It has been an amazing year! As promised, the solar panels are up and soaking up the summer sun. I’m pleased to say we are living out our values as we decrease our carbon footprint and save buckets of money on our electric bill. As you can see, the design preserved the beauty of our building as the panels blend in nicely with the roof on the south side of the building. I want to thank Matthieu Braga and Jerry Johnson for all their work on this project. Once again, First Par

Last year I heard the Nobel Prize winner and representative of ICAN the “International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons,” Dr. Ira Helfland speak.

It has been another interesting and productive year for RE. We started the year with a new program centered around the story of Avatar, the Last Airbender (TV series). This series appealed to our youth and offered a novel way to explore our UU values. They looked forward to watching the videos and discussing values. I also developed a cart complete with a “fidget box”, games, crafts, and stories highlighting our UU values. The “fidget box” was a big hit, with adults as well a

In thinking about June and our significant upcoming events to raise a flag and to host a booth in Lowell, to I stumbled into creating what I think of as a guided cultural meditation for all of us. Something that as imaginary as it may be, might just feel during pride month like a small moral win, in what has been a hard year. So, settle in, relax, lay down if that is a potential as you read this. I would ask you to close your eyes if you like, but then you couldn’t read this.

For no other reason than the holiday that celebrates the new year in India is near, I am choosing to bring us a little summary of Hinduism on our upcoming New Member Service on May 3rd. Really, it’s kind of a lecture. Nothing you’re not used to from me. I inflict these academic themed services on you from time to time. Ok, probably, truly too much. Anyway, probably a little more than you know, we as UU’s have at least a little Hinduism in our religious DNA. Don’t get nervou

I would like to share a piece one of our Regional Representative’s Wren Bellavance-Grace a couple months ago, that I keep pushing off into next week’s Perspective, because something more urgent comes up. It's Okay to Not Be Okay By Wren Bellavance-Grace January 15, 2026 In the Catholic tradition of my childhood, we are in the weeks marked as Ordinary Time. And although in that tradition, “Ordinary Time” refers to the denotation of weeks by ordinal numbers, to my childhood e

Why belong to a church? One reason is that we show up for each other. These are tumultuous times, and many of us feel battered by the events swirling around us. We show up for social justice, for our community, for the world, but just as importantly, we show up for each other. As we seek to care for the world, we also remember to care for each other. In a religion that places love at the center of our values, this is what we do. So how does this work at First Parish Church?

About this time each year we begin to plant the seeds for the upcoming pledge drive that basically runs through March.

I will abdicate my freedom of my Minister’s Corner in newsletter to the recent words of Heather Cox Richardson.

I have recently found myself in the interesting position of thinking more and more about how to describe our church. This all started with a woman in another church I serve sending me about one good new sign or marketing idea each week.

“Merry Christmas…” No…sorry, right, “Happy Holidays?” These days, the traditional questions about what to buy your friends and family are mixed in with the deeper question about whether we, as a culture are mostly celebrating “the holidays” or “a holiday. It is interesting territory for us UU’s. After all, our religious ancestors who not too long after walking off the Mayflower and started the first churches in what would become America worked to have Christmas banned. A coup

The First Parish Church in Billerica, a Unitarian Universalist congregation, continues to live into its values of honoring the interdependent web of all existence and is strongly opposed to the private jet expansion proposal at Hanscom Field airport or anywhere.

UU President Rev. Sofía Betancourt, PhD joins faith leaders across traditions in releasing an interfaith statement proclaiming: Transgender, intersex, and nonbinary people are holy, whole, and worthy of love and protection. Read more here

Having just watched our President complain about an escalator and a teleprompter on his visit to the UN. A visit to the world body, if properly honored and empowered, most likely to have any leverage against an autocrat like Trump. There is a natural animosity between people who would rather conspire uninterruptedly, and a meddling institution dedicated to the uplift and cooperation of humankind. I hope it was fun for you, a week after his administration kicked a late night

The root of the word “Worship” could be translated back in time as “worth making.”

One day, a few months ago, I was handed an old-school, poorly photocopied portion of a sermon taken from a 1993 sermon by the respected...

All I can promise is a disjointed and bad run-on poem. 'Cause that’s what’s coming. Here goes…It was written a few days before my Dad...

What if like jury duty, registering for the draft, and filing taxes, native-born American citizens were periodically required to take a refresher course in American Civics, or participate in a renewal of vows.

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Earth Day: An overdue conversation with ourselves As a Pastor of a Unitarian Universalist Church there is no easier service to prepare...