Upcoming Sunday Services

  10:30am

in-person in the Sanctuary

and on Zoom (link below)

October services are on the theme The Gifts of Heritage

Oct 1st - Where We're From

Rev. Caro Barschow

Are we from places, people, memories? George Ella Lyon's poem "Where I'm From" has sparked many people to reflect on the question, "where are you from?" Come to this service to learn some of Rev. Caro's answers and consider your own responses.

October 8th - Covenant

Rev. Caro Barschow

What does covenant mean in the context of our church, of our denomination? Learn about the heritage and the future of covenants in Unitarian Universalism, with special consideration given to the proposed changes to the covenant among congregations found in Article II of the UUA Bylaws.

October 15th - Searching for the Over Soul

Guest Speaker Dillon Bustin

An exploration of Unitarian minister Ralph Waldo Emerson's poetry and thought with guest speaker Dillon Bustin, featuring musician Jacqueline Schwab. This service will feature two of Emerson's poems set to music - “Always Something Sings” and “Brahma.” Mr. Bustin will compare Emerson’s idea of a living, spiritual universe with the concept of Brahman in Hinduism and two theories in contemporary astrophysics.

October 22 - Remembrance

Rev. Caro Barschow

Our ancestors are ones who have gone before us. This service of remembrance will invite us to reflect on the lives of loved ones that have died in the past year. You may wish to bring a memento or photograph of a loved one to display for a ritual of remembrance.

To attend the Sunday services via Zoom,

please go to the Northshore Church website nsuu.org

& click on "Join Service."

Upcoming Activities

Indigenous Peoples Day in Newburyport

For Indigenous Peoples Day this year, why not join NSUU friends in Newburyport to celebrate on Saturday, October 7? Festivities start at 10am at Waterfront Park (36 Merrimac St, behind Firehouse Center of the Arts). Contact Iain Goddard or Cheryl Ferris for carpool arrangements, or sign up in the Fellowship Hall at NSUU. See https://imaginestudios.org for more information on the event.

NSUU Social Action Announcements

URGENT REQUEST FOR COATS

NSUU is collecting new and gently-used winter coats, all sizes (toddler, child, adult) for recently-arrived refugee families receiving state assistance. Please bring any contributions to church on Sunday so we can get them to these families and individuals who need them for the colder temperatures. Jean Koulack-Young will be available to collect them. Your help is greatly appreciated.

Operation Troop Support - Donations Needed!

Operation Troop Support needs our help! Donations of the following items are needed:

White crew socks for men and women, small toiletries (shampoo, conditioner, shaving cream in non-aerosol containers, razors, small Kleenex, cotton swabs, toothpaste, toothbrushes). Food items in individual servings such as cup of soup, mac and cheese, applesauce, cans of deviled ham, chicken salad, tuna salad. Also playing cards, puzzle books and snacks such as cookies, crackers nuts, beef jerky, pretzels, etc.

These items can be placed in the basket in fellowship hall. Barbara Haight will take these items to the Director of Operation Troop Support. Any questions, call Barbara at: 978-729-5422.

SUPPORTING THE INDIGENOUS LEGISLATIVE AGENDA

Two important bills are coming up for vote in the legislature soon. Please consider writing letters to your representatives to support these bills. Information below.

Write testimony to support two bills that are part of the MA Indigenous Legislative Agenda:

Support Native American Heritage: 

• Write a personal email testimony to the committee. Template here. Fact sheet here.
• OR Take 2 minutes to send this email testimony to the committee.
• 
  

Indigenous People’s Day:

• Write a personal email testimony to the committee. Template here. Fact sheet here.
• OR Take 2 minutes to send email testimony to the committee. You can use the language that is provided, or modify it if you wish.
• Join in person at the hearing on Tuesday October 3. RSVP to come to the hearing in person 

From the Board of Directors

SAVE THESE DATES

Sunday October 15th, 2023 @ 12:00pm after the church service.

Jeri Kroll and Susan Haas will facilitate a discussion of our choices regarding renewing our Contract Minister Rev. Caro Barschow, interviewing a different contract minister OR, beginning a new search for a full-time settled Minister for the next church year.

Sunday November 12th, 2023 @ 12:00pm after the church service.

We will convene for a formal Congregational meeting to vote on this and other issues that will have been presented to the Congregation.

You are encouraged to attend both meetings. Thank you.

Minutes from August 9, 2023

Board of Directors Meeting

Now Available - click link below.

Church Announcements 

Church Administrator Transition Information

Many of us offered a fond farewell at the September 10th Sunday Service to longtime Church Administrator Nancy Paskowski. Nancy had her last day at NSUU on September 8th. Nancy will be greatly missed.

The ad-hoc hiring team has identified a candidate for the position - thank you to team members Loring Bradlee, Lynette Gray, Julie O’Meara and Susan Haas. More information coming soon!

Here is a coverage list of volunteers for essential duties during this transition period:

Building/rental management

Liaison to Daycare Center - Susan Haas

Liaison to Muslim Society - Rev. Caro

Liaison to contractors (as needed) - Buildings & Grounds (Hal Morse/Bob Ferris)

Liaison to arrange new rental requests - Susan and Hal

Track building and office supplies - Susan and Rev. Caro

Financials

Tracking/Making Deposits and Preparing Checks - Lynette Gray

Payroll Reports (MinistryWorks) - Caro

Maintaining Quickbooks - Bookkeeper at Terranova CPA with support from treasurer Astrida Cutter

Congregational Life 

Respond to phone messages, email, postal mail - Susan

Recording new visitors - Caro

Good Things Are Happening newsletter - Caro (new deadline, Wed at noon)

Order of Service - Lynette (new deadline, Wed at noon)

Online Calendar Requests - Caro

Zoom meeting requests - Caro

For questions, please contact Rev. Caro at rev.barschow@gmail.com or Board of Directors Chair Susan Haas at susanann1812@yahoo.com.

Minister’s Schedule

Office hours for October will be by appointment, on Tuesdays and Thursdays. If you’d like to meet with Rev. Caro, please email or phone to set up a time.

Email: rev.barschow@gmail.com Phone: 978-473-7980

Rev. Caro will attend an in-person training for the Transitional Ministry Training program in Montgomery, AL next week, 10/2-10/6. Rev. Caro will monitor phone and email messages during this time, but will not be available for in-person meetings.

Rev. Caro serves as minister on a 3/4 contract at NSUU. To fulfill this part-time schedule, Rev. Caro works full-time 3 weeks a month and takes 1 week off. Rev. Caro's week off in October is scheduled for 10/23-10/29. During this time, Rev. Caro is available for pastoral emergencies.

From the Caring Team

Cards in Fellowship Hall

Our Sexton, Jeff Liacos, is recuperating from knee replacement surgery. There are 2 boxes in the Fellowship Hall. One has unsigned cards wishing him well. Please take one. After signing, you can place it in the other box. The Caring Team will collect and mail them to him in October. Jeff does wonderful work for our church. We want him to know we care.

From the Green Sanctuary Team

Greening the Kitchen

The Green Sanctuary Team is encouraging us to transform our NSUU kitchen into a Green kitchen. We would like to use reusable items whenever we can; compostable items and recyclable items after that. Let’s please get away from Styrofoam and other Single-Use kitchenware!

After the supply cabinet was just cleaned and re-organized, what we have are not Eco-friendly cups, plates, bowls and napkins. Instead we have Styrofoam plates and hot/cold cups and lots of paper napkins as well as canned drinks and bottled water and plastic utensils.

We would like to get the word out that we should not purchase any new supplies, but first use up what we have. Then we’ll replace items we need with Eco-friendly ware.

Also, we will be moving towards water dispensers instead of single use beverage plastic bottles. Let’s avoid contributing to the Great Pacific Garbage Patch!

Good Things Are Happening

New Deadline: Wednesday at noon

Please contribute announcements by Wednesday at noon for NSUU's weekly e-newsletter "Good Things Are Happening." You can do so by sending an email with the announcement to nsuu@verizon.net. Please put in the subject line "For Good Things Are Happening." Please indicate how long you would like the announcement to appear and a contact email or phone number for readers to get more information.

Activities Around Town

Essex County Community Organization (ECCO)

ECCO is a diverse network of congregations and organizations across the North Shore building relationships and power to put human dignity at the center of public life. Its mission is to work together across race, class, and faith lines to ensure that all people on the North Shore can thrive, grow, and dream.

Defending Democracy

Wednesday, October 4th at 6pm

Lynn Auditorium, 3 City Hall Square, Lynn

This groundbreaking social justice event will address pressing issues including book banning, voting suppression, economic inequality, and marginalization of Black history. Speakers include Massachusetts Education Secretary Patrick Tutwiler, former Beaufort Mayor Billy Keyserling, and historian Dr. Kabria Baumgartner. Then, we will hear about solutions for Lynn and beyond from a panel with local social justice advocates, including ECCO President Rev. Dr. Andre Bennett and our close partners from Lynn Racial Justice Coalition and the New Lynn Coalition Nicole McClain, Adriana Paz, and Jeff Crosby, as well as Martin Garnar.

ECCO Community Meeting

Tuesday, October 24th, 6pm

Location TBA

Join us to connect with people from across ECCO’s diverse community, get updated on ECCO’s latest work on affordable housing, community safety, and immigrant rights, and learn how you can make an impact!  Please bring a potluck dish to share. (But if you can’t, please come anyway! We will have lots of pizza!) RSVP here: bit.ly/ecco-10-24-23