My name is Alicia. This is my church, and you are my church family. In 1983, I was a first year teacher in Brookline, and brand new at being a grown-up. I came to the United Parish hoping to find a place to grow my faith. Since then, I have sat more or less in the same pew, right there. Over the years the amount of space I’ve taken up in that pew has waxed and waned, but that’s where I sit still.

In 1985, I married my best friend, Phil. Our wedding was officiated by then associate pastor, Pat Coughlin, in an arboretum on a glorious fall day. Graced by the wide embrace we found here, Phil, a nice Jewish boy, came to church with me. A few years later, our first child, Arielle helped us take up more pew space, and four years later, our son Keith. In 1996, my parents moved here from New York and often joined us at United Parish, especially when the children sang. In 2002, Melly, our 3rd bundle of joy was last to snuggle in. With these blessings, our pew runneth over!

Whether Cheerios were rolling under soccer cleats, or SAT practice tests snuck inside the church bulletin, or whether I simply worship by myself – though never alone – I have always found God and God has found me – here in this United Parish pew. For this is where I sit still. Still enough to listen, pray, laugh, weep, sing, to receive, to give, and to marvel at what it means to grow older and more faithful, in the heart of a church that is my family.