TOP OF THE SQUARE First Parish Plymouth Unitarian Universalist National Memorial Pilgrim Church 19 Town Square, Plymouth, MA 02360 508-747-1606 www.firstparishplymouthuu.org [email protected] Reverend Ed Hardy Worship: 10:00 am Sunday Director of Music, Pianist: Niles Brandon Religious Education Director: Kim Caple Director of Music Emerita: Lynne Wilkinson Office Administrator: Jeanne McKinney November, 2015 Newsletter Thanks to a very generous member, we are about to dramatically improve our comfort in the Meetinghouse! Before long, we will be sitting on brand new pew cushions, and those current lumpy, hard, and ancient cushions will be history! We are confident this project will sit well with us all! Stay tuned for more news. There will be a display of tushy, uh cushy, samples to try out, and a variety of colors to choose from! And everyone will be asked to vote on the design they like best. Sitting in the Meetinghouse is soon to become a whole new experience! And while we’re at it, maybe someone else will step up and underwrite matching carpeting! A huge Thank You! goes out to the donor who wishes to remain anonymous. Pilgrim's Journey Last night on PBS some lesioned guy being screwed to death by legions of viral invisibility blurted the great cliché of regret: I wish I could be twenty again and know what I know now ... My own regrets are equally foolish. And, I wonder, how the hell is it I've reached a place where I'd give what's left of my allotment of sunsets and frozen dinners for some unholy replay of just one hour in some nearly forgotten time and place? ~Excerpt from This Is the Time of Grasshoppers and All That I See Is Dying by Adrian C. Louis Like all of us, my brother is dying, but he has a prognosis, a scientific date, a medical guess. He's resigned. He doesn't want to answer the big questions he never asked-about God, or creation, or good versus evil-for him it is pretty much poppycock. He is not fighting the "good fight" with death, as if cancer were a war, or a battle he has a snowball in hell chance of winning. He wants simple things-like being able to taste his food. Just one enjoyable bite, might be enough. He loved Casey's Steamed Hotdogs back in Natick. Oh, that we could slide backwards over fifty years or so, and even if we dragged all our knowledge with us, we would probably be as wasteful with the hours as we were in our youth. Seventy three years and memory has sanded off all the sharp edges, the details, the specifics; he doesn't want details from the past, yet he says, "I love you" with more frequency than ever. I imagine he would tattoo it on my arm if he could. He already, then and now, etched it on my heart. "I love you", was a precious commodity seldom found in our youth. Hard work, good fortune, grace, or just simple coincidence he found along the way what he could seldom could say til now. ~ Rev Ed Hardy Just like the seasons, people change Thank you to the Melville and Caple families for their Coastsweep efforts. The kids helped to collect hundreds of trash items that would otherwise have polluted our oceans. The items were also logged by our 'citizen scientists' to help researchers with their efforts to save marine life. Religious Education is off to a wonderful start! We have over thirty students now registered in our three classes. Thank you to our teachers Diane Stillman, Chris Lennon, Meghan Snee, and Aaron Smith. Students are exploring the theme Creating Love in developmentally appropriate ways. Each week upon returning to coffee hour, your children should be giving you a piece of paper that outlines what we have done for the week as well as some home connections and any schedule changes. Our hope is that you will have some conversations about how you can Create Love as a family. Also, this 'ticket' acts as a way for your child to reconnect with you in the church building, ending the Religious Education time. Please help us in promoting a safe and enjoyable coffee hour experience for all by reminding your child(ren) to walk and stay on the lower level of the building. Operation Be the Good Last month we introduced Operation Be the Good to the kids. This month it will be your turn! Find ways you and your family can do small Random Acts of Kindness (RAK) to spread joy in the world. It could be picking up trash on the beach or along your favorite walking trail, paying for a stranger's coffee, or just holding a door open with a smile. Please help us propel this movement by incorporating Operation Be the Good into your routine. Use the cards provided to leave at the scene of a RAK or take a photo and send it to me to add to our collection. Each Sunday we'll highlight a RAK of the week. Continued Ukulele with Reverend Ed Revered Ed and Middle School Street of Music have teamed up to offer free Ukulele lessons to any interested students. The lessons will take place at Middle Street School of Music on .... you guessed it - Middle Street, in downtown Plymouth. Lesson are free of charge but should still be considered a commitment in fairness to all students. Contact Reverend Ed via phone or email with questions or to reserve a spot. Wednesdays, 4:00-4:45 Middle Street School of Music Save the Date Friday, December 11 First Parish RE Family Potluck Holiday Party Location: TBD Anyone willing to host? November Meetings Parish Committee FIRST PARISH TALENT SHOW! Monday, November 2, 7:00 pm, Parish House Saturday, November 14, 6:00 pm, Kendall Restoration Committee Building & Grounds Committee Wednesday, November 4, 11 & 25, 9:30 am, Sunday, November 15, 8:30 am Parish House Parish House *Monday, November 16, 7:00 pm, Parish House Worship & Music Committee Buddhist Meditation Tuesday, November 17, 7:30 pm Wednesday, November 4, 11, 18 & 25, 7:00 pm Parish House Parish House PLYMOUTH ILLUMINATE 400 Singing Meditation Saturday, November 21, 4:00 – 8:00 pm Wednesday, November 4, 7:00 pm, Parlor Town Square / First Parish Plymouth Men's Breakfast PERSEPHONE’S CONCERT Saturday, November 7 & 21, 9:00 am, Sunday, November 22, 3:00 pm, T-Bones, Plymouth Center Meetinghouse Hospice Choir Women's Breakfast Wednesday, November 11, 18 & 25, 7:00 pm Saturday, November 28, 9:00 am Parlor Friendly’s, Exit 5, Long Pond Road, Plymouth November Worship November 1 Union Sunday Union Sunday is one Sunday when the congregations of Duxbury, Kingston, and Plymouth gather to unite in worship. It is a wonderful opportunity to get together, see old friends, meet new friends, and share Unitarian Universalist ideals. This year the service will be held in Duxbury at 10:30am. The topic of the service will be our First Principle-The Inherent Worth and Dignity of Every Person. Our guest preacher will be the Reverend Michael Wayne Walker, senior pastor of Messiah Baptist Church in Brockton, Massachusetts. Reverend Walker is a native of Texas, a graduate of Harvard Divinity School and has served Messiah Baptist for thirty-three years. On the front of the Messiah Baptist Worship bulletin for several years it said and I paraphrase-"We hold as highest ideals the following texts-The Book of Mark from the New Testament and The People's History of the United States by Howard Zinn." Reverend Walker is not your typical Unitarian Universalist preacher, but if you attended General Assembly this year and heard Cornel West preach, you get the idea. You won't be bored. Rev. Walker is one of the best preachers I know. I recommend him highly and anticipate hearing him speak to the First Principle. I am honored to call him my teacher, my colleague, and my friend; knowing him has made me a better person. November 08 Do We Speak the Truth in Love? Rev. Ed Hardy Every Sunday we speak our covenant; we say the words, "We speak the truth in love." Do we? Do we "speak the truth in love?" If we don't, what stops us? What keeps us from living our covenant? November 15 Immigrant Justice Rev. Ed Hardy Every Tibetan lay person, nun or monk I met in New York City, Cambridge, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Portland, Oregon, San Francisco and Carmel, California had a story to tell about immigration, about getting here by chicanery or accident, by suffering, by being pushed to margins, and yet, they came. They huddled on our shore for justice and freedom. November 22 The Mysterious Turkey and Pilgrims, Oh My! A Cast of Thousands and Ed THIS IS AN INTER-GENERATIONAL SERVICE What does that mean-intergenerational? It means fun, singing, laughing, and mystery for all ages. And who would want to miss that? When I say mincemeat pie-my kids say UGH! I might reveal my secret giblet gravy. When I say, I'll bring the gravy-my kids say UGH! When I say, "I'll just sing!" They say DON'T!! Please. Come to this service and experience the whole congregation, every generation, having a good time. November 23 Thanksgiving Service 7Pm The Thanksgiving Service is the most multicultural, most multiracial, most inclusive service, we perform each year. Many voices celebrate the blessing of this land from sea to shining sea. November 29 Nancy Day Worship Committee Nancy Day has been writing music all her life and has produced 12 recordings of original music and lyrics since 1980.