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Note: Sermons for all weeks are not available at this time. Links will be added as more sermons are published.

September 10 - Water Communion Sunday. Bring water from a favorite place you've been since June (Dudley Pond, Lake Geneva, the Gulf of Maine, or maybe your garden rain barrel). We'll share our experiences and mingle the waters at the first worship service of the year. No Sunday School or child care; everyone in church.

September 17 - Sermon by Ken, "Everything Changes, Alas and Hurrah (or, Dealing With Plan B)". Nursery care and Sunday School for children K-6 begins.

September 24 - Sermon by Kimi, "Million Mom March and Beyond." What did the participants in the March experience? Why did they go and how has it affected their lives? What about gun control and preventing violence?

October 1 - Sermon by Ken, "Favorite Bedside Reading," in my own case for this past year, the fourteenth-century Persian mystical poet, Hafiz. He was a favorite of Emerson, too, although only a recent translation offers such tantalizing sermon titles as "Beautiful Rowdy Prisoners," "I Love the Way You Smile," "The Beginning of Happiness Is to Stop Being So Religious 'Like That,'" "I Vote for You for God," and "Mix All the Ingredients to Turn Your Existence into Joy."

October 8 - Sermon by Intern Minister Tom Rosiello, "The Dilemma of Forgiveness." At the beginning of Yom Kippur, the Jewish Day of Atonement, we examine the idea of forgiveness in our personal lives and in the larger world. "Forgiving and forgetting" too easily can give license to a perpetrator to continue doing wrong; holding on to an unforgiving anger may be more destructive to the victim than the perpetrator. Can we strike a balance in a way that allows victims to move on with their lives while not minimizing significant wrongs done? The service will include some special music appropriate for the holiest days of the Jewish calendar.

October 15 - Sermon by Ken, "The War on Drugs: Our National Addiction to Failure?"-a response to the latest three-year study resolution passed by the UU General Assembly.

October 22 - Sermon by Ken on the idea of Sabbath.

October 29 - Sermon by Kimi, "Fear: A Blessing and a Curse." We are blessed with the feelings of fear to protect us. Fear is also a crippling emotion that holds many captive. Finding the balance and listening to ourselves is never easy.

November 5 - Sermon by Ken, "The Role of Nature in Religion."

November 12 Sermon by Ken, "Thirty Years and Three Days Later" - reflections on church and ministry since his own began in Houlton, Maine, on November 9, 1970.

November 19 - Thanksgiving Intergenerational Service; homily by Ken.

November 26 Sermon by Intern Minister Tom Rosiello, "How Can You Keep from Singing?" This service will explore the important role music plays in our worship and in our lives.

December 3- Sermon by Kimi, "Precious Time." Especially at this time of year, when we feel the rush of the holidays, time becomes so precious. Kimi will explore the real and unreal nature of time.

December 10- Sermon by Ken, "The Bell, The Bells, The Rock, The Tilt, The Fire, The Church."

December 17 - Music Sunday; First Parish Choir, soloists, and assembled orchestra will perform Bach's cantata no. 140, "Wachet auf!" ("Sleepers Awake!")

December 24 - Christmas Homily by Ken

December 31 - Three-Town Community UU Service at First Parish, Framingham, 10 a.m. We gather at First Parish in Framingham for our annual community worship service. Sermon by Intern Minister Tom Rosiello, "To Follow a Star." In many Christian traditions, the 12-day period from December 25 to January 6 (Epiphany) is observed as the time when the magi followed a star to Bethlehem. What kind of "stars" might lead us all in the new year?

January 7, 2001 -  "There Is a Balm," a service celebrating the power of gospel music through words and music. Sermon by Community Ministry Intern Maddie Sifantus. Music by TVS (The Vocal Section), which is made up of singers Sally Sweitzer, Suzanne Boucher, and Maddie Sifantus accompanied by Larry Luddecke, piano, and Wendy Sobel, guitar.

January 14 - Sermon by Ken, "Differences That Unite Us".

January 21 - Sermon by Ken, "The Conviction Of A Unitarian Universalist".

January 28 - Sermon by Kimi. Topic TBA based on suggestion by winning bidder in last year's church auction.

February 4 - Sermon by Ken, "A Few Timely Topics"

February 11 - Sermon by the Rev. Ben Hall, Affiliate Minister, "Faith and Curiosity"

February 18 - Sermon by Ken, "Beowulf's Virtues & Our Own"

February 25 - Sermon by the Rev. Robert McKetchnie

March 4 - Sermon by Ken, "Promises, Promises."

March 11 - Rev. Kimi Riegel and Vera Kelsey will lead a service honoring an amazing minister from our past, Olympia Brown.

March 18 - An entire worship service devoted to trees, led by Ken.

March 25 - Youth Sunday, presented by the high school youth, along with the eighth-grade Coming of Age.

April 1 - Only once every seven years does April Fools' Day fall on a Sunday. It would seem an apt occasion to honor the place of foolishness and humor in the religious endeavor. Ken will give the sermon.

April 8 - Music Sunday. We will celebrate both Passover and Palm Sunday with the Adult Choir and Orchestra performing Leonard Bernstein's "Chichester Psalms" and the Children's Choir performing "A Simple Song," also by Bernstein. Tom Rosiello will be liturgist for this service and will offer a reflection on a common of theme of these two holidays: "What happens when a minority group speaks its truth to those in power?"

April 15 - Easter Sunday Services -
5:50 Sunrise Service at 99 Concord Road, led by Ken.
10:00 Worship Service. In joyful song and word we will celebrate the Resurrection of Life as we know it, not only in the world of nature but also as we know it in the human heart. Homily by Tom Rosiello, "Love Triumphs!"

April 22 - Question & Answer Sunday, featuring Ken, Kimi, Polly, Maddie, Tom, and an inquisitive congregation.
Every year, our ministers, the ministerial interns, and our music director answer written questions from the congregation that are collected with the weekly offerings. Is there is something you have wanted to know but were afraid (or timid or too polite) to ask … which can be read in ten seconds and answered in twenty? Bring it with you!

April 29 - Sermon by Ken, "To Run, To Strive, To Self-Transcend"

May 6 - "Spirit Matters": Sermon by the Rev. John Buhrens, outgoing president of the Unitarian Universalist Association. You can read more about Rev. Buhrens on the UUA website. We are delighted that he can be with us and hope that you will be able to join us.

May 13 - Sermon by Ken and Kimi, "A Good Faith to Grow Up In."

May 20 - Sermon by Tom.

May 27 - Sermon by Ken, "The Dead Upon Our Minds." As every year, Ken will recall some of the people who have died in the past year and their contributions to life.

June 3 - Guest speaker.

June 10 - Flower Communion Sunday - Parishioners of all ages are encouraged to bring a flower for the ceremony. There will be a picnic on the lawn after the worship service and a chance to bid farewell to the departing.
 

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