Author: First Parish Northfield, Unitarian

“Belonging” is the theme of the Chalice Circle service at First Parish of Northfield, Unitarian, on Sunday September 25 at 10am. Parishioner Tony Stavely will lead an exploration of “belonging” in its several senses of meaning as they apply to our lives, conduct, and relationships to one another. All are welcome to join the 10am, in-person gathering at the church on the corner of Parker and Main Streets in downtown Northfield. Contact fpnorthfieldma@gmail.com for the link to join online.

Rev. Melissa Carvill Ziemer

18 September, 2022

You are warmly invited to join us for our annual multi-generational Ingathering Service. Come remember what it means to belong. Come practice learning to trust that there is more, always waiting for our attention. Please bring a small vial of water for our ritual of gathering the drops of each of us into a larger whole. Our service will be held at 10 am in person and available via Zoom. Contact fpnorthfieldma@gmail.com for the link to join online.

Sharing Spiritual Practice, Rev. Melissa Carvill Ziemer: Our service this Sunday will offer a time and place for people of all ages to engage in a variety of shared spiritual practices. I have some practices I’d like to share with you – and I’d also like to make space for you to share with one another. If there is a spiritual practice that is important to you that you’d like to share during our service, please send a note to Melissa via fpnorthfieldma@gmail.com by the end of the day on Friday. Our service will be held at 10am EDT in person at First Parish in Northfield and on Zoom. To participate via the Internet, send a message to fpnorthfieldma@gmail.com for the link.

Most of us fear taking risks.  We may fear rejection, failure and change.  We may fear uncertainty.  But by taking risks, we give ourselves permission to try things out, to learn, to fail, to grow and to explore.  As Anaïs Nin wrote, “The day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom.”  How do we know when the time is right to leave our comfort zones and take a risk?

“The Audacity of Risk” is the theme for Michael Bird’s Chalice Circle service at First Parish of Northfield, Unitarian, at 10 am on Sunday, May 22.  All are welcome to participate in this service of reflection and discussion, either in person at the church on the corner of Main Street and Parker Avenue in Northfield or online via Zoom. Contact fpnorthfieldma@gmail.com for the link to join online.  Masks will be required for those attending in person.

Last week during our service, the Rev. Melissa Carvill Ziemer mentioned a song by Ghanian drummer Sol Amarfio called Woyaya: “We are going / Heaven knows where we are going / But we know within.”

Inspired by these lines, and from the insight of Unitarian Universalist leaders, we will gather this Sunday, May 15, to explore where we have been and where we are going as a community. If you are in any way connected to First Parish, please consider joining us this coming Sunday for a playful, collaborative, exploratory, all ages worship experience. We will gather at 10am in person in Northfield.

If you are joining us online, please have some creative materials at the ready including paper, pens, markers, crayons, materials for collage – whatever speaks to you. It will be good to be together.

All are welcome! Contact fpnorthfieldma@gmail.com for the link to join online.

Lay Reader Dan Tinen will conduct the Sunday service for First Parish of Northfield, Unitarian, at 10:00 a.m. on May 1. His sermon will be titled “Back to the Drawing Board.”

Dan describes the topic as follows: “The last few months have seen our lives overturned by circumstances beyond our control. When things don’t go as we expect, we can be in denial, or we can reexamine our assumptions about the world and human nature. The history unfolding before us challenges us: what can we do to make a peaceful and prosperous world?”

All are welcome to participate in this service of reflection and discussion, either in person at the church on the corner of Main Street and Parker Avenue in Northfield, or online via Zoom. Contact fpnorthfieldma@gmail.com for the link to join online. Masks will be required for those attending in person.

“Sense of Place” is the theme for Paul Bocko’s Chalice Circle service at First Parish of Northfield, Unitarian, at 10 am on Sunday, April 24. “Sense of Place, as noted by Thejas Jagannath, is when people feel a ‘longing of belonging towards a place.’ There may be many reasons for the longing: the place is where you live now, where you grew up, a joyful location, a sorrowful spot, or where you made memories one way or another. Is your sense of place rooted in the natural, cultural, or built environment? All of the above? As we welcome spring, renew our care for earth and each other, let’s share the places we long for, ones that help us belong, those that give us pause, and ones that bring joy.”

All are welcome to participate in this service of reflection and discussion, either in person at the church on the corner of Main Street and Parker Avenue in Northfield or online via Zoom. Contact fpnorthfieldma@gmail.com for the link to join online. Masks will be required for those attending in person.

[Photo Credit: Julia Baldwin]