The Newsletter of the First Parish Church of Norwell, Massachusetts ON THE WEB AT

Transcription

1 The Spire The Newsletter of the First Parish Church of Norwell, Massachusetts ON THE WEB AT November 17, 2010 Vol. IX Issue 4 Are lives are so full, but tonight we're invited to make room in our hearts for something bigger than ourselves, bigger than any of our possessions, and bigger than our everyday attitudes. Can we make room in the inn, and in the "in?" Come share the magic of Christmas Eve. Sunday Services 10 a.m. November 21: Be a Pilgrim Rev. Victoria Weinstein Come, ye thankful people, come! Today we celebrate Thanksgiving with an intergenerational service. Jim and Joyce Pickel will decorate the pulpit table with a feast of produce that will be shared with a local food pantry. Your offerings to the Norwell Food Pantry can be dropped off today or at any other time at the grocery shopping cart in front of the church office. November 28: Winter Silence, Winter Starlight Rev. Victoria Weinstein First Sunday in Advent Let us welcome the season of Advent and the holiday rush with an appreciation of winter: cold winter, slow winter, the season of starlight and hearth fire and silence. Gingy will play all piano music and we will stay warm... and wonder. December 5: The Lights of Hanukah Rev. Victoria Weinstein Second Sunday in Advent Hanukah commemorates a brutal battle fought for religious freedom in ancient times, but Jewish tradition has preferred to embrace it over the years as a holiday that celebrates the strength of the human spirit. Today we will celebrate the special light of the menorah, the shammash, and the helping and serving spirit it represents. December 12: Baby, What You Gonna Be? Rev. Victoria Weinstein Third Sunday in Advent The Advent season is about possibility. It is about daring to hope in spirit of terrific odds. Come and celebrate the unquenchable spirit of hope together, and hear some stories from the ancient and the modern times to bring hope into your heart.

2 The Spire November 17, 2010 p. 2 In the Spirit Weinstein The Rev. Victoria When I knocked on doors at the motels on Route 53 and visited the Norwell Food Pantry and the Council on Aging and got the word out about our Community Dinner over the past month, I was often greeted with polite suspicion. For every exclamation of Oh, how nice! I would find myself smiling into a face with a frozen, uncomfortable smile on it, or no smile. I know what people were probably thinking and I don t blame them: ugh, charity. Church people. What do they want? More converts for their side. The Church has often behaved this way and has earned this reputation. This does not mean that we stop trying to live out our mission in the world. It just means that we do so with humility and understanding and patience. So I was not a bit surprised when the only non-church friends and members that came to our first Community Dinner on November 7th were members of a family with whom I have developed a personal relationship for over a year. Because that s what it takes. And personal relationships are not built in thirty polite seconds standing outside someone s door, they are built over time and trust. We are all proud people and no one wants to feel that they are the lesser party in the relationship. There are hungry people in the town of Norwell (and all over the South Shore). I know this for sure. There are people who live with food insecurity and who struggle to get groceries in the cupboards and meals on the table for themselves and their families. Kathy Tedeschi, the Director of the Norwell Food Pantry, and I are determined to keep working on a Community Dinner to be hosted, or at least supported, by all the churches in town. Not just because we care about hunger and loneliness in Norwell but because we believe it would truly strengthen our community to share a meal. All of us. There are too many divisions: not just between affluent and economically struggling, but others too numerous to count. We are Unitarian Universalists and are therefore devoted to unity. Thank you so much to all of you who came on Sunday night, who cooked, and who set up and cleaned up. There were 26 people of all ages who came out on a cold, windy and rainy night. Bravo! This was our grace: We come together to get ready for a week ahead and all that it holds for us. We are grateful for this meal. We are grateful for the hands that prepared it. May it nourish our bodies as we are nourished by each other s company. In faith, hope and love, Rev. Vicki FIRST PARISH CHURCH of Norwell, Massachusetts 24 River Street P.O. Box 152 Norwell, MA Office Hours: Closed on Mondays Tues., Wed., Thurs.: 9 am-1 pm Friday: 9 am-12 pm PHONE: FAX: Hope Weinman, Office Admin. office@firstparishnorwell.org Donna McDonald, Bookkeeper donna@firstparishnorwell.org HOME PAGE: Minister: Rev. Victoria Weinstein Victoria.Weinstein@gmail.com Director of Religious Education: Stuart Twite, dreslt@live.com Music Director: Gingy Grimes Parish Committee: Chair: Derek Sulc Members: Bernie Gardner, Deane Howard, Marie Miller, Bob Neely, Sue Robinson and Don Messinger Treasurer: Marta Reese Minister Emeritus: Rev. Richard M. Fewkes The deadline for the next issue of THE SPIRE is Sunday, November 28th ( version) Submissions may be ed to: office@firstparishnorwell.org, or dropped off in the church office.

3 The Spire November 17, 2010 p. 3 Rev. Weinstein. The second session will be Sunday, December 5 at the same time. We Caring Corner provide lunch and child care. Please let George Goodwin, Membership Chair, know if you would like to attend. George can be reached at ggbythec@comcast.net or We are very sad to share the news that our dear friend Roger Miller passed away peacefully at home on November 2nd. We will celebrate his life in a memorial service on November 27 at 10:00 am. Please let Sue Robinson know (artsue45@hotmail.com) if you can contribute something for the collation or help with set-up or clean-up. Healing wishes and prayers are with Linda Goodwin who is recovering at home from a fall that fractured her knee and arm. Linda, heal fast! Carol Marsh is scheduling a second surgery for early December and would appreciate your prayers for strength and speedy recovery. Barb Meacham is doing well at Scituate Life Care Center and hopes to be home soon. We hope so, too. Mary Eliot is recovering from recent surgery at Milton Hospital and will be entering rehab soon. We will let the community know which one as soon as we find out. Best wishes to Mary. Rev. Weinstein will be preaching at the ordination of James Estes in Washington, DC on November 14th. We will be happy to welcome our Minister Emeritus, Rev. Richard Fewkes, back to the pulpit in her absence. Have you been receiving all-church s and the mini-spire? If not, we may not have your current address. If your address has changed recently, please Hope Weinman in the church office at office@firstparishnorwell.org. Missionaries in Concert Rev. Weinstein will be singing the role of Maura Clarke, one of the four American missionary women murdered in El Salvador on December 2, 1980, in Elizabeth Swados oratorio, Missionaries on December 2, 3 and 4. Locations are Boston College High School, St. Ignatius Church in Newton (on the BC campus) and the Paulist Center on Beacon Hill. This is the New England premiere of this powerful work. The libretto is very graphic and the subject matter intense, but teenagers are encouraged to attend if accompanied by an adult. For more information, please visit dir ections. It's Time to Welcome a Guest at Your Table! On Sunday, November 21, we'll open our Guest at Your Table program at our intergenerational worship service. When we bring home our Guest at Your Table boxes and place them prominently where we regularly gather, our families and friends have the chance to delve into several real struggles for justice and how the Unitarian Universalist Service Committee advances human rights in the United States and around the world. Path to Membership If you have been attending First Parish for a while and are considering becoming a member, we invite you to attend the two-session orientation process called PATH TO MEMBERSHIP. The first session will be from 11:30 am-1:00 pm on November 28 with With each box comes a copy of Stories of Hope, which helps children, youth, and adults learn more about how UUSC works to change our world for the better. The stories introduce humanrights champions like Carolina Lara, a youth leader of a movement in Ecuador that successfully lobbied to have the human right to water included in the country s new constitution.

4 The Spire November 17, 2010 p. 4 Consider making it part of a mealtime ritual to read through one of the stories and discuss its meaning and how we can help. When we share cakes, candy, fudge, baked beans, casseroles, and breads. If it s homemade it will sell. Recipes are in the Parish Hall if needed. Thank you all! our blessings with our guests, we ensure that UUSC and people like Carolina can continue their important work. And, thanks to the Unitarian Universalist Congregation at Shelter Rock in Manhasset, N.Y., gifts of $100 or more are eligible to be matched, dollar for dollar, doubling the impact of your support! If you miss picking up your Guest at Your Table box and Stories of Hope, you can do so at the church office or by talking with Sue Robinson, our UUSC local representative. News from the Knitters! CHRISTMAS CONCERT AND TEA LUNCHEON with THE BROAD COVE CHORALE Margo Euler, Conductor Wednesday, December 8 at 10:30 am Alliance members, please bring a dozen Christmas Goodwill Cookies to the Parish Hall by 9:45 am. The Alliance meeting starts at 10 am to be followed by the concert at 10:30. Alliance Luncheon to follow concert As many of you know, First Parish folks knitted over 75 Chemo Caps last year. They are colorful, soft, and warm and in many styles! Phyllis Cohen had placed a basket of over 20 at Commonwealth Hematology and Oncology offices. She reports they were quickly selected by patients. The remainder of the caps will be taken there soon. Thanks to so many of you who participated and, if you wish to continue to knit, we will gladly continue to supply the caps to this office. See Sue Robinson if you would like patterns. Rogerio Tutti s Successful Encore Performance Rogerio Tutti exquisitely performed a number of Chopin scherzos and ballads on November 6 at the James Library to an enthusiastic and appreciative audience. The First Parish Organ Restoration Fund received 30% of ticket proceeds. HOLIDAY FAIR BAKE TABLE NEEDS BAKERS! Without church bakers donating food we ll have little to sell. So, PLEASE warm up your ovens and whip up a batch. We need pies, bars, cookies, This year s concert will be very special and unusual. The Christmas Truce of 1914 was a real event. It has been celebrated in song, story and even in the movies and will be celebrated here in a concert called All is Calm, All is Bright. The men of The Unicorn Singers will be joining the Broad Cove Chorale. Narrator Michael Theobald will read the words of the men on the front, in the muddy trenches, during the first Christmas of the Great War. The audience is invited to join in singing the carols traded back and forth in the darkness that Christmas Eve when all fighting stopped for over 24 hours and the men on both sides discovered their common humanity. Holiday Fair Saturday, November 20 9 am 2:30 pm Can you smell the sweet breads, pies, cookies, baked beans, chili and chicken pot pie? Bring a good appetite! Bring your kids to have fun downstairs in the Toy Shop, where the youth group will have face painting as a fund-raiser. It s a great place to shop for a gift basket, wonderful knitted or hand made item, holiday swag or a good book to enjoy. We will have a raffle of some great items: an Italian gift basket, a

5 The Spire November 17, 2010 baby s sweater made by Joanne Howard and a scarf knitted by Sue Robinson. Bring your donated treasures & baskets this week and put them in the parlor. The church office is open till 12:00 each day. There will be someone here to help you Thursday evening from 7:00 9:00, and the hall will be open all day Friday until 8:00 pm. Your baked goods can be dropped off then. See you at the Fair! Come make some special memories! Themed Gift Baskets 47 baskets were donated by parishioners! Come to the Holiday Fair this Saturday to buy reasonably priced, attractive gift baskets. To whet your curiosity, here are a few of them: Death by Chocolate, the New England Patriots, Italian Night, Comfort, Sox for Her, Sox for Him, Vanilla Spa, To Us! (wine), Pamper Me Pretty (Nail Spa), Rock 'n Roll (with 4 CD's, the Clapton Autobiography, Roadie DVD and more), New Baby, Holiday Table, Equal Exchange Coffee/Tea/Chocolates, Winnie the Pooh, Family Game Night, Tea Time, All about Cranberries, The Grinch Who Stole Christmas (with the book, the Jim Carrey DVD and two stuffed animals) plus lots more! Meetinghouse Organ Project Update I am pleased to report that on Wednesday, November 10, Darron Wissinger, the organ builder, completed his work on the instrument. Extensions to the main organ case made of walnut are installed. The remaining pipes were prepared for voicing (a process to adjust the tonal character and volume of each pipe so that their sound is consistent across all similar pipes). For the final stage of the project Hal Gober from Oberlin College in Ohio will be voicing the remaining pipes of the organ. Hal and Darron will then go over the entire instrument for any necessary touch up voicing and tuning. When this is completed our consultant, Barbara Owen, will play the instrument. If everything is to her satisfaction we will make our final payment for p. 5 the instrument per our contract. If all goes according to schedule the restoration and expansion of the Meetinghouse organ will be completed on December 10. It seems hard to believe that we are finally at the end of this multi-year project which began in the spring of The complexity of the project including limited space and reusing the case and pipes made it difficult to predict how long it would take. The Organ Committee has carefully monitored the project during this time and are pleased with the results to date. We feel that the Parish will soon appreciate the results of this rebuilt and expanded instrument. Please save Saturday evening, April 30, 2011, for the dedicatory concert. Jim Brown, a former music director at First Parish and a graduate of New England Conservatory, will be performing the concert. Organ Committee: Paul Coolidge Bob Detwiler Marie Miller Dexter Robinson, Chair The Helen Fogg Service Committee Last Sunday's Second Sunday service was a tremendous success, thanks to Dick Fewkes, Betsey Detwiler and all of you. It was so nice to have our former minister in the pulpit again! Betsey gave such a vivid and interesting account of our sister church in Kadacs, Romania, that the collected plate money was around $1,450 plus $30 from the children's collection. If there are people who did not attend the service who would like to donate to our sister church or who would like to sponsor a student from Kadacs, please contact Betsey ( ) ASAP. Thank you! The Fogg Service Committee will add funds to the total. The money will go to the Kadacs minister and towards scholarships for Kadacs students. Look what we can do as a church! Bev Gardner Chair, Fogg Service Committee The James Library & Center for the Arts

6 The Spire November 17, 2010 p. 6 loved one during the upcoming holiday season. Holiday Marketplace Evening sessions will meet for 6 weeks at the Saturday, December 4 th 9 am-3 pm Shop locally this year and support the James and local artists. New features this year includes live music by the Decibelles and the Studio Chorus, ornaments created by local artists, a variety of new vendors, locally made jams, and children's outwear. Custom-decorated wreaths will be available on the lawn. Back by popular demand: North River Gold, Norwell's local honey. Stop by! Beacon Hospice office (32 Resnik Road, Plymouth) on Thursdays from 6:00-7:30 pm beginning November 18. Daytime sessions will meet for 6 weeks at the Plymouth Council on Aging (10 Cordage Park Circle, Plymouth) from 1:00-2:30 pm beginning November 22. Preregistration is required. These groups are free of charge and are open to anyone in the community. Please call Scott Ciosek, Bereavement Counselor, at with questions or to register New Orleans Trip Peg Kitchenham and two members of our youth group (Olivia Bourque and Morgan Gallagher) are interested in going to New Orleans during the February school vacation week and doing work as volunteers rebuilding the city. A group of about 20 youth and adults from First Parish Hingham (Old Ship Church) are going at the same time and we would join them. If enough are interested from Norwell we will make a separate application for the same time period. We would stay in bunk-style dormitories. The cost for room and meals is $35 per day ($245 per week). You would also pay your airfare and part of the cost of car rental for transportation in New Orleans. We need to know as soon as possible if you have some interest in joining us. Please express preliminary interest by December 15 at the very latest. A 25% down payment for the room and board is required. For more information, please contact Peg Kitchenham at or chrispegk@verizon.net. The Norwell VNA and Hospice needs hospice volunteers. If you are compassionate and dependable and have 2-4 hours available per week, please consider this opportunity. Some of our hospice patients just need company, someone to listen to their life s story or to sit with them for respite care while their loved ones go out. Comprehensive training will be offered at the Norwell office. Please call Terri Fedrow, Volunteer Coordinator, at or her at tfedrow@nvna.org if you are interested From the Office Staff: The Church Office is a well-used space - welcoming visitors, hosting meetings, and coordinating the activities of a busy parish. It would be greatly appreciated if you could reset the furniture to its original arrangement after meetings and dispose of your snacks and empty coffee cups. Thank you for your cooperation! Community Events American Red Cross Community Blood Drive Wednesday, November 24 10:00 am 3:00 pm St. Helen s Parish Hall 383 Washington Street (Route 53) RED-CROSS or Beacon Hospice is offering two special support groups for people that are grieving the death of a

7 Lifespan Religious Education at FPN! From the DRE We had a busy and wonderful October and things are not slowing down in November and December! Donate your gently used coats! Our 3 rd and 4 th Grade class is sponsoring a coat drive. Bring your gently used (and clean) winter apparel to church on Saturday during the fair, or Sunday, Nov. the 21rst. Help keep someone warm this winter! It is hard to believe but it is time to prepare for our Church School Christmas Pageant! It will be held Sunday, December 19 th during our Worship service. We will have a practice/pizza holiday party on Dec. the 12 th. Save the dates! Join the First Parish Book Group and the James Library Lyceum for "Dickens in December." Our book group will be reading "Little Dorrit" by Charles Dickens for our January meeting. On December the 28th, the James Library presents a program by a noted Dickens Scholar (many more details to follow)