Meet Spark!

Jul 14, 2023 | , , ,

Spark

As our children and youth program breaks until Fall, I’m wishing you all a fun and safe summer. Last Sunday during the Moment for All Ages I introduced “Spark,” our new traveling chalice program. Spark, a squishmallow, (all the rage amongst kids these days) will take turns spending a week with each family this summer.

During your time with Spark, take pictures that spread our ideals of love, kindness, friendship, peace, and justice. When your week is up, return Spark to church, and send me your favorite pictures of Spark for posting in the Murray newsletter, Facebook, and website. Maybe Spark will go to the playground and you’ll ask someone new to play? Perhaps you’ll take Spark to a Pride Festival, enjoy some time in nature, or just breathe and enjoy the moment. Whatever you do with Spark, I can’t wait to hear all about it and see your pictures.  In this way, we’ll keep our flame of connection alive even though our classes will not meet over the summer. You are each a “spark” that can help spread the faith of Unitarian Universalism. May it be so.

If you haven’t signed up for a week with Spark, please email me (use the contact form below) to schedule your visit. Again, many wishes for a wonderful summer!

Programs for Youth in grades 7 and up

If you are a young person in 7th grade through high school (or the parent of a youth), you’ll find many opportunities available at Murray Church to connect to a group of youth with similar values and experiences. Our offerings include special highly-regarded programs, Youth Group, and opportunities to connect with volunteer and justice work in the church community.

OWL sexuality education program for 7th to 9th graders

Honest, accurate information about sexuality changes lives. It dismantles stereotypes and assumptions, builds self-acceptance and self-esteem, fosters healthy relationships, improves decision-making, and has the potential to save lives. For these reasons and more, we are proud to offer Our Whole Lives (OWL), a comprehensive, lifespan sexuality education curricula for this age group. Our Whole Lives helps participants make informed and responsible decisions about their relationships, sexual health, and behavior.

Coming-of-Age for our 9th graders

This beloved rite-of-passage program invites teens to go deep exploring their own beliefs as they wonder “who am I” and “who do I want to be”.

Youth Group for our teens

Our Youth Group offers a varied program that includes learning about our faith, service projects, discussion of social issues, plus time to have fun together. Our youth are also offered many opportunities to participate and volunteer in many areas of our church community. Programs and activities are chosen by the group and are designed to help provide a deeper opportunity to connect to our world, explore issues of importance to teens, and come to understand and appreciate one’s self more fully.  The youth look forward to collaborate to plan bigger projects such as service trips and/or camping with other U.U. youth.

Contact the Director of Lifespan Religious Exploration

Do your little bit of good where you are; it’s those little bits of good put together that overwhelm the world

Desmond Tutu

What We Can Do
How We Take Action to Lessen Our Impact

Earth Day Every Day

Apr 23, 2023 | ,

From the Earth Day Service reflection 4.23.23, by Judy DePue, Climate Team

Welcome on this day of April showers! Mother Earth gets a drink of water, enabling her to nurture us, in turn. And we, in turn, can help to nurture our Earth.

What does it mean to honor Earth Day every day? It means getting closer to the world view of our Native American brothers and sisters, who walked on the land where we’re sitting today. If you look on the cover of our Order of Service, now on the back cover, you will see that we recognize that “our church sits on the former hunting grounds of the Pokanoket people, leaders of what would become known as the Wampanoag Nation.” In the Chalice reading, we heard that we and the Earth are one. The Quaker meditation offered many ways to express this teaching. In the reading a few minutes ago, we heard that the Ancient ones taught us that the life of the Tree is the life of the People. And our UU values echo these teachings, as expressed in our 7th Principle: that we respect the interdependent web, of which we are all apart. All of these teachings will ground us, and inspire us, for the hard work needed to protect our Earth and our future together on it. read more…

Green Sanctuary logo

We are a Green Sanctuary

Murray Unitarian Universalist Church is a Green Sanctuary accredited by the Unitarian Universalist Association.

The Green Sanctuary Program provides a path for congregational study, reflection, and action in response to environmental challenges. It provides a structure for congregations to examine their current environmental impacts and move towards more sustainable practices in ways grounded in Unitarian Universalism.

In May 2017, we submitted a proposal, with 12 projects in four focus areas: Worship and Celebration, Religious Education, Sustainable Living, and Environmental Justice. Once our projects were completed, we submitted our evaluation and were awarded accreditation in June 2020.

Recent Climate Actions by Our Team

Our team meets on the second Thursday of the month at 7 p.m. via zoom. Anyone is welcome to join us. Use the contact form below if you have any questions or would like to be part of the team.

Find out how we are taking action

We have a page called Take Action where our members and friends share the actions that they take, large or small, that are intentionally done to help lessen their impact on the Earth.

Green Heating and Cooling for Our Homes

A virtual event hosted by the Murray UU Church Climate Action committee

An Introduction to Heat Pumps, Tuesday, May 31, 7 p.m.

An introduction to heat pumps, with Jim Nail, from HeatSmart Alliance, a volunteer organization dedicated to accelerating the adoption of energy-efficient heat pumps in Massachusetts’ homes and buildings. “Heat pumps” may sound like an exotic new technology, but they are already widely used in Europe, Asia, and increasingly the United States. And here in Massachusetts, they are the preferred form of heating and cooling to help the state fight climate change — and for homeowners burning oil, propane, or using electric resistance heaters to save money.

That said, replacing an existing heating/cooling system or water heater can be a time-consuming and confusing process, especially if you aren’t familiar with heat pumps. Jim will bring you up to speed on what heat pumps are, why they are the best choice, the incentives available through MassSave to lower their cost, and the steps to take to upgrade your home to them. In addition, he will describe the HeatSmart Alliance whose volunteer coaches can guide homeowners through this process.

Massachusetts Climate Solutions, a Virtual Legislative Climate Justice Forum

On January 25, 2022. Our Murray Climate Action Team co-hosted this event, in collaboration with Attleboro’s State Representative Jim Hawkins and our UU Mass Action advocacy program. Four state legislators were on the panel, including Representative Jim Hawkins, Senator Paul Feeney, Representative Adam Scanlon, and Representative Joan Meschino, who authored one of the bills that we reviewed. We educated the community about legislative solutions for climate change and environmental justice, via a platform of six bills that are supported by a large coalition of organizations: Mass Power Forward.

Murray Climate Change Café

This was via zoom on Nov. 8, 2021. Co-led by Robi Rose, Barbara Clark, and Judy DePue. Climate Cafés are safe spaces for people to get together to talk and act on climate change, to share our concerns and our hopes, along with options for action and sharing of actions others are already taking.

Field Trip

We went to the “Revive the Roots” farm in Smithfield, RI to learn about their use of regenerative agriculture practices on September 27, 2021.

Here are some regional resources for climate action

Have a question? or want to be part of the Climate Action team?

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