Gathering Music (Mary Bopp)
Welcome and Announcements (Rev. Josh Pawelek)
Centering
Prelude
"Berceuse" (lullaby)
by Gabriel Faure
Ann Stowe, violin; Mary Bopp, piano
Chalice Lighting and Opening Words
"2021/5782: Anew"
Rabbi Rachel Barenblat
Opening Hymn
#188 "Come, Come, Whoever You Are"
words adapted from Jalāl al-Dīn Muhammad Rumi
music by Lynn Adair Ungar
Come, come, whoever you are,
wanderer, worshipper, lover of leaving.
Ours is no caravan of despair.
Come, yet again come.
Welcoming New Members
Introductions (Membership Committee co-chairs)
The Charge (Minister)
As you take up membership in the Unitarian Universalist Society East, I charge you to share with us who you are. Share your creativity, your experiences, your questions, your doubts, your beliefs, and all your discoveries of life's meaning. I charge you to shake us up with your ideas, to stir us up with your conscience, to inspire us with your actions, and to stimulate our hopes with your dreams of what life can be.
Congregational Welcome (Congregation)
We welcome you as companions in the search for truth and meaning. We invite you to share in our mission of caring for one another, encouraging each other in spiritual growth, working for justice and peace in the wider community, and living in harmony with the earth. We join our gifts with yours, trusting in the power of community to bring freedom, healing and love.
New Member Affirmation (New members)
We join the Unitarian Universalist Society East out of a desire and willingness to participate in a liberal religious congregation. We pledge to share our time energy and gifts; to diligently seek our spiritual truths; and to strengthen the bonds of community.
Responsive Hymn
"What Is This Church?"
words adapted from Eugene Sander
Music by Jean Sibelius
What is this church?
A place of love and gladness.
Where all may meet, to seek the common good.
A source of strength, to face each doubt and sadness.
Where every dream, is known and understood.
What is this church? Ask those who came before,
And found themselves by crossing through its door.
Joys and Concerns
Musical Meditation
Offering
For the month of September, our Community Outreach offering will be shared by two organizations:
Power Up brings much needed visibility to the ongoing realities of racism in Manchester and surrounding communities. Some UUSE members and friends have participated in Power Up's pantry, after school programs, rallies, protests and other actions.
Manchester Latino Affairs Council
The Manchester Latino Affairs Council (M.L.A.C.) was established in January of 2007. Its current mission is to address social issues with a focus on diversity, inclusivity and equality within Manchester's Latino community. MLAC sponsors Manchester's annual Hispanic Heritage Day and is looking forward to its first public "Three Kings Celebration" in January and a "Latina Heart Health Walk" next April.
Offering Music
"Nigun" from Baal Shem, Three Pictures of Chassidic Life
Ernest Bloch
Ann Stowe, violin; Mary Bopp, piano
Sermon
"Sweetness Everywhere"
Rev. Josh Pawelek
Closing Hymn
#1011 "Return Again"
by Shlomo Carlebach
Return again, Return again,
Return to the home of your soul.
Return to who you are,
Return to what you are,
Return to where you are
born and reborn again
Extinguishing the Chalice
Closing Circle
May faith in the spirit of life
And hope for the community of earth
And love of the light in each other
Be ours now, and in all the days to come.