Worship Schedule

Ingathering Chimes

Prelude: “Gathering Together”

Welcome and Announcements: Frans Janssen, Membership-Hospitality Committee

Chalice Lighting: Carla Corey, Membership-Hospitality Committee
Call to Worship: “Welcome Home” by Rachel Rott – Rev. Ellen Rowse Spero

Hymn #1028 in Singing the Journey: “Fire of Commitment”

First Parish Covenant: Led by Dave Kaffine

We, the members of First Parish of Chelmsford, covenant together to sustain and strengthen our beloved community by:
Honoring and celebrating the Spirit of Life
Nurturing all souls in our search for truth and the sacred
Caring and being present to one another in our joys and sorrows
Bearing witness through service to justice and peace
And being good stewards of our congregation, our heritage, our Unitarian Universalist principles, and our Earth.

Offertory: “Journeying Together”

Joys and Sorrows

A Time for Meditation and Prayer

Congregational Response: “Spirit of Life,” Hymn #123 in Singing the Living Tradition

A Celebration of Membership

Opening Words: Rev. Ellen Rowse Spero

Anthem: “True Colors” – Billy Steinberg and Tom Kelly

Celebrating the Covenant of Membership: John Fisher, Mem.-Hosp. Committee & Rev. Ellen Rowse Spero

Membership-Hospitality Committee is honored to recognize & celebrate the Members of First Parish UU Church of Chelmsford! Thank you for your Time, Treasure, and Talent!

New Members ‘26: Ron Peacetree; Mathew Zimmermann; Kathleen Talbot; Steven Davis, Alan Sloan, Teri Ralbovsky

Ten Years ‘26: Brian Snow

Twenty-Five Years ‘26: Sally Seekings, Rebecca Gore, Warren Flewellen

Covenanting & Re-Covenanting Together: Led by Elaine Mahoney, Membership-Hospitality Committee

One: Here in the refuge of this Sabbath home we turn our busy minds toward silence, and our full hearts toward one another.

All: We move together through mysteries: the bright surprise of birth and the shadowed questions of death.

One: In our slow walk between the two we will be wounded, and we will be showered with grace, amazing, unending.

All: Even in our sorrows, we feel our lives cradled in a holiness we cannot comprehend.

One: And though we each walk within a vast loneliness, the promise we offer here is that we do not walk alone. This is a holy place in which we gather–the light of the earth brought in and held, touched then by our answering light:

All: the flame on a chalice, the flicker of a candle, the lamps of our open faces brought near. In this place of silence and celebration, solemnity and music, we make a sanctuary and name our home.

(Kathleen McTigue, adapted. #24 in Lifting Our Voices)

Hymn #298 in Singing the Living Tradition: “Wake Now, My Senses”

Benediction & Extinguishing the Chalice: “Benediction for Membership Sunday” by Thomas Rhodes

Postlude: “Becoming Aware”