Hello All,

Our calendar for this week (see below for more information):

Sunday 1/8

• 9:00–Adult Choir Rehearsal
• 10:00–Worship & Children’s Programs
• After the service–Infrared Camera tour around our buildings with Karl Kemnitzer
• 5:00-6:15–Junior Youth Group–FUSH Fellowship Hall
• 6:30-8:00–Senior Youth Group–FUSH Fellowship Hall

So you’ll notice I’m trying something new here.  I know some of you don’t always have time to read my whole e-mail, so I’m trying out putting the calendar right up front–so if nothing else, you’ll at least see an outline of what’s going on.  Someday we’ll have a more formatted weekly message, and we’ll make it look nice, too!

I’ll be leading worship this week, exploring a bit of faith and democracy in our times, in honor of my home state of New Hampshire’s primary election next week.

In our children’s program, the Winterim begins this week, when the children will be working toward helping to lead worship with a dramatic presentation on Sunday February 12.  I don’t think I’m giving too much away to mention that this year’s Winterim project is on the history and spirit of St. Valentine and his famous feast day–“Valentine’s Day.”

We are still looking for another adult or two who would be willing to help out with our children’s Winterim project.  Contact Jill if you’re willing!

Following the service this week, Karl Kemnitzer has borrowed an infrared camera, and he will lead us around the buildings looking for areas of heat loss and cold infiltration.  Karl will help us see where we are losing energy (and thus money), and what we might do to address some of these issues.  Join us if you’re interested in helping our church use less energy, or if you’re just interested in seeing our property from a slightly different point of view.

Our youth groups will be meeting this Sunday in the Fellowship Hall of our church.  We know there’s been some confusion about when and where we’re meeting, but Lucia and I met this week, and we’ll give you a schedule for the winter and spring on Sunday (actually, if you’re on Lucia’s youth e-mail list, Lucia already sent you the information.  Either way–we’ll look forward to seeing you at our church this Sunday–5:00 for Jr youth, 6:30 for Sr youth!

And finally, looking ahead a bit–I hope that you noticed in the January church newsletter that later this month Bineke Oort and I will be offering a four-session program in “Leading Unitarian Universalist Worship.”  We will discuss information both theological and practical–everything from some basics of worship theory to how to manage the sound system in the sanctuary.  Are you interested in learning more about leading worship?  Have you ever thought about either writing a reflection or sermon, or helping to lead a service by reading the liturgy?  Are you intrigued by the idea of standing in the pulpit now and then and contributing to a high quality worship service?  Well, then you should join us for four Thursdays beginning January 26, 7-9 pm in the Sanctuary and Fellowship Hall!

It was nice to see so many of you last Sunday despite the fact that we were meeting on New Year’s morning! I hope that this new year is treating you well!

In faith and love,

Paul