First Parish Northfield, Unitarian

Spring and Rebirth: A Chalice Circle Service led by Marcus Graly

The service will take place in person at the church, 10 am Sunday, April 23. These are some questions we’ll explore: How do you feel in a natural setting? Is nature or the outdoors connected to your spirituality? How do the changing seasons affect the way we see and interact with the world? Does the new life growing or re-growing give you new energy?

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First Parish Spring Yard Sale! — May 20, at the church, Main Street and Parker Avenue

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Face masks are now optional at Sunday services and other First Parish events. We recommend that members and visitors practice social distancing, especially out of consideration of those who choose to mask or may be more vulnerable to infection.

Rev. Melissa Carvill Ziemer will lead tomorrow’s service at First Parish of Northfield, Unitarian, on the topic Once Through the Spiral, a preparation for the celebration of Earth Day. The service will be an experience of shared spiritual practice to strengthen and encourage us in our efforts to resist the destruction of the earth and to remind us how we can go forth into the world as agents of healing, of justice, of love and of care.

Rev. Melissa is recovering from COVID and plans to lead this service from home over Zoom or in person at the church depending on how her recovery progresses. In either case, those who are able and wish to, may participate in the service live at the church, even if the officiant is online.

To participate via Zoom, please send an e-mail message to fpnorthfieldma@gmail.com for a link. All will be welcome.

We wish the Carvill Ziemer family a swift return to good health as they recover from a COVID infection in their household. In place of Rev. Evin Carvill Ziemer’s Easter service, Ann Linge will host a service at the church, delivering a sermon titled “Hope Will Be Restored” by Heide Cottam. The service will begin at 10 am and be available on Zoom. To participate via Zoom, please send an e-mail message to fpnorthfieldma@gmail.com for a link. All will be welcome.

Lay Reader Dan Tinen will speak on “Umbrella Beliefs: Pollyanna versus Eeyore” at 10 am Sunday, April 2, at the First Parish of Northfield, Unitarian. All are welcome to participate in person or online. For participation over the Internet, please send an e-mail message to fpnorthfieldma@gmail.com for a link.

What does it mean to have a Good Faith Conversation? The writer and musician Nick Cave says, “A good faith conversation begins with curiosity. It looks for common ground while making room for disagreement. It should be about exchange of thoughts and information rather than instruction, and it affords us the great privilege of being wrong; we feel … free to move around the sometimes treacherous waters of ideas. A good faith conversation understands fundamentally that we are all flawed and prone to the occasional lamentable idea.”

You are invited to join our Chalice Circle, led by Michael Bird, to explore good faith conversations and occasionally lamentable ideas on March 26th at 10 a.m. in the sanctuary at First Parish Northfield, at the corner of Main Street and Parker Avenue. All are welcome.

Rev. Melissa Carvill Ziemer says, “There is a song I love by the singer/songwriter Peter Mayer that includes this line: ‘God is a river, not just a stone. God is a wild raging rapids and a slow, meandering flow….. God is the river, swimmer, so let go.’ On this Sunday closest to the Vernal Equinox, we will consider how the wisdom of the earth and the wisdom of the ancients and the sages might encourage us in the work of letting go and embracing the vulnerability inherent in human being.” Our service will be held at 10 am on March 19, in person at First Parish in Northfield and online. For participation over the Internet, please send an e-mail message to fpnorthfieldma@gmail.com for a link.

For this week’s service for First Parish of Northfield, Mary Mayshark-Stavely will share and discuss photographs of animal frescoes found in caves in southwestern France. They were made around 20,000 years ago and depict animal life and hunting. All are welcome to participate at the church at 10am on Sunday, March 12, or online via Zoom. To participate via Zoom, please send an e-mail message to fpnorthfieldma@gmail.com for a link. [Photo Credit: © N. Aujoulat (2003) © MCC-CNP]

Sunday, March 5, Dan Tinen: “Why Not the Best?”

What moral criteria do we use to choose our leaders? Honesty, openness, diligence come to mind. With the passing of John Olver, and Jimmy Carter entering hospice, we will reflect on those “saints who from their labors rest” and what makes them unique.

We’d love to see you in person at 10:00 am at First Parish or on Zoom. To participate via Zoom, please send an e-mail message to fpnorthfieldma@gmail.com for a link. All will be welcome.

As we commemorate the founding of Northfield 350 years ago, we face the perfect moment to consider the role of First Parish as the first church of Northfield, the church whose establishment allowed the town to be chartered.

How do we, in this time of rising awareness of the cultures and people who came before the colonists, relate to our history and build a future that embraces our seven principles?

Join our Chalice Circle February 26th at 10 a.m. in the sanctuary at the corner of Main Street and Parker Avenue, Northfield. All are welcome.

The Unitarian Universalist Association’s Article II Study Commission examining the Principles and Purposes of the UUA has proposed substantive changes for our collective consideration. They suggest that liberating love is our central religious value and spiritual discipline, which is intertwined with and inseparable from a number of other values that articulate what it means to live a Unitarian Universalist life. We will consider our own individual value systems alongside these proposed shared values in a service created with all ages in mind. We’d love to see you in person at 10:00 am at First Parish or on Zoom. To participate via Zoom, please send an e-mail message to fpnorthfieldma@gmail.com for a link. All will be welcome.