On Saturday, February 10th, First Unitarian and the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Salem will jointly ordain Mary Gear to the Unitarian Universalist ministry. Mary is serving as our Acting Assistant Minister and was Intern Minister with us three years ago. Even for those who pay close attention, it can be hard to keep track of what the various rites of passage on the path to ministry mean. Here is a short explanation. Ministry, on the Unitarian side of our religious family tree, began in the Puritan congregations of New England. Its roots go back much further of course, to the…

Many of you have heard the news that Cathy Cartwright-Chow has decided to retire, this June, as our Director of Family Ministries. Cathy has served the families and children of First Unitarian since 2003. When she was hired, religious education classes were held in the maze of old structures that the Buchan Building replaced in 2007. What a different religious education program she leaves. We serve almost 500 children and youth, in beautiful classrooms where dozens of adults teach and learn with our young people every week. Cathy’s legacy is a Family Ministry that is broadly embraced, broadly supported and…

  In Newgrange, Ireland, 5000 or so years ago, people constructed a huge circular earthen structure with an opening that allowed a shaft of light to travel deep into a central chamber on the morning of the winter solstice. There the light illuminated intricate symbols, including eye-shaped carvings. Today, people gather once again at Newgrange and wait for this dramatic event of the returning light. A few individuals are chosen by lot to be able to enter the mound and experience the shaft of light as those ancestors did. We can only imagine what stories those humans of thousands of…

The Sweet Gum tree outside my kitchen window has finally dropped all of its leaves. It is a sure sign that winter is here. The nights are lengthening toward the Solstice next week when the longest dark will, once again, begin to make room for spring. I always look toward the spring. But this year, more than most, I find myself relishing the dark. Somehow my body and my spirit know what my intellect can only glimpse and what my “to do” list will never capture: the need for rest. There are so many topics I thought to tackle this…

O Come, O Come, Emmanuel, And with your captive children dwell. Give comfort to all exiles here, And to the aching heart bid cheer. That hymn is one of only three Advent songs in our hymnal. Emmanuel means, literally, “God with us.” Religious liberals hold varied ideas about the Holy, about God if we use that language. And yet our sanctuary will fill with more people on Christmas Eve than on any other time during the year. Why is that so, year after year? Few of us believe there is truth in those miracle stories of virgin birth, a new…

GUEST BLOGGER:  Mary Gear. Bill asked me to write the blog this week to address the change in our service for December 10. There is much on my mind and in my heart these days; I’m sure this is true for many of us. As we enter the holiday season, I love to recall the times as a child in my Granny’s kitchen. It was where good things happened—food and otherwise. As the women of my family gathered to prepare the feast—it was always a feast at holiday time—they would talk, tell stories, and remember. It is one of the…

I’ve been wondering what makes the difference. Gratitude for the blessings in our lives is almost universally praised by people of faith. We recognize gratitude as a virtue every Sunday when we give thanks for all we have received. “This is the day we have been given. Let us rejoice in it and be glad,” are the words with which we end worship each Sunday. But in a season when so much around us is in danger of being lost, it can be hard to get to thanks. When personal challenges and the political dramas of the world make optimism…

This time next week many of us will be enjoying Thanksgiving meals, often with extended family. Some of us will be serving meals in shelters. The youth of the church will have delivered boxes of food to former guests at our 13 Salmon Family Shelter. As religious people, both the expression of gratitude for the blessings in our lives and the call to serve and to share our bounty are important. The Thanksgiving holiday has roots in harvest traditions shared by cultures around the world and in the European American history of New England. Most of us know the idealized…

The Progressive and even the non-partisan or “fake” news was filled with the Democratic victories in Virginia, yesterday. All three state-wide offices were won by Democrats and it seemed the lower house of the legislature might turn from red to blue as well. The new Lt. Governor is African American. One of the newly elected legislators is the first out transgender state lawmaker. The State of Maine voted, over their Governor’s objection, to expand the Medicaid program. It has been one year since the last national election. One year since progressives began learning what it feels like not only to…

  “If we do not transform our pain, we will most assuredly transmit it.” -- Richard Rohr Last week I traveled to Washington, DC. It was a trip that had several parts including a board meeting for the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice and reaching at the ordination of a new UU military chaplain. The trip allowed me one free day, which I spent at the new African American Museum of History and Culture. The experience was remarkable. I even learned some new facts, though I consider myself pretty well educated on this history. I did not know that the…