Fall is the season for “kickoffs” and we started the year with a great kickoff event. On September 5th, nearly 80 members and friends gathered for a dinner to honor Carlene Merrill and the dedication of our kitchen in her honor. Carlene gave so much to First Parish and was a beloved member of our congregation and the community. She took great pride in working in our kitchen and it just seemed that dedicating the kitchen in her name was the best way to honor her memory. The dinner raised over $3,000 for the Carlene Merrill Fund, established in her name by a generous $50,000 donation from her family, who also attended the dinner, to provide bridge funding to help us support our staffing needs. You can donate to the CMF by writing a check to First Parish and indicating in the memo that it is for the CMF.
There are several other events coming up during the next few weeks. On October 19th, our annual State of the Society (SOS) meeting will take place after the service. At the SOS meeting, committee and financial reports are presented and we vote in any new members. We are looking to expand our pool of moderators so let me know if you are interested in becoming a meeting moderator. A basic understanding of Roberts Rules of Order is helpful and we will provide guidance and training to help you learn how to moderate an official church business meeting. It’s an important way to contribute to First Parish.
On October 26th from 2 – 4pm we are conducting the official Act of Ordination for Brian Snow. All members are invited to attend this very special ceremony. A reception will follow in theVestry. Stay tuned for an invitation and information about how you can RSVP and congratulate Brian on his ministerial journey.
And calling all committees! Looking for an opportunity to recruit volunteers and promote the good work of your team or committee? We are bringing back our Team, Committee, and Volunteer Fair during social hour on November 2nd! Let me know if you are interested in securing space at the fair and/or are interested in helping with the fair’s set-up or clean-up (mostly putting up and taking down tables).
One final bit of news. At the August SC retreat, we set as our goal to develop and execute an outward facing strategy and organizational support structure for outreach to the world. It’s ambitious, daring, and meets the moment. We will be putting a team together to figure out how we do this, but I am pleased to report, thanks to many of you, that we already do a lot of outreach through our faith in action programming and our steady presence at events like Pride Day in Lowell and the Chelmsford Fall Festival.
I’ll end with this. We know these are very trying and fearful times. We ask: When will it end? Where are we going? In moments such as these, I often turn to the words of RFK who said to an audience in Indianapolis soon after the assassination of Martin Luther King in April 1968, “we can make an effort, as Martin Luther King did, to understand, and to comprehend, and replace that violence, that stain of bloodshed that has spread across our land, with an effort to understand, compassion, and love…But we have to make an effort in the United States. We have to make an effort to understand, to get beyond, or go beyond these rather difficult times.”
Have mercy. Thank you.
John S., SC Chair
