Sunday Morning

SHAG: Reflections on Justice

Led by Rev. Laurel Gray

After the horrific overturning of Roe v. Wade, people all over the country redoubled efforts to protect reproductive rights and bodily autonomy. We started a reproductive rights group at UUCSW, which has evolved to now include issues of sexual health and gender more broadly. Today we’ll reflect on SHAG’s development and the ways that we all work to support queer rights, reproductive rights, and issues of bodily autonomy.

This Sunday is also the Blessing of the Students. Children and Youth will be given a special blessing this Sunday to bring with them into the new school year.

This service will be held in the sanctuary and on Zoom:

Join us online at zoom.us/j/89873989254

Join us by phone at 301-715-8592, meeting ID 89873989254

Masks encouraged in the sanctuary. 

Next Religious Exploration Class

Sunday, October 1

9:30 am in the Chapel

Information from

9/17 Service

We wanted to extend these invitations from Matt Meyer, who led our worship service this past Sunday.



• You can stay in touch with Matt by signing up for his ‘worship & music’ email list here. 
• You can get a copy of his award-winning children’s book “Desmond Gets Free” here.
• And you can learn more about Wednesday evening online worship with Sanctuary Boston here, where Matt serves as Director of Community Life.
• To read the ACLU report that Matt mentioned on forced labor in prisons, click here.

From the Garden Committee:

We are finally making headway in the shade garden! Roots, weeds, trash and broken asphalt have been cleared. Stability supports, foundations, drainage and the basic stonework have been set in place. Our planting area has been limited by such discoveries as a larger asphalt apron than was previously visible. Most plants donated months ago have now been planted. But we could use some specific plants for remaining special areas. There will be room for only 1-3 plants of any one type. If anyone has any extras to donate from the list below, it would be sooooo appreciated!

Black-eyed Susan (Rudbekia)

Cardinal flower (Lobelia cardinalis)

Blue Lobelia (L.siphilatica)

Little Bluestem ‘Jazz’ (only this variety)

Carex pensylvanica

Hakonechloa (any golden variety)

Golden Creeping Jenny (Lysimachia aurea) Only this non-invasive variety!

Barrenwort (Epimedium)

Heuchera

Blue iris (Iris versicolor)

Or let us know your suggestions for other ground-cover, low-growing, part-sun, (fiberous-rooted-for-the-rain-garden), and colorful plants.

Thank you all for your help and support!

THANK YOU to those who on short notice dropped off infant clothing at the end of August! As promised, a second opportunity is available this month. We are answering the call from Dr. Sara Shields from the Family Health Center of Worcester (FHCW) https://fhcw.org/  Recall she spoke to us last Spring during a Sunday service about maternal health and infant mortality. The FHCW Baby Shop is urgently in need of infant clothing sized newborn through tweny-four months. Collection of new and gently used baby clothes will be gratefully received on Sunday September 24 immediately before and after the service; and again, on Thursday September 28 during the traditional SMOC collection time. For alternative drop off arrangements please contact Pauline at [email protected]; for other questions please text/call Nancy at 508-259-0923. Thank you!

SMOC Food and Clothing Drives

SMOC Food & Clothing Collections are on the following Thursdays:

September 28

October 26

November 16

December 20



4:30 pm

Ruggles St. Door

Book Group

Our next book group meeting will be on October 13th, 7pm at the back door of Central One Federal Credit Union, 40 South Street, Westborough. The book this month is Tom Lake by Ann Patchett. Please contact Susie Wells with any questions: [email protected]. All are welcome!

Community News

Banned Book Read-In

at Westborough Public Library

10/2-10/6

Hello, Library Supporters!

I am writing to recruit support for a program that we are planning for Banned Books week in October. We would like to have "Freedom Readers" who will sit in the library Monday October 2 through Friday October 6 to read banned and challenged books.

We will request banned books from the ALA's banned book lists (the archive, and from 2022) to have available for anyone to check out, and we want "Freedom Readers" to read them. We will set up four comfortable chairs behind the Reference Desk, and we're looking for people to sit in them and read silently in two-hour shifts the entire time that we're open (9am-8pm Monday-Thursday, and 9am-5pm on Friday). On Wednesday October 4, from 6:30-7:45pm, we plan to have a "Freedom to Read-In" program open to all, where people will be invited to take a book from the pile on hand, then pick a place in the library to read silently.

We have a SignUp Genius for people to sign up; people are more than welcome to take more than one shift. We would love to have all of you sign up, and we ask you to please let other supporters know so that they can sign up too. Sign up here.

Please let us know if you have questions. Thank you very much!

Tracey Graham & Jen McGrath

Westborough Public Library