The Dump – Rev. Carl Scovel

Well, Rev. Scovel’s service this Sunday has Changed and Transformed!

He will now be preaching a sermon titled “The Dump”.

Of this sermon, he writes “Recent newspaper articles have lamented the culture of hoarding that afflicts our society. The sermon is deliberately counter-cultural since it points toward what must sometimes be saved.”

Carl Scovel, the son of medical missionaries, was born and grew up in war torn China before attending college and seminary in this country. After three years working at McLean Hospital as a conscientious objector he served The First Parish from 1957 to 1967 and King’s Chapel in Boston until he retired in 1999. As a Christian he was an anomaly in his own denomination but enjoyed his affiliations and his colleagues, some of whom he still sees in bi-monthly Bible classes. He and his wife of 59 years live in Jamaica Plain near two of their three offspring and their families.

“Creating a Web”, Rev. Katie Lee Crane, FPS minister emerita

Katie Lee says, “I call myself a UU Mystic. My “sermon” will be autobiographical – told in poems and stories that have shaped my spiritual life. It will be rooted in the 7^th Principle and 1^st Source in our UU tradition.”

7th UU principle: respect for the interdependent web of life, of which we are a part

1st UU sources of our Living Tradition: Direct experience of that transcending mystery and wonder, affirmed in all cultures, which moves us to a renewal of the spirit and an openness to the forces which create and uphold life.

Creating a Just World

Join the congregation at First Parish of Sudbury on Sunday, January 22 when they will welcome back Ms. Laura Wagner who will preach the sermon titled “Creating a Just World”. Ms. Wagner asks “how does social change happen?  What do we need to learn from those who came before us and how will this inform the justice movements of our time?  Laura Wagner LICSW, Executive Director of UU (Unitarian Universalist) Mass Action will share her perspective regarding our role in justice movements today.

Laura began her involvement with UU Mass Action as a volunteer working on the immigrant rights campaign.  Laura’s grandparents were survivors of the Armenian Genocide and this family history has been a motivating factor in her immigrant justice work.

Now, as Executive Director, she has been working to increase the number of those engaged in social justice work, deepen connections to each other as well as to our communities and interfaith partners and organize our shared work to help increase out impact.  Our vision for our shared work is to create a world where all people are honored and valued.

Finding Hope in a New and Uncertain World

A few weeks ago, Jews around the world read the scriptural passage in Genesis in which Abraham is commanded to leave the comfortable surroundings of his homeland to embark on a momentous journey to an unknown land and to a new reality.  Using that story as a jumping off point, how do we begin preparing for the new reality created by one of the most contentious elections in American history?

Rabbi Orkand retired after 40 years in the pulpit rabbinate, serving congregations in Florida, Illinois, and Connecticut.  During his career he taught a variety of topics related to religion, but his favorite was, and remains, Comparative Religion, believing that only through knowledge will people come to understand and accept both that which unites us and that which divides us.

A Family of Mothering

“A Family of Mothering” led by member Alorie Parkhill. With our six families of three generations of active First Parishioners, it is a time to reflect on the influence of mothers and our religious communities as we raise our children and grandchildren.

After the service, weather permitting, we will celebrate the earth together with our annual May Pole dance, led by Tom Kruskal and the Morris Dancers. All are welcome.