Looking Ahead to Summer Offerings from the Church

When summer arrives every year, life at First Parish tends to look different.  We close our office for the summer, we have fewer activities at the church, our music and children's ministry take a break, and worship shifts to the Gathering Hall.  As our community embraces the idea of getting out into the world when the weather is warm, it’s only natural to let the casual and relaxed feeling of the summer take over church life as well.  But we do have some opportunities to come together this summer in worship, in community, and in connection.

Our church council will meet in person on June 10^th to share in fellowship and food while starting to map out the program year to start in the fall.  From there, individuals and groups will be able to work on their planning as needed over the summer, so we are ready to go once September arrives.

Summer worship begins on June 28^th in our Gathering Hall, and we’ll start at 9:30 am throughout the summer.  We’ll be exploring prayer during our summer worship this year, learning about different kinds of prayer as well as new practices. 

To help with our prayer practice, we’ll be creating prayer beads and learning how they can help support our daily prayer life.

To go with our summer prayer theme, we’ll have three book study opportunities, one each month.  Instead of the weekly format we’ve used in other book studies, we’ll meet once at the end of each month to discuss our reading experiences.  In June, we’ll jump into our prayer theme by reading Help, Thanks, Wow by Anne Lamott.  In July, we’ll dive deeper into daily prayer life with For Such a Time as This: An Emergency Devotional by Hanna Reichel.  And to help us get back in the spirit of the program year in August, we’ll read Future-Focused Church: Leading through Change, Engaging the Next Generation, and Building a More Diverse Tomorrow by Kara Powell, Jake Mulder, and Raymond Chang.

At the end of June, we’ll have a special treat for our entire community to join.  Tara Dufour will be offering a Color Analysis event at the church on June 25^that 6 pm.  Tara is a color and style analyst and the creator of Curated Color and Style, and is sharing her expertise as a member of our church community.  We’re inviting you to get personalized and practical tips on incorporating vibrant colors into your everyday style.  You can sign up for the event here.

In July, we’ll continue our tradition of sharing worship with our ecumenical friends at First Baptist and St. John’s, this time for three consecutive weeks.  First Baptist will start us off, hosting on July 12^th, and I’ll be preaching at that service.  First Parish will host on July 19^th, with Rev. Michael from St. John’s preaching.  And St. John’s will finish us off, hosting on July 26^th, with Rev. Catherine from First Baptist preaching.  It’s always a highlight of my summer to join in worship with such great friends in faith, and I hope you’ll join us as well.

Of course, throughout the summer, we’ll have workers immersed in the sanctuary to refurbish the ceiling, replace the carpet, upgrade our media systems, and support the bell in our steeple.  We’ll share updates along the way as we can while we look forward to returning to the sanctuary in the fall.

So, as it turns out, it’ll be a busy summer at First Parish!  However busy your summer turns out, I look forward to seeing you at some of these great summer offerings from the church community.

Pastor J.T.