First Unitarian Church of Worcester

Owing to the snowstorm, in-person and live-streamed services are cancelled for Sun. Jan. 7. We will gather instead on Zoom at 10:30 a.m.: with Rev. Sarah Stewart for worship or with Faith Development staff for children’s activities. Stay safe and warm!

YRU2, YRU2 Alum, ELFS, and freed ELFS enjoying a pizza & game night last night!

Our adult choir sang at Mechanics Hall last Sunday! Join us this Sunday to hear them sing in our annual Christmas Eve candlelight service. Doors open at 5, prelude at 5:10, service at 5:30.

YRU2, our High School youth group, has spent this month helping with the Christmas Pageant as assistant directors, narrators, and role models for the younger kids, as well as filling shoeboxes with gifts for refugee and immigrant youth at ACE (African Community Education). Last night they got to have a holiday party for themselves, where they cooked together and did a white elephant gift swap.

No room, no room, no room... Under our tree that is. We are overflowing with the gifts brought in for the children in DCF care, plus warm socks, gloves and hats for those who are unhoused. Thank you to everyone who contributed so generously.

BYKOTA, our middle school youth group, spent the afternoon volunteering for the Christmas Gifts program at the Our Lady of Hope Little Store. They got a ton of work done and put so much thought into every gift they selected for each child, matching hats to coats, and discussing what toy they would have wanted at that age. Thank you to all the youth, advisors and parents for making this happen.

Music Director Allegra Martin rehearsed today at Mechanics Hall with Leonardo Ciampa, the Artistic Director of the Music for a Great Hall series. Our adult choir will be performing at 4 pm on Sunday in the 3rd Annual Christmas at Mechanics concert, along with an array of talented musicians; don't miss it!

Rev. Sarah is getting ready for this Sunday and next!

Dec. 17: Worship service at 10:30 on the Power of Language—the jam band will play and choir will sing

Dec. 24: 10:30 Communion service—the children’s choir will sing

Dec. 24: 5:30 Lessons and Carols with choir and instruments. Prelude begins at 5:15

Hanukkah Happiness

Happy Hanukkah to all who celebrate. May the festival of lights bring peace and love.

Come celebrate the wonderful winter holidays at First U! This Sunday we will have BOTH of our traditions: Our Christmas Pageant and our Hanukkah Party (11:30-12:30!) with yummy food and our First U Klezmer Band!

This Sunday we celebrate Hanukkah with a party following the worship service! This Sunday's worship service includes a presentation by the Faith Development children and youth: A Christmas Pageant and the Jinglebell Children's Choir. Come celebrate with us at 10:30 am on 12/10, the second Sunday of Advent: Peace.

This is the book with Rami and Bassam’s stories, which inspired Rev. Sarah’s sermon at First U this morning. Thanks to Claire Feingold-Thoryn at .uu for the recommendation.

Apeirogon by Colum McCann

Lisa Utzig, the Music Director at the UU Society of Grafton, stopped by our choir rehearsal last night to see what we're working on for Christmas! Here she is with sop Amanda.

The chalice and the first Advent candle are lit, with the quote: “After we beat our swords into ploughshares,
let us beat the ploughshares
into musical instruments.
That way, before they start a war,
they’ll have to beat the musical instruments
back into ploughshares
before they can beat them back into swords.” By Yehuda Amichai

These items make great gifts for the holiday! Stop by the church to purchase yours today!

What’s going on here? Preparing and practicing for our Christmas Pageant on Dec 10! We hope to see you there!

As the last leaves fall from the trees, we can see more of the city. Also, as the last leaves fall from the trees we can see the holidays around the corner! This is your chance to purchase a wooden Cat's Meow of The First Unitarian Church. It makes a great gift!

Pick up your keepsake of our beautiful church.
$25.00 cash, check, or credit card.
The church office is open Monday-Friday,
9:00 a.m. until 3:00 p.m.

Need it shipped? Call the church to place your order. Shipped items will be $30.00 each to cover shipping and handling fees.

All proceeds benefit the good work of First Unitarian Church.

Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours from First Unitarian! Members of our church community and friends had a lovely Thanksgiving lunch together!

Getting ready to set the tables for our community Thanksgiving potluck on Thursday! Gather at noon with a dish to share. If you need to use our kitchen to prep, doors will open at 10:30. Happy Thanksgiving to all!

Yesterday. our Youth Groups, BYKOTA and YRU2, did yard clean up around the church and then went to the IHN house to rake their leaves, too. A special thanks to Phil for bringing the truck and wagon to cart away all the leaves!

Our Children's Choir is working on a setting of "Joy Be Yours in the Morning" by Douglas Wagner for Christmas Eve morning. The text is from the Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame! This illustration of the tiny carollers is by E. H. Shepard.

50/50 Raffle Drawing This SUNDAY at NOON!!!

The UUSisterhood of First Unitarian Church of Worcester is hosting a display of unique treasures.

All are welcome to the Grand Opening of the exhibit in the Merritt Gallery on Sunday, November 26th after the church service.
This exhibit will be availble for viewing throughout the holiday season!

Children’s Chapel: created by the children and youth FOR the children and youth #childrenschapel #uu #unitarianuniversalist #unitarianuniversalist #worcesterma #worcester #children #youth #religouseducation #blueboathome #hymn #worship

Jam Band will be playing at next Sunday’s service! Check out the sneak preview 🎶

#FirstUnitarian Church of Worcester has their own #jamband and will be performing next Sunday during the service! #worship #music #jam #unitarianuniversalist #unitarianuniversalism #uu #worcester

Last month members of our Children's Choir and adult choir took a field trip to Mechanics Hall to hear the Many Voices chorus. We were all inspired! Now it's time to start working on Hanukkah and Christmas music!

Last month members of our Children's Choir and Adult Choir had a field trip! We went to see Many Voices at Mechanics Hall. We were all impressed and inspired! #mechanicshallworcester