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Our Faith and Worship Services

Join us in our Church Street building or live online for worship services.  (Learn more about multi-platform worship and our COVID-19 response.)

Sunday Services

Worship services are held every Sunday morning at 10:30 am from September to June in our Sanctuary. Our services last about one hour and fifteen minutes. Lay-led services are held during the summer months. Dress is informal.

The beginning of the service includes our weekly announcements, a musical prelude, our opening rituals and chalice lighting, and a time for all ages.  Our minister, Rev. Sophia, regularly leads the service, including selected readings, a sermon, and a spoken meditation.  Several times through the church year, members of the congregation lead lay services.

Sunday worship services are also streamed live on Zoom.  Links to the service are distributed to members and friends in advance via email.  Newcomers are welcome to join us! To receive the link, send a request to office@fpwatertown.org.

Evening Vespers

These candlelit contemplative services offer quiet music, readings, and time for shared silence in our beautiful sanctuary. Candles can be lit throughout the service, and we ask that you please enter in silence.

We gather the third Tuesday of every month at 6pm and services run around 30 minutes. Attendants are welcome to begin arriving at 5:45pm to enjoy the silence of the sanctuary, as well as linger afterwards as needed.

You may join us from home by watching the service live cast on YouTube.

Past Sermons

“We Cannot Walk Alone” – January 15th, 2023

by | January 16, 2023 | Sermons | 0 Comments

Reading: “Choose to Bless the World,” Rev. Rebecca Parker Your gifts—whatever you discover them to be— can be used to bless or curse the world. The mind's power, the strength of the hands, the reaches of the heart, the gift of speaking, listening, imagining, seeing,...
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“Hints and Guesses” – December 11th, 2022

by | December 12, 2022 | Sermons | 0 Comments

“Love After Love,” by St. Lucian poet, playwright and professor, Derek Walcott. The time will come  when, with elation  you will greet yourself arriving  at your own door, in your own mirror  and each will smile at the other's welcome,  and say, sit here. Eat.  You...
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“A Conversion to Humanity” – November 20, 2022

by | November 21, 2022 | Sermons | 0 Comments

“With That Moon Language” by Sufi Poet Hafez Admit something: Everyone you see, you say to them, “Love me.” Of course you do not do this out loud, otherwise someone would call the cops. Still, though, think about this, this great pull in us to connect. Why not become...
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“Prepare the Way” – November 27th, 2022

by | November 28, 2022 | Sermons | 0 Comments

Reading:  Let Evening Come, Jane Kenyon Let the light of late afternoon shine through chinks in the barn, moving up the bales as the sun moves down. Let the cricket take up chafing as a woman takes up her needles and her yarn. Let evening come. Let dew collect on the...
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“Revelation is Not Sealed” – November 13, 2022

by | November 14, 2022 | Sermons | 0 Comments

“The Book of Genesis,” Kei Miller Suppose there was a book full only of the word, let – from whose clipped sound all things began: fir and firmament, feather, the first whale — and suppose we could scroll through its pages every day to find and pronounce a Let meant...
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“Reaching Beyond your Comfort Level” – November 6th, 2022

by | November 7, 2022 | Sermons | 0 Comments

My name is Charlyn Bethell and my pronouns are she/her. I gratefully serve as the music director here at First Parish, with my partner, Guy Urban.  As a musician, I wear several hats, so to speak—a conductor, an oboist, and an oboe teacher. I teach oboe lessons at...
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woman in black robe and white stole holds singing bowl and striker at lectern

Upcoming Worship

Worship Service

Sunday February 12, 2023
10:30AM - 12:00PM

All are welcome! We offer in person services (masks suggested) that are also streamed via Zoom. If you would like the Zoom link for the service, please contact office@fpwatertown.org by noon on Friday. 

Worship Service

Sunday February 19, 2023
10:30AM - 12:00PM

All are welcome! We offer in person services (masks suggested) that are also streamed via Zoom. If you would like the Zoom link for the service, please contact office@fpwatertown.org by noon on Friday. 

Vespers

Tuesday February 21, 2023
6:00PM - 7:00PM

This candlelit contemplative service will offer quiet music, readings, as well as time for shared silence in our beautiful sanctuary. We gather the third Tuesday of every month at 6pm and services run around 30 minutes.

Candles can be lit throughout the service, and we ask that you please enter in silence. Attendants are welcome to begin arriving at 5:45pm to enjoy the silence of the sanctuary, as well as linger afterwards as needed.

All are welcome! We offer in person services (masks suggested) that are also streamed via Zoom. If you would like the Zoom link for the service, please contact office@fpwatertown.org.