by Amy Norton, July 13, 2023
This summer we welcome our neighbors to come and share about their lives, work, passions, spirituality and give us sense of how we can serve “our neighbors as ourselves,” following what Jesus called the second greatest commandment (Leviticus 19:17-18, Matthew 22:35-40, Mark 12:28-31, Luke 10:25-28). See speakers list below. This Sunday, we welcome Erin Venkatesh and Rachel Silverman, who co-lead Thrifty Threads, our clothing ministry (and the only thrift store in Brookline), along with a team of incredible volunteers. Thrifty Threads turns 30 this year, and has grown exponentially since it first came into being in 1993. In addition to providing… Read More
by Kent French, July 06, 2023
This summer we welcome our neighbors to come and share about their lives, work, passions, spirituality and give us sense of how we can serve “our neighbors as ourselves,” following what Jesus called the second greatest commandment (Leviticus 19:17-18, Matthew 22:35-40, Mark 12:28-31, Luke 10:25-28). See speakers list below. This Sunday, we welcome Raul Fernandez, who was the first Latinx person elected to serve as a member of the Brookline Select Board. He also founded and chaired Brookline’s Small Business Development Committee and led successful efforts to create a working group designed to better support the Brookline Housing Authority and its residents, a Racial… Read More
by Kent French, June 29, 2023
This summer we welcome our neighbors to come and share about their lives, work, passions, spirituality, and give us sense of how we can serve “our neighbors as ourselves,” following what Jesus called the second greatest commandment (Leviticus 19:17-18, Matthew 22:35-40, Mark 12:28-31, Luke 10:25-28). See speakers list below. This Sunday, we welcome our state representative, Tommy Vitolo. From an early age, Tommy learned the value of neighbors, as he grew up in a community where “kids played outside in big groups and there were neighborhood barbecues nearly every weekend all summer long. Parents were coaches, scout leaders, PTO captains, and… Read More
by Kent French, June 22, 2023
This is a big weekend for us. On Saturday, we’ll have our postponed Strawberry Festival on the lawn, 11am-3pm. Emily and Stefan have been valiantly carrying this big event forward for us. WE STILL NEED MORE VOLUNTEER HELP — please click here to sign up. This is our annual welcome party for the whole neighborhood. On Sunday, we’ll have our June, end-of-program-year all-parish meeting. In some places, church annual meetings can be a dreary or tense affair. I’ve heard of some that devolved into fistfights. That’s not how we do things. Ours is a celebration, of all we’ve experienced over the past year and all we have to… Read More
by Kent French, June 15, 2023
This Sunday, June 18, we begin summer worship in Willett Hall at 10am (June 18-September 3). It’s the first time in three years that we’ll return to this type of worship and I have missed it greatly. Why? For those of you who haven’t been, when we worship all at the same level, in slightly closer proximity and visibility, and slightly more informality, it connects us better. Personally, I feel more clearly the creativity of God, the human connection with Jesus Christ, the synchronicity of the Holy Spirit and our connection as the living, breathing body of Christ in the world. Summer… Read More
by Amy Norton, June 08, 2023
Dear Ones, This week we’re traveling way back to some of the earliest roots of our faith, to journey with Abraham and Sarah. This is our first introduction to the characters of Abraham (then called Abram), and Sarah, and we meet them one day when God, somewhat out of the blue, instructs them to pack up their lives, leave everything familiar to them, and follow God to an unknown destination. To sweeten the deal, God explains, “I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those… Read More
by Amy Norton, June 01, 2023
Dear United Parish Family, If you’re reading this, chances are you have some feelings about being a teenager- whether it’s something you’re looking forward to with joy or anxiety, something you’re right smack dab in the middle of and trying to navigate, or something you look back on with a whole mix of memories, angsty and nostalgic all at once. And you know what? Even Jesus was a teenager, with all that that entails – he even got scolded by his parents once or twice! It’s a weird and wonderful time in our lives, and a time when it’s extra important (because it’s… Read More
by Kent French, May 25, 2023
This Sunday is the Day of Pentecost, when we remember that stunning moment when the Holy Spirit descended on a diverse crowd of believers and seekers, giving them the ability to understand one another despite language and cultural differences. The movement increased by about 3,000 people that day. Afterwards, God performed “many signs and wonders” through Jesus’ apostles (Acts 2). In our secular lives, it is Memorial Day weekend, a cultural marker of the start of summer. We center it around a national holiday that began in the 1860s to remember Civil War dead. And after World War I, it… Read More
by Kent French, May 18, 2023
During this Eastertide (April 9-May 27), we have been reflecting individually and collectively about our money stories: Remembering (April 30) what about our personal history has shaped our relationship with money, Releasing (May 7) what attitudes or feelings about money get in our way, Reimaging (May 14) how our money story can be different, And this Sunday, we look at Restoring (May 21, Consecration Sunday), how we can come into greater wholeness in our relationship. If you’d like to reflect on these themes on your own, I encourage you to check out the online study journal here. It is also Consecration Sunday, when we bring forward… Read More
by Amy Norton, May 11, 2023
Beloved, We’re halfway through our Stewardship season, are you ready to talk about money some more? As we’ve dived into the exploration of Our Money Stories, we’ve prayed, sung, and reflected on themes of Remembering and Releasing, and now we arrive at an invitation to Reimagine. A word of warning: reimagining can be dangerous- revolutionary, even, because dreams are powerful: just ask Joseph, of technicolor-dreamcoat fame, or Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Nevertheless, God instructs us to dream big- to reimagine our economic system so that it is grounded in God’s values of compassion, justice, and peace- instead of productivity, efficiency,… Read More
