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Services in the Meeting House I N S I D E S T a F F N MONTHLY NEWSLETTER MAY 2018 Services in the Meeting House We are a Our theme for May is Transcendence and Creativity. Welcoming Congregation Sunday, May 6 Life as Quicksand: The More Things Change 10:30a Rev. Liz Lerner Maclay I n s i d e As we all may well know by now, change is difficult. Even sometimes change we seek, strive Lately . 2 for, commit to, can be difficult. It can be tough for a whole community to make a change Spiritual Pathways ........................... 3 or shift; it can be tough for a family, or a couple, or an individual to make a change. And, of Sight Lines .................................. 4 course, plenty of change comes upon us unsought, unwelcome, when we are unready. We Commitment Drive .......................... 5 will explore the experience of change and look at some considerations and perspectives that might help us navigate this perennial challenge. Annual Meeting Information ................. 6 Young people begin in their classrooms and worship in chapel. Community Life ............................. 9 Spiritual Development ..................... 11 Sunday, May 13 Guns into Plowshares: Change Is Gonna Come! Social Justice ...............................12 10:30a Rev. Liz Lerner Maclay We will be taking our part in the Mother’s Day weekend wave of worship and action for gun Monthly Calendar ..........................14 control legislation. Like our Jewish and Muslim siblings who will already have held their ser- vices for gun control, and along with our Christian siblings who will be holding similar ser- S t a f f vices this morning, our topic will be gun violence and the need for safe and responsible gun Rev. Elizabeth Lerner Maclay, Minister control. Our service will involve many members and friends of First Unitarian and feature the [email protected] quilt we have used for annual vigils, made from the clothes of children lost to gun violence. Come early to find parking, bring family and friends with you. And stay after the service for a Rev. Gene Dyszlewski, Community Minister special lunch reception, where we will write letters and cards to our legislators, articulating Rev. Gwendolyn Howard, Community Minister our clear support for particular gun control bills up for consideration now. Cathy Seggel, Director of Religious Education And mark your calendars for two days later – Tuesday, May 15 at 4:00p – when people [email protected] from all the congregations involved in this effort will gather at the State House to share our Frederick Jodry, Music Director commitment to this legislation and deliver our cards and letters to our representatives. Your Posey Kooris, Administrator presence, your family’s presence, your friends’ and neighbors’ presence, can make a huge [email protected] difference in this unique demonstration of faith communities united for gun control. Please Jenn Nardone, Membership Coordinator make this a priority in your May schedule. Details about places and times to convene and [email protected] head to the State House will be available closer to the date – stay tuned! Walter O. Sotelo, Administrative Assistant Children and Youth in sixth–twelfth grades will attend the service. Jaime Durango, Building Manager All others will meet in the Auditorium for a special program. Pedro Vasquez & Ruben Delgado, Evening Childcare for infants to three-year-olds open on the second floor of the Parish House. Security & Sunday Building Managers Sunday, May 20 Coming of Age Service: A Multigenerational Service 10:30a Eighth-Graders & their Mentors N e w s l e t t e r Cathy Seggel, DRE & Rev. Liz Lerner Maclay Our annual recognition of eighth-grade Coming of Age honorees will be the centerpiece of Posey Kooris, Managing Editor the service. With mentors by their sides, the class will share reflections about their individual Susan Fisher, Proof Editor beliefs, and the congregation will celebrate and affirm the beginning of the next stage of Design Consultant, Amy Webb their lifelong faith development. Please join us for this meaningful rite of passage. Next Deadline: May 15 A Community Collection will be taken to support the work of Dorcas International Institute. Childcare for infants to three-year-olds open on the second floor of the Parish House. First Unitarian Church of Providence Sunday, May 27 First Unitarian is warmly invited to worship at Bell Street Chapel One Benevolent Street 10:00a Providence, Rhode Island 02906 Tel: 401.421.7970 No Sunday School classes. Fax: 401.276.4291 Brown University Medical School will hold commencement exercises in our Meeting House. Web: www.firstunitarianprov.org Bell Street Chapel is located at 5 Bell Street, off Broadway, on the West Side of Providence. news at First Unitarian MAY 2018 Lately . Our theme for May is transcendence, a topic I a sustainable schedule, leaving time for my family and for some time look forward to exploring across our worship to draw breath and work on my health and all that good stuff. To be calendar and programs. Transcendence is one clear, I’m not burning out, and my health is fine – but burning the of those words that can be hard to get ahold candle at both ends takes a toll, and I want to do better before it starts of, since it means something that is inherently taking a toll on me and, by extension, First Unitarian. beyond tangible, ordinary experience – some- So, here’s my first attempt at it, sharing this weakness with you all, thing sublime, extraordinary, revelatory, beautiful, uplifting, or deep- and asking for your support. ly moving, pointing beyond itself, taking us beyond ourselves. See? My schedule is this: There’s a there there, but it’s hard to wrangle. Mondays, Tuesdays, and Wednesdays: I am in the office and/ So far my musings on this theme are taking me in an unexpected or in meetings, available by appointment afternoons and direction: What are the conditions for transcendence? In other words, evenings. what circumstances support experiences of transcendence? But as Thursdays: I am working from home on writing and research I’ve begun to ponder it in relationship to ministry and First Unitarian for sermons, services, and justice work. and things uppermost in my awareness, it feels like maybe I actual- Fridays: My day off. ly need to address the opposite of transcendence (or, at least, that Saturdays: Dedicated to services, meetings, gatherings, which makes transcendence possible: giving it room and having time fine-tuning worship, etc. and energy to experience or engender or even just look around and Sundays: Worship and congregational meetings. notice transcendence) – that is, schedules and calendars and delinea- From now on, I’m going to do all I can to keep to it. This means I tions of time. Because there are two things that are true for me about won’t be looking at email on Fridays – maybe even over the weekend. transcendence. One is that I hope and believe that church life, well It means I will be working, but not in meetings, on Thursdays. Your done, sometimes can be good enough to offer us some moments of understanding will do a great deal to help me manage this. And, of transcendence. The other is that transcendence needs some room course, if you have an emergency, please let me know. I never want and time to manifest. Without room and time, I don’t think it happens, the usual schedule to keep me from being able to help in an urgent at least not in my experience. situation. As long as I’ve been a minister, I’ve had the same weakness – well, Lastly, as people have pointed out to me, attending to my own perhaps more than one, but always, regardless of others, this one: self-care allows me also to model it for the congregation. I know there self-care. When the First Unitarian Search Committee was talking to are a lot of folks at First Unitarian who feel swamped by responsibil- my references, they heard the same thing from most of them: Liz is ities. You know – and I have preached it, and will again – that we all “challenged by” or “terrible at” self-care, “the thing she’ll need the need to make time for ourselves, for our own self-nurture and suste- most help with is self-care,” “if I had to pick her biggest weakness, it’d nance. So please take this note as an opportunity to consider your be self-care” . you get the picture. self-care, and how you can best attend to your own needs and yearn- The first year of a new ministry is always extra busy, because every- ings. Do it for yourself, because you deserve it. And let me remind thing is new, and so extra work goes into foundation laying and tak- you, along with myself, that this is also a form of faithfulness, because ing in new information and all the rest. Plus – what a year we’re hav- the stronger we each are, the stronger we can be for each other. ing! I can’t tell you how much I am enjoying this time learning about Thank you in advance for anything you do – or don’t do! – in sup- all of you and Providence and Rhode Island, how much I care about all port of this goal. In 2020, I will be marking my 25th year in ministry the ministry we’re doing together and all the wonderful things hap- – seems like a good time by which to have made real progress on this pening at First Unitarian. Truly, I love it and I’m fired up about it all the – so I’m starting now. And I hope that, among other things, attending time. And, as usual, my self-care regimen is largely nonexistent.
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