We ask that everyone come to this Stewardship Sunday service to share in our collective commitment to this beloved community. Bonnie Anderson will return to play for us, and we will hear the debut of a song written by one of our own members.

The service will begin at 10:30 a.m., followed by coffee and fellowship at about 11:30. Child care and religious-education classes are available, and visitors are always welcome.

NSUU volunteers at Lifebridge, from left: Amy Tedford, Jean Koulack-Young, Paul Brailsford, and Linda Budd. Photo by Bob Cumming.

Members of the Northshore UU Church helped serve meals this past Sunday at Lifebridge, a homeless shelter formerly known as Salem Mission. Church members served 120 baked chicken thighs, 30 pounds of mashed potatoes, and five No. 10 cans of green beans, along with fresh baked gingerbread with chocolate sauce and whipped cream.

For several years our church has been volunteering at the program on the fourth Sunday of every month, coordinated by church member Michele Chausse, now with the assistance of the Social Action Committee. If you are interested in volunteering, please see our online Calendar of Events for details.

Our service will begin at 10:30 a.m., followed by coffee and fellowship at about 11:30. Child care and religious-education classes are offered, and visitors are always welcome.

The NSUU Facebook group is not intended as a substitute for NSUU.org. Rather, it’s a gathering place for members and friends of the church. Please spread the word. And if you’ve been putting off joining Facebook, this would be a good time to give it a try.

You’ll always be able to enter the NSUU Facebook group with one click by selecting the “Find us on Facebook” graphic at NSUU.org, at the top of the right-hand column.

For more photos, click on image

Young members of the Northshore Unitarian Universalist Church who are involved in our Religious Education Program conducted the service earlier today. With the help and encouragement of Director of Religious Education Fred Mills, the youth reflected on what age means to them. The theme of the service was “A View of Age.”

Another installment in Director of Religious Education Fred Mills’s series “A Voice from the Little Chair.”

“Aesop’s fables are often used to teach a simple lesson,” Fred said as he lowered himself into a very small chair. “But the truth is that there are often many lessons from these simple fables. This morning I will tell the tale of ‘The Lion and The Mouse.’ We often read this tale from the point of view of the lion.  What about the mouse? Let’s listen.” And so Fred began:

Once when a Lion was asleep a little Mouse began running up and down upon him; this soon wakened the Lion, who placed his huge paw upon the Mouse and opened his big jaws to swallow him. “Pardon, O King,” cried the little Mouse. “Forgive me this time, I shall never forget it: who knows but what I may be able to do you a turn some of these days?”

The Lion was so tickled at the idea of the Mouse being able to help him that he lifted up his paw and let him go. Some time after, the Lion was caught in a trap, and the hunters who desired to carry him alive to the King tied him to a tree while they went in search of a wagon to carry him on. Just then the little Mouse happened to pass by, and, seeing the Lion’s sad plight, went up to him and soon gnawed away the ropes that bound the King of the Beasts. “Was I not right?” asked the little Mouse.

The mouse took a great risk in helping the lion. The lion could have eaten him at any time. But helping the lion was the right thing to do, so the mouse did it. Doing the right thing is what we are supposed to do. It may not be hard to see what the right thing is, but doing it may seem hard. Who we are depends on our ability to do the hard thing, the right thing.

This Sunday is also our monthly Share the Plate service. Our collection will benefit Friends of the Orphans, the American arm of Nuestros Pequeños Hermanos, an organization that runs orphanages in nine Latin American and Caribbean countries — Mexico, Honduras, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Guatemala, Haiti, the Dominican Republic, Peru, and Bolivia.

Our service will begin at 10:30 a.m., followed by coffee and fellowship at about 11:30. Child care and religious-education classes are offered, and visitors are always welcome.

For more photos, click on image

The Ed Lynn Fellowship Hall was packed on Friday evening, February 19, for Game Night, as adults and children played board games such as Scrabble, Monopoly and Battleship. The event was followed by a youth sleep-over.

Another installment in Director of Religious Education Fred Mills’s series “A Voice from the Little Chair.”

This Sunday Fred carried a picture book with him when he lowered himself into the little chair.

“This morning I will read a story,” he said. “I don’t usually just read. I really like to tell stories. But this story is so good just the way it is that I don’t want to miss a word.”

With that Fred opened the book and started to read Now One Foot, Now the Other, by Tomie dePaola. This is a story about Bobby and his best friend, his Grandfather Bob. The first word that Bobby spoke was “Bob,” and when Bobby learned to walk it was Bob who held his hand. Bob always said, “Now one foot, now the other.”

Shortly after Bobby’s fifth birthday, Bob suffered a stroke, and his recovery was very slow. Bobby knew that Bob recognized him, so he would play the same game he and Bob had played, stacking blocks only to have them fall down when Bobby placed the elephant block on top.

Slowly Bob’s speech came back. One day Bob stood up, and Bobby knew what he wanted to do. Bob placed his hands on Bobby’s shoulders and Bobby said, “Now one foot, now the other.” Before Bobby’s sixth birthday Bob could walk to the edge of the yard.

Just as the relationship between Bob and Bobby changed, our own relationships with each other change all the time. The love we feel for one another stays, and that love is very good.

(Please click here for a lesson plan about Now One Foot, Now the Other.)