As the church year begins anew, Faith Exploration is ready to welcome children, youth, and families back to the rhythms and rituals that invite learning and connection. Our Sunday morning classes will start on September 20. This first class will focus on a ritual of ribbon and fabric weaving to symbolize beginning together. Our second class on Sept. 27 will focus on crafting a covenant to hold us through the year. Both classes are designed to build up our capacity for being together on Sunday...
Religious Education
Faith Exploration – June 2026
The amount of love that surrounds a person when they are ordained is astonishing. I mean this not just during the service itself, nor limited to the laying on of hands with all that intense focus, but also leading up to the day and the return to routines following. And if you are wondering if anything changes during an ordination, any palpable felt sense, I can report that there is. And this change relates to the love that surrounds a person when they are ordained. Because when you are...
Faith Exploration – March 2026
Throughout March, Faith Exploration will focus on the month’s theme of paying attention. When we consider that phrase, paying attention, we might think of being told to sit a certain way, or behave a certain way. To perform paying attention, to perform anything, can suggest normative routines or expectations. But our look at paying attention is not about one’s behavior to fit into a mold; instead, we seek to use the act of paying attention to learn something about our shared world. We will...
Faith Exploration – February 2026
When I joined this community several months ago, one of my areas of focus became building trust. This is, of course, common in any relational work. And trust building is not work often measured in minutes and hours, but in weeks, months, and years. Our future selves will understand our shared trust so much more than we do currently, and yet I want to share what I have noticed recently about the trust between us. For me, a foundation of trust is routine. I know not everyone craves routine, but...
Faith Exploration – January 2026
This month’s worship theme of courage has me thinking about the courage it takes to volunteer. This can be true in any setting, and is certainly true here at FPW. The courage you need to lean into a program, activity, or cause can sometimes feel easy, but can also be a little fleeting. This can be especially true when it comes to really knowing what you are signing up for. For Faith Exploration, we are generally looking for one to two volunteers a week to support our Sunday classes that happen...
Faith Exploration – December 2025
Much attention this month is focused on the Christmas Pageant happening on Sunday, December 21. This is a no-rehearsal pageant that will invite people of all ages to volunteer as the pageant unfolds. The pageant will tell the story of Jesus’ birth as told in the Gospel of Luke. Only two of the four Gospels include the birth of Jesus story. These two stories share some similarities, but there are also diversions between the versions in Luke and Matthew. What I appreciate about the story Luke...
Faith Exploration – October 2025
The exploration of our faith is well underway at First Parish! This is true in so many ways. Sunday mornings have been full of energy and creativity. The children of this church are settling into the Faith Exploration classes. We start in a circle with an invitation to share our joys and sorrows. This time has been one of connection with each other and allows our young ones to practice expressing what is on their hearts while also listening and caring about what rests within another’s heart....
Faith Exploration – September 2025
Last year, as I began my ministerial internship, a congregant gave me a small bottle of seeds they had collected after I shared my love for seed starting. That bottle sat on my desk throughout the church year. And when I finished my internship, I planted those seeds in a container on my back porch. This is a shady area and it took the entire summer for the stems to emerge from the soil and twist in the dappled sunlight. Then last week, the flowers started to bloom. I carry this image as our...
Faith Exploration – February 2025
Living our values through The Practice of Inclusion! This month, our theme "The Practice of Inclusion" provides an opportunity for the children in our congregation to explore and understand the importance of inclusivity in shaping a compassionate community. During our time together we hope to teach our children that embracing diversity and ensuring everyone feels included are essential expressions of the values we cherish as a community—such as love, acceptance, and respect. These practices...
Coming of Age – September 2024
Hello First Parish! I am Phoebe Eckart-Lee, the new Assistant Minister at the First Parish in Lexington. I am coordinating the joint Coming of Age program between the Lexington and Watertown churches, and am so excite to begin working with your youth and getting to know your congregation! Coming of Age is a program for 9th graders (or any youth of high-school age who has not participated before and is interested), it will run from October-June. We are looking for adult mentors to participate...