READING: When Great Trees Fall, by Maya Angelou When great trees fall, rocks on distant hills shudder, lions hunker down in tall grasses, and even elephants lumber after safety. When great trees fall in forests, small things recoil into silence, their senses eroded beyond fear. When great souls die, the air around us becomes light, rare, sterile. We breathe, briefly. Our eyes, briefly, see with a hurtful clarity. Our memory, suddenly sharpened, examines, gnaws on kind words ...
“Lineage, Legacy and the Present Moment” – Morris Sullivan – October 22, 2023
Let’s reflect together for a moment: What made it possible for us to be here today? Think specifically about things other people—and other beings—did that made it possible for you and I to be here today, worshipping together. From my end, a lot of things had to happen for me to be here in Watertown, instead of Florida. For starters, someone had to recognize my wife’s ability and offer her a job. But before that, there had to be many years of educational activity up here and a down there, too....
October Designated Offering
The NDN Collective has been selected to receive our Designated Offering for the month of October. The NDN Collective is Indigenous-led and dedicated to building Indigenous power through organizing, activism, philanthropy, grantmaking, capacity-building and narrative change. Two major areas of effort for the NDN Collective are Climate Justice initiatives impacting Indigenous Communities, and the demand for freedom for Activist Elder Leonard Peltier, who has been wrongly imprisoned for over 48...
Foundations of Contemplative Practice at FPW
Join us beginning October 23rd for Foundations of Contemplative Practice, a 10-session exploration of contemplative practices from several traditions. Each week, we will experience sitting meditation, qigong moving meditation, Naikan self-reflection, and mindfulness in daily life. The sessions will be led by Sensei Morris Doshin Sullivan. The program runs from October 23 to December 18 (no meeting November 20). Meetings are Mondays at 7:00 p.m. in the Golden Room at First Parish of...
“The Great Conversation” – October 8th, 2023
READING: “For Calling the Spirit Back from Wandering the Earth in Its Human Feet” by Muskoke/Creek Nation poet Joy Harjo Put down that bag of potato chips, that white bread, that bottle of pop. Turn off that cellphone, computer, and remote control. Open the door, then close it behind you. Take a breath offered by friendly winds. They travel the earth gathering essences of plants to clean. Give it back with gratitude. If you sing it will give your spirit lift to fly to the stars’ ears and...
“An Open Palm” – October 1st, 2023
READING: To have without holding, by Marge Piercy Learning to love differently is hard, love with the hands wide open, love with the doors banging on their hinges, the cupboard unlocked, the wind roaring and whimpering in the rooms rustling the sheets and snapping the blinds that thwack like rubber bands in an open palm. It hurts to love wide open stretching the muscles that feel as if they are made of wet plaster, then of blunt knives, then of sharp knives. It hurts to thwart the reflexes of...
The Great Conversation – 10/8/2023
The Great Conversation Readings from Indigenous Peoples Sunday October 8, 2023 Land Acknowledgement We worship on the ancestral homeland of the Massachusett Tribe at a place named for the meadows at the widening of the river. The original peoples who lived here stewarded the land and fished in the river which they called Quinobequin. We acknowledge that this land is unceded and remains sacred to the Massachusett, the Nipmuc, and Wampanoag Nations. We recognize the violence perpetrated upon...
Postscript for a Postlude, by Guy Urban (Musically Speaking – October 2023)
This year, for the first time in fifteen years, we will have new Postlude music at the end of our services at FPW. The old Postlude music was and still is very important to me, and I’d like to share some of what it has meant to me. When I was a kid, one of the first classical music pieces I fell in love with was the Concerto for Orchestra, by Béla Bartók. The second movement, called “Game of Pairs”, was a delirious, bubbly, playful series of duets between different instruments: bassoons,...
The View from Here – October 2023
Greetings Church Family, How are you these days? August and September were full months, and this congregation did a stellar job of jumping into the bustle of church life with ever-faithful spirits. We’ve had difficult conversations around the changes to the building, welcomed in a new staff member and ministry, and continue to consider who we are and long to be as a faith community post-pandemic. These are, as many of you have wisely noted, uncharted paths and waters. There is so much change...
Faith Explorers – Be an Explorer – October 2023
Do I need to be resurrected? As I wrap up my first month at First Parish of Watertown it is a question I cannot escape. And probably it is something we all think about, although maybe not quite in those terms. At one time or another you have probably had to start over or consider an ending. Just last month those of us with kids had to restart the school year, and sure some things were the same, but there were plenty of things that were different. I’m new to First Parish and as I’m sifting...