Upcoming Service
Spring Online Auction - The Power of Oui!

Spring Online Auction – The Power of Oui!

The theme of this year’s Auction is The Power of Oui! Saying yes (en Francais) to keeping our community and connections alive and vibrant, and yes to a little fun French flair for the live event!

Important Dates:

• May 8 – Deadline for your donations
• May 22 to June 5 – On-line bidding occurs
• June 5 – Live Auction (via Zoom) from 7:00 – 8:30.

How will this work?

We have built a Power of Oui website (see link below) that will be Auction Central - a place for you to enter your donations, register to participate, and, when the time comes, to start your bidding engines.

How To Donate - Once you have found your way to the Power of Oui website, click on the Auction Item Donations tab along the top. If you need ideas, you can navigate to the Ideas and Inspiration tab where there are hundreds of ideas!

Donations should be entered by May 8 to give the Committee time to organize the catalog and determine which items will be reserved for the Live Auction and which items will be available for bidding as early as May 22.

Please click on the Auction 2021 tab in the main menu above for more information or the link below to go to Power of Oui website.

If you have any questions, you can email auction@uuharvard.org

We can’t wait to start the bidding on May 22 and to ‘see you’ at the Live Auction on June 5!

Sincerely,
The 2021 Auction Committee

The Power of Oui Website

Sharing Our Plate

Sharing Our Plate

Each month, 33% of the cash contributions in the collection plate, other than those specified for pledges, go to a designated tax-deductible, 501(c)3, social justice organization or local charity.

This month our plate will be shared with the Gaza Mental Health Foundation, an organization based in the US that raises funds for the mental health work being carried out in the Gaza Strip by independent, non-sectarian organizations. Their support has expanded the mental health services available to individuals, especially children, furthered the reach of crisis intervention programs and advanced the training of mental health professionals and public awareness efforts to combat the stigma of mental illness in Palestinian society.

If you would like 100% of your donation to support this charity, please make your check payable to - Gaza Mental Health Foundation, and send it to the church office. Your check will be sent to the Gaza Mental Health Foundation with the donation from the church.

Donations to the plate can be made by a check payable to HUUC, memo line "plate", or by texting to 833-457-0519. When donating by text, please enter the dollar amount you want and then the word "plate". Example - 10 plate.

Thank you for your support!

Virtual Religious Education

Virtual Religious Education

May's Theme is STORY

Last Sunday we “Grew our Values” in a values tree with zones for comfort, growth, and stretch. (Yes, we sketched our hand to illustrate!) In talking, the kids realized that all things in our comfort zones were once a stretch! We went from drawing, playing Minecraft, baking, eating, swimming, care for our pets, demolition to public speaking, eating new foods, swimming easily, building a home, becoming an animator, and doing stand-up comedy!

This Sunday: Meet at Scorgie Trailhead, 11:30am

This Sunday, May 2 at 11:30 a.m., the children, youth, and parents are invited to represent HUUC in Harvard’s Annual Trash Cleanup and Garlic Mustard Pull day. We will meet at the Scorgie Trail-head parking lot, below the Belleview Cemetery, on Still River Rd, a few miles from the church. (From the church, head to the General and take a Right on Still River Rd., the parking lot is approx. 1 mile further, after the cemetery, on the Left.) http://www.harvard-trails.com/clapp.html

We will be cleaning up the actual Scorgie Trail, which is just about a mile-long, gentle hike. We plan to take a quick detour and visit the ruins of a neat house site right by the water. We will be on the trail, so no need for protective vests for the kids. We will have trash bags and plastic gloves for everyone, but you may want to bring work gloves. Hiking boots recommended and please apply bug spray (for ticks) ahead of time.

Sarah will share her Garlic Mustard Pesto recipe! We’re looking forward to seeing everyone. Remember your facemasks! Thanks, Sarah, for signing us up. ☺

-Laura

Sunday Service Zoom Information

Services begin at 10:00 a.m., you can join in starting at 9:50. 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

Older Posts →

♦♦♦ Gem of The Week ♦♦♦

Hearing the last song of a male Kauai ‘O’o brings up in me quiet sobs. Click below to hear his haunting call. Kauai'O'o

He was singing for a female who will never come, and now his beautiful voice is gone too. First listed as endangered in 1967, the Kauai ‘O’o lived in the forests of Kaua’i, and was extinct 20 years later, after their habitat was destroyed by human activity.

Advocacy Earth Day

This Earth Day send a message to the messengers. Sign This Petition to ABC News, CBS News and NBC News: “Cover the climate crisis with the urgency it deserves.”

Gems From Prior Weeks

This is a video of a TED talk by Christian Picciolini who was very deeply into the American Neo-Nazi movement. He very eloquently describes how and why he became so attracted to the movement, and what needs of his were fulfilled there. He also tells the story of how and why he got out, using the power of love to help himself and others that were trapped in the movement. This is a powerful and inspiring video. Christian Picciolini was also featured in the film Healing From Hate: Battle for the Soul of the Nation that many of you watched last month – see below for the link to the panel discussion about film.

"It’s our disconnection from each other. Hatred is borne of ignorance, fear is its father and isolation is its mother. When we don’t understand something we tend to be afraid of it and if we keep ourselves from it, that fear grows and sometimes it turns into hatred." - Christian Piccolini

Healing From Hate Panel Discussion

In case you missed the excellent Panel Discussion that our church co-hosted on March 12 about the documentary film Healing From Hate, you may view it on here on Youtube.

"What would it mean to imagine a system in which punishment is not allowed to become the source of corporate profit?” UC Santa Cruz Professor Emeritus Angela Davis asks. Good question. This article in Truthout shows the ugly reality of the New York State (NYS) Division of Correctional Industries, a state-run prison labor corporation that operates a range of enterprises in 13 prisons across New York State. In reality, it is slavery, and a crucial cog in the self perpetuating evil that is America’s prison industrial complex.

Women’s Alliance meets on Tuesday May 4 at 7:00 pm

Come hear Heide Solbrig, a volunteer member of Boston Immigrant Justice Accompaniment Network (BIJAN), as well as a cartoonist and communication scholar. Since 2018, Solbrig has been working with BIJAN to connect immigrants in detention with legal support, while responding to constantly changing needs of immigrants caught in a dysfunctional and abusive immigration system-- first under Donald Trump’s explicitly racist agenda and now under a Biden administration which has so far has been reluctant to prioritize the broken immigration system. Everyone is welcome.
Janice Goodell

By Computer: Zoom Link
By phone: 646-558-8656
Meeting ID: 814 3634 1260
Passcode: 822616
Find your local number: https://zoom.us/u/aczIPyd3ke

Upcoming Events

All Events →

Wednesday Open Meditation

For All Levels of Meditators

Hosts: Pam Frederick, David Kendall

Wednesday evenings 7:00-8:00 p.m. online.

Join Zoom Meeting at 6:45 PM

Zoom Link

By phone:

301 715 8592

Meeting ID: 654 670 198

Password: 888341

Music

Chimers rehearse in the church on Saturday’s at 11 a.m.

Thanks!
-Eleanor Toth

Loaves & Fishes Neighborhood Project

With Loaves and Fishes still not accepting food donations, we have figured out a way to donate again. L and F has a Neighborhood Food Project we can join. Each family/person that is interested gets a green cloth Food Project bag. The goal is to add one item each time you go to the grocery store. Then your bag will be collected every 2 months and delivered with the other bags to L and F. You would have the option to drop the bag off at the Silk’s house or have it picked up by the Silks and receive a new green bag. (When we return to church for live services, you can drop your bag off at the church. This project may also help to keep donations going in the summer when church is not meeting.) If you are interested or have questions, please send an email to Maddy Silk at mmsilk@mxschool.edu .

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: Feb – Apr 2021
SignUpGenius: May – Jul 2021

Bereavement Support

Caring Network

Building Rental Forms

Facilities Use
Wedding Service
Memorial Service

A Year Later

Remember last year we spent a whole year strengthening our commitment to our covenant? Remember how Piali De, John Green, Barbara Kemp and I met with six groups representing our six ministries: Caring and Connections; Funding our Mission, Leadership and Governance, Families and Children; Worship and Music, and our Justice ministry? Remember how each of you in the ministry groups identified 2 core values that guided your work and how you then listed all the ways these values inform what you do, and what you are being called to do? Remember how the covenanting team shared with you these heart word clouds last May that summed up the conversations they had with each ministry group? Heart clouds that show authentic connection, and radical kindness are the two core values listed by the over forty participants who participated. Remember how in our conversations we drew a triangle and at the top of the triangle we put these values and asked you what virtues they inspired you to embody? And you said justice, zest, perseverance, and hope? But mostly you said these values call you to love and put this love in action.

I was reminded of all this when I came across a video UU Nashua did on youtube called the covenating triangle. The covenant triangle shows how these core values at the top-for us authentic connection, radical kindness and love in action- give shape on one side to your spirituality-your relationship with your true self (the “me” point of the triangle); and how the core values give shape on the other side to your religiosity- your relationship with that sense of the divine that connects you with that specialness beyond yourself (the “we” point of the triangle). Connecting the “me” and the “we” at the base is our community and in the center is our covenant, the promises and principles that guide who we are together in the community.

Little did we know COVID would take over our lives only 8 months later! This covenant triangle is and has been a powerful force in our individual, collective, and communal lives. A force that has guided and grounded us all these long months. A force that has held us and kept us strong, and helped us extend our community of care beyond us. A force that is a bond of love. This is our great covenant.

With gratitude,
Rev. Jill

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!