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Northshore Unitarian Universalist Church is a dynamic, creative congregation, providing an inclusive and welcoming spiritual home for all. We are guided by principles that promote caring relationships and the active pursuit of social, racial and environmental justice. | | |
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Sunday Service
November 13, 2022
10:30 a.m.
In-person service and on Zoom
"Tools for the Journey"
Rev. Carol Strecker speaking
Unitarian Universalism draws many sources for inspiration including our direct experience, the wisdom of world religions, the teachings of science and Earth-centered traditions. Many of these sources can offer us wisdom and strength for the journey as we navigate change in our lives and in our world. This service of readings, musings and special music will explore some of these sources as tools for the journey that can help us navigate change.
David Coffin will lead us in some traditional songs in our service. Known in the Boston area as the Christmas Revels Master of Ceremonies. He spends the good weather months singing chanteys on a Music Boston Harbor Tours. Coffin has a bass-baritone voice and plays various types of recorders and whistles, in addition to archaic instruments like the shawm, rackett, or gemshorn. He comes from a musical background. His father, Reverend William Sloane Coffin, studied to be a concert pianist with Nadia Boulanger in Paris; his grandfather was pianist Arthur Rubinstein, and his great-grandfather was Polish conductor Emil Młynarski.
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Sunday Service
November 20, 2022
10:30 a.m.
In-person service and on Zoom
"Voice Still and Small"
Rev. Carol Strecker speaking
November 20 is “Transgender Day of Remembrance”, an annual observance that honors the memory of the transgender people whose lives were lost in acts of anti-transgender violence. We honor their memory by lifting up the importance of living authentically in a world that would sometimes rather we ignore that still, small voice within that tells us who we are — who we need to become.
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Sunday Service
November 27, 2022
10:30 a.m.
In-person service and on Zoom
“In Gratitude for Peace”
Joint Northshore Unitarian Universalist Service of Thanksgiving
This recorded service is an offering from clergy from Unitarian Universalist congregations on the North Shore. The theme for this year’s service is peace; the sources of inner peace as we turn inward this time of year, even in the midst of the external pull to be busy and over-extended.
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Sunday services Zoom link
https://zoom.us/j/95156904873
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Update from the Ministerial Search Committee | |
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Beyond Categorical Thinking
Saturday, November 19
9:00 am-12:30 pm
We would love to have you join the Search Committee and our Board of Directors at the “Beyond Categorical Thinking” workshop, a ZOOM program that the UUA provides for all churches that are searching for their next ministers.
This program will help us be “open” to all candidates without unintentionally falling into subtle, discriminatory biases.
We look forward to seeing you on ZOOM!
The Search Committee:
Julie O’Meara, Bo Batty, Beth Blanchard, Jeri Kroll, Terri Hansen
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Registration
for
Beyond Categorical Thinking program
(a ZOOM meeting)
Registering for the program is a
two-step process
One: Send an email to Bo Batty bbatty@comcast.net so we know you are coming.
Two: Click the link on the NSUU.org website: “BCT Workshop Concerns and Benefits form” or clink on the direct link button below to complete the UUA survey. It will provide information that our UUA facilitator will use to best meet the needs of our congregation.
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Unitarian Universalist Principles and Purposes
Revision Process
Article II of the Unitarian Universalist Association (UUA) Bylaws, Principles and Purposes, is the foundation for all of the work of our UUA and its member congregations and covenanted communities. It is the covenant to which all of our congregations and covenanted communities pledge themselves when they become members of our UUA.
Our current Principles and Purposes were last revised in 1987. At General Assembly (GA) 2017, there was discussion of amending the Principles to add an 8th Principle, addressing racism, and an amended 1st Principle, addressing non-human life. The 5th Principle was the subject of a report in 2009, which dealt with the ways in which GA and other Unitarian Universalist (UU) gatherings do and don’t embody an inclusive democratic process. The 7th Principle has also been the subject of discussions about possible amendments.
There have been many projects, resolutions, task forces and other strategies that have come from the Board, Commission on Appraisal and grassroots groups which encourage us to take a look at our principles, purposes, bylaws and rules. It is time for us to do a review and make changes so that we are living into the Unitarian Universalism of the future, a Unitarian Universalism that holds us in times of great need and ethical, moral and spiritual crises. We are in one of those times now.
In response to those discussions, the UUA Board committed to establishing this Article II Study Commission to consider possible amendments to this Article.
For more information about the Article II Commission and opportunities this weekend to participate in their process go to:
Link: https://www.uua.org/uuagovernance/committees/article-ii-study-commission
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From the Northshore Church Board of Directors...
Click on the button below for your copy of the October 2022 Board Minutes
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Music notes from
Georgia Bills
Northshore Church Director of Music
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A Ritual Sword Dance for the Solstice Service in December
I would love to have a group dance a traditional Morris sword dance as part of our celebration.
I have been teaching this dance to teenagers for many years (we use wooden swords), it is a very stunning and satisfying dance to learn. It can be danced with 6 people (or multiples of 6). It is a series of stylized movement that only needs a basic sense of rhythm and is danced at a steady walk with a series of easy movements. It is a group of 6, no partners. With adults it can easily be learned in two to three 30-minute practices.
If you would like to learn this lovely tradition, please contact me at gbills01915@gmail.com
While your calendar is out, mark Sunday, December 11th when
Tim Deik, trumpeter will fill the room with his beautiful sound.
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Social Action Committee
Food Donation Day
We will be at the church on Saturday, November 12 from 10 am to 12:30 pm collecting food for the Danvers Food Pantry. Canned items, peanut butter, pasta, rice, paper products such as paper towels and toilet paper, cereal, and food donations are all welcome.
Sewing Machine Needed
Antoinette, our refugee friend from the Congo who now lives in Gloucester, wonders if anyone has a sewing machine they no longer use. She would like to be able to mend her children's clothes. Please contact Jean Koulack-Young at 978-587-2935 or email at jeankoulackyoung@gmail.com
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Holiday Swag-making Workshop
We are planning our annual Holiday Swag-making Workshop after the service on Sunday, December 4th.
Due to this summer's draught, my usual sources of greens have diminished. If anyone has access to spruce or fir greens, please let me know. I am available to come and cut them or pick them up.
Please email me at tke.swan@comcast.net.
Thank you,
Tracee Kneeland
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Thanksgiving Meals
Click on the link below for a list of area Thanksgiving meals.
Thanksgiving Meals
Feel free to forward and help distribute this list far and wide.
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America’s “best-preserved Puritan town”
Ipswich, Massachusetts was founded in 1634 in an area the Native Americans called “Agawam,” and is America’s best-preserved Puritan town. The historic neighborhoods of Meeting House Green, High Street, the East End, and the South Green are well-preserved streetscapes of 17th to 19th-century residences. Opposition by the people of Ipswich to a tax imposed in 1687 is commemorated in the seal of the town of Ipswich, with the motto, “The Birthplace of American Independence 1687.”
NSUU Sunday Strolls
Sunday, November 13th at 1:30 PM
Let’s meet at the EBSCO parking lot on Union Street in Ipswich across from the Richdale’s. We can take a stroll along the Riverwalk and vist some of Ipswich’s oldest homesites. Dog friendly. We can finish up at Zumi’s for some great coffee or Ice Cream. More info call Bob Ferris at 978-660-7437 or email: bobferris1949@gmail.com
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Current Composting Project Ends
Ever since we began collecting food scraps at church to be picked up by Black Earth Compost (summer, 2019), we have been challenged to find a reliable way to keep the collection area litter-free.
The NSUU Board has voted to discontinue composting service with Black Earth. We will stop our service of collecting food scraps at church and remove the compost container from the kitchen as well as removing the Black Earth compost bin.
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