All new items will be listed first in each section and preceded by three asterisks (***).
Find us online at:http://www.firstchurchjp.org
“Like” us on Facebook! facebook.com/firstchurchjp
Follow us on Twitter! @firstchurchjp
Congregational Administrator on Leave
Julia Terry, our congregational Administrator, will be on leave from the 14th of May through the 29th of May. From Late May through the end of August, she will be working remotely from Alaska. Office hours will be covered by Luz Carrazola. All communications to the church should go through the church email: firstchjp@aol.com. All material for the weekly newsletter and the order of service must be sent to the church email by Wednesday at 8 pm or they will not be included.
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CHURCH HAPPENINGS
***This Sunday, May 27th, at First Church***
Join us for a sermon by Rev. Terry Burke entitled “Memorial Day, Pentecost and Clover Adams.”
Thank you to Robert Bussewitz and Luz Carrazola for hosting Coffee Hour.
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SAVE THE DATE – UPCOMING EVENTS
***Next Sunday, June 3rd***
Join us for a sermon by Matt Meyer.
Please visit our calendar online at:
http://www.firstchurchjp.org/events/
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WAYS TO CONNECT OR CONTRIBUTE
Spring Fair Book Table
The Good Book says, “I need some companionship”. Therefore, if you would please look through your libraries and bring to the church books that can be sold at the Book Table at the Spring Yard Sale. Please leave the books in the rear left pew (if you are facing the altar). If you need someone to pick up your books, please contact Monroe Heyman at 617 796-8613. No old textbooks.
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Calling all preachers and musicians!
The summer services need you!
The dates are June 17 through September 2 and most of them are still open. If you have thoughts you’d like to share or would love to perform music, please join us. The services are friendly, informal and people enjoy hearing from members of the congregation. For more information, contact Alice Hawley at coffee hour or through the church office.
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The Spring Fair is almost here – June 2nd is next weekend!
We are having a Bake Sale, a Book Sale (Videos and CD’s as well), Church Crafts Table, the BBQ and a Plant Sale as well as the Crafts-Person Vendors who rent their own tables. We need the usual suspects – cookies, cakes, savories, books, CD’s, videos, plants (annuals or perennials – go through your garden and take this opportunity to divide and conquer any excess – what you have too much of someone else would love to have), and if you are so inclined, handmade items for the Crafts Table.
David Dorney is going to run Segway Tours from the Church during the fair – this is most definitely an unusual and fun way to see JP. Tootle around the neighborhood and learn a little history as well.
The Service Auction has about 20 items on offer – dinners, music lessons, organizing help, baby sitting, a real estate analysis and more. We sent out an email with the list of the items being offered at the Service Auction, if you did not receive it, please check your spam folder. Please, let us know if you did not receive one and we will send you one.
Here are three more offerings for the Service Auction:
Carolyn Dooman is offering four swimming lessons at the Curtis pool (bidder must be a member). It will have to be before work – 6:30 am. She does not have WSI, or lifeguarding certs, but she has coached. Minimum bid $10.00 per class.
Rosalie Davis-Payette is offering a 45 x 60 Americana style quilt, colors and pattern selected for children or adult; sleeve for hanging is an option. Minimum bid $75
Andrea Clardy is offering editing services.
The Email link is: serviceauctionfcjp@yahoo.com
We are taking bids by email and on May 27 and June 3rd we will be in the Parish Hall after church taking bids the old-fashioned way – by hand, and on June 10th the winning bids will be announced.
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A NOTE FROM THE CHURCH HISTORIAN
1.) Please save copies of materials for the archives and pass them on to me. Committee reports, meeting agendas and minutes, correspondence, or project workbooks will all be gladly received. I am happy to be copied on emails of committee minutes and will print them myself.
2.) Please always include the year in any date on a notice or flyer.
3.) On “in house” documents / communications, please use “First Church in Jamaica Plain” in a header or title area. After that, further references may be shortened to “First Church.”
4.) On outside communications to those who might not know our affiliation, please always use “First Church in Jamaica Plain, Unitarian Universalist” or “First Church in Jamaica Plain, Member of the Unitarian Universalist Association.”
5.) Unitarian Universalist is written as two separate words; do not tie with a hyphen because that changes the meaning.
6.) We do not have daily office hours, and for the security of the mail, we maintain a Post Office Box. For all mailing purposes and for return addresses on envelopes, please use:
FIRST CHURCH IN JAMAICA PLAIN
P O BOX 300186
JAMAICA PLAIN MA 02130
7.) When used in a sentence, the title, Reverend, is preceded by the article “the.” (e.g.: Our sixth minister was the Rev. Charles Fletcher Dole.)
Thanks,
George Wardle, Church Historian
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ONGOING CHURCH HAPPENINGS
Building Use
Did you know that you can rent the Parish Hall or a smaller space for a celebration, group meeting or other event?? Contact Monroe Heyman at 617 796-8613 or MHeym02130@aol.com for more details.
Yoga at First Church
Join us throughout the year for Monday for Evening Yoga (6:45 – 8:15 pm) for 90 minutes of stretching, flexing and core strengthening (suggested donation: $15). For you early birds who want to wake up your body while the earth is waking up, try the slow-flow class Thursday mornings, 7:30 to 8:15 (suggested donation: $10). Please try to be on time, out of respect for other attendees. Some mats and props will be available to borrow. Bring a friend! For any questions about yoga, contact Margaret through the church office. All donations go to the work of First Church in our community.
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Meet First Church Members
Abby Krueger
We all admire Abby as the confident woman who can speak to the congregation without a microphone. It was as though Abby’s early life prepared her for service to First Church. Abby was raised on New York’s Upper West Side the youngest of three daughters. Abby’s dad was an academic; her mother a high school and elementary school math teacher, and amateur musician. As a teenager Abby attended an all-girls private school where she was expected to speak convincingly. During her teen years Abby also worked as a stage manager for “Off Off” Broadway productions. Think about how efficiently Abby organizes vendors for the Christmas Fair in the limited space of the Parish Hall and makes it look like fun.
Early in her first year of college at the University of Chicago she met Neil whom she married following graduation. In 1986 the young couple came to the Boston area where Neil pursued a doctorate at Harvard University. Though Abby toyed with going to social work school, she entered the insurance industry. For the past twelve years Abby has worked as a risk management advisor for insurance consulting firms. She helps assess and address dangers to client’s assets.
Abby has been an active member of First Church since 1998. She has served in a variety of leadership roles: Chair of the Standing Committee, member of the Welcoming Committee, member of the Strategic Planning Committee and member of both the fair committees as well. On Sundays she is ubiquitous: welcoming, making announcements, and helping in the kitchen.
Abby describes her years at First Church: “Being a member here is an integral part of who I am as an adult.” As a member of the welcoming committee she is enthusiastic about spreading the good news about First Church to prospective parishioners.
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From Linda Olmstead:
“On behalf of The Food Project, I want to say thank you to everyone from the First Church UU of Jamaica Plain for volunteering with us this spring.
Every year, The Food Project welcomes to our farms thousands of volunteers, whose contributions of time and dedication are crucial to meeting our farming goals. With the help of your group, we prepared the fields and planted thousands of seeds and transplants that will grow into over 250,000 pounds of produce. The fields will be tended by the teenagers in our Summer Youth Program this summer, and harvested by youth and volunteers in the summer and fall. The produce will then be distributed to hunger relief organizations, to our subsidized farmers’ markets and box share programs, and to our CSA program.
Our fall volunteer season run from the last week of August through early November. Please get in touch if you have any questions or would like to sign up for a fall volunteer date – we would love to work with your group again!
Thanks again!
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When submitting items for the weekly newsletter, please limit them to 250 words or less. If you have a special event that may need more space, please check in with Julia (Firstchjp@aol.com) for special parameters. If you would like your announcement included in the weekly newsletter, please send them in by Wednesday evening at 8 pm. Announcements will run for no longer than 3 weeks, unless there are specific date parameters. You may resubmit your item after it has run for the allotted time.
Regular office hours are currently 9 am to 1 pm, Tuesdays and Thursdays. You may contact the church administrator, Julia, by emailing Firstchjp@aol.com.
Julia Terry, Congregational Administrator
First Church in Jamaica Plain UU
6 Eliot Street
P.O. Box 300186
Jamaica Plain, MA 02130
617-524-1634
Website: www.firstchurchjp.org
