We invite you to First Church Somerville for our panel, “Persevering Up Heartbreak Hill: A Panel to Address Racism and White Privilege in the Communities and Congregations of Somerville and Beyond.
The panel is a part of our project called Sacred Conversations on Race. Funded by the Barnes Foundation, and led by a steering committee of the congregation, First Church has been hard at work since January, 2009 learning and hosting learning opportunities to explore how racism works in our congregation, in Somerville and in our worlds.
Our panelists are Somerville Police Chief Anthony Holloway; Associate General Minister of the United Church of Christ, Edith Guffey; Activist and past Executive Director of Centro Presente, Elena Latona; and professor and scholar of racism and the work of anti-racism at Wellesley College, Peggy McIntosh.
We are located at 89 College Ave. We are an open and affirming church.
We are walking the road toward Emmaus this weekend.
Our gospel for this Sunday is a story that is told in the Gospel of Luke, chapter 24. Two guys, Cleopas and Simon are walking along, headed toward Emmaus, maybe commuting to work or to see family. They’re talking together about what happened over the weekend. A rabbi, their teacher was just executed by the Roman Empire. Their rabbi, their spiritual leader had been arrested while praying, shuffled back and forth between courts, quickly convicted, and quickly executed. When the woman went to tend the body of their rabbi, the body was gone!
While Cleopas and Simon busy talking about this horrible news and their great loss, they are joined by a stranger on the road. The stranger wants to know what they are talking about. It turns out this stranger knew something important, life changing.
If you come on Sunday, we’ll tell you who the stranger was, and what the stranger knew. But for this weekend, we too are on this road busy trying to make sense of our lives, trying to show up where it is necessary. Who knows what stranger we might meet as we travel together?
We can travel together tonight to Ryle’s in Cambridge to dance to latin music with Betsy, Melissa H., and others. We can travel with First Church’s Marching band – we go to the First Congregational Church of Natick tonight to teach that congregation how to travel with a drum.
We can travel to First Church on Saturday, tomorrow night to hear the most amazing music performed by Meghan Kerley on the clarinet, with our own Joe Turbessi. I’ve heard their rehearsal, and their music is exquisite, no hyperbole. It is amazing. This event is a fund raiser for our handbell fund – music begets music. A $7 donation is requested.
We have the NYT and the Globe available with coffee for Sunday morning at 9 AM. You can come early and read about who and what in the world we need to pray for during our service at 10.
Our service is at 10 AM. Kelly Champion is our liturgist. Joe Zarro will preach a children’s sermon. My sermon for the rest of the congregation is “Walking With You Is My Prayer.” Tim Duhamel is the greeter. In the Nursery I will be Shane Yeager, Nursery II is Liz Danner, our Shepherd is Michael Molla.
After service our coffee hour will be served by our fabulous new fellowship team. Then the music committee and the compassionate caregivers meet.
Come walk, come eat, come see, come be. We are Christ to each other. We miss you when you’re gone.
Oh, don’t forget our panel on Thursday at 7:00. Persevering Up Heartbreak Hill: A Panel to Address Racism and White Privilege in the Communities and Congregations of Somerville and Beyond. Our steering committe has put a lot of work into this justice event. Please invite your friends and colleagues. Please come see what Edith Guffey, Associate General Minister of the UCC, Anthony Hollaway, Somerville Police Chief, Elena Latona, activist, and Peggy McIntosh, professor at Wellesley have to teach us about their lives and our world. Come with what you know. As we say where I’m from, “Each one, teach one.”
Love,
Laura Ruth
First Church is very lucky to welcome clarinetist Meghan Kerley, who will be performing a recital Saturday, April 25 at 7:00 PM. Meghan has graciously agreed to donate all proceeds from the recital to First Church to fund our handbell program and our mission & justice work. Meghan will be accompanied by Joe Turbessi, and the program will include a mix of music from classical to jazz standards. Please come; this is an excellent opportunity to support First Church and to hear beautiful music! Reception to follow. A suggested donation of $7 will be accepted the night of the concert.
Beloved, how could I have forgotten to write you until now? Call it spring fever. I meant to alert you days ago to what you hopefully already know: we have an awesome follow-up to Easter. Something juicy and delicious, not for the high-holy-day crowds but for us, who come weekly for our spiritual nourishment.
Soul Sunday! We have a home-grown soul band, in the form of Pete Shungu, trumpet; Ben Davenny, bass; Mike Molla; drums. Pete and Ben are bringing friends, including the vocalist from Pete’s band, Soul Movement. We’ll be singing African-American spirituals, Lionel Ritchie, Jill Scott. God is good! And we’re superbad. 
I’ll be preaching, about the ego and the soul. Jen Purves is our fabulous liturgist. Joe Zarro handles prayers, with care.
It’s not too late to bring a friend. The one who thinks that church is boring, irrelevant, judgy. The one whom you really want to surprise.
It’s not too late to invite your roommate. The one you suspect is pretty lonely.
It’s not too late to ask the person you’ve already asked to church four times. Fifth time’s the charm. Things may have shifted for them. They may finally be ready for this place that you love, that means so much to you.
Happy Day, soul brothers and sisters!
Molly
Beloved,
This morning at breakfast my three year old said to her grandfather, “Do you know what we goin’ do on Easter, Grampa?” I braced myself for the inevitable litany of things the Easter Bunny was going to bring her, and cursed my dereliction of duty as Minister Mom.
“We’re going to say (drops to sotto voce) hallelujah.”
There is something to joy deferred.
There is something to going through hell, but knowing–knowing–you will come out the other side.
That is what Easter is for. Weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning.
Today, we weep. The church has been swept of communion crumbs, for today we have no communion with God. We feel our aloneness, the aloneness of Jesus. As DH Lawrence put it,
And God is good, for I wanted him to die
To twist and grovel, and become a heap of dirt
In death. This death, his death, my death
It is the same death, this death.
The church will be open from 7:30a-5:45p today, Good Friday, for quiet prayer, hourly chant and scripture, healing prayer with ministers and deacons, a chance to mingle your suffering and the suffering of the world with that of Jesus, on the cross, or to sit with Him in silent vigil, so that He will not be alone after all.
Tomorrow, Saturday, we gather in the hush, for communion with each other, if not yet God. Easter preparations, and pizza, happen starting at 5p in the sanctuary. If you want to help set the stage, join us. If you want to be surprised, stay away.
At 6p tomorrow, Saturday, mortals join the happy chorus which the morning stars began. Oops. Wrong composer. All who want to provide the solid core for our Easterly Hallelujah Chorus from Handel’s Messiah, gather to rehearse with Thom. Rest assured, on Easter morning everyone will have the score–but this here’s your chance to know the score, too.
Sunday, 6a, Sunrise Service: We gather at the peak of Powderhouse Park–follow the luminaria through the dim dawn–with five neighboring churches, to resurrect Jesus and watch the Son rise. Our own Joe Zarro will deliver the message, and Laura Ruth brings the music.
Sunday, 10a, Service of the Resurrection: Trumpets! Strings of Glory! Children, flowers! Your pain, transformed into art: the bricolage cross from our Lenten wreckage shines. I’ll preach, and John Olson is our liturgist. The Fellowship Committee makes their coffee hour debut, and our children go on an egg hunt after worship. Dress in your finery! Wear your hats, your spats! Come, shine before God! Come, learn what it is to live again!
blessings and peace
Molly
Beloved,
And so, we enter the high holy days of the Christian year. Palm Sunday is upon us, with its paradoxical parading, and the passion–the suffering–of Jesus.
It all begins at 9a, in Powderhouse Park, as we gather with our marching band, a larger-than-life Jesus puppet, Chester the Donkey, and 6 other neighborhood churches. We’ll sing songs, hear the story of Jesus’ ridiculous and noble entrance into Jerusalem, wave palms and march, if not to Zion, at least to Davis Square, where we will pray for our city. Please come in throngs! This is what it means to be a fool for Christ!
At 10a, we’ll begin worship in the Sanctuary with the Procession of the Palms. If you’d like, bring an old coat to pave the path of Jesus to Jerusalem (aka around the pews). Again, we’ll follow the marching band: children, choir and our 11 fabulous new members, whom we will welcome in an act of celebration and covenant at the beginning of worship.
After welcome, prayers, offering, and then we’ll lean back into the choir’s cantata: The Lamb of God, a cantata for Lent, as we let the events of Jesus’ last week of life on earth wash into us through song and spoken word.
And after worship: joy again, in the form of warm, homemade hot cross buns, and deacon-served tea and coffee with our silver tea service, among old friends and new. Bring a friend! Bring ten! If you are passionate about your church, why keep it a secret?
blessings
Molly
