Those of you who were at the nice gathering downstairs on Friday - and thank you to all those who helped - got to hear Charlie Anderson do his usual entertaining turn as auctioneer. At one point there was some confusion as to which of two bidders had won a particular vacation stay, and Charlie [...]
All year members of the congregation here have been encouraged to join in an effort to envision the future we want for ourselves at First Parish. Hard-working groups of teams have been listening and compiling and sifting and getting ready for a report on their progress at Annual Meeting in two weeks, looking ahead to [...]
With Earth Day near, time comes to be sure to focus on the natural world and how we think and feel about it. Concerned, for one thing. Rededicated to better care of the earth. More aware than usual of the perils and the needs. The media are replete with the news of it, the facts [...]
In many religious traditions, heresy is not a good thing. For most of the last two thousand years, the dominant Christian organization in central and western Europe and the western hemisphere has been the Roman Catholic Church. When it identifies someone as a heretic, it is not meant as an honor. Heresy fares no better [...]
Ken Sawyer’s part of Celebration Sunday
at the First Parish in Wayland, Mass.
March 9, 2008
Picture this: a place people come to, a place that we come to, a place where people are welcome for just who they are, diverse in all manner of ways, but united in the most important values that give meaning, purpose, and [...]
“According to a story in the New York Times, a commemorative statue of Phineas Taylor Barnum will be erected in front of the Bethel, Conn. Library in time for his 200th birthday on July 5, 2010.”
I read that one-line report on the UU Historical Association chat line [from Jim Nugent], and it caught my eye [...]
It gives a preacher a lot to think about, wondering what to say when guests have been invited, folks who are interested enough in learning what goes on here that they show up for a service, before going next month to temple, and the month after that to mass.
I assume no one showed up hoping [...]
Let’s see … time before last I tried to evaluate Jesus’ most basic teachings, last time I wondered if the universe has a purpose. So this week, I thought I’d talk about death. Maybe I should come up with some less-heavy topic for the Sunday after next, when we will have visitors from the other [...]
Let’s see … time before last I tried to evaluate Jesus’ most basic teachings, last time I wondered if the universe has a purpose. So this week, I thought I’d talk about death. Maybe I should come up with some less-heavy topic for the Sunday after next, when we will have visitors from the other [...]
A number of events conspired to lead me to this morning’s sermon topic, existentialism. One church member, Steve Kaye, forwarded me a fine article by Professor Robert Solomon, “Pessimism vs. Existentialism,” that makes the case that far from being pessimistic, as it is often portrayed, existentialism is quite the opposite. By the way, the French [...]
One could argue, it isn’t right for me to give a sermon about Jesus at Christmas time after having not paid more attention to him in the rest of the year. I disagree.
It’s like the intellectual quandary faced by the Puritans who gathered this congregation back in the seventeenth century. Their strict Calvinist theology told [...]