"The Whole Truth and Nothing But the Truth" worship service, September 22, 2024

Rev. Marta Morris Flanagan, Lead Minister
Worship service given September 22, 2024
Prayer by Elizabeth Hunter, Worship Associate
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First Parish
A liberal religious community, welcoming to all
First gathered 1739
This Sunday Marta will consider the question of truth and deception in our times. What is the truth? When have your felt deceived? When have you deceived?
Offering and Giving First
The Giving First program donates 50% of the non-pledge offering each month to a charitable organization that we feel is consistent with Unitarian Universalist principles. The program began in November 2009, and First Parish has donated over $200,000 to more than 70 organizations. This Sunday half of the offering supports Gould Farm, www.gouldfarm.org, in Monterey, MA, founded in 1913, is the first residential therapeutic community in the nation dedicated to helping adults with mental health and related challenges move toward recovery and independence through community living, meaningful work, and clinical care.
The remaining half of your offering supports the life and work of this Parish. To
donate using your smartphone, you may text “fpuu” to 73256. Then follow the directions in the texts you receive.
About our Lead Minister: Rev. Marta Flanagan began her ministry as our twentieth called minister at First Parish in the fall of 2009. She is a genuine and forthright preacher. In conversation she is direct and engaging. She speaks of prayer with as much ease as she laughs at human foibles. We call her “Marta.” Marta is a religious liberal, a theist, a feminist, and a lover of the woods. As a student of American history at Smith College she was captivated by the stories of social reformers who were motivated and sustained by their faith. That led her to consider the ministry and to study at Harvard Divinity School from where she was graduated in 1986. She was the first woman minister in the city of Salem, Massachusetts, serving at the First Universalist Church there (1987-1997). She served in a co-ministry at South Church (Unitarian Universalist) in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, (1997-2005) from where she is minister emerita. Marta served as interim minister in Montpelier, Vermont (2008-2009). She is trained as a spiritual director. For three years she lived in the Vermont woods practicing voluntary simplicity and the spiritual life. Marta enjoys the vitality of First Parish and our strong sense of community. She celebrates the yearning for depth and the desire to make a difference in the world that she finds here.