First Parish News July 2022

Summer is a great time to practice loving, understanding, and doing justice. The long days invite us to bask and reflect. Our summer services are less formal with time for conversation, art, music, games. Our theme this summer is “Feed Your Soul.”

There are links in the newsletter to Fall RE registration; social justice initiatives being planned through UU the Vote; and an invitation to a reading group discussion about slavery in Scituate (sparked by our Juneteenth service).

Words from the minister for this month of July:
On Friday June 24 following the Supreme Court decision taking away the right to an abortion, members of the First Parish community gathered at the church, along with people in the area who saw it announced on Facebook and through Bans Off Our Bodies. We grieved; we raged; we shared stories; we named our fears; we lit candles; we sang. Our gathering didn’t change the reality, but it made us better able to deal with it. We remembered we were not alone. And that connection gave us hope - hope which increased the next morning at the Scituate Pride parade and program as we remembered that we can and have made the power of Love more real in our world.  
In our tradition the power of church comes not from our belief in a certain truth or doctrine but in our understanding that together we embody Love in ways we cannot do on our own; together we increase our understanding of what is important in ways we cannot do on our own; together we “do justice” in the words of the prophet Micah in ways we cannot do on our own.