Bringing Together Elements from Many Faiths and Cultures
We gather to celebrate a variety of traditional events and activities throughout the year. Some of these traditions or ceremonies take place during Sunday worship services while some of them are independent.
Autumn
Water Communion – Celebrates and brings together the places and experiences of the congregation. People add water to a common bowl from places they have visited, their garden or tap, or a pitcher that represents what is significant for them. The water in the bowl is preserved and used for other events throughout the year.
Day of the Dead – We often celebrate our ancestors and those we have lost by creating a memorial tableau with photos and mementos to honor them during a Sunday service. Other times, this ritual might mean lighting candles and inscribing the names of our beloved dead.
Halloween – We often host a Halloween celebration with traditional games and crafts for children and youth, and a haunted church tour.
Winter
Hanukkah – We commemorate this freedom festival with lights, stories and music.
Honoring the Coming Light – Our Hanukkah Menorah joins the candles of Advent and Kwanzaa in acknowledging the universal hope for light in the darkness.
Solstice – We recognize another ancient, Earth-based tradition in holding a ceremony to honor the shortest day of the year with rituals, music and readings.
Christmas Pageant – Dressed in roles from townsperson, to archangel, to Mary and Joseph, our children process through the church to the front of the sanctuary and create a tableau representing the Christmas story. The procession is accompanied by the choir singing traditional carols. This pageant has taken place at First Parish for over 100 years.
Christmas Eve – This service brings together the ancient traditions through music and readings to tell the Christmas story and make it relevant in today’s world.
Spring
Passover – We join together for a family oriented Seder dinner retelling and honoring the individual and the universal struggle for freedom and justice in all places and times.
Tenebrae – Held on the Friday before Easter, this evening service recounting Jesus’ final journey, honors life’s suffering and darkness as preludes to the rebirth of light and life.
Easter Sunday – A joyful service that connects the significance of Spring and the opportunity for rebirth in our world with the Christian tradition of Easter.
Earth Day – We regularly honor Earth Day in worship through member testimonials about renewal and preparation for climate action work , sermons on interdependence, and/or ritual remembrance of the “Earth Defenders”, the more than 200 men and women from all over the world who have lost their lives for defending their communities’ natural resources against corrupt governments and businesses.
Coming of Age Sunday – This service is a rite of passage that marks the transition from childhood to adolescence for our teens.
Religious Exploration Sunday – A celebratory service that reflects upon the activities of our children and our teachers as they worked to deepen their friendships, understand the meaning of our UU values and strengthen their moral grounding in today’s world.
Flower Communion – Our tradition honors a desire for sharing in community. An alternative to the Christian communion, we exchange some of the Earth’s gifts – her spring flowers. This communion was created by Rev. Norbert Capek in 1923 at the Unitarian church he founded in Czechoslovakia. It was brought to the US in 1940 and introduced to the Unitarian congregation in Cambridge, MA by his wife, Rev. Mája Oktavec.
Annual Camp @ FPB – In late May, we have an annual church camp out on the grounds of First Parish in Brookline. We pitch tents, play games, share meals, have a variety show, and stay up late around our firepit, roasting marshmellows and telling stories. In the morning, we wake up early to great the sun, make bagels and waffles, and then collectively host our “Camp Worship Service”, an informal Sunday service with folksy music and stories of the outdoors and memories of camps of the past.
Significant Life Events
Weddings and commitment ceremonies – These joyous events formalize the marriage or commitment between two individuals. Ceremonies are created through discussion between the minister and couple being wed and could happen during a Sunday service or as a separate event.
Child Naming or Dedication – This ceremony honors the presence of a child, their family and their place in our community. It can happen during a Sunday worship service or as a separate event.
Memorial Services – Bringing people together to acknowledge and recognize the life of a beloved individual. These services are created as a collaboration between the minister and the individual, family, or loved ones. Some choose to call this ceremony a Celebration of Life.