From the Minister
Our Annual Meeting Sunday was a wonderful event - we welcomed seven new members, celebrated membership anniversaries from five years to 40 years, honored people who have served in leadership this past year, and acknowledged all the ways we minister to one another and the larger community.
In addition to looking backwards, we looked to the future and dreamed of what First Parish could become. I shared some of my vision for our congregation and share it here again with you:
I see now a church, a people, rooted in Love and learning to live out that Love with one another and offering it to the larger world. The events of this past year have shown us how important are the connections we find and develop here both in nurturing our spirits and in acting to make the world more just. Despite the pandemic, we have gathered Sunday after Sunday in worship and in stand outs - on this one day each week reminding ourselves what church is about. So I see a church where this continues - where we root ourselves in worship that speaks to the moment in which we find ourselves, worship which uses the truths and insights of poets and prophets, lovers and activists of all times and traditions to connect us and direct us, worship which contains not just my voice and Beth’s music but draws on your voices and songs and those of others outside our community, worship which is so powerful it’s a must-be-there event.
I see a community which cares for one another beyond the bounds of friendship - and that is one of the things I love about this congregation - you get that. But we need to reach out even more. I don’t want to hear from older time members that you don’t know the newer ones. Get to know them. They don’t bite. You all want to connect. In our society, religious communities are one of the last places where people of different ages and life circumstances meet. Let’s make the most of that. Whatever your age, you have stories and wisdom to share with one another. My sons were nine when we came here. With grandparents far away, it has meant a lot to them to have older adults who know their name and can tell them apart and have both taught them, shared their interests, and listened to them. All our children and youth need that. But children and youth, adults need you too - many of our adults don’t have younger people in their daily lives. They would love to hear what you’re doing and pondering, love to have you draw them a picture, or ask them how they are. Let’s root this community in Love even more.
And then let’s spill that love out into Scituate. Let’s embody our love in justice. Let’s choose issues to explore ourselves and then work on. Let’s figure out how to connect with those we don’t agree with because shaming them gets us nowhere. How can we bring people together in spite of differences? And while we’re dreaming, let’s dream that we’re inviting people into a building as cared-for on the inside as on the outside. How could we renew our parish hall to welcome people in comfort and in hospitality?
We are already acting for justice in so many ways in this community - First Parish members are at the heart of STRIDE, Scituate Pride, the Food Pantry, FACTS, Community Christmas and so many other organizations. Let’s bring the knowledge of that work back to this community and explicitly invite others to share in it. And let’s be clearer out in the world that our work is an expression of our faith. The world needs our work but it needs at least as much our good news that each and every single person is a being of Love, of inherent worth and dignity. All our actions flow from that tenet.
Those are some of my dreams for First Parish. What are your dreams? And what would you like to do to make your dreams come alive? I’d love to hear your answers to these questions.
See you in Church,
Pam
