Home – First UU Society of Middleboro

UU Middleboro

A Church that Puts Love at the Very Center of Our Life Together

Our mission: To create and sustain a welcoming and caring community that embodies our UU principles, inspires spiritual growth without dogma or creed, and promotes and serves racial and social justice.

Rooted in Love

February 16 @ 10:30 am-11:30 am

Rev. Beau Rivers preaching

In the early 1900s, Universalist minister Griswold Williams wrote, Love is the doctrine of this church. The quest for truth is its sacrament and service is it prayer. How do we understand our recently adopted UU values of Equity, Transformation, Pluralism, Generosity, Justice, and Interdependence as rooted in Love? How might a Theology Rooted in Love guide us in response to current events? This service will include a Chocolate/Strawberry Communion and an opportunity to share Random Acts of Kindness we may have received or bestowed upon others in the last month. There also will be a multigenerational activity during Coffee Hour led by the children.

Family Worship Service
We keep this service to 45 minutes, with announcements and joys and concerns occurring after the service is complete. The February family service will explore how our values of Justice, Equity, Transformation, Plurality, Interdependence, and Generosity are rooted in Love. There will be storytelling, a Chocolate Strawberry communion, and an intergenerational activity during coffee hour. We will also lift up random acts of kindness we have received or bestowed upon others in the last 30 days.

Welcome

If you are looking for a spiritual home, come in and experience our open minds, open hearts, and open doors. For over 125 years, the First Unitarian Universalist Society has been serving individuals and families in Middleboro and surrounding towns with great music, meaningful and thought-provoking sermons, and opportunities to give back. We are committed to spiritual growth and lifelong learning with religious exploration that promotes creativity, integrity, and compassion.  We work together to build a world that is more loving and more just for all people.

THANK YOU!

THANK YOU!

The Church Preservation Fund now stands at 84% of our goal.  Through your generosity, we have raised over $168,700 in a very short period of time. TRY THIS: When you look at our fundraising thermometer, see beyond the figures and recognize the love and generous hearts of this community! Gratefully,Norm and Rick

February Cash in the Plate

February Cash in the Plate

The Cash in the Plate for February will be donated to the Brockton Branch NAACP. The NAACP’s mission is to ensure the political, educational, social, and economic equality of rights of all persons and to eliminate racial discrimination.

Matthew Mission Food Pantry Request

Matthew Mission Food Pantry Request

The Matthew Mission Food Pantry needs your help. Throughout February we’re asking you to donate toilet paper for those in need.  These donations can be left in the Parlor at the church.   Thank you!

Book Discussion Group on Zoom

February 17 @ 3:30 pm-4:30 pm
3:30 pm

The UU Book Club continues to meet on the third Monday of the month. Book Club members will be emailed the Zoom link a few days before each meeting. The Book for February is The Boys in the Boat by Daniel James Brown.

If you are not on the Book Club’s email list, but would like to join us for the discussion, please contact Lois Aldrich (lois.aldrich63@gmail.com). New and old members are welcome.

Active Hope

February 22 @ 12:30 pm-5:00 pm
12:30 pm

This four-hour workshop is offered by Natalie Johnson, a certified facilitator of The Work That Reconnects. We will gather in circle to ground ourselves in gratitude, practice naming and witnessing our pain for the world, learn to see with new and ancient eyes, enter Deep Time, and finally compost our shared ideas of how to move forward into the world spreading our seeds of renewed hope and resolve…together.

Chalice Choir Vocal Workshop

March 2 @ 1:00 pm-2:30 pm
1:00 pm
Chalice Choir Vocal Workshop with Jeannie Gagne is on Sunday, March 2, from 1:00 to 2:30 p.m. This workshop will be held in the Parish Hall and is open to all, with preference given to members of the Chalice Choir and Alumni. Please register with Susan Hotchkiss.

Atwater-Donnelly Concert

March 9 @ 3:00 pm-4:30 pm
3:00 pm

UU Middleboro is excited to present the award-winning traditional folk duo of Aubrey Atwater and Elwood Donnelly in concert on Sunday, March 9 at 3:00 pm. The concert is free and open to the public and will be fun for all ages!

Upcoming events

Current news posts

Minister’s Message

During a post-inaugural prayer service, The Episcopal Bishop of Washington, DC, The Right Reverend Mariann Edgar Budde, expressed her concern about a normalized culture of contempt that threatens to destroy our country. In a subsequent interview with NPR’s All Things Considered, Budde stressed the importance of being able to speak to one another with respect rather than jump to outrage. As a people of faith, we are called to serve as instruments of peace who speak the truth with love and strive to bend the arc of the moral universe toward justice.

From the Parish Committee

The generous spirit of our church members and friends burns bright. As of mid-January, more than 30 families have pledged $157,000 to the Building Restoration Fund, bringing us to 78% of our $200,000 goal. On behalf of the church, Building & Grounds chair Alan Melchior has negotiated a contract with Paul Macuch Painting & Restoration, LLC, for the needed roofing work and shingle replacement. During the winter new white cedar shingles will be hand dipped in stain in the shop to extend their longevity. Outdoor work will begin in April when weather permits. For cost efficiency, Alan and Mr. Macuch compressed the original 3-phase work plan into a single 4 to 6 week effort, meaning the project should be complete by early this summer. Because the work will take place sooner than originally planned, those of you who have pledged contributions to the Restoration Fund are encouraged to make your payments as soon as you can, by June if possible. 

February Music Musings

February is a relatively calm month, musically speaking, when it seems timely to set up a tour of our charming 1890 Woodberry & Harris tracker organ. Did you know that our little organ is registered in the Pipe Organ Database of the Organ Historical Society? Did you know that our organ was fully mechanical until electricity came down Main Street around 1920, and the “hand pump” was replaced by a motorized turbine to generate “wind”? Did you know we had a major refurbishment of our organ in 2014, partly funded by a Community Preservation Grant? 

Religious Exploration in February

We love our children at UU Middleboro.  Our RE program works hard to make children feel welcome, seen and heard.  All our programs offer open enrollment. Our Sunday morning RE program occurs during the church service and has open enrollment. We are developing our new outdoor space we share with church, prepping to grow plants and flowers and continuing to explore nature. We do nature walks, crafts, tell stories and share ideas about our local environment, animal habitats and native plants.  We consider our role in sustainability.

Announcements from Rev. Beau

Membership Committee Needs You!
Do you feel called to warmly greet new visitors, sit beside them during worship, accompany them to coffee hour, and introduce them to people with similar backgrounds or interests? To learn more about how you can support this vital ministry, please contact Rev. Beau at minister@uumiddleboro.org.

Volunteer Opportunities

There are much-needed volunteer opportunities available on a Sunday morning. We believe that participation in a worship service will help us build community and work together to meet our individual and Society goals. You may use the sign-up sheets on the Parlor table to support these ministries, or you may click below to sign up online.    

Announcement from Music Director

Dear Friends and Members of UU Middleboro, 

It is with mixed feelings that I announce my retirement at the end of this church year in June. Being your music director is a joy, a creative mixture of music making and music teaching. I am eager, however, to embrace the freedom of retirement to read more, travel a bit, tackle some new music, explore some new horizons. The time has come for me to step down and to let someone else take up the baton.