First Parish Church of Groton : Summer Worship Services 2007

Summer Worship Services 2007

During the summer months, informal Sunday services are offered on the first floor of the main Church building — the coolest place in town, most summers. These are lay-led services, and they start at 10:00 AM.

If you want more information or want to volunteer to lead a worship service in 2008, please .

Child care is available for each Sunday.

Scroll down for the summer 2007 schedule.

Schedule for 2007

Date	Leader(s)	Topic, title, theme
June 24	Judy Anderson	Hymn Singing: This Sunday we will treasure this opportunity to sing the hymns from our earlier times. Most of us come from non-UU traditions — and from a different hymn-book. Let’s sing some of those hymns and reflect on how the ideas that we sing about have changed for us — and how they have remained unchanged. If you would like to sing a special hymn, please let Judy know in advance so that she can prepare. Please email your hymn requests to before June 17, and please let us know who you are and how to reach you if it happens that Judy can’t find the music.
July 1	John Jackson	Table Topics: From the Tabletopics.com website: What historical sporting event would you like to witness? If you could have any view from your back porch, what would it be? What’s the perfect age? Which other culture would you choose to be born into? TableTopics is the nervous host’s best friend. Intriguing, funny, and enlightening, this set of conversation-starting questions… will get your dinner table conversation flowing. Each clever card poses a different question, from the super fun to the never-thought-about-that-before serious. First Parish is not a dinner party, nor do we have a nervous host, but these card contain the seeds of thoughtful conversations. There are no rules, no one keeps score.
July 8	Sophie Wadsworth	Poetry Sharing
July 15	Jamie Granatino	Children’s Literature
July 22	Sue Lotz	Learning from an Ocean Retreat
July 29	Alan MacRobert	The Exact Location of God: Here is a transcription of a version of this service Alan gave at UU Bedford a few years back.
August 5	Marcia Synnott with the FPCoG Flute Trio	Elizabeth Cady Stanton and The Woman’s Bible. In The Woman’s Bible (1895), Elizabeth Cady Stanton, then eighty years old, and her Revising Committee reinterpreted those sections of the Old and New Testaments that subordinated women to male authority. But Stanton, who spoke of a “Mother and Father God,” alienated younger members of the National American Woman Suffrage Association who feared that her commentaries would doom their cause by alienating the men whose support and votes suffragists needed. Neither Susan B. Anthony, Stanton’s longtime ally, nor NAWSA would support her “so-called ‘Woman’s Bible.’” She was branded as a heretic, even as The Woman’s Bible became a best seller. In retrospect, Stanton’s rejection of literalism placed her close to Unitarian thinkers and to others engaged in the higher criticism of the Bible. Is The Woman’s Bible still important? You can access it here. People continue to differ sharply over whether the Bible is a literal guide or whether its messages should be interpreted figuratively. I invite those attending this morning’s talk to discuss those theologians, philosophers, or spiritual guides who have broadened their own understanding of religion or spirituality.
August 12	Melinda Stewart	Personal Spiritual Journeys
August 19	Jack Wool and Georges McHargue	Songs of Celebration and Concern
August 26	Jeff Close	The Natural Meaning of the Solar System: Is it just possible that the solar system has a pattern that clearly suggests meanings for each planet? In this service, step by step, the simple clear meaning of the solar system will be revealed. People have looked at the sky for thousands of years, but perhaps only now can we understand its meaning.
September 2	No service: Labor Day weekend.
September 9	Big church resumes: Don’t forget your water.