Monday, November 06, 2006
The Arbella - Newsletter for November 2006
Arbella November 2006
for calendar of events go to www.fpwatertown.org
Services/Sermon Topics
Sunday, November 5th at 11:00am
“Love and Death” Andrea Greenwood
Despite the title, this is not any sort of homage to Woody Allen! Nor am I planning to talk particularly about grief. Instead what I am hoping to think about with you is more about how we demonstrate our connections to one another when confronting mortality. Do we value intellectual honesty above all else? Can our desire to be a comfort to others matter more than what we believe?
Music: First Parish Choir will be singing
Greeters: Jean Merkl and John Gorman
Social Hour: Will and Sue Twombly
Sunday, November 12 at 11:00am
“In Dreams” Mark W. Harris
My brother was a big Roy Orbison fan when I was a kid. It seemed like every night that amazing voice of Orbison’s would fill our house. I was upset when he died so young. “In Dreams” was one of his hits, and its title points toward the reconciling of expectations and dreams with the reality we must live with when those dreams do not always work out. How do we rekindle dreams in our lives when they go awry? (This sermon was originally scheduled for October 29)
Greeters: Jane Knuttunen and Bobbie Brown
Social Hour: Mary Ellen Howe and Elisabeth Strekalovsky
Sunday, November 19th at 11:00am
Intergenerational Thanksgiving Service.
We will have our annual intergenerational service where we see our historic silver, eat corn muffins, hear a story and celebrate our gratitude for life and its bounty. If you can make corn muffins, please speak to Mark.
Music: First Parish Member,Charlyn Bethell will play oboe; Youth Choir singing “Now We are Met”, Circle Round the Moon”, and “Amani Utupe.”
Greeters: Judy and Roger Kamm
Social Hour: Martha Scott and David Morrison
Sunday, November 26 at 11:00am
“Picking the Dump” Mark W. Harris
When I was young, a perfectly normal activity was picking the dump. Many kids found their first bicycles there, and their parents often collected amazingly nice pieces of furniture. Recently, at my wife’s encouragement, we have begun to collect compost, to nourish the earth next to our house, and not add any more to our trash volume. What can we learn from the leftovers of life, especially at a holiday time when we have so many?
Greeters: Johanna Swift Hart and Kyle Hart
Social Hour: Kelly and Kyle Morton
Captain’s Log
This month we have our most important fund raiser of the year, the annual Service Auction. I encourage you to to attend, and also to make silent bids on the items the first two Sundays of this month. We had a good turnout and positive energy at our Strategic Planning meeting, and there will be a follow-up on Saturday, December 2. Now that we have a better sense of who we are, future meetings will answer the questions: where do we actually want to go, and what do we want to do in the years ahead. Stay tuned.
Many of us now begin to prepare for holiday mode. Thanksgiving has taken on a new meaning for me this year after having read the book 1491 by Charles Mann over the summer. You may hear more in a sermon eventually. This books now tops the paperback best seller list. I think he makes at least two very key points which change our perceptions. First, we often think of the Americas as being very sparsely settled and undeveloped prior to the arrival of the white man.
We have this myth that the natives were close to nature and the earth, but living in completely undeveloped civilizations. So there is this kind of wonderfully “green,” but really “primitive” idea of their cultures. What Mann suggests is that populations were actually quite large, and that advancements in agriculture , and in other ways were quite sophisticated. In fact it was a more “salubrious “ place to live than Europe with its pollution, diseases, etc.
These ideas require us to change some myths we are mostly reluctant to give up. Part of the American psyche is that this new land was an undeveloped Eden. We often hear that we have destroyed this Eden by altering the landscape with development. Second, we have this idea that the natives lived in a wilderness which mostly remained that way because they had so little impact on their environment. We therefore think we are morally bound to restore this pristine state. While Mann might argue that we are morally bound to take care of the earth, it is absurd for us to believe that the natives never changed their environment. In fact they built up mounds for houses and garden, and the construction of earthen fish weirs, and they practiced such forest and agricultural planning measures as burning. More than 1/2 of the world’s crops today were developed in the Americas. Is this to prove the natives were as uncaring as the white man in terms of destroying the environment? No. What it shows is that you can have an impact on the earth, but when it is well planned and organized technology, it can maintain and replenish the earth rather than be destructive of its resources.
So Mann shows us how developed things really were. The other side of a two edged sword is that while we maintain this myth of an undeveloped America that was pristine and virgin, we also inadvertently paint a picture of native cultures as being unable to develop sophisticated economies and technologies. Sure, our positive myth is they loved the earth and didn’t hurt it, but the flip side of that is that we see them as primitive people who were not capable of developing an advanced culture. That is, they were backwards. Mann actually says that in many ways they were more sophisticated than the Europeans, who then came here took their lands, stole their food, and killed them off with their diseases (in the first 130 years of contact, ninety-five per cent of the people died). Thanksgiving is a day of mourning for many Native Americans.
When my family celebrated Thanksgiving we always had these little figures of Pilgrims and Natives marking each place on the table. We may have thought of the smart, sophisticated European taking advantage of the poor, earth loving Native. What Mann’s new picture shows is that the western hemisphere was larger, richer and more populous than Europe, and probably freer, too. It wasn’t perfect before 1491 but it has a lot to teach us about how we may use romantic myths to put down cultures, and how given the chance, we might have chosen to live here in America in 1491, and not in “developed” Europe. May Thanksgiving remind us of what other cultures and traditions have to teach us, not simply in romantic, mythic ways, but in complex and helpful ways, so that we realize that we always have much to learn, and can be “green” in modern technological ways.
A couple of quick notes about services: The sermon announced for October 29 on how we maintain our dreams will be given this month. That week I was invited to preach at Andover Newton at their weekly service, and I wrote the sermon, “Loving Calvin Again, For the First Time,” and that was given here on the 29th. Members and friends, especially newcomers should know that printed copies of the sermon are available every Sunday. Almost every sermon is posted on the website, so if you miss one, you can read them online. This is not true of the dramatic services, such as the one where Thomas Starr King made an appearance. After that service someone asked me about the Universalist church in Charlestown where King and his father served. I’ve forgotten who that was, but I did discover that First Universalist in Charlestown was located at 12 Cross St.. During the last month I also mentioned that there was a Universalist church here in Watertown. It existed from 1826-1866 and the building was on Water Street. If you like those historical dramas, please remember I can bought at the service auction. I’ll even shave a mustache off to please the purchaser and be authentic!
Mark
Among Us
Our deepest sympathy to Sue Kuder and Roger Kamm and their families.
Sue Kuder’s mother died on October 11 in Pennsylvania at the age of 94
Roger Kamm’s mother, Betty Kamm, died on October 25 in Wisconsin at the age 88.
A Memorial service for Peter Fleming was held at First Parish on Saturday, October 28.
Our sympathy to Sachie Karmacharya whose grandmother died recently in Missouri.
A warm welcome to Lee Pierce, who has recently joined the church. We will have a welcoming ceremony for new members in early December. Speak to Mark if you wish to learn more about membership.
Newcomer Breakfast / New UU Class
Mark Harris will be leading a New UU class for newcomers to First Parish on Sunday, mornings November 12 and 19 at 9:30 a.m. We will have sign-ups at the Newcomer Breakfast on November 5, and on the bulletin board. This class familiarizes new people with our history and traditions and the ways in which the church functions. Come find out all you have ever wanted to know about UUism. All newcomers are welcome to attend our breakfast on Sunday, November 5 at 9:30 a.m. Come meet each other and learn a little about yourselves and our church. Great food, too!
Making a Mark
By Mark Caggiano
I am very pleased to be presenting the first in a series of letters to you entitled, “Making a Mark,” pun fully intended. As a student intern, I consider my upcoming two years at First Parish to be critical to my personal
formation as a minister. I hope to learn from and grow with this community as well as to serve and to contribute.
As many of you know, I am a student at Harvard Divinity School. I have just started the second year of the Masters of Divinity program. I am from the North Parish Church of North Andover, Unitarian Universalist,
where I have been a member since 1995. At North Parish, I served as an R.E.teacher for many years. I am a member of the Board of Trustees and have served on the R.E., Investment and Bylaws Committees. The best thing about serving on the committees was learning about the church and its members, so
I hope to have the opportunity to work with you in Watertown in the same way. For new, and even not so new, members it is a wonderful way to grow into a community.
I have also been active in my town and serve on the Board of Selectmen for the Town of North Andover. For any of you non-New England types, this is the equivalent of a town council or board of aldermen. As a Selectman, I
work primarily on land use issues, recycling initiatives and licensing (e.g.restaurants and liquor stores). I have also been involved with local outreach and activism in these areas, such as a ten year effort to block an undesirable trash facility from coming into the town.
I am particularly interested in social action and would love to help out at First Parish. Please let me know if there are any opportunities to pitch in.
As a student, I am actively pursuing various religious subjects. This semester, I will be studying the Hebrew Bible, Introductory Latin, U.U. Religious Education and the Public Intellectual. This last class is a look into the role of the religious intellectual and activist in public life. It is one of those “great book” courses and given that I have not read any of
these “great books”, it is high time I got started. Latin will be the most brain bending of the four classes, but with a little perseverance and a lot of flash cards, I should make it through.
Finally, during coffee hour, please feel free to come up and introduce and re-introduce yourself to me. There are so many new faces that it will take me a while to learn them all, but that is my goal. And please do not
hesitate to share your wisdom or even your constructive criticism. This is a growing experience for me and I would love to share it with you.
Best wishes, Mark C.
Fall Clean-Up
Thanks to those who helped with the Fall Cleanup on October 14. Those who worked included David Benson, Andrea Greenwood, Mark, Levi, Dana and Asher Harris, Kyle and Roane Hart, Michael McCarthy, David Morrison and Martha Scott.
Women and Work
Tuesday, November 28, 6:30 p.m., is the next Women & Work meeting. We meet in the conference room. Attendees "check in" for about 1/2 hour, over dinner from Demos (or from home), and then launch into the program for the evening.
This meeting’s guest speaker will be Johanna Swift Hart CNM. She will share some of her experiences as a nurse-midwife at the Massachusetts Correctional Institution at Framingham (MCI-Framingham). Johanna earned a bachelor's degree from Lafayette College in 1989 and spent her 20s working in restaurants, substitute teaching, writing for small newspapers, living in beautiful small towns, and trying to figure out what to do with her life.
While writing a feature for a ski-town newspaper in Idaho she learned about the profession of nurse-midwifery. A year later Johanna moved to Philadelphia to go to midwifery school, and now divides her time between raising her young kids, getting to know this community, and working at MCI-Framingham.
Giving Boxes - Social Action
The Watertown Food Pantry was our Giving Box for September/October. Suggested needs were: All kinds of condiments and snacks for kids, such as: crackers/cheese, raisins, granola bars, juice boxes etc. They always need other non-perishable items-soups, tuna fish. etc, Let’s give this another week for a final push. The November /December Giving Box will be the Pantry at the Grow Clinic at Boston Medical Center. We will email specific needs, and of course in December we will conduct our Christmas Gifts program.
Service Auction on the 18th
We will conduct a silent auction on Sundays November 5 and 12 . Bid sheets for all services and goods will be available for review and bidding, at tables set up during Social Hour.
On November 18, the Service Auction Potluck Dinner will be held in the Social Hall. Please bring main dish, salad or dessert. We begin at 5:30 p.m. After the dinner a variety of the items (about 20) will be auctioned off live, all others go to the highest bidder on the sheet.
Children are welcome, and childcare will be available. While we hope you can attend the Auction and Potluck, you do not need to be present to be the winning bidder.
Update from Finance Committee
Easy Money!
How often does the Finance Committee get to say that!!! This is just a quick note that if you're shopping on amazon.com, you can easily help First Parish at the same time! Just start your shopping at www.fpwatertown.org and then click on the Amazon icon. A portion of the money you spend will come back to us! Please pass this information on to friends and other loved ones~
Coming soon...
It is fall and soon we will receive Guest at Your Table boxes and other opportunities to help support the UUSC and their work. If you have already given to the UUSC, you may receive a request for financial support directly from them and sometimes this question comes to the Finance Committee: does it matter how I contribute to the UUSC? For First Parish, it does matter! We would like you to consider donating your contribution to the UUSC through the Guest at Your Table program. If all gifts coming from First Parish Watertown are identified as such, they will count toward our totals and toward the percentage of the congregation who gives to the UUSC. We receive acknowledgement, such as the banner that hangs on the pulpit and are recognized for the generosity of the church as a whole rather than segmented individual contributions. So, if you make an annual contribution to the UUSC, please consider waiting until Thanksgiving when we begin our collection for them. If you have other questions about the UUSC and First Parish, please ask Mark Harris.
Help Retire the Debt!!!
This month, you will have the opportunity to help us Retire the Debt!!!
Of the debt we incurred renovating and saving our magnificent sanctuary, only $6700 is left! On November 19th, we will take a special offering to retire this Debt for once and all. Please take a moment to think about what this space and, indeed, what the entire church facility means to you in terms of a financial gift as we move this debt toward completion. Whether you were or were not part of the original campaign, we need your financial generosity so we do not have to roll this debt into our 2007 - 2008 budget. THANK YOU! The Finance Committee
Formatting a Church Pamphlet
We would like to create a new pamphlet. Mark Harris has written the text, but we need someone with computer skills to format it. Interested? Speak to Mark.
R.E.flections by a chaliceD.R.E.amer
by Roberta Altamari
chalicedreamer@verizon.net
cell phone: 617-872-5145
I bring to you fabulous news! Our registration and attendance records are better than ever!! I’m thrilled about this because as I wrote the same thing this time last year, I was sure we’d hit our peak. Last year, we had 47 children & youth registered and this year we have 53 (despite having a few kids not return). New families not only replace our registration numbers for friends who have moved away, but they also bring vitality and diversity to our community. They help us keep life at First Parish interesting. So, welcome to our new R.E. families!
Equally important to continuing to welcome new families is for all of us to keep coming. And the excellent news is that you all are. I don’t have the exact statistics yet, but our records definitely indicate that more children and youth are coming each Sunday than did so last year (which was more than the years before that). Great dedication!
Meanwhile, the DREs on the UUA email group have been talking about how to inspire families to come to church regularly. In her book "Full Circle: Fifteen Ways to Grow Lifelong UUs," Kate Erslev identified regular RE attendance as one of 15 common threads that lifelong Unitarian Universalists said was critical in their commitment to their faith. Regular attendance allows children to make important connections and feel like a genuine part of our community. So the DREs on the list wanted to know, "how can they get families to come more frequently". Rebecca Kelly-Morgan, currently working at Follen in Lexington, shared this great column. I was so inspired that I asked her if I could include it in our church newsletter. You might wonder why I would want to share something like this when our attendance is better than ever. I do so to offer praise and justification for what we are already doing. Bringing our kids to First Parish is important, right, and an essential piece of their spiritual development.
Here are Rebecca’s words: "How often should we come to church?" someone asked me yesterday. I hear that question surprisingly often, and I'm equally surprised that anyone who knows me couldn't already predict the answer. Predictably, my answer was, "as often as we can!" I don't mean that you will never be sick or away or (as in my own family), negotiating around another adult or separate households, but as often as we can. How often is possible? Each one of us has to figure that out for ourselves. I go to church every Sunday morning because I work here, but I also spend Sunday evenings with my personal spiritual community. It is usually possible for me to participate, but it is NEVER convenient. It is usually possible for me to be there, but it is rarely easy to get my family settled, and turn my attention to matters of spirit. This is not a boast, I HATE getting myself motivated at the end of my most demanding work/family day. But it is possible. And it is ultimately for me that I make what is possible a life habit, a Sunday habit. It keeps me sane, accountable, centered. Churchgoing is a habit, and it is up to you to decide how important a habit it is to cultivate for yourself and for your family.
In Jeanne Nieuwejaar’s slender book, 'The Gift of Faith', she recounts a article that appeared in the Boston Globe. A local rabbi was making the case for regular participation in temple services and Hebrew school. This to parents in a community where sports and theatrical events interrupted the religious life of their families. The rabbi asked a group of parents, "How many of you want your children to grow up to be professional soccer players?" No hands were raised. He continued, "How many of you want your children to grow up to be observant Jews?" All the hands were raised. "Then," he said, "Think about the priorities you place on your children's time. Think about what you're really saying to them." Unitarian Universalists take great comfort in being free to choose, but that doesn't make a case for casual church going. Religious life is a choice, and our decisions to participate are a reflection of our values and needs. When we consider the commitment to religious engagement, perhaps we should consider what we need instead of what we want. If we need the sustenance of our community, then we go to church. If we need to stretch past the places where we stop, then we go to church. If we need to deepen our relationships with others, if we need to find and create meaning in our lives, if we need to feed our souls, then we go to church. If we want entertainment, then we go to the movies.
Volunteers: thanks and now we need more!
In other tremendous news, we have had our best year ever for recruiting volunteers. Thank you so much to each of our volunteers!!! During this first season, we have enjoyed a system in which some people have been signing up for many weeks in a row. They have gotten their annual volunteer commitment over in one season and are now free to enjoy attending the worship service for the rest of the year. Best of all, our kids have gotten a multitude of benefits from having the same leaders each week.
We have plenty of openings coming up. We have both short-term assignments (one or two week jobs) in November and December and long-term assignments (with any of our groups) starting in January. Please contact me today to help match your interests and availability with a perfect volunteer job for you. Many people have told me through the years that they are willing to help. I can’t remember who some of you are, so if you are still willing to help please contact me again. Whether you can offer us one day of assisting or two months of leading one of our groups, your help will be greatly appreciated!!
Speaking of volunteers, Andrea Greenwood shared this following guide when she was working with our U.U. Explorers. I found it so interesting that I asked her if I could put it in the Arbella to share with everyone. Here it is.
HOW TO DECIDE WHAT'S THE RIGHT THING TO DO
Some decisions you make aren't terribly important, like what flavor ice cream or what color jacket. But other decisions involve right and wrong, and sometimes it's not easy to know what to do. Whenever you aren't sure what's the right thing to do, stop and think! Ask yourself these questions:
What does my conscience˜that "little voice" inside my head˜say about it?
Could it hurt anyone˜including me?
Is it fair?
Would it violate the Golden Rule? (How would I feel if somebody did it to me?)
Have I ever been told that it's wrong?
Deep down how do I feel about it?
How will I feel about myself later if I do it?
What would adults I respect say about it?
If you still can't decide, talk it over with someone you trust and respect.
How to contact me:
With so much happening this year, I am working carefully with the R.E. committee about how to maximize my time. Since the priority is to have me serving you on the program level, I will be working a very long Sunday each week (usually 9AM to 7PM). On Monday and Thursday 2 hours (usually 8 to 10AM) Tuesday night: 3 hours (usually 7 to 10PM) and Saturday: 3 hours
Call me during any of these times on my cell phone at 617-872-5145 and I’d be happy to talk to you about any concerns, questions, etc. OR you can email me at chalicedreamer@verizon.net at anytime. I check my church email frequently and will be sure to reply to your email once I read it. If you have an urgent matter and can’t wait to reach me, definitely call me on my cell or at home.
Important dates:
Women’s Spirituality Group is starting
On Tuesday, November 7th at 7:30, we will be hosting a Women’s Circle. Roberta Altamari will lead an ingathering time and Lee Pierce will lead an exploratory part on "what is women’s spirituality". From this evening, we hope to generate a group (or groups) that will cooperatively explore and share our spiritual journeys; share our talents; or otherwise meet our spiritual needs as women! Whether or not you already have a sense of what women’s spirituality is for you, please join us. We guarantee you will leave feeling both inspired and connected! If you can’t attend the meeting, but you would like to share your thoughts, contact Roberta or Lee.
Enneagram Fun
Join us on Tuesday, November 14th at 7:30pm for an interesting evening of exploring the art of enneagram personality typing. The enneagram presents that we primarily fall into one of nine personality types. What type are you? What types might your loved ones be? And what type might the people who drive you crazy be? The enneagram offers us fascinating opportunities for personal exploration and for acceptance of our natural differences. Roberta will lead the workshop while Celeste will make sure to keep it fun. Bring your favorite dessert or beverage.
Collecting Halloween Candy
Anyone and everyone ~ please donate any extra Halloween candy you have to this good cause. We will be giving it to Birthday Wishes to put in piñatas for their kids' birthday parties (at local homeless shelters). So bring all that surplus candy to church in early November and we'll pass it along for this great program.
How your family can help even more ...
Select and purchase a piñatas to donate to Birthday Wishes to put the candy in!
Holiday Pageant is coming .
I can’t believe I’m writing this, but the Holiday season is already coming and with it comes another fun First Parish Holiday Pageant. This year, we will be doing our UU identity pageant, "Celebrating Christmas with our UU Peace Angels". For those of you who don’t know our usual routine, the pageant is an optional activity for everyone who wants to join us (yes, everyone who wants a part gets a part!) and it will be performed during the intergenerational worship service on Sunday, December 17th. Rehearsals will be on Sunday mornings (Nov. 26, Dec. 3, and Dec. 10) at 10am. We will then have a dress rehearsal on Saturday, December 16th at 10am. See me if you have any questions.
Youth group notes!
(all meetings start at 7pm unless otherwise noted)
Friday, Nov. 10th Shopping for supplies for Thanksgiving Food Baskets for local families in need
Friday, Nov. 17th Dinner and overnight adventure with kids from Stow UU church or at Cody’s home highlighted by watching the meteor shower 3:00am-6:00am
Sunday, Dec. 17th Help Mark Caggiano lead intergenerational worship service for Winter Solstice
Early January Cody’s organic farming presentation
For more information
Check out my website, www.chalicedreamer.org, at for up to date information about what your children are doing in their small group gatherings, Coming-of-Age and youth group activities, and volunteer needs.
Holiday Event in December
At the suggestion of Aurora Sherman we will have a potluck supper and discussion in December called “Unplugging the Holidays.” Many UUs wonder how to handle the topic of Santa Claus with their children ; how to celebrate a Christian holiday such as Christmas while you feel you are no longer Christian or feel inundated with the materialism of the holiday ; how do we fit other holidays such as Hanukkah into the mix; what about mixed marriages of Christian and Jewish partners or others. Please join us on Friday, December 15 for a potluck at 6:00 p.m. and a discussion to follow of the holiday season and UUs. We hope to have childcare and perhaps a children’s program during the discussion.
Bible Class on the Gospels This is a special class on the Gospels for the Holiday Season on Sunday nights, December 3 and 10 from 6-8 with Mark Harris. Who wrote the Gospels? How much of the Nativity stories, if any, are history? What were the Gospel writers trying to say about Jesus? (Food provided)
A Gift: an Original Print of the old First Parish by Brigitte Bender
I met Anna Tambureno, a local artist, when I moved to 100 Warren St. Among her art work I noticed a beautiful color etching of the old First Parish before it was torn down. I told her I was a church member and How much I liked her work.
Anna Tambureno: “ Since I was a little girl living on Summer St. I was always fascinate by the structure of the First Parish were a Watertown Savings Bank Drive-up now stands. In 1976, as a member of the Watertown’s Bicentennial committee, I did several drawings of the church. The final colored one has become a popular print used by some Watertown organizations. Yeas later I met Brigitte and through her help our Warren St. Tenant’s Association has received a donation from the Helen Robinson Wright Fund.
As a “Thank You” and a “375th birthday gift I am donating a framed print of the old church to the First Parish at the Nov 12th Service.
New Spot for UUs in South Florida !
Due to major renovations, the Southeast UU Winter Institute in Miami (SWIM) will actually be held in the historic West Palm Beach area.
SWIM's annual intergenerational retreat for UUs and like-minded people of all ages happens every year from December 26th through Jan 1st.
SWIM offers South Florida sunshine, outdoor adventures (including tours, hikes, paddling), workshops (including spirituality and personal growth), programs for families, singles, youth, teens, and young adults, fantastic food, and a new community of friends from across the continent.
Play, laugh, sing, and celebrate New Year's Eve at SWIM! Join UUs from all over North America for a week of fun in the sun! It's a beautiful time of year to be in South Florida.
This year's theme: Sacred Space.
See more online at http://www.swimuu.org
SWIM is a member in good standing of CU2C2, the Council of Unitarian Universalist Camps & Conferences, an Independent Affiliate of the Unitarian Universalist Association.
for calendar of events go to www.fpwatertown.org
Services/Sermon Topics
Sunday, November 5th at 11:00am
“Love and Death” Andrea Greenwood
Despite the title, this is not any sort of homage to Woody Allen! Nor am I planning to talk particularly about grief. Instead what I am hoping to think about with you is more about how we demonstrate our connections to one another when confronting mortality. Do we value intellectual honesty above all else? Can our desire to be a comfort to others matter more than what we believe?
Music: First Parish Choir will be singing
Greeters: Jean Merkl and John Gorman
Social Hour: Will and Sue Twombly
Sunday, November 12 at 11:00am
“In Dreams” Mark W. Harris
My brother was a big Roy Orbison fan when I was a kid. It seemed like every night that amazing voice of Orbison’s would fill our house. I was upset when he died so young. “In Dreams” was one of his hits, and its title points toward the reconciling of expectations and dreams with the reality we must live with when those dreams do not always work out. How do we rekindle dreams in our lives when they go awry? (This sermon was originally scheduled for October 29)
Greeters: Jane Knuttunen and Bobbie Brown
Social Hour: Mary Ellen Howe and Elisabeth Strekalovsky
Sunday, November 19th at 11:00am
Intergenerational Thanksgiving Service.
We will have our annual intergenerational service where we see our historic silver, eat corn muffins, hear a story and celebrate our gratitude for life and its bounty. If you can make corn muffins, please speak to Mark.
Music: First Parish Member,Charlyn Bethell will play oboe; Youth Choir singing “Now We are Met”, Circle Round the Moon”, and “Amani Utupe.”
Greeters: Judy and Roger Kamm
Social Hour: Martha Scott and David Morrison
Sunday, November 26 at 11:00am
“Picking the Dump” Mark W. Harris
When I was young, a perfectly normal activity was picking the dump. Many kids found their first bicycles there, and their parents often collected amazingly nice pieces of furniture. Recently, at my wife’s encouragement, we have begun to collect compost, to nourish the earth next to our house, and not add any more to our trash volume. What can we learn from the leftovers of life, especially at a holiday time when we have so many?
Greeters: Johanna Swift Hart and Kyle Hart
Social Hour: Kelly and Kyle Morton
Captain’s Log
This month we have our most important fund raiser of the year, the annual Service Auction. I encourage you to to attend, and also to make silent bids on the items the first two Sundays of this month. We had a good turnout and positive energy at our Strategic Planning meeting, and there will be a follow-up on Saturday, December 2. Now that we have a better sense of who we are, future meetings will answer the questions: where do we actually want to go, and what do we want to do in the years ahead. Stay tuned.
Many of us now begin to prepare for holiday mode. Thanksgiving has taken on a new meaning for me this year after having read the book 1491 by Charles Mann over the summer. You may hear more in a sermon eventually. This books now tops the paperback best seller list. I think he makes at least two very key points which change our perceptions. First, we often think of the Americas as being very sparsely settled and undeveloped prior to the arrival of the white man.
We have this myth that the natives were close to nature and the earth, but living in completely undeveloped civilizations. So there is this kind of wonderfully “green,” but really “primitive” idea of their cultures. What Mann suggests is that populations were actually quite large, and that advancements in agriculture , and in other ways were quite sophisticated. In fact it was a more “salubrious “ place to live than Europe with its pollution, diseases, etc.
These ideas require us to change some myths we are mostly reluctant to give up. Part of the American psyche is that this new land was an undeveloped Eden. We often hear that we have destroyed this Eden by altering the landscape with development. Second, we have this idea that the natives lived in a wilderness which mostly remained that way because they had so little impact on their environment. We therefore think we are morally bound to restore this pristine state. While Mann might argue that we are morally bound to take care of the earth, it is absurd for us to believe that the natives never changed their environment. In fact they built up mounds for houses and garden, and the construction of earthen fish weirs, and they practiced such forest and agricultural planning measures as burning. More than 1/2 of the world’s crops today were developed in the Americas. Is this to prove the natives were as uncaring as the white man in terms of destroying the environment? No. What it shows is that you can have an impact on the earth, but when it is well planned and organized technology, it can maintain and replenish the earth rather than be destructive of its resources.
So Mann shows us how developed things really were. The other side of a two edged sword is that while we maintain this myth of an undeveloped America that was pristine and virgin, we also inadvertently paint a picture of native cultures as being unable to develop sophisticated economies and technologies. Sure, our positive myth is they loved the earth and didn’t hurt it, but the flip side of that is that we see them as primitive people who were not capable of developing an advanced culture. That is, they were backwards. Mann actually says that in many ways they were more sophisticated than the Europeans, who then came here took their lands, stole their food, and killed them off with their diseases (in the first 130 years of contact, ninety-five per cent of the people died). Thanksgiving is a day of mourning for many Native Americans.
When my family celebrated Thanksgiving we always had these little figures of Pilgrims and Natives marking each place on the table. We may have thought of the smart, sophisticated European taking advantage of the poor, earth loving Native. What Mann’s new picture shows is that the western hemisphere was larger, richer and more populous than Europe, and probably freer, too. It wasn’t perfect before 1491 but it has a lot to teach us about how we may use romantic myths to put down cultures, and how given the chance, we might have chosen to live here in America in 1491, and not in “developed” Europe. May Thanksgiving remind us of what other cultures and traditions have to teach us, not simply in romantic, mythic ways, but in complex and helpful ways, so that we realize that we always have much to learn, and can be “green” in modern technological ways.
A couple of quick notes about services: The sermon announced for October 29 on how we maintain our dreams will be given this month. That week I was invited to preach at Andover Newton at their weekly service, and I wrote the sermon, “Loving Calvin Again, For the First Time,” and that was given here on the 29th. Members and friends, especially newcomers should know that printed copies of the sermon are available every Sunday. Almost every sermon is posted on the website, so if you miss one, you can read them online. This is not true of the dramatic services, such as the one where Thomas Starr King made an appearance. After that service someone asked me about the Universalist church in Charlestown where King and his father served. I’ve forgotten who that was, but I did discover that First Universalist in Charlestown was located at 12 Cross St.. During the last month I also mentioned that there was a Universalist church here in Watertown. It existed from 1826-1866 and the building was on Water Street. If you like those historical dramas, please remember I can bought at the service auction. I’ll even shave a mustache off to please the purchaser and be authentic!
Mark
Among Us
Our deepest sympathy to Sue Kuder and Roger Kamm and their families.
Sue Kuder’s mother died on October 11 in Pennsylvania at the age of 94
Roger Kamm’s mother, Betty Kamm, died on October 25 in Wisconsin at the age 88.
A Memorial service for Peter Fleming was held at First Parish on Saturday, October 28.
Our sympathy to Sachie Karmacharya whose grandmother died recently in Missouri.
A warm welcome to Lee Pierce, who has recently joined the church. We will have a welcoming ceremony for new members in early December. Speak to Mark if you wish to learn more about membership.
Newcomer Breakfast / New UU Class
Mark Harris will be leading a New UU class for newcomers to First Parish on Sunday, mornings November 12 and 19 at 9:30 a.m. We will have sign-ups at the Newcomer Breakfast on November 5, and on the bulletin board. This class familiarizes new people with our history and traditions and the ways in which the church functions. Come find out all you have ever wanted to know about UUism. All newcomers are welcome to attend our breakfast on Sunday, November 5 at 9:30 a.m. Come meet each other and learn a little about yourselves and our church. Great food, too!
Making a Mark
By Mark Caggiano
I am very pleased to be presenting the first in a series of letters to you entitled, “Making a Mark,” pun fully intended. As a student intern, I consider my upcoming two years at First Parish to be critical to my personal
formation as a minister. I hope to learn from and grow with this community as well as to serve and to contribute.
As many of you know, I am a student at Harvard Divinity School. I have just started the second year of the Masters of Divinity program. I am from the North Parish Church of North Andover, Unitarian Universalist,
where I have been a member since 1995. At North Parish, I served as an R.E.teacher for many years. I am a member of the Board of Trustees and have served on the R.E., Investment and Bylaws Committees. The best thing about serving on the committees was learning about the church and its members, so
I hope to have the opportunity to work with you in Watertown in the same way. For new, and even not so new, members it is a wonderful way to grow into a community.
I have also been active in my town and serve on the Board of Selectmen for the Town of North Andover. For any of you non-New England types, this is the equivalent of a town council or board of aldermen. As a Selectman, I
work primarily on land use issues, recycling initiatives and licensing (e.g.restaurants and liquor stores). I have also been involved with local outreach and activism in these areas, such as a ten year effort to block an undesirable trash facility from coming into the town.
I am particularly interested in social action and would love to help out at First Parish. Please let me know if there are any opportunities to pitch in.
As a student, I am actively pursuing various religious subjects. This semester, I will be studying the Hebrew Bible, Introductory Latin, U.U. Religious Education and the Public Intellectual. This last class is a look into the role of the religious intellectual and activist in public life. It is one of those “great book” courses and given that I have not read any of
these “great books”, it is high time I got started. Latin will be the most brain bending of the four classes, but with a little perseverance and a lot of flash cards, I should make it through.
Finally, during coffee hour, please feel free to come up and introduce and re-introduce yourself to me. There are so many new faces that it will take me a while to learn them all, but that is my goal. And please do not
hesitate to share your wisdom or even your constructive criticism. This is a growing experience for me and I would love to share it with you.
Best wishes, Mark C.
Fall Clean-Up
Thanks to those who helped with the Fall Cleanup on October 14. Those who worked included David Benson, Andrea Greenwood, Mark, Levi, Dana and Asher Harris, Kyle and Roane Hart, Michael McCarthy, David Morrison and Martha Scott.
Women and Work
Tuesday, November 28, 6:30 p.m., is the next Women & Work meeting. We meet in the conference room. Attendees "check in" for about 1/2 hour, over dinner from Demos (or from home), and then launch into the program for the evening.
This meeting’s guest speaker will be Johanna Swift Hart CNM. She will share some of her experiences as a nurse-midwife at the Massachusetts Correctional Institution at Framingham (MCI-Framingham). Johanna earned a bachelor's degree from Lafayette College in 1989 and spent her 20s working in restaurants, substitute teaching, writing for small newspapers, living in beautiful small towns, and trying to figure out what to do with her life.
While writing a feature for a ski-town newspaper in Idaho she learned about the profession of nurse-midwifery. A year later Johanna moved to Philadelphia to go to midwifery school, and now divides her time between raising her young kids, getting to know this community, and working at MCI-Framingham.
Giving Boxes - Social Action
The Watertown Food Pantry was our Giving Box for September/October. Suggested needs were: All kinds of condiments and snacks for kids, such as: crackers/cheese, raisins, granola bars, juice boxes etc. They always need other non-perishable items-soups, tuna fish. etc, Let’s give this another week for a final push. The November /December Giving Box will be the Pantry at the Grow Clinic at Boston Medical Center. We will email specific needs, and of course in December we will conduct our Christmas Gifts program.
Service Auction on the 18th
We will conduct a silent auction on Sundays November 5 and 12 . Bid sheets for all services and goods will be available for review and bidding, at tables set up during Social Hour.
On November 18, the Service Auction Potluck Dinner will be held in the Social Hall. Please bring main dish, salad or dessert. We begin at 5:30 p.m. After the dinner a variety of the items (about 20) will be auctioned off live, all others go to the highest bidder on the sheet.
Children are welcome, and childcare will be available. While we hope you can attend the Auction and Potluck, you do not need to be present to be the winning bidder.
Update from Finance Committee
Easy Money!
How often does the Finance Committee get to say that!!! This is just a quick note that if you're shopping on amazon.com, you can easily help First Parish at the same time! Just start your shopping at www.fpwatertown.org and then click on the Amazon icon. A portion of the money you spend will come back to us! Please pass this information on to friends and other loved ones~
Coming soon...
It is fall and soon we will receive Guest at Your Table boxes and other opportunities to help support the UUSC and their work. If you have already given to the UUSC, you may receive a request for financial support directly from them and sometimes this question comes to the Finance Committee: does it matter how I contribute to the UUSC? For First Parish, it does matter! We would like you to consider donating your contribution to the UUSC through the Guest at Your Table program. If all gifts coming from First Parish Watertown are identified as such, they will count toward our totals and toward the percentage of the congregation who gives to the UUSC. We receive acknowledgement, such as the banner that hangs on the pulpit and are recognized for the generosity of the church as a whole rather than segmented individual contributions. So, if you make an annual contribution to the UUSC, please consider waiting until Thanksgiving when we begin our collection for them. If you have other questions about the UUSC and First Parish, please ask Mark Harris.
Help Retire the Debt!!!
This month, you will have the opportunity to help us Retire the Debt!!!
Of the debt we incurred renovating and saving our magnificent sanctuary, only $6700 is left! On November 19th, we will take a special offering to retire this Debt for once and all. Please take a moment to think about what this space and, indeed, what the entire church facility means to you in terms of a financial gift as we move this debt toward completion. Whether you were or were not part of the original campaign, we need your financial generosity so we do not have to roll this debt into our 2007 - 2008 budget. THANK YOU! The Finance Committee
Formatting a Church Pamphlet
We would like to create a new pamphlet. Mark Harris has written the text, but we need someone with computer skills to format it. Interested? Speak to Mark.
R.E.flections by a chaliceD.R.E.amer
by Roberta Altamari
chalicedreamer@verizon.net
cell phone: 617-872-5145
I bring to you fabulous news! Our registration and attendance records are better than ever!! I’m thrilled about this because as I wrote the same thing this time last year, I was sure we’d hit our peak. Last year, we had 47 children & youth registered and this year we have 53 (despite having a few kids not return). New families not only replace our registration numbers for friends who have moved away, but they also bring vitality and diversity to our community. They help us keep life at First Parish interesting. So, welcome to our new R.E. families!
Equally important to continuing to welcome new families is for all of us to keep coming. And the excellent news is that you all are. I don’t have the exact statistics yet, but our records definitely indicate that more children and youth are coming each Sunday than did so last year (which was more than the years before that). Great dedication!
Meanwhile, the DREs on the UUA email group have been talking about how to inspire families to come to church regularly. In her book "Full Circle: Fifteen Ways to Grow Lifelong UUs," Kate Erslev identified regular RE attendance as one of 15 common threads that lifelong Unitarian Universalists said was critical in their commitment to their faith. Regular attendance allows children to make important connections and feel like a genuine part of our community. So the DREs on the list wanted to know, "how can they get families to come more frequently". Rebecca Kelly-Morgan, currently working at Follen in Lexington, shared this great column. I was so inspired that I asked her if I could include it in our church newsletter. You might wonder why I would want to share something like this when our attendance is better than ever. I do so to offer praise and justification for what we are already doing. Bringing our kids to First Parish is important, right, and an essential piece of their spiritual development.
Here are Rebecca’s words: "How often should we come to church?" someone asked me yesterday. I hear that question surprisingly often, and I'm equally surprised that anyone who knows me couldn't already predict the answer. Predictably, my answer was, "as often as we can!" I don't mean that you will never be sick or away or (as in my own family), negotiating around another adult or separate households, but as often as we can. How often is possible? Each one of us has to figure that out for ourselves. I go to church every Sunday morning because I work here, but I also spend Sunday evenings with my personal spiritual community. It is usually possible for me to participate, but it is NEVER convenient. It is usually possible for me to be there, but it is rarely easy to get my family settled, and turn my attention to matters of spirit. This is not a boast, I HATE getting myself motivated at the end of my most demanding work/family day. But it is possible. And it is ultimately for me that I make what is possible a life habit, a Sunday habit. It keeps me sane, accountable, centered. Churchgoing is a habit, and it is up to you to decide how important a habit it is to cultivate for yourself and for your family.
In Jeanne Nieuwejaar’s slender book, 'The Gift of Faith', she recounts a article that appeared in the Boston Globe. A local rabbi was making the case for regular participation in temple services and Hebrew school. This to parents in a community where sports and theatrical events interrupted the religious life of their families. The rabbi asked a group of parents, "How many of you want your children to grow up to be professional soccer players?" No hands were raised. He continued, "How many of you want your children to grow up to be observant Jews?" All the hands were raised. "Then," he said, "Think about the priorities you place on your children's time. Think about what you're really saying to them." Unitarian Universalists take great comfort in being free to choose, but that doesn't make a case for casual church going. Religious life is a choice, and our decisions to participate are a reflection of our values and needs. When we consider the commitment to religious engagement, perhaps we should consider what we need instead of what we want. If we need the sustenance of our community, then we go to church. If we need to stretch past the places where we stop, then we go to church. If we need to deepen our relationships with others, if we need to find and create meaning in our lives, if we need to feed our souls, then we go to church. If we want entertainment, then we go to the movies.
Volunteers: thanks and now we need more!
In other tremendous news, we have had our best year ever for recruiting volunteers. Thank you so much to each of our volunteers!!! During this first season, we have enjoyed a system in which some people have been signing up for many weeks in a row. They have gotten their annual volunteer commitment over in one season and are now free to enjoy attending the worship service for the rest of the year. Best of all, our kids have gotten a multitude of benefits from having the same leaders each week.
We have plenty of openings coming up. We have both short-term assignments (one or two week jobs) in November and December and long-term assignments (with any of our groups) starting in January. Please contact me today to help match your interests and availability with a perfect volunteer job for you. Many people have told me through the years that they are willing to help. I can’t remember who some of you are, so if you are still willing to help please contact me again. Whether you can offer us one day of assisting or two months of leading one of our groups, your help will be greatly appreciated!!
Speaking of volunteers, Andrea Greenwood shared this following guide when she was working with our U.U. Explorers. I found it so interesting that I asked her if I could put it in the Arbella to share with everyone. Here it is.
HOW TO DECIDE WHAT'S THE RIGHT THING TO DO
Some decisions you make aren't terribly important, like what flavor ice cream or what color jacket. But other decisions involve right and wrong, and sometimes it's not easy to know what to do. Whenever you aren't sure what's the right thing to do, stop and think! Ask yourself these questions:
What does my conscience˜that "little voice" inside my head˜say about it?
Could it hurt anyone˜including me?
Is it fair?
Would it violate the Golden Rule? (How would I feel if somebody did it to me?)
Have I ever been told that it's wrong?
Deep down how do I feel about it?
How will I feel about myself later if I do it?
What would adults I respect say about it?
If you still can't decide, talk it over with someone you trust and respect.
How to contact me:
With so much happening this year, I am working carefully with the R.E. committee about how to maximize my time. Since the priority is to have me serving you on the program level, I will be working a very long Sunday each week (usually 9AM to 7PM). On Monday and Thursday 2 hours (usually 8 to 10AM) Tuesday night: 3 hours (usually 7 to 10PM) and Saturday: 3 hours
Call me during any of these times on my cell phone at 617-872-5145 and I’d be happy to talk to you about any concerns, questions, etc. OR you can email me at chalicedreamer@verizon.net at anytime. I check my church email frequently and will be sure to reply to your email once I read it. If you have an urgent matter and can’t wait to reach me, definitely call me on my cell or at home.
Important dates:
Women’s Spirituality Group is starting
On Tuesday, November 7th at 7:30, we will be hosting a Women’s Circle. Roberta Altamari will lead an ingathering time and Lee Pierce will lead an exploratory part on "what is women’s spirituality". From this evening, we hope to generate a group (or groups) that will cooperatively explore and share our spiritual journeys; share our talents; or otherwise meet our spiritual needs as women! Whether or not you already have a sense of what women’s spirituality is for you, please join us. We guarantee you will leave feeling both inspired and connected! If you can’t attend the meeting, but you would like to share your thoughts, contact Roberta or Lee.
Enneagram Fun
Join us on Tuesday, November 14th at 7:30pm for an interesting evening of exploring the art of enneagram personality typing. The enneagram presents that we primarily fall into one of nine personality types. What type are you? What types might your loved ones be? And what type might the people who drive you crazy be? The enneagram offers us fascinating opportunities for personal exploration and for acceptance of our natural differences. Roberta will lead the workshop while Celeste will make sure to keep it fun. Bring your favorite dessert or beverage.
Collecting Halloween Candy
Anyone and everyone ~ please donate any extra Halloween candy you have to this good cause. We will be giving it to Birthday Wishes to put in piñatas for their kids' birthday parties (at local homeless shelters). So bring all that surplus candy to church in early November and we'll pass it along for this great program.
How your family can help even more ...
Select and purchase a piñatas to donate to Birthday Wishes to put the candy in!
Holiday Pageant is coming .
I can’t believe I’m writing this, but the Holiday season is already coming and with it comes another fun First Parish Holiday Pageant. This year, we will be doing our UU identity pageant, "Celebrating Christmas with our UU Peace Angels". For those of you who don’t know our usual routine, the pageant is an optional activity for everyone who wants to join us (yes, everyone who wants a part gets a part!) and it will be performed during the intergenerational worship service on Sunday, December 17th. Rehearsals will be on Sunday mornings (Nov. 26, Dec. 3, and Dec. 10) at 10am. We will then have a dress rehearsal on Saturday, December 16th at 10am. See me if you have any questions.
Youth group notes!
(all meetings start at 7pm unless otherwise noted)
Friday, Nov. 10th Shopping for supplies for Thanksgiving Food Baskets for local families in need
Friday, Nov. 17th Dinner and overnight adventure with kids from Stow UU church or at Cody’s home highlighted by watching the meteor shower 3:00am-6:00am
Sunday, Dec. 17th Help Mark Caggiano lead intergenerational worship service for Winter Solstice
Early January Cody’s organic farming presentation
For more information
Check out my website, www.chalicedreamer.org, at for up to date information about what your children are doing in their small group gatherings, Coming-of-Age and youth group activities, and volunteer needs.
Holiday Event in December
At the suggestion of Aurora Sherman we will have a potluck supper and discussion in December called “Unplugging the Holidays.” Many UUs wonder how to handle the topic of Santa Claus with their children ; how to celebrate a Christian holiday such as Christmas while you feel you are no longer Christian or feel inundated with the materialism of the holiday ; how do we fit other holidays such as Hanukkah into the mix; what about mixed marriages of Christian and Jewish partners or others. Please join us on Friday, December 15 for a potluck at 6:00 p.m. and a discussion to follow of the holiday season and UUs. We hope to have childcare and perhaps a children’s program during the discussion.
Bible Class on the Gospels This is a special class on the Gospels for the Holiday Season on Sunday nights, December 3 and 10 from 6-8 with Mark Harris. Who wrote the Gospels? How much of the Nativity stories, if any, are history? What were the Gospel writers trying to say about Jesus? (Food provided)
A Gift: an Original Print of the old First Parish by Brigitte Bender
I met Anna Tambureno, a local artist, when I moved to 100 Warren St. Among her art work I noticed a beautiful color etching of the old First Parish before it was torn down. I told her I was a church member and How much I liked her work.
Anna Tambureno: “ Since I was a little girl living on Summer St. I was always fascinate by the structure of the First Parish were a Watertown Savings Bank Drive-up now stands. In 1976, as a member of the Watertown’s Bicentennial committee, I did several drawings of the church. The final colored one has become a popular print used by some Watertown organizations. Yeas later I met Brigitte and through her help our Warren St. Tenant’s Association has received a donation from the Helen Robinson Wright Fund.
As a “Thank You” and a “375th birthday gift I am donating a framed print of the old church to the First Parish at the Nov 12th Service.
New Spot for UUs in South Florida !
Due to major renovations, the Southeast UU Winter Institute in Miami (SWIM) will actually be held in the historic West Palm Beach area.
SWIM's annual intergenerational retreat for UUs and like-minded people of all ages happens every year from December 26th through Jan 1st.
SWIM offers South Florida sunshine, outdoor adventures (including tours, hikes, paddling), workshops (including spirituality and personal growth), programs for families, singles, youth, teens, and young adults, fantastic food, and a new community of friends from across the continent.
Play, laugh, sing, and celebrate New Year's Eve at SWIM! Join UUs from all over North America for a week of fun in the sun! It's a beautiful time of year to be in South Florida.
This year's theme: Sacred Space.
See more online at http://www.swimuu.org
SWIM is a member in good standing of CU2C2, the Council of Unitarian Universalist Camps & Conferences, an Independent Affiliate of the Unitarian Universalist Association.