Thank you for your support during our 2023-2024 Worship Year! We have a couple of informal gatherings planned during the summer months, but no formal worship planned before September. Please see the listings below for local opportunities for worship and spiritual growth. Happy Summer!
Planned Gatherings at UCMH:
July 28 – Ice Cream Social – Jennifer is coordinating
August 25 – Picnic – Johanna is coordinating
Stay tuned for more information as the dates get closer, and watch your email for ways you can get involved! (If you’re not signed up to receive email and would like to be, please contact the administrator!)
Multi Church service:
August 4 at 10:00 a.m.: “Joint Summer Service” (at Littleton and online on Zoom) – Rev. Lara Hoke – First Church Unitarian of Littleton will host the 21 st annual Joint Summer Service of the Bolton, Fitchburg, Harvard, Lancaster, Leominster, Littleton, Marlborough/Hudson, and Stow/Acton UU churches. Rev. Lara Hoke will lead the service, and there will be a pick-up choir, with all singers welcome and rehearsal beginning at 8:30am. Music for the pick-up choir will be available in advance upon request.
Summer Worship at First Parish of Stow and Acton (FPC)
(All services start at 10:00 a.m.)
June 30 “FPC’s Work with the Interfaith Partnership for Refugee Resettlement” (in the Sanctuary and online on Zoom) – Asylum Seekers Task Force – For almost 3 years FPC has been in partnership with the seven local area churches known as the IPRR that work together to help resettle refugees. Members of the Asylum Seekers Task Force will describe our success with two Afghan families allowing them to gain full independence. We are now assisting a large extended family from Rohingya (formerly Burma) who had been living in exile in Bangladesh for many years before their recent move to Lowell.
July 7 “Weaving Our Lives: the UUA’s General Assembly Worship Service” (online only on Zoom; a link will be posted on FPCAnnounce and FPC’s website) – UUA production – Join us for a recording of the previous Sunday’s service at General Assembly, which this year is being held virtually. It will reflect on the reality that we are all tangled up together in a great web of life that is woven with beauty and hardship, love and loss, thriving and struggle. How do we tend well to this weaving so that all of us are held in care?
July 14 “Evolution” (in the Sanctuary and online on Zoom) – Andy Derr will share his thoughts about science, laws, theories, and why Probability leads him to conclude that evolution is correct. He will demonstrate Probability by flipping a coin and showing the increasingly unlikely odds of what just happened.
July 21 “The Songs of Bruce Springsteen: A Ministry of Community and Redemption” (in the Sanctuary and online on Zoom) – Dave Sansone – From his early years to the present, Springsteen’s songs and concerts have been a collaboration with fans to form a community in search of everyday salvation. Dave Sansone will connect those ideas with what we do here at FPC to engage folks who are in search of a home.
August 11 – Sermon Rerun: “Starstuff” – Rev. Dr. Cynthia L. Landrum – A new tradition is being inaugurated here of Rev. Cindy repeating an earlier popular sermon for a summer service! This service from November 2018 explores the theology of Carl Sagan, who explained that we are all made of starstuff. This service will also feature a child dedication. If you have a child who you would also like dedicated, please “Contact” Rev. Cindy (yes that was a Sagan pun)!
August 18 “#realtalkwithrayla!” (in the Sanctuary and online on Zoom) – Rayla D. Baldwin-Mattson, Director of Religious Education – Our Director of Religious Education Rayla Baldwin-Mattson tries to live as openly and honestly as possible. She does this through storytelling and humor, often tagging things with #realtalkwithrayla! Come join Rayla on a fun journey through her learning of some of life’s lessons!
September 1 – “Popcorn Theology” (in the Sanctuary and online on Zoom) – Rev. Dr. Cynthia L. Landrum – Come to our Craft Beer and Food Truck Festival the day before, and find where you can vote on what this service will be! Then show up to the service to find out what movie the vote has been cast for. Will Rev. Cindy preach on the very silly Monty Python’s “Life of Brian”? Will it be “The Grapes of Wrath,” because it’s so timely and applicable? Will it be on “Star Wars” because you know the force is with us? Or will we explore the too-real dystopia of “The Hunger Games”? Your votes will decide! And how on earth will Trevor manage to play music that can go with any of these? Just wait and see! And yes, we plan to have popcorn.
Photo by Tra Nguyen on Unsplash