Summer 2015 Garden Tours
July through August

Summer Sunday tours of church members' and friends' gardens are back! This year they will be 4 to 6 pm, when gardens aren't quite to wilted-should be really lovely and a nice chance for community. They'll occur any week it isn't storming. Questions? Call email Kate O'Dell at odellkk@gmail.com.

  

Sunday, July 5 - HOLIDAY Weekend - no Garden Tour

Sunday, July 12 -Margery Connelly, #30 Sherbrook Ave., Worcester. From church take Belmont St. up and down hill to just before bridge: turn right onto Lake Ave. Take second right onto Sherbrook, cross Lake View and find #30 (4th house on right.)

Sunday, July 19 - Mary McALister, 53 Navasota Ave, Worcester. From church take right onto State St, then right onto Harvard St, then left onto Highland. Follow Highland St and Pleasant St to Mower St. Continue on Mower St, drive to Navasota Ave.

Sunday, July 26 - Diane and John Mirick, 160 Mirick Rd, Princeton. From church get to Lincoln Sq. and take 290 East briefly to 190 North. Take exit 5 and turn left onto Rt. 140. Follow winding country road to blinking light and turn left onto Rt. 62 and later right into Rt. 130 (before Princeton Ctr.)  Go past Merriam Rd. to 2nd left onto Mirick. Go approx. 1.5 miles, past Beaman Rd. and uphill to house with big red barn on left. Park by barn.

Sunday, Aug. 2 - James and Linda Tartaglia, 6 Old Colony Road, Worcester. From church, turn right onto State St. then turn right onto Harvard St. Continue onto Tuckerman St. and turn left onto Salisbury  St.. Old Colony Road is a right off Salisbury St. (heading west) about 3 blocks BEFORE Flagg Street. 

Sunday,  Aug. 9 - Helen Turano, 12 Somerset Street, Worcester. (Friend of the church) Suggest parking on Williams St (Somerset is technically "Residents Only" but probably not enforced Sundays).

Sunday, Aug. 16 - Jim Dolan. 769 Grove St., Worcester. From church take Harvard St. past the Art Museum, turn left briefly on Salisbury St. and then first right onto Grove. It winds around past Indian Lake and becomes Rt. 122A. 769 is almost in Holden directly in front of the St. Peter's-Marian High School.

Sunday August 23, - Huck and Jo Truesdell, 19 Wheeler Ave. Worcester. From church parking lot take right onto State St. then right onto Harvard St. Continue onto Tuckerman St. Turn left onto Salisbury St. Continue straight to stay on Salisbury St. Turn right onto Wheeler Ave. Destination will be on the right.

Sunday, Aug. 30 - 1-4 PM

Garden Tour with freshly picked melodies
every half hour
Sherwood-Bershad Residence, Sterling
www.SherwoodPhoto.com/gardens
Freewill donation for 1st U Encore Fund & WorcAGO Scholarship Fund
RSVP requested for planning refreshments
(directions by return email)

Concert Series

YOUNG ARTISTS SHOWCASE SERIES  at First Unitarian, 90 Main St Worcester  (Will Sherwood, Dir of Music)

Each year First Unitarian features top-tier musicians both to offer them performance experience/exposure, and to introduce our community to fresh and exciting new top talent that’s headed onto the concert scene.  This year we feature two (classical) organists and  Joy of Music Program’s Jazz Trane  jazz quartet.

Friday April 24 7PM

Jonathan Wessler, organist   (organ performance degrees from Oberlin and Eastman)

Innovative Transcriptions and Works by Beethoven (Leonore 3), Vaughan Williams, and Guilmant

Worcester Debut

Jonathan is an accomplished improviser and arranger as well as standard repertoire performer.

Somewhat unusual for organists, he has a great skill for transcribing orchestral works for the organ – capturing the textures and timbres   of the full orchestra ensemble while “soloing-out” (emphasizing) important themes/melodies by various individual instruments.

Orchestral transcription has been somewhat of a lost art, although in recent years younger organists are starting to embrace transcriptions (which prior to the modern era of technology and frequent live concert availability, large orchestral works could only be heard live on the pipe organ by a local organist).

Jonathan grew up in the Midwest (Illinois) and began improvisation somewhat out of necessity for church service playing.

He adapts his repertoire and playing style based on the instrument at hand (so to speak) –

“You have to work with the instrument to perform the piece the way the instrument likes it played” (the optimal sound for that particular instrument).   Most organists do not have a wide swath of experience as orchestrators, rather just playing existing organ repertoire note-for-note.

Jonathan is no stranger to orchestras:  both his parents were members of a symphony orchestra, and his father was an orchestra conductor,  so Jonathan had early exposure to fine symphonic works.

For his Beethoven Leonore piece on the program, he learned it from the orchestra full score (one staff per instrument, yielding 20 or more staves per page, and your eyes have to “yodel” up and down to scan all the notes to assemble in your mind the full texture of the orchestra).  For practical purposes, he has condensed his organ arrangement to three staffs for less stressful real-time performance.

UU Sisterhood April Potluck and Labyrinth

Join the women of the UU Sisterhood at our next meeting on Friday, April  17th for an evening of food, wine, conversation and laughter.

We gather at 6:00 in the Dining Room with a potluck dinner starting shortly thereafter. All women of the church are welcome. 

Please bring a dish and a beverage to share.

After dinner and cleanup please plan to stay for the following program:

  

Celebrate spring by walking the labyrinth!  Marjorie Connelly will lead us this evening, giving a little background about the labyrinth and some practical tips for how to walk it if this is your first experience.  Marjorie has trained as a Labyrinth Facilitator, with Lauren Artress, the founder of the Labyrinth Renewal.  She has walked many labyrinths including the one in Chartres Cathedral, France.

The labyrinth is an ancient symbol found in ancient Greek and Roman Culture.  In the 12^th and 13^th centuries large labyrinths were laid into the floor of a number of Gothic Cathedrals in France.  These labyrinths fell into disuse and many were removed from the churches in the 17^th and 18^th centuries.  Today, thanks to Lauren Artress, retired Canon priest of Grace Cathedral in San Francisco who rediscovered the labyrinth at Chartres Cathedral, France, a world-wide labyrinth renewal has taken place and many of us have come to love this walking meditation tool.

As we walk the labyrinth, we meander turning one corner and then another sometimes coming close to the center and then finding ourselves walking at the outside edge; however, we continue along the path and eventually find ourselves in the center. This is often referred to as a metaphor of life, something to ponder and explore the meaning of. 

Winter Fun Afternoon

Mark your calendar for Sunday March 1! 

After Church, there will be a Winter Fun Afternoon at the Mirick Farm on the slopes of Mt Wachusett in Princeton.  We’ll have sledding, snowshoeing, and cross-country skiing.  There will be no shortage of snow this year! There will be a bonfire, and a cooking fire by the lean-to for make-your-own s’mores, and hot drinks. 

Plan to leave the Church about noon.  Bring a picnic lunch, which you can eat in the dining room before leaving, in your car on the way (the drive is about 25 minutes), or around the fire after you arrive. 

This is an intergenerational event!  Bring your own sleds, toboggans, snowshoes, and skis.  There are lots of slopes – some steep and some gentle – all kinds of fields and lanes through the woods for cross-country skiing, and lots of walks through the woods for those on snowshoes.  You can stand on top of a beaver lodge, follow animal tracks through the snow (moose tracks if you’re really lucky), scout for places where the deer have bedded down, and just enjoy an afternoon outdoors.   If you get chilly, you can warm up at the lean-to or around the bonfire. 

Of course, dress for winter weather:  layers of clothing, boots, hats, and gloves. Consider a small backpack for lunch, snacks, and odds and ends.  And if you have little ones who may get wet when playing in the snow or along the brook, put a change of clothes for them in your car.

Princeton is just 17 miles north of Worcester.  The quickest route from the Church is I-290 to I-190 north to Route 140 and then Route 62, but Route 31 through Holden is also an option.  We will pass out maps and “Can’t Miss” directions on February 22.  If you were on the Mt Wachusett climb in October, the route will look familiar:  Mirick Road is parallel to Mountain Road, where we started on the trail up the mountain.  The Mirick farm has a large red barn on the west side of the road, and a white colonial house and other outbuildings on the east side of the road.  For those who use a GPS, plug in “160 Mirick Road, Princeton MA  01541”

Park in front of the barn – head-in parking, please!  If you have a 4 wheel drive vehicle, you can also park in the field to the right of the barn.  And if everything else is filled up, then parallel park along the edge of the road, but leave room for cars to get through.  The bonfire and lean-to are a couple of hundred yards down the lane to the right of the barn, past the pond, and over the brook (there’s a bridge!) to the right when you come into the meadow.

Join us for as much of the afternoon as fits in your schedule and your energy level!

Bad Weather Date:  If February 22 is terrible, we’ll move to the following Sunday, March 1.

Questions?       Call John or Diane Mirick 978-464-2313  

Emails: jmirick@mirickoconnell.com or dkmirick@verizon.net

Joy of Lunch

Greetings dear friends!  Ever wish for a more substantial “coffee hour” spread before you’re off to that great afternoon workshop or meeting here at the church?  Kids starving so you can’t stay and chat?  What if … what if we feed each other lunch every  month?  We have done this several times thus far, and the outcome has been great! 

We started with a bang for the In Gathering Sunday and we will again be hosting for the upcoming Sunday of October 19, 2014.  We have our designated team for that date, but need upcoming teammates for the dates in the months ahead. 

Now wait, I know what you’re thinking.  You are groaning:  “No! Not another thing for me to do, please, I am already out straight.  You are going to ask me to volunteer and I don’t want to!”

I’d like to share with you one idea about lunch.  Please contact me with your ideas too!  Deborah Veroneau, 508-410-7630, debaneau@aol.com.  Please know that I respond best to voicemails at the present time and within 48 -72 hours to emails.

 

What if… what if someone you know and like from the church invited you onto his or her “team”?   Your team consists of about a dozen people.   On the day you signed up for you come to church early, 9 AM, because you love your teammates and you are honored to play with them in the kitchen.  Your team leader is kind and enthusiastic and has shopped and planned the meal.  You just have to show up and chop veggies or put sandwiches together or stir the soup or chili, or what ever is planned.  Your teammates have all replied to their email / phone reminders in advance so you know who is out of town that week, who can come early to prep, who can stay late to wash pots and pans.

You do this all not as a chore but with joy in your heart, because you are in a ministry.   It is our lunch ministry and we are happy to do this for each other.  This month I cook and feed you, next month, you will cook and feed me.  We trust each other that there will be lunch.  You are nourishing your friends.  Our church has opened its doors and new people want to visit us because we are kind, forthright, open, fun-loving, and our food is delicious.  The food tastes great because your joy has sent its very vibration into the food.  

Logistics: Contributions Free Will Donations  would fund the program so that shoppers are reimbursed, however, food is not withheld based on ability to pay.   Generosity encouraged.  The team leader /co-leader would take ownership of the email / phone reminders and let the team know how many hands will be on deck.  The spirit is playful.  We will cook to uplifting music. And our Joy of Lunch Ministry will be Fun, Nutritious, and Uplifting for all involved. 

This month we are busy with after church activities; Annual Wachusett Hike and the guest speaker after church.  Before we head off in different directions, we will nourish ourselves with nutritious food that we can eat here or take away to the hike.  Brown bags will be provided to this.   Please join us as we begin our Joy of Lunch Ministry here at First Unitarian Church of Worcester.  

In The Service of All,

Deborah Veroneau

Project Have Hope

Project Have Hope (PHH) provides educational and business opportunities for impoverished women and families in Uganda's Acholi Quarter.  Through child sponsorship, vocational training and micro-loans, PHH is changing lives.

Founder and Director, Karen Sparacio, operates PHH out of Malden, Massachusetts.  She travels to Uganda several times per year assessing the progress of children and women, and creating new programs that can utilize the donations made by generous people of Massachusetts.

.

Currently, PHH is funding projects that provide schooling and sponsorship for children, adult literacy programs, start up loans, solar cooking, agricultural programs, and the PHH beads and jewelry sales. Stay tuned for more information about the jewelry sales that will be sponsored by YRU2 to help fundraise for their mission trip in 2015!

The 50/50 Collection will be taken October 26^th. Your generosity is greatly appreciated!

For more information, visit  contact Karen Sparacio at: info@projecthavehope.org . You can also contact Lesa McWalters, Youth Ministries Coordinator at lesamcwalters@yahoo.com

Threshold Update

On Saturday, Oct. 11, Dave Blodgett and Gini Johnson attended the NE Gathering of Threshold Singers at Indian Hill Music in Littleton, led by Kate Munger the founder of the hospice singing movement.  

Dave found the Threshold Choir workshop very enjoyable and informative.  He has been interested in the idea of providing music at the bedside for folks who are hospitalized or in a hospice program and who have expressed a desire for the therapeutic benefits that a small group of singers can provide.  The Hallowell Singers (www.hallowell-singers.org) is one such group located in southern Vermont that provides a variety of opportunities for hospitalized folks to enjoy the engagement and peace inherent in well rehearsed vocal music.  The Threshold Choir movement, which is a national organization, is similar in that it supports local groups wishing to train singers to provide folks in hospice care a soothing prayerful experience that is spiritually nourishing while being theologically inclusive.  The Threshold Choir model seems to be focused to a greater extent on folks in the last state of life's journey and therefore, the musical experience is geared towards a quiet and reflective style of singing.

Gini experienced the workshop as quietly intense; learning new songs and parts, singing softly, blending voices and entering into a prayerful state for an extended period of time. The songs were not religious, but deeply spiritual about love, connections and support.  It seems evident that to develop a group will require dedication, time and commitment but that it would be rewarding to the participants and recipients of songs during struggles to live or preparations to die. Ideally, there would be a large enough group of trained singers to respond to requests and not become overly burdensome or emotionally exhausting; also, to find leadership for rehearsals, fundraising, networking, publicity, etc.   It would be our hope to develop a group of approximately 20-30 volunteers in the community over the coming year.  If interested in joining Dave and Gini on a steering committee, ultimately being a singer or to express your ideas, please let us hear from you.