Category: Adult Programs

Dinners for Seven 2019-2020

Posted on by FPLwebtech in Adult Programs

Back Again!!! What could be better than sharing a meal in a nearby home with a few folks from First Parish? We have five such events scheduled in the upcoming months and hope you will join in as many times as possible. Over recent years more than 100 friends- old and new- have participated. Here’s how it works:

Someone offers to host. That means the host contacts his or her 7 or so assigned guests and arranges the menu, which is a potluck provided by the group at each of the usually several homes that same evening.
Others sign on to be guests. That means they will help provide the meal at the home where they have been assigned. Their host and/or hostess will contact them to make arrangements.

Here are the dates for this year’s DINNERS FOR SEVEN or so..
SATURDAY, OCTOBER 26
SATURDAY, JANUARY 11
SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 8
SATURDAY, MARCH 21
SATURDAY, MAY 16

How do you sign up? Just contact me, Kim, and let me know what date(s) you would like to join and whether you would like to host or be a guest. I’ll do the rest. Everyone is welcome, whether or not connected with First Parish, so feel free to invite a friend if you think he or she might enjoy the company! I guarantee exceptional nourishment for both body and heart.
– Kim

Adult Programs: September 2019 News

Posted on by FPLwebtech in Adult Programs

First Parish in Lincoln Church-Wide Summer “Read”

September 22, 4 pm. discussion in the Stearns Room

There’s still time to read our “All Church” Summer Read! Waking Up White, by Debby Irving.

We hope many have been able to read Waking Up White over the summer. There is still time to get a copy from the Lincoln Library or a few copies are available in the FPL library. Growing up in Winchester, a community much like Lincoln, the author starts with her experience as a white woman, and then moves on to grapple with the complexity of racism in the United States at both an individual and an institutional level. Her story is not only personal and readable, but it is also timely for our church, for Lincoln and for our country.

Whether you’ve read the book or not, please come to participate with our church community in discussion of the book and of the topics of racism and white privilege that it addresses. Our guest facilitator will be Michelle Chalmers, who has worked in this role with the author, Debbie Irving and with other racism education programs. For a summary of Waking Up White, you can watch Debbie Irving’s TEDx Fenway talk at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oD5Ox5XNEpg

Food For Thought Suppers

Come to our first “Food for Thought” Supper on Wednesday October 2, 5:30 -7 pm. Parish House.

This coming year we plan to hold a monthly supper, usually the first Wednesday, with the goal of gathering to share a simple meal and to share conversation about an interesting topic. Our first supper will set the stage for the coming suppers, and engage us in a conversation about gratitude and blessings. To encourage families and folks with busy schedules, we won’t ask for RSVPS. The supper will be provided for a modest donation, a model that has worked at other churches. Children are welcomed, and childcare will be available. And we’re looking for volunteers to help us arrange food, set up and clean up.

Put Wednesday October 2 on your calendar and come share supper and conversation with your church family!

Sponsored by Adult Learning Committee. For more info and to volunteer, Mary Helen Lorenz mhelen808385@gmail.com

Forest Bathing Walk

Join us for a Forest Bathing Walk on Saturday, October 19

(Time and more details to come)

Enjoy the experience of a relaxed and mindful afternoon walk on October 19th with a Certified Forest Therapy Guide. She will invite us to immerse all of our senses in the sights, sounds and fragrances of the woods for a deep connection with nature. Practiced widely in Japan, where it is known as Shinrin Yoku, Forest Bathing is recognized as having significant wellness benefits for both mind and body.

Small Groups

Wondering about joining a small group?

Our small groups include around 90 members and friends. The Small Group Leaders promote membership and work to fit interested members with a group, and to offer ideas and guidance to those who serve as facilitators. A monthly packet of ideas for themes and readings are offered to each group. If you were thinking you would like to join an existing group, or join a newly forming group, please contact our Parish Administrator at gert@fplincoln.org or Mary Helen Lorenz mhelen808385@gmail.com

Upcoming Classes

Stay tuned for upcoming adult classes

Two members of our church community will be offering classes this fall, in October and November. Larry Buell will host a two-session class on Transcendentalism and Barbara O’Neil will guide a 4 session writing workshop. Sign up will be available later in September or early October.

Pastoral Singing

Posted on by FPLwebtech in Music Programs, Spiritual Practice

“It’s not so much about the song itself, it’s about the way it’s delivered and the people who deliver it. So, you know, they can sing How Much is That Doggie in the Window, and I can love that as much as I like the deeply spiritual songs that they sing.” 

A Nursing Home Patient

If you know someone who is going through a trying time or is ill and could benefit from a little laughter and enjoy soothing singing, please ask.

By-Your-Side-Singers (BYSS) offer support and comfort through song. Groups of three or four singers visit homes, hospitals, nursing homes, assisted living and other settings as requested. We may be invited by a minister, friend or parishioner to visit another parishioner. Our singing evokes smiles, tears and laughter. Many of those we visit, enjoy singing or humming along with us.

Most people we sing for visibly relax and smile. If they appear asleep, they may wake up. A few have started conducting us. Family and others who are present often join us singing and also are uplifted.

One of our earliest visits was to an elderly couple in their home. The husband showed very little affect. It was Christmas time and we started, quietly, with “O Come, O Come Emanuel.” When we got to the refrain, “Rejoice, Rejoice” he burst out loudly on the bass, singing Rejoice, Rejoice … I looked at his wife and she was crying. He sang with us throughout the visit. We were deeply touched.

Most people we sing for visibly relax and smile. If they appear asleep, they may wake up. A few have started conducting us. Family and others who are present often join us singing and also are uplifted.

BYSS is a group of men and women who enjoy singing to provide comfort to those who are in transition. Choral experience is not required. Rehearsals are the first and third Wednesdays. In these meetings, we rehearse familiar songs from our hymnals and other sources. Some of the song we sing are: Come sing a song with me, Spirit of Life, Find a stillness, Dona Nobis Pacem, Amazing Grace.

BYSS is modeled after nearby First Parish Concord’s BYSS, started 12 years ago by FPC Music Director Beth Norton. Sue Cornwall has sung with them from its inception. With Mandy Beal, Sue started BYSS in 2016.

If you would like to join BYSS please contact Sue Cornwall: SueCornwall@me.com, 781-389-1807. If you know someone who could benefit from a little laughter and singing, please contact Sue Cornwall, or the Caring Committee at fplcares@fplincoln.org

“When I hear music, I fear no danger. I am invulnerable. I see no foe. I am related to the earliest times, and to the latest.” 
― HENRY DAVID THOREAU

Adult Learning: 2019 Church-wide Summer “Read”

Posted on by FPLwebtech in Adult Programs, Anti-Racism, Book Groups

When we talk about diversity, what exactly do we mean? Diversity based on religion? On race? On gender? On national background? On culture? On socio-economic class? On age? Other attributes? How do we think and talk about diversity and what it means in our lives and in the lives of other Americans in our increasingly diverse nation? These are questions people across our country are asking, including those of us at Lincoln’s First Parish.

The Adult Learning Committee is recommending a church community summer read on the topic of racism and white privilege. The book we recommend is Waking Up White and Finding Myself in the Story of Race by Debbie Irving. On Sunday September 22 at 4 pm, we will hold a discussion about the racism and white privilege issues raised by the book.

Waking Up White and Finding Myself in the Story of Race by Debby Irving. (2014). Growing up in Winchester, a community much like Lincoln, the author starts with her experience as a white woman, and then moves on to grapple with the complexity of racism in the United States at both an individual and an institutional level. Her story is not only personal and readable, but it is also timely for our church, for Lincoln and for our country.

Copies are available at Lincoln Library and 3 copies are available in the FPL Library.

If you have already read Waking Up White and want another perspective or angle on the topic of race and white privilege, consider reading one of the following:

White Fragility, Why it is so hard for White People to talk about Race by Robin Diangelo (2018). A New York Times best seller, this book offers a sociological and psychological study of white privilege in the United States, exploring the dynamics of white fragility and how we might overcome it.

White Like Me: Reflections on Race from a Privileged Son by Tim Wise (2004). Growing up in Nashville and educated at Tulane University, Wise’s experiences present a male perspective, a counterpoint to Irving’s Growing Up White,, as well as a regional difference, the South, as opposed to New England. The book is part memoir and part essay, lively and compelling

Uncensored: My life and Uncomfortable Conversations at the Intersection of Black and White America by Zachary Wood ( 2019). Wood offers a personal account of overcoming a difficult upbringing , as well as complexities of systemic discrimination experienced as a high school scholarship student from a poor black neighborhood in Washington, DC and as a leader of the free speech movement at Williams College.

From the Summer Reading Team: Janet Boynton, Ken Hurd, Mary Helen Lorenz, Jessica Packineau, Barbara Slayter, Mary Jo Veling

Adult Learning: Fall Book Club Preview

Posted on by FPLwebtech in Adult Programs, Book Groups

“The Hidden Life of Trees” : FPL Book Group Next Meeting Tuesday September 17,  6:30 pm. Stearns Room:
The FPL Book Group will be discussing “The Hidden Life of Trees: What They Feel, How They Communicate- Discoveries from a Secret World” by Peter Wohlleben. Summer and fall are great times for long walks to look at trees, so Please join us in reading and discussing this fascinating book on September 17!

“Are trees social beings? ….. forester and author Peter Wohlleben convincingly makes the case that, yes, the forest is a social network. He draws on groundbreaking scientific discoveries to describe how trees are like human families: tree parents live together with their children, communicate with them, support them as they grow, share nutrients with those who are sick or struggling, and even warn each other of impending dangers. Wohlleben also shares his deep love of woods and forests, explaining the amazing processes of life, death, and regeneration he has observed in his woodland.
After learning about the complex life of trees, a walk in the woods will never be the same again.” — Amazon.

The book is available new and used in paperback, hardback and an illustrated addition, and through the Lincoln Library Minuteman Network.

Mary Helen Lorenz for
FPL Book Group