from Liana Raberg, Youth Program Coordinator FUUY completed another successful fall retreat to Cape Cod Sea Camps last weekend! The weather was (mostly) kind to us, and everyone enjoyed a chance to disconnect from their week, connect with each other, and reconnect with ourselves. We arrived Saturday late afternoon, settled into our cabin, and had … Continued
from Director of Music Vivian Montgomery Some of you know that my performing, recording, teaching, and scholarly ventures have been immersed this year in celebrating the 400th birthday of Barbara Strozzi, one of the truly great composers of the Italian baroque. I wanted to give you a little info about all that I’ve been doing, … Continued
from Vivian Montgomery, Director of Music This is a sermon I preached at Follen on Sunday November 25, 2018. Today I want to speak to what I think is a fairly common feeling: the longing to reconcile oneself to oneself, to find wholeness, to be integrated. In particular, this longing drives us to want to … Continued
RE-flections from Beryl Aschenberg, Director of Religious Education As Unitarian Universalists, we are often asked to explain our beliefs and values to curious friends and family, and sometimes even to folks we don’t know that well. As difficult as this might be for adults, it is even more of a challenge to children. And believe … Continued
October Spiritual Exercise: Faith Let’s reflect on a very personal component of faith. Have you ever had a mystical experience? An experience, most likely quite brief, in which you felt something like: one-ness, connectedness, euphoria, deep joy, deep peace, epiphany, ecstasy, flight, presence, understanding, communion with God, ultimate reality, oceanic feeling? (To list just … Continued
from Director of Music Vivian Montgomery More on the Surprising Truth-Telling at the AAUUM in Denver The Association of UU Music Ministries (which used to be UU Musicians Network) held its conference in Denver in late July. In my last entry, I talked about the twisting and turning process of proposing, justifying, and presenting a … Continued
Director of Music Vivian Montgomery’s Music Notes are published in the weekly order of service and here at follen.org. Music Notes for October 6: Today, the Adult Choir introduces a powerful statement of faith: Mark Miller’s stunning setting of words scratched on the walls of a cellar in Cologne, Germany by a Jew hiding from … Continued
Director of Music Vivian Montgomery’s Music Notes are published in the weekly order of service and here at follen.org. Music Notes for Sept. 29: Today’s music features “Holy Ground,” a setting of a Woody Guthrie text by the Klezmatics’ Frank London. These lyrics, echoing Jewish mysticism, can be traced to the unusual collaborative relationship Woody … Continued
from Director of Music Vivian Montgomery Welcome to the first iteration of what’s likely to be somewhat meandering travels through topics related to musical life, sometimes that of Follen Church, sometimes specifically of me, sometimes of our society or other cultures (like the past, for instance). In coming weeks, I’ll be posting writings on the … Continued
Director of Music Vivian Montgomery’s Music Notes are published in the weekly order of service and here at follen.org. Music Notes for Sept. 22: Today the Adult Choir regales us with two contemporary songs rooted in early American traditions: New England Folk composer Peter Amidon’s setting of Tennyson’s “Crossing The Bar” and the boisterous shape-note … Continued
