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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 9 - Water Communion Sunday. Bring water from a favorite place you've been since June. We'll share our experiences and mingle the waters at the first worship service of the year.

September 16 - Sermon by Ken, "The Sermon After Tuesday" At the end of an awful week, we gather together.  Sunday School for children K-6 begins.

September 23- Sermon by Acting Associate Minister Erin Splaine, "To Come Round Right" The ten days in-between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur are called the Days of Awe. They are tender and delicate days - days when people look at the year that has passed and face up to their mistakes, their errors in judgement or their wrongdoings.  We are today, right in the middle of that ten-day cycle - right in the middle of the Days of Awe - and none of us could ever have known just how tender and delicate these days would become.

September 30 - Sermon by Ken, "On Schedule" The point I thought I would make is one I have occasionally made before: that as important as it is to try to do well in our lives, most of the time we can only do so well, and not more - we'll be cranky or distracted and not wonderful sometimes, whatever the schedule may call for. About now, a differing scheduling question arises: When is it possible, when is it desirable, when is it okay to start moving on?

October 7 - Sermon by Intern Minister John-Eric Robinson, "Speak the Truth in Love" Truth alone lacks warmth. Love alone lacks rigor. When the two are balanced, with wisdom as our guide, truthful love is the most powerful force we have.

October 14 - Sermon by Ken, "Three Inspiring Women" As impressive to me as their accomplishments are the turns their lives took along the way.

October 21- Sermon by Erin, "When Silence Becomes Singing" There is perhaps ... a greater urgency now to find that place inside that grounds us - that allows us to move through life with all its complexity and hardship and sheer brilliance.

October 28 - Sermon by Ken, "Leaf Mold."

November 4 - Sermon by Ken, "God In Our National Life" ...it's not just a question of being true to your own faith when you're asked to spout theological doctrine, but it's also about being true to our national commitment to keep the state out of the business of fostering religion, particularly any one version (like belief in God). So even if you did believe in God, you might want to refuse to acquiesce in a practice so antithetical to American freedom.

November 11 - Veterans Day Service - Readings by Erin and others.

November 18 - Thanksgiving Service - Homily by John-Eric Robinson. One of our church members said to me this week, "Being human is not easy." Neither is being thankful. ...Often it isn't until we lose something - a relationship, a possession, a job, a home - that we realize how much it meant to us.

November 25 - Sermon by Ken, "Crossing Bridges" Two of our denominational connections of that sort strike me as being of special interest, as they stretch us well beyond our usual sense of who "we" Unitarians are. They are the Unitarian churches of Transylvania and the Khasi Hills of India.

December 2- Sermon by Erin, "A Broom, A Dustpan and an Umbrella" We must remind ourselves that at any given time, at any moment of the day or the year, there are things in life ... that can be stronger than any one person's hope or belief in themselves, and that is why we need one another

December 9 - Sermon by Ken, "What Is Our Good News?" I like to think that by now, new folk have gotten a pretty good sense of what we're about by watching us be about it. But I might be more explicit as to the nature of the community we're trying to be here, the witness we're trying to offer, and the messages we seek to proclaim, the good news we have to offer the mind and the spirit.

Dec. 16 - Music Sunday - The choir plus added musicians and dancers will perform Marc-Antoine Charpentier's "Petit Messe de Minuit". Ken Sawyer will be the liturgist.

Dec. 23 - Christmas Homily by Ken.

December 30 - Sermon by Intern Minister John-Eric Robinson, "Thinking Back, Looking Forward, Being Present" Life is full of curve balls and change-ups, unexpected surprises and sudden grief, and yet as long as we have life, we have the possibility to create.

Jan. 6 - Sermon by Ken, "Nothing To Be Gained". We live in a world where ridiculous errors abound. Many of us try to contribute as few as we can to the total, but we make some, too, and others just happen in ways past explaining. What can we say but we're sorry, what can we do but move on?

Jan. 13 - Sermon by Ken, "Debunking Myths" Is it a good thing? A bad thing? ...what about the skeptical spirit when it comes to matters of religion?

Jan. 20- Sermon by Erin, "Faith in Reason" Religion has long struggled with societal advancement and the growth of human knowledge.

Jan. 27 - Sermon by Ken, "Stillness" I want to put in a good word for stillness. I recognize the irony in this.

Feb. 3 - Sermon by John-Eric, "Sing in Your Own Voice" What does it mean to sing in your own voice? That is, what does it mean to be yourself, to show yourself, to grow comfortable with both your limits and your strengths, even to find the strengths in your weaknesses and the weaknesses in your strengths?

Feb. 10 - Sermon by Affiliate Minister Ben Hall, "The Bones That Hold Me Together" As I say my goodbyes to you all this morning, I feel like I have so much to say, so much to tell you-everything I know, everything I've learned with your help.

Feb. 17 - Sermon by Ken, Erin, and the Welcoming Congregation Committee.

Feb. 24 - Sermon by Ken and Marilyn Wallin, "Adventures in International Unitarianism".

Mar. 3 - Sermon by Erin.

Mar. 10 - Canvass Sermon by Ken. Once a year the minister is duty-bound to remind the room that the worship, music, space, and all, exist only because people believe enough in the importance of the church to give to help it survive, even prosper.

Mar. 17 - Service by the High School youth group.

Mar. 24 - Music Sunday.

Mar. 31- Easter Sunday - Homily by Erin. We meet today at the convergence of two stories that shape our singular lives, our lives as members of a family, as the inheritors of a people as well as our lives as a gathered people. We celebrate this week the stories of Passover and of Easter.

Apr. 7 - Question and Answer Sunday

Apr. 14 - Sermon by Ken, "Finding Hope In Patience & Cooperation". I have had the sense that this congregation is a place where we come for comfort, community, continuity, meaning, security, and hope in a world that doesn't provide us nearly enough of those six things.

Apr. 21 - Sermon by Ken, "The Interconnected Web". In The Botany of Desire: A Plant's-Eye View of the World, Pollan affirms this very principle - the interconnectedness of all of life -- in a startling and powerful way. He wants us move beyond thinking of ourselves as the subjects in our interactions, and see how much the interrelatedness goes both ways, how we and plants are "partners in a coevolutionary relationship,"...

Apr. 28- Sermon by Erin, "Well of Course, but…" even though the Principles are codified in the Bylaws of the Unitarian Universalist Association their understanding and application are not a litmus test for any who would find a spiritual home in this or any of our congregations.

May 5 - Sermon by Ken, "The Six Sources, Humanism In Particular". This sermon is the third and probably the final one for now in a series that began two weeks ago when I talked about the Purposes and Principles of the denomination to which this church belongs, the UUA. You can find all seven of the principles in the front of the hymnbook, just before the hymns begin. Under the principles is a section that begins, "The living tradition we share draws from many sources."

May 12 - Sermon by John-Eric, "Let's Start Here".  somewhere in the midst of poetry and dance and hymns and music and these words is my offering to you: some things I find beautiful and helpful and that I share with you today.

May 19- Sermon by Erin, "The Road Taken". The question of what if - what if we had our lives to live over again can be a perilous one. Because we don't have this life to live over - we only have the life we have yet to live.

May 26 - Memorial Day weekend Sermon by Ken. This Sunday each year, the day before Memorial Day holiday, I talk about people who have died in the previous twelve months, folks worth remembering as they depart the earthly scene.

June 2 - At the Church Retreat, Service led by John-Eric Robinson. At First Parish, our guest preacher in Wayland will be Sue Phillips. Ms. Phillips received her Master of Divinity degree from the Episcopal Divinity School in Cambridge ten years ago. Since then she has worked as a housing advocate. She has also been an active member of the Unitarian Society of Northampton and Florence, Mass. (where Erin was minister), serving for a time as board chair. Now looking forward to entering the UU ministry, she will intern next year in Portsmouth, New Hampshire.

June 9 - Flower Sunday.

June 16 - Ordination of Maddie Sifantus.
 

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