November 1st, 2026

All Ages All Souls' Day service

in sanctuary at 10:15 am

Nursery and toddler care available all service

Children, youth, and adults invited to bring

a photograph and/or memento

of ancestor(s) or recently departed loved ones

to place on our altar.

Names of close family/friends who have died in the past year

can be emailed to remembrance@firstunitarianportland.org

by Friday morning to be included in our Litany of Remembrance.

Preschool and kindy students welcome in worship or childcare!

There’s a lot going on in Buchan Reception this Sunday:

Starting at 8:45, our Mens Group is serving pancakes.

After the service, we’ll have special activities and snacks for kids and families in Social Hour.

Please scroll down for a special invitation about children's music!

On a personal note, I have some sad news to share. My beloved dad Marty has pancreatic cancer and I'm currently out on sick leave for three weeks to be able to support him and my mother Sylvia, who is his primary carer. We have wonderful support, and our family would welcome your well wishes. Thank you for supporting me with the gift of time.

You can email the Ministers & Program Leads Team here for support while I am gone, or you can email the RE Committee here. You can also leave a message for one of our ministers or program leads at the office. Please hold any calls or texts going to me directly until I return. There will always be an RE Committee member at the Buchan Welcome Desk on Sunday morning to help you.

With love,

Leah

Rev. Leah Ongiri, Acting Director

Lifespan Faith Formation & Family Ministry

First Unitarian Portland

Dear Learning Community Families,

I'd like to formally introduce myself as your new Director of Music Ministries. The music program at our church is historic, and it's vibrant, but for a little while now it has been missing that extra special resonance that comes with truly intergenerational offerings, beginning with youth music experiences. With this in mind, Rev. Leah, Rev. Alison, and I have been working on calendaring out a few times leading up to our Christmas Pageant where we can bring together students from middle school through high school (4th and 5^th graders who are already participating in chorus or band programs should reach out to Rev. Leah and me, if they would like to participate) for our first musical gathering of the 2026-2027 church year.

Following the service on Sunday, November 8th, during the Parenting Circle meeting time, I will be assisted by a number of choir and community volunteers as we work in Eliot Chapel with our young people to form the latest version of our youth chorus. There will be future opportunities for instrumental performance, including our beloved handbells and hand chimes groups from recent memory, however I want to encourage all young people who may already have an interest in music or who are curious to try out being in an ensemble to come to this first session on November 8th. We will get comfortable using our voices as we sing a few rounds out of our hymnals, we'll then introduce a Hanukkah song to be featured in an upcoming service in an intergenerational choir as well as a children's choir arrangement of the tune "Count on Me" by Bruno Mars, and we'll start to identify our Christmas Pageant vocalists.

I look forward to sharing the joy of music with your children as we create new opportunities for their gifts to grow and resonate throughout our community.

Sincerely,

-Dan

Daniel Bassin, PhD (he/him)

Director of Music Ministries

dbassin@firstunitarianportland.org

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