We welcome all to our inclusive spiritual community. We affirm our Unitarian Universalist principles and put them into action by worshipping together, caring for one another, and working for a safe, just, and sustainable world.

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Worship Service and Church School

Sunday service in the Meeting House. Lay-led informal summer servuices starting June 22 at 9 a.m. for a half-hour. See below for dates.

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 Circle Mininstry Plant Sale May 11

Photo of the Week

News and Links

What a fabulous success our Lobster Roll Sale was!    This year’s net profit was $8,456.29!  1126 lobster rolls just may be a record. Thunderous applause to our co-chairs, Betsy Millard and Penny and Art Myles!   

Click here for the Picture Gallery.      

We still need contributions of no longer used cameras for our new fundraiser. See Other Happenings for details.

Click here for directions to First Parish

Church Services and Sermon Topics

SUMMER SERVICES BEGIN JUNE 22

At 9 AM in the Meeting House. One half-hour, lay-led, informal, always worthwhile. Watch here for details about each.

June 22
July 13
July 20
July 27
August 3
August 10
August 17
August 24

25% of our non-pledge plate offering from February through August will go directly to our Unitarian Universalist Service Committee for domestic disaster relief.

If you wish to receive your newsletter in hardcopy form, please phone or e-mail Sandy Bailey, First Parish Administrator, at 781-383-1100 or sbailey@firstparishcohasset.org.

From the Minister

Our Unitarian Universalist principles are dear to us all, from “the inherent worth and dignity of every person” to “respect for the interdependent web of all existence.”   How often we hear them and speak them as if they were a creed, not unlike the Apostles Creed or the Nicene Creed familiar to some of us from earlier experience in exclusively Christian traditions.   Yet our principles aren’t a creed; they’re not writ in stone as hard and fast beliefs.  They’re dynamic guidelines of our living tradition that draws from many sources, sources that directly follow those more familiar UU principles in the bylaws of our Unitarian Universalist Association.  

The pivotal word is not creed, but covenant.   The prologue to our principles and purposes is not, “I believe in,” though we may well believe in our principles, but “We, the member congregations of the Unitarian Universalist Association, covenant to affirm and promote….”    The primary verb is covenant.   And the primary subject is we. 

We are in relationship with other congregations.  We are in relationship with one another.  It is a relationship of covenant.   We are in a dynamic relationship of promise, of good faith, of mutual understanding, as we seek to affirm and promote what we recognize as our principles and what we understand as the multiple sources of a tradition that lives.  

In covenant, we come together for worship, for religious education, for fellowship, for justice making, and for decision making.   On Sunday morning, May 18, directly after our worship service in the Meeting House, we’ll gather for our Annual Meeting, a time of pivotal decision making in covenant mode.  Childcare is available, so all can attend!   At this time, reflections are offered in the form of reports on the year past, and decisions are made in the form of discussion and votes on the year ahead.   Who will we be?  How will we be?  And by what means will we continue to be?  

What a precious tradition this is, a tradition that lives, forged through covenant, unfolding through the community that we are and the community we agree to be. 

With love and anticipation,

Jan

UUSC-UUA Cyclone Nargis Relief Fund

Our Unitarian Universalist Service Committee (UUSC) and the Unitarian Universalist Association (UUA) have joined to launch a humanitarian relief fund to help cyclone survivors in Myanmar (formerly Burma). Cyclone Nargis hit Myanmar on Saturday, May 3, 2008, with wind speeds of up to 120 miles per hour, devastating coastal and inland regions. Perhaps over 100,000 re dead, tens of thousands are missing, and millions more have been left homeless.  Everyone is aware of the obstacles raised by the ruling junta to adequate outside help. Nevertheless, it is urgent that we try.. Please donate to the UUSC-UUA Cyclone Nargis Relief fund. http://www.uusc.org//info/support.Cyclonenargis.html or mail donations to:

Unitarian Universalist Service Committee UUSC-UUA Cyclone Nargis Relief Fund P.O. Box 845259 Boston, MA 02284-5259

RENEWAL HOUSE WISH LIST
Renewal House is a ministry on behalf of women in crisis and their children. It is one of many ministries of our Unitarian Universalist Urban Ministry in Roxbury. April marks our month-long drive to benefit Renewal House.

We hope it will involve all generations. Please leave your donations in the cabinet in the hall next to the Atkinson Room.

Needed are:

CAMERA PROJECT

First Parish has joined eBay Giving Works.which supports 12,000 nonprofits helping them raise more than $90 million since 2003 by selling items on eBay.

We are participating by selling donated cameras.. To meet our goal we need to acquire and sell an additional 10-15 cameras per week for the next few nonths. To do this we need a significant and immediate increase in donations.

Let our chalice shine! Be a First Parish UU emissary. Invite your un-churched friends to church.
We have a faith worth sharing and a church worth growing!