Sermon Topic: Revisiting the Israel/Palestine Issue

Sermon Topic: For millennia, the land that birthed Judaism, Christianity and Islam has been one of relative peace, punctuated by periods of intermittent violence. Unfortunately, the early part of the 21st century is not one of those times of tranquility and mutual respect.

What happened? Sunday’s service will explore the history of Palestine and Israel with a hopeful eye on the future.

Children’s Worship Circle Offertory Vote: Reminder, this Sunday the children will vote on to which charitable organization they’d like to donate this year’s Worship Circle contributions.

Rock-a-Thon Donations: Thanks to everyone who signed up to sponsor a member of the Youth Group for their Rock-a-Thon effort. Your support is helping the Community Meal program through City Mission Society of Boston.

If you have not yet paid your pledge, checks can be made out to “UUCSW” with “Youth Group” in the memo line and sent to the church or handed in on Sunday.

UU Events & Gatherings

As the May flowers bloom, so does the active social calendar for our congregation. Here are few of the events slated for this month:

UUs at Lunch: Members of our congregation will be meeting on Tuesday, May 8 at the 99 Restaurant on Route 20 entering Marlborough from Northborough at 11:30 a.m. Contact Mary Tribe or Bernice Elberfeld if you’re planning on attending.

UU Book Group: The book group, which is open to everyone in the congregation (no sign-up is necessary), will be meeting on Friday, May 11 at Peggy Slack’s house at 7 p.m. to discuss Jane Gardam’s Old Filth.

The selection for the June book club meeting is Little Bee by Chris Cleave.

Tuesday Night Yoga: Yoga classes will be held every Tuesday night in May in the chapel from 6:45-7:45 p.m. The cost is $7 per class.

UU Men’s Group: The men’s group — open to men of all ages and stages — will be meeting on Monday, May 21 from 7:15-9:15 p.m. Contact Frank Vincent if you have any questions.

Youth Group: The Youth Group will be meeting on Sunday May 6 and Sunday May 20 at noon in the downstairs meeting room. Pizza will be available. Contact Janet Davis or Jen Tolman if you have any questions.

Be sure to regularly check the Upcoming Events on our homepage for new listings.

Need 2012/13 Pledges, Volunteers or Cuts May Have to Follow

As the Board of Trustees has been working on the 2012/2013 budget, they’ve learned that we’re $21,000 short of the fundraising goal for the upcoming church year. Sixty members have pledged while 49 member households have still not made a financial commitment to the church.

In order to avoid making “draconian cuts” to the already lean budget, the Board is asking that, if you haven’t already done so, please submit a pledge for the upcoming church year which begins on July 1.  You can find pledge forms in the pews and may deposit them into the Sunday collection plates. You may also contact Canvass Chair Jim Slack directly (Jim.Slack@aecom.com) if you’d like to tell him your pledge amount. 

Additionally, if you made a pledge for the current 2011/2012 year (thank you very much!), please be sure to honor it as our budget was predicated on the pledge numbers. Most of our costs are fixed and we have to pay a living wage to our staff.

As for volunteers, there’s been a paucity of volunteers to fill out the slate for next year’s committees and boards. We understand that folks feel stretched in many different directions these days with multiple commitments, but more hands make lighter work and together we make it work.

Here’s what we need:

Volunteers to help on the following committees: Membership, Music, Programs, Ways and Means and Finance.

Committee chairs are needed for: Treasurer and Programs, as well as a manager for the 3 School Street property.

Without volunteers for those posts, those committees are in danger of going defunct. Please contact Board Trustees Chairwoman Amy MacDougall (ASL4162@verizon.net) if you have any interest in serving on these boards.

Sermon Topic: Margaret Fuller’s Legacy

Sermon Topic: The Rev. Dr. Dorothy May Emerson will be delivering this week’s sermon entitled, “In Body and Spirit: Margaret Fuller’s Legacy for Us Today.”

Fuller (1810-1850) was a leading Transcendentalist along with Emerson and Thoreau. She wrote the groundbreaking book Woman in the 19th Century and was the first female social and literary critic and foreign correspondent for Horace Greeley’s New York Tribune. Fuller called on Americans to question the second-class status of women, African and Native Americans and to establish true democracy at home.

This service focuses on her spiritual development, how she found strength within herself to break from the restrictions of her time and create an amazing body of work that still has relevance for us today.

 

Youth Group Rock-A-Thon

Over this past weekend, members of the Youth Group rocked for 18 hours in order to raise money for a Community Meal program they volunteer at in Dorchester. The money will be used to purchase supplies such as salad dressing, salt and pepper, napkins, and plates. Thank you to everyone who sponsored the group.

Sermon Topic: Sharing the 7 Principles of Our Faith

Sermon Topic: The Rev. Cindy Frado will be discussing the Seven UU Principles this Sunday. Do you remember what they are?

1. The inherent worth and dignity of every person.

2. Justice, equity and compassion in human relations.

3. Acceptance of one another and encouragement to spiritual growth in our congregations.

4. A free and responsible search for truth and meaning.

5. The right of conscience and the use of the democratic process.

6. The goal of world community with peace, liberty and justice  for all.

7. Respect for the interdependent web of all existence of which we are a part.

Our two Coming of Age graduates will each be discussing the UU principle upon which they focused their “Faith in Action” statements.

Greeters Needed for Sunday: If you can greet this Sunday — show up 20 minutes early and hand out Orders of Service — please contact Janet Purney Balabanis, 508-624-9969.

Children’s Worship Circle Offertory: Each year the children vote for the charitable organization(s) to which they would like to donate the worship circle money that is collected throughout the year. Please submit your suggested organization names to Janet Davis. The voting will take place during the May 13 worship circle.

REMINDER on Pet Donations: Sunday is the final day for collecting pet supplies for the Buddy Dog animal shelter in Sudbury. Look for the box in the chapel.

Rev. Frado’s Sabbatical: This Sunday’s Coming of Age service will be Rev. Frado’s last service before she starts her Sabbatical beginning May 1 through the remainder of our church year. As long as Rev. Frado is not traveling, she will be on call for emergencies only and on the few occasions when she’ll be unavailable, there will be pastoral coverage.

Membership Committee Needs YOU!

Have you met your fellow parishioners this year? Are you looking for an opportunity to greet them and make new acquaintances? Become a Sunday morning greeter. It’s easy.

The Membership Committee is looking for greeters for the month of May and for the final formal church days in June.

What does it take to be a greeter? Show up 20 minutes before church starts, hand out the Orders of Service to the folks who walk in the door and welcome them.

Greeters can also collect the offerings but that’s not a mandatory task for greeters.

Contact Janet Purney-Balabanis or sign up in the chapel.