor Baker.
The holiday star is donated by Susan Nickerson, Charles Baker, and Leon L. Noyes in memory of the Little sisters: Eleanor Baker, Josephine Driver, and Nancy Noyes.
Steeple Lighting: The steeple lighting for last week was donated by Ed Metcalf in loving memory of his wife, Beverly Ross Metcalf. The steeple lighting for this week has been donated by John B. Fox in memory of Rev. Thomas B. Fox, a former minister of the parish.
Coffee Hour Hosts: Brian Kologe, Bob Stables, Jeff and Kathy Stark, and Peggy Mays.
Ushers: Amy Badger and Stephen Bowditch.
Collection for Cause: During December, one half of the loose plate will be divided between Our Neighbor's Table and The Friendship Table at the Salvation Army.
82nd Annual Christmas Candlelight Service
This popular service includes choirs, readings, and familiar carols. Don't miss this special tradition of the First Religious Society. Frances Burmeister directs the music, which this year is all French: Ding, Dong, Merrily on High - arr. Rutter; Mass for Midnight - Charpentier; Noel nouvelet - arr. Joseph Jennings; The Shepherd's Farewell - Berlioz; O Magnum Mysterium - Poulenc; and Glory Be to God in Heaven - arr. Snow.
Come early to get a seat!
Annual Christmas Eve and Candle-lighting Service
Rev. Harold Babcock
This is a family-oriented service appropriate for all ages. It includes a story, traditional carols and readings, and individual candle-lighting. As has been our practice for a number of years, a free will offering will be taken at the conclusion of the service to support our Partner Church in Ujszekely in the Transylvanian region of Romania. A child dedication ceremony is offered as part of the Christmas Eve Service; please speak to Harold Babcock or Julie Parker Amery no later than December 19 if you wish to have your child dedicated on Christmas Eve.
Family Service
Christina Sillari
FRS Ministerial Intern
"Where is the soul in Unitarian Universalism?"
- A. Powell Davies
There will be no Young Church classes today, but there will be child care available in the nursery.
Flowers: The flowers for today's service are donated in memory of Dal MacGregor from his family.
Steeple Lighting: The steeple lighting for this week has been donated by the Zarakas and Ricker family in loving memory of Bill's brother, Thomas Zarakas, and father, Peter Zarakas.
Coffee Hour Hosts: Rev. and Mrs. Bert Steeves, Jon and Debbie Steeves, Annie Maurer, and David Stickney and Carol Barron.
Ushers: Gina and Tim Downs.
Harold Babcock will be out of the office from December 26 to January 2. In the event of an emergency you should call the regular church phone number: (978) 465-0602. Vicki or John will be checking messages regularly and will know how to reach Harold. Our Ministerial Intern, Christina Sillari, will also be on call during Harold's absence. The FRS office will be open on weekdays from 9:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. throughout the holiday season, except on December 25 and January 1.
Please return your Guest at Your Table Boxes to the church office sometime over the holidays, preferably before December 30.
Given the strong feelings expressed about the new Family Coffee Hour, we felt we should explain what we understand is the intent of it and our thoughts about it.
As you may be aware, Family Coffee Hour was begun by several parents concerned about space limitations in the lower parish hall during coffee hour. In fact, we have more or less outgrown that space. Parents have found it stressful to keep an eye on their children in a crowded space, while also trying to have a cup of coffee and chat with church friends. They felt that a less crowded space would help considerably. There was no intent to exclude anyone or to segregate anyone. It was simply one solution to a growing problem.
We recently met with Marlyn Miller, one of the parents who originated family coffee hour, and with Leanna Sorcar, chair of the FRS Hospitality Committee. The four of us feel that coffee hour is one of our opportunities to enhance intergenerational ties in our community, and we discussed various solutions to the space issue. Yet, we could find no realistic options for the immediate future.
We continue to consider this issue, however, and welcome your ideas on how we might create a coffee hour that accommodates and enriches our growing community and that feels welcoming to all and inclusive of all.
Teach in Young Church!
We're currently seeking volunteers for our winter church in Young Church. The term begins on January 13 and runs through March 2. A training will be held on January 12. Teaching is fun and a great way to meet both kids and adults in the FRS community. Everyone teaches in pairs, so you are never on your own. We provide the curriculum and supplies-you provide a sense of wonder, fun, and openness. If you can volunteer, or wish to learn more about it, please contact Julie Parker Amery.
Young Church on December 23
We'll gather in the lower meeting house during church to watch A Charlie Brown Christmas. Extra adults are needed on-hand. Please contact Julie Parker Amery if you can help out.
Social Action Needs You
Please consider coming to the next social action committee meeting on December 16th 12:00-1:00 PM. If social action is already part of your life or if you would like to make it part of your life, come help build a vision for social action in this community. At the UUA General Assembly last summer six actions of immediate witness and six social justice resolutions were passed on a wide range of issues including torture, discrimination, health care, war, racism, sexuality, and immigration. Let us figure out together how we can use the resources at FRS to help make a difference in the world. Blessings, Christina
Of Interest to Lay Leaders
Conflict Transformation Workshop
Sunday January 13th, 2008
First Parish Church in Duxbury (1 ½ hours from Newburyport)
The Art & Craft of Leadership
12:30 - 4:00 p.m.
$15 per person Lunch Included
Sunday Morning Worship Service at 10:30 a.m.
Registration Form to print and mail.
Register by Phone (617) 498-0396
Notable Women Ministers of Our Faith Tradition
"The grandest thing has been the lifting up of the gates and the opening of the doors to the women of America, giving liberty to twenty-seven million women, thus opening to them a new and larger life and a higher ideal."
Olympia Brown was born on January 5, 1835 in Michigan and paved the way for women gaining equality and power in America. She received her Bachelor of Arts degree from Antioch in 1860 at a time when not many women graduated from college. After being rejected by Meadville Theological School, she attended Canton Theological School at Saint Lawrence University and was ordained as a Universalist minister. She was the first woman to achieve full ministerial standing recognized by a denomination. In 1873 she married John Henry Willis who served on her church board in Weymouth, Massachusetts and they had two children. Like many women today, Olympia managed to very successfully balance having a career and a family. Her husband and her mother were quite supportive of her. At the age of 53 Olympia made a career change from full-time ministry to become an activist for women's rights. She took an important role in the women's suffrage movement and was one of the few original suffragists who lived to vote in the 1920 presidential election. She died on October 23, 1926 while living in Baltimore with her daughter. Olympia is an inspiration to all women who are working towards changing the world.
Ministerial Intern at First Religious Society Newburyport
(W) (978) 465-0602 X 410 omkrimkali@aol.com
The Nicaragua Exchange
Elysia Petras, a graduate of our young church program and student at Bard College, will be returning to Chacraseca, Nicaragua in January to build homes. This year she will be accompanied by Nemesia Sorcar, also a graduate of young church. The Social Action Committee is helping to raise funds for the materials to build the homes by matching the first $350 raised for the Nicaragua Exchange. Contributions can be made through the church office or sent directly to Bard College. In either case, checks should be made out to Bard College Nicaragua Exchange. If you wish to send them directly, you should use this address: Trustee Leadership Scholar Program, Bard College, 30 Campus Road, Annandale-On-Hudson, NY 12504.
| Contacts: | Elysia Petras, Co-director, email: ep947@bard.edu Jonathan Raye, Co-director, email: jr978@bard.edu |
Amnesty International Merrimac Valley Group 708 invites you to join our group to defend prisoners of conscience throughout the world, the third Thursday of every month at 7:00 p.m. The next meeting is January 17, 2008, 7:00 p.m. in the Lower Meetinghouse conference room.
| Contact: | Rob Burnham, jcrdburnham@verizon.net |
Three hymnals have been anonymously donated to the FRS: one in memory of Captain Martin J. Twite, USN, from a shipmate; another in memory of CDR. Charles P. Gabeler, USN, from a shipmate; and a third in memory of C.P.O. James Sensbach, USN, from a shipmate.
The FRS Music Committee is pleased to announce that FRS member Joan Carroll will be taking on the duty of Youth Choir accompanist for the rest of the church year.
The next meeting of the Community Human Services Committee will be held on Wednesday, January 9, at 7:00 p.m. in the Lower Meeting House. All interested in helping us increase our outreach in the community are more than welcome to join us with their ideas for new projects and a willingness to bring them to fruition.
Retired Guys out to Lunch will meet at Szechuan Taste, 19 Pleasant Street, Newburyport, at 12:00 noon on December 18. If you are retired, aspire to be retired, or ought to be retired, you might want to check out how these guys do it. All are welcome.
Contributing to the Beloved Community
Special thanks to Russell and Rochelle Perry-Platine for hanging the holiday decorations and for remaking the plywood backing for the floral star.
Contributing to the Beloved Community
Catherine Garnache reports that she has received $1020 and had costs of $637 in her yearly sales of Christmas wreathes to parishioners; thus, she has been able to raise $337 for the FRS. Thank you, Catherine.
From Community Service of Newburyport, Inc.
December 5, 2007
Dear Rev. Babcock and Church Members,
The board of directors and staff of Community Service of Newburyport would like to offer our heartfelt thanks for your very generous donation of food and personal care items to our agency during the month of November.
We are grateful to those who checked expiration dates and delivered the food to our office.
We wish you all a very happy holiday season.
Sincerely, Betty Leary, General Secretary
From Among Friends at St. Paul's Church
[In response to a donation from the Concert against Hunger, managed by Chris Hyde and Alicia Raddatz and under the sponsorship of the FRS Social Action and Community Human Services Committees]
Dear friends,
We would like to thank you and all the people involved for your generous gift. We are most grateful for your support and encouragement!
Sincerely, Jan Proli, Secretary
from the FRS Music Committee
Those who have made a pledge toward church operations in the current year have received a letter from me requesting donations to carry out the vote of the Parish on October 21. That vote called for making some alterations to the Sanctuary to accommodate the Steinway grand piano now housed in the upper Parish Hall. So far more than $1000 has come in, and there is an anonymous matching pledge of $1500. The amount sought by the Music Committee to carry out this work is $3000, so we are close to our needed amount.
If you wish to make a donation to this effort, please make a check to the FRS, put 'piano move' in the memo portion, and send it to the church office or drop it in the collection plate. With the donations in hand and those we hope are still on their way, we are close to being able to offer a much more varied and rich musical program.
Christmas Concert at Pentucket Middle School
Sunday, December 16, at 2:00 p.m.
I was an active member at the First Religious Society when I lived in West Newbury, and my husband and I are very active UU's up in Rockland, ME. Frank is on the Canvass Committee and I am on the Music Committee-naturally! I come down from Maine once a week to lead the Band. We've improved enormously over the four years we've been in existence and have just made our third CD, called "'Tis the Season!" I always appreciated support from my fellow UU's when I lived in the area and would really appreciate it now... plus... you're going to love the concert!
Do you know someone considering seminary--or someone you think ought to be considering it? If so, please pass this information along. Thanks to Arnold and Julia Bradburd, Meadville Lombard Theological School, a Unitarian Universalist seminary in Chicago, Illinois, is offering a brand new, merit-based, full scholarship to an exceptional student, matriculating into our Master of Divinity residential degree program in September 2008. Meadville Lombard is taking applications now for the Arnold and Julia Bradburd Scholarship for Excellence.
Visit our website for more information (www.meadville.edu/Ab_News_BradburdApp.html) or contact Erika Chavez, Director of Admissions, at (773) 256-3000 x250 or echavez@meadville.edu. The deadline for the scholarship application is March 15-so don't let this opportunity slip away.
from Meadville Lombard Theological School
Meadville Lombard Theological School, a UU seminary in Chicago, Illinois, announces two learning and networking opportunities for lay leaders, seminarians, and ministers.
Winter Institute - February 8 - 10, 2008:
Can We Build the Beloved Community through Political Action?
Explore the potential and the limitations of democratic processes for creating the beloved community. During two days of lecture and discussion, consider the kinds of political activities effective in building community and how this political work is connected with the institutional life of the church.
This workshop will be led by Dr. Melissa Harris-Lacewell, Associate Professor of Politics and African American Studies at Princeton University and author of "Barbershops, Bibles, and BET: Everyday Talk and Black Political Thought." Fees for the Institute are $130 for students; $190 for all others (not including lodging). For more information, visit our website, or email. Registration closes January 15.
Civil Rights Bus Tour:
March 22 - 30, 2008
Join Rev. Dr. Gordon and Judy Gibson as they take you on a tour of significant sites of the Southern Civil Rights Movement, offering a journey of experiential learning where you will encounter the sites, sounds, and especially the people who worked to create change during this revolutionary time in our country's history. The course is offered for credit for seminary students, but non-students are encouraged to audit the course, too.
Enrollment to take the course for credit will be limited to 15. An additional 15 seats on the tour will be available to the general public. Registration is on a first-come basis and is due no later than January 18, 2008. Please note that this year the course runs across Easter weekend. Participation for the entire eight days is required for those seeking academic credit and strongly encouraged for all others. See the link on our home page for more information about this course: www.meadville.edu.
This course was offered in 2006 and was a life- and ministry-changing experience for all of the participants. For an account of that trip, please visit our website.
UU Gifts
Celebrate the Holidays at the UU Gift Shop of the Church of the Larger Fellowship (CLF): go to www.clfuu.org click on "CLF Shop" or call (617) 948-6150. You can purchase chalice jewelry, note cards, and more. And you can learn more about the CLF.
All proceeds from sales support the many UU ministries of the Church of the Larger Fellowship, serving UU individuals and small groups all over the world. The Church of the Larger Fellowship is supported by its membership.
