Enter, Rejoice & Come In

Sunday Services

at 9:30 am

Sunday, July 3, 2011

Led by Rev. Robert A. Thayer

“The China Opium Wars”

Sunday, July 10, 2011

Led by Jean Balizaire

“A Transformed Life”

Sunday, July 17, 2011

Led by Pearl Cohen & Brian Murray

“ New Concepts Fund

Sunday, July 24, 2011

Led by David Bassett

“General Assembly”

Sunday, July 31, 2011

Led by Steve Brooks

“Spirituality in Folk Music”

Newest Member

Let’s all give Johanna Gowen Craig a warm welcome as our newest member. Many of you already know Johanna as she grew- up in our RE program. Oh yes, Johanna’s mother, Jamie Gowen Pelletier, and her grandmother, Jean Gowen, were the first to welcome Johanna into membership. At our recent UU Yard Sale, Johanna spent a “day in the sun” as one of our top salespersons and with a smile for all. If you don’t already know, Johanna is an EMT who works in the area. Now, aren’t we fortunate to have Johanna Craig as our newest member? Let’s all give Johanna the warmest of welcomes!

The Membership Committee

Literary Group

The Literary Group will meet Tuesday July 26, 2011 at 10 AM to discuss the book Water For Elephants by Sara Gruen. “The story is told as a series of memories by Jacob Jankowski, a ‘ninety or ninety-three year-old’ man who lives in a nursing home. Jacob is told what to eat and what to do

Jean Gowen.

ON THE BRIGHT SIDE REV. ROBERT A. THAYER

“The Whole World Is One Sanctuary”

It may come as no surprise that my daughter Jenifer, who teaches in Los Alamos, NM and lives in the town next to it with her daughter, has had to evacuate her home and find shelter in Santa Fe with a good friend. The wild fire has grown from 100 acres on Monday morning, she told me, to 90 square miles as of Tuesday night. The famous nuclear laboratory is not a hot spot because it has no reactors. But still - a wild fire is a sunami, is an earthquake, is a tornado, is a flood, is a hurricane, is an oil spill pollution…on and on. If liberal religion did not quite convince everyone by the twentieth century that the world is an evolving unit of mass and energy and life (Darwin) then what we are going through now is making it perfectly clear.

We live in and are part of the global sanctuary. My point is that we are all interwoven with our differences, and our different priorities of what’s local and what’s global. You and I cannot block out the global sanctuary when we are concentrating on finding a solution to our financial minutiae. The late Mass. Senator “Tip” O’Neil said that ‘all politics is local,’ meaning what I am not exactly sure. But what we see now is that all local issues, with life and death consequences, are global, too.

One example that comes to mind for me is this: Men and women who work in medical and pharmaceutical labs are devising cures for illnesses which have no boundaries. Another is that men and women who are expanding the boundaries of religion and philosophy economics and scientific knowledge – these are creating a new human world based on tolerance, choice and skill. This is leading to the demand for freedoms, i.e. the Arab Spring. And thirdly, I cannot overlook this one: during the final decades of the 20^th century, the Red Communist domination in China had shifted after Nixon’s visit there, the largest foreign student wave of college-students coming into America for higher education, were Chinese. We UUs have always emphasized “the search for truth is our sacrament.” The truth is about what the human mind and spirit choose to embrace for life.

This is not meant in any way to prioritize knowledge over humanitarian service and political liberty. It’s just that whether one studies, researches, or how one serves - that which is truth, loving and good – cannot fail to have a lasting effect.

Mile of Pennies

Stick to one path, but do not say to others that this is the only one.

Recognize all the paths and respect them. In the spiritual life, all paths lead to the same place.

Sri Swami Satchidananda

Now our sixth mile of pennies has reached 634’8”. Please keep those pennies rolling in.

Marion O’Donnell

Body and Soul Rejoice and Come In

By the time you read this you will already have been enlightened by Vernon Domingo’s talk and slide show of his time spent in Malaysia. July 3rd brings us Rev. Bob talking about “The China Opium Wars”, the 10^th brings us Jean Balizaire, a Brockton Interfaith director, who will talk on “A Transformed Life”. On the 17^th, Pearl Cohen and Brian Murray will speak on “New Concepts Fund” educating us on how to protect our charitable support and the public good. David Bassett will report on the General Assembly which was just held, and on the 31^st Steve Brooks will talk about “Spirituality in Folk Music”.

The Board of Managers has voted to sponsor Henry Gregoire in his quest to become a UU Minister

Women’s Fellowship

A meeting to plan programs for the coming year will be held on July 31, 2011 after Body and Soul. All interested parties are welcome to join us.

It’s July – Happy Birthday

Warm days and warm nights,

Flags fly and flags march by,

Look, there’s “Oh Say Can You See,”

Summer’s here. It’s July.

Bands play,

Listen, “ Stars & Stripes Forever”,

even that shrill and tiny piccolo has its day,

Summer’s here, it’s July.

July 4^th we celebrate

our nation’s Birthday,

It’s July, let’s celebrate every day, all July…

Summer’s here, our glorious July!

Margaret Potashnick

Sharing and Caring

Our very best wishes to Marion O’Donnell who is in rehab at Copley at Stoughton. Her phone is 781- 341-3635. May she soon be back with us.

Congratulations to Katy Lamb on her acceptance at Wellesley College, one of the finest colleges in the country. We were happy to see her in church recently and meet her friend Gabriel.

Our annual(?) joint service at Island Grove in Abington with Bridgewater and Rockland was very well received. Chris Thompson did another great job with the music.

Our summer Body and Soul services began June 26, with Vernon Domingo giving a fine presentation of his sabbatical in Malaysia.

Rev. Bob will be on sabbatical in September, we already have 2 of the 3 Sundays in September filled with guest speakers.

We have an outstanding season planned for next year at Javawocky, beginning with Chris Pahud and the Red Sky Pirates on September 17. Chris did a great job opening for Kim and Reggie Harris this year as a solo act, and he will be joined at Javawocky by the Red Sky Pirates, featuring Seth Connelly and “Hatrack” Gallagher, who we know from their appearances with Steve Gretz and Leslie Lee’s Very Fine Band. Tickets for this show are $15.00.

In October we have a very special Sunday night show with Ronny Cox. Ronny is a very fine actor who has evolved from being an “actor who sings” into a “singer who happens to have a pretty fair career acting.” Tickets for this show are $15.00 in advance, $18.00 at the door.

Advance tickets for all shows may be purchased at our web site, Javawockyuu,com.

The decision to have or not have our long-lived “Holiday Hall” this coming November or December must be settled by the end of July.

We need leaders to work together and make plans. Our Finance Committee is working hard to come up with new ideas for raising money.

This is a project that I have taken on to see if there are enough of us interested in trying another year of Holiday Hall. A small number have volunteered. Among them is our newest member of the church Johanna Gowen Craig who remembers how much her Grampa George Gowen enjoyed working in the “Country Store” year after year.

I will be on the phone in July making calls to those who have worked in the past. The church needs help from all its members who are able.