Upcoming Service
Stewardship 2021

Stewardship 2021

This year’s Stewardship Campaign, during which the Church raises more than 70% of the monies to operate, will soon begin. The theme for the Campaign is “Invitation to Connect”, reflecting both the importance of connecting with each other while remaining safe from the COVID virus. We are extraordinarily blessed to have a loving and caring community, as well as Church leaders and minister to help us through this difficult time. The times may be challenging, but we look forward to sharing messages of hope and resilience with you over the next few weeks when we officially launch the Campaign on Stewardship Sunday, October 25.

Danielle Kehoe and Chuck McCormack, Stewardship Co-Chairs

UU the Vote

UU the Vote

“For Unitarian Universalists, this is faithful, moral action because democracy and the right of all people to have a voice and a vote are at the very heart of our Seven Principles. This work is about the inherent worth and dignity of every person; it is about restoring right relationship with the planet; it is about our commitment to justice and equity for all people. We are called to courageously embody the deepest values of our faith with our hearts, bodies, and spirits while building toward an abundant future in which all are free and flourishing.” – Rev. Susan Frederick-Gray

Learn how you can help by engaging in a nonpatisan activity to educate, mobilize, and protect the vote.

Learn how to get involved

Virtual Religious Education

Virtual Religious Education

The weather seems to be holding which means another opportunity for an in-person RE class. This week is NOT rocket-launching for all, that’s next week. This week we will be running a UU-based scavenger hunt (similar to the Amazing Race but much shorter distances.) RE class will be in person, at 11:30 a.m., in the Outdoor Classroom behind the Fellowship Building. Join us for a masked, socially distanced, discovery adventure in our own Fellowship Building woods out back. Parents welcome to stay. Dress Warm with Boots—we’re still getting used to that winter chill.

Next week look forward to Rocket Launching, another in-person class, with David Radue. He will have his own launcher for use and we will have mini rocket launchers, using film canister rolls packed with alka-seltzer wrapped in a toilet paper roll with a cone on top. Adults are invited to this fun event too. We are meeting in the lower baseball/soccer fields of the Harvard’s Bromfield High School at 11:30 a.m.

Sunday Service Zoom Information

Services begin at 10:00 a.m., you can try to join in starting at 9:45. Please Note: You will enter a waiting room and our hosts will admit you to worship.

Zoom Link for Worship Service -

By Computer:

Zoom Link

For more information: Worship Service Live Streamed

News & Announcements

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♦♦♦ Gem The Week ♦♦♦

Stop trying to Save the World all By Yourself, Naomi Klein (Except from, “On Fire, The Burning Case for a Green New Deal”)

“We all hear the clock ticking loudly in the background. But that doesn’t mean that climate change trumps everything else. It means we need to create integrated solutions, ones that radically bring down emissions while tackling structural inequality and making life tangibly better for the majority.

The hard truth is that the answer to the question, “what can I, as an individual, do to stop climate change?” is: nothing. You can’t do anything. In fact, the very idea that we, as atomized individuals, even lots of atomized individuals, could play a significant part in stabilizing the planet’s climate systems or changing the global economy is objectively nuts. We can only meet this tremendous challenge together, as part of a massive and organized global movement.”

Please take this Climate Survey! Ellen Leicher from the Town’s Climate Action Working Group has asked to share this newly released survey about Harvard’s response to Climate Change that they would like Harvard residents to take. It takes about 10 minutes and will help the working group immensely to know the feelings of town residents as it moves forward with its work.

Here is the link to the survey:
Harvard Climate Initiate Survey

And here is a link about the work of the committee:
Harvard Climate Initiative

THANK YOU!

Bereavement Support

Caring Network

Zoom Lecture -Tuesday October 18th, 7pm

Welcome Zoom Lecturer Lynda Michaud Cutrell

Lynda Michaud Cutrell is an artist who created an exhibit of 99 photographs of people who live with mental illness 99facesproject.com. People who are living rich and beautiful lives whose stories help us understand how we experience our own mental health. She will present her story on Tuesday the 20th from 7:00-8:00 as a continuation of our zoom lecture series. Stay tuned for the link!

Upcoming Events

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Glean Team Volunteers

We are looking for volunteers! Please contact Bob Benson to learn about how you can help. For more information about the Glean Team.  

Volunteer sign up:

SignUpGenius: Aug – Oct 2020
SignUpGenius: Nov – Jan 2021

Loaves & Fishes Needs Our Help

Loaves and Fishes has closed temporarily. They are looking to open again. The need two things - volunteers from less vulnerable age groups to help sort food, give out food, etc. and they need financial donations - NOT food donations. If you can volunteer email volunteer@loavesfishespantry.org.

If you want to donate, you can do it online at loavesfishespantry.org/donate-now or by mailing a check to Loaves and Fishes at P.O.Box 1, Ayer, MA 01432.

You can get more information at: Loaves & Fishes Update: Getting ready to re-open

Thanks!

- Maddy and Hugh Silk.

hugh.silk@yahoo.com

Guest at Your Table

With our lives currently being held hostage by the corona virus, our GAYT effort will take a breather and start up again in the fall. In the meantime if you are able to send in a check to support the UUSC’s efforts around the globe it will be greatly appreciated. All donations will still be matched and donations of $125 or more will be quadrupled.

For more information please see our post "Guest At Your Table (GAYT) Takes a Breather"

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Facilities Use
Wedding Service
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Who we are

We are a liberal religious community of people of all ages who hold diverse theological beliefs. We come not only from Harvard, but also from many surrounding towns. We gather together "in the spirit of love," to worship, to learn, and to care for one another. We come together both to be comforted and accepted for who we are, and to be challenged to transform and grow as moral and spiritual persons.

We believe in the value of personal experience and reason, and use both as we explore the wisdom of the world's religious traditions, seeking to find and make meaning for ourselves. We celebrate and honor the prophetic words and deeds of many of those who've come before us, which call us to serve not only one another, but also those outside of our community. We long for a world that is fair and just and filled with compassion, and we work to make it so.

We welcome you! We'd love to have you join us on our journey!

Minister’s Minute

This is your chance to listen carefully. Your whole life might depend on what you hear.
- Joyce Sutphen

As we delve into the monthly theme of deep listening, I want to share a reflection inspired by Joyce’s words from one of our SoulMatter’s packets. It’s beautiful:

Listening helps us find our way. The listening of therapists allows us to navigate our way through life. We turn to prayer to hear sacred guidance. We listen to experts so we can get ahead. Like a flashlight that leads us through the darkness, listening helps us keep on course. And yet our faith says not quite. There’s so much more to it than that. Listening doesn’t just guide us through the world, it says. It also creates our world.

Just think about why you listen to those close to you. Is it really just to gather information? To hear the other clearly? Or is it because you’ve discovered in those rare moments of deep listening that a space suddenly opens up? A space that feels sacred. A space that, once you’ve experienced it, you never want to leave. Those voices calling us home are our home. We don’t have conversations; we are our conversations. Listening literally determines the world we live in. And whom we become.

That old story about the cricket and coins comes to mind. Two people are walking down a busy city street. Everyone is rushing to and from their work, trying to get ahead. One of the friends turns to the other and says, “Do you hear that? It’s a cricket!” The other friend responds with doubt, but after focusing his attention finally hears it. “Wow,” he says, “How did you hear that cricket with all the noise around us?” His friend responds, “It’s all about how I was raised, about what I was taught to listen for.” He goes on, “Here, I’ll show you something.” The friend then reaches into his pocket and pulls out a handful of coins - nickels, quarters, dimes - and he drops them on the sidewalk. Everyone who was rushing by stops… to listen.

One wonders if this is why the poet says, “Listen carefully. Your whole life might depend on what you hear.” We don’t have conversations, we are our conversations. Who and what we listen to is who and what we become.

May our time together, help us take one more step toward listening our way into being.
Rev. Jill