Services
Recent Services
Our Next Multi-Platform Service – Finding the Center of Our Living Tradition
January 29 Service at 10:30 AM in the Church and on Zoom
Carol Strecker, Interim Minister
Unitarian Universalism is a living tradition. As such we’re called to review our principles to ensure they and we remain relevant. Our principles were last revised in 1987 when the 7th principle affirming and promoting the interconnected web of all existence was added. More recently there has been discussion about adding an 8th principle addressing racism. Other changes have been proposed in different forums. The UUA has appointed a commission to do a wholesale review of our 7 Principles. This service will include a review of their progress to date, the process by which changes will be made and how we can be more involved.
Our Next Multi-Platform Service – The Heart of Small Group Ministry
January 22 Service at 10:30 AM in the Church and on Zoom
Marty Langlois and Jennifer Revill, Service Leaders
Small Group Ministry is a vital part of many Unitarian Universalist congregations, including ours. When intentional committed groups of people meet regularly to reflect on and discuss significant life topics, they create their own container for caring, honesty, and creativity. Participants build deep connections with one another and with the things they hold sacred.
Come learn some of the history of Small Group Ministries at Northshore Church, hear from several of us who have participated, and see if Small Group Ministry might be for you.
Our Next Multi-Platform Service – Racial Karma
January 15 Service at 10:30 AM in the Church and on Zoom
Carol Strecker, Interim Minister
This year marks fifty-five years since the assassination of the Rev. Dr. Marin Luther King, Jr. As we honor his life and legacy it’s important to understand the context, what Larry Ward, PhD calls the “Racial Karma” of the United States and how it continues to manifest today as a path towards transformation and healing.
Bonnie Anderson will be the guest pianist this Sunday.
Our Next Multi-Platform Service – The Power of Peace
January 8 Service at 10:30 AM in the Church and on Zoom
Carol Strecker, Interim Minister
Vietnamese Buddhist Master, Thich Nhat Hanh says that we can create true peace that can be a powerful force in our lives and in our world. On the leading edge of a new year – with the strains of Christmas’ refrain of “Peace on Earth – Good Will to All People” still ringing in our ears, how can we cultivate peace – in our lives, in our world?
Our Next Multi-Platform Service – What’s Your Story
January 1 Service at 10:30 AM in the Church and on Zoom
Edith Fenton, Service Leader
Join Edith Fenton on New Year’s Day as she asks, “What’s Your Story?” The service will include the annual practice of writing resolutions to yourself for next New Year’s Day.
Our Christmas Service –
December 25 Recorded Service
Click on the link below to view a recorded Christmas Service presented by the Unitarian Universalist Church.
Our Next Multi-Platform Service – Christmas Eve Candlelight Service
December 24 Service at 6:30 PM in the Church and on Zoom
Carol Strecker, Interim Minister
We will welcome Christmas with lots of music and a funny story celebrating the light of love born in every child. We’ll tell the ancient story of Jesus’ humble birth and light candles reflecting the light in everyone on this silent, holy night. This is a service for all ages.
*Please have a candle handy
and participate in the
candle-lighting.
Every night a child is born is a holy night
Sophia Lyon Fahs
Unitarian Religious Educator
Our Next Multi-Platform Service – Winter Solstice Celebration
December 21 Service at 6:30 PM in the Church and on Zoom
Carol Strecker, Interim Minister
As the earth pauses on its journey before turning again towards the light and warmth of the sun, we’ll follow in the footsteps of generations who stopped in wonder to honor and celebrate the cycles of life, death and renewal.
Our Next Multi-Platform Service – Take Joy
December 18 Service at 10:30 AM in the Church and on Zoom
Carol Strecker, Interim Minister
Joy is a theme associated with Advent; a time of preparation and waiting for love to be born into the world at Christmas. We need joy. It’s essential to a full life of the spirit. It rises in us from the essence of life itself. Unlike happiness, which is tied to external conditions – joy is a choice. It’s always there, walking hand in hand with sorrow. So let’s gather for a joy-filled celebration and have some fun.
Our Next Multi-Platform Service – “Hope is …..”
December 11 Service at 10:30 AM in the Church and on Zoom
Carol Strecker, Interim Minister
Emily Dickinson wrote,
“Hope” is the thing with feathers –
That perches in the soul –
And sings the tune without the words –
And never stops – at all –
What is hope and why is it so important? How can it help us to turn towards healing and wholeness when so much has been broken? I hope so…
Our special guest musician, Tim Deik on trumpet, will brighten our souls and fill the room with the exciting sound of brass.
Our Next Multi-Platform Service – The Gift of Wonder
December 4 Service at 10:30 AM in the Church and on Zoom
Carol Strecker, Interim Minister
We’ll kick off the holiday season by celebrating the eye-opening, heart-quickening, “WOW” moments of wonder that wake us up to the daily gift of life. After an abbreviated service celebrating those gifts, we’ll spill out into the Fellowship Hall for more festivities including swag-making, more music and plenty of opportunity for good fellowship.
Special musical guests: The Northshore Ukulele Players
A Joint North Shore Unitarian Universalist Service of Thanksgiving – The Peace of Wild Things
November 27 Service at 10:30 AM in the Church and on Zoom
Joint Northshore Unitarian Universalist Service of Thanksgiving
This recorded service is an offering from clergy from Unitarian Universalist congregations on the North Shore. The theme for this year’s service is peace; inner peace and the need to be grounded in that inner peace to create peace in the world. You are welcome to gather at at 10:30am at NSUU to watch the service or you can access this service from home through our website.
Our Next Multi-Platform Service – Voice Still and Small
November 20 Service at 10:30 AM in the Church and on Zoom
Carol Strecker, Interim Minister
Our Next Multi-Platform Service – Tools for the Journey
November 13 Service at 10:30 AM in the Church and on Zoom
Carol Strecker, Interim Minister
Unitarian Universalism draws many sources for inspiration including our direct experience, the wisdom of world religions, the teachings of science and Earth-centered traditions. Many of these sources can offer us wisdom and strength for the journey as we navigate change in our lives and in our world. This service of readings, musings and special music will explore some of these sources as tools for the journey that can help us navigate change.
David Coffin will lead us in some traditional songs in our service. Known in the Boston area as the Christmas Revels Master of Ceremonies. He spends the good weather months singing chanteys on a Music Boston Harbor Tours. Coffin has a bass-baritone voice and plays various types of recorders and whistles, in addition to archaic instruments like the shawm, rackett, or gemshorn. He comes from a musical background. His father, Reverend William Sloane Coffin, studied to be a concert pianist with Nadia Boulanger in Paris; his grandfather was pianist Arthur Rubinstein, and his great-grandfather was Polish conductor Emil Młynarski.
Our Next Multi-Platform Service – Navigating Transitions
November 6 Service at 10:30 AM in the Church and on Zoom
Carol Strecker, Interim Minister
The only thing that we can really count on is change. It’s just the way life is. We have no idea what’s coming, nor can we bend the future to our will. In truth, we live our lives in the interim, betwixt and between life and death.
Creating A Congregational Covenant – together!
Congregational Conversation
Nov. 6th at Noon
In person and on Zoom
- To listen and respect each other
- To be honest
- To encourage each other
- To engage with each other in the work of the church
- To be curious about each other
- To try to understand others more fully, without presumptions or rigid expectations
- To disagree with compassion and respect
- To be supportive and appreciative
- To seek creative solutions to difficulties*
- To have open eyes, minds and hearts
- To be open to new ideas and ways of doing things
- To welcome and embrace change as a way to learn and grow
- To forgive each other and ourselves
- To welcome newcomers
See you in church, Rev. Carol
Our Next Multi-Platform Service – Celebration of All-Souls Day
October 30 Service at 10:30 AM in the Church and on Zoom
Carol Strecker, Interim Minister
Each year we pause on the Sunday closest to All Souls Day (November 2) to remember our loved ones who have died. We remember them in order to be continually encouraged, uplifted and inspired by the lives they led and their many gifts that live on in us.
You are invited to submit a photo of your loved ones who have died for a slideshow that will be part of our service.
- Send pictures (in jpeg format) to Gary Nelson at ammodytes2000@yahoo.com by Friday, October 28.
- Be sure to include: your loved ones name and their relationship to you (include your name too. Thanks!
Our Next Multi-Platform Service – History of the Massachusetts Tribe
October 23 Service at 10:30 AM in the Church and on Zoom
Thomas Green
Our Next Multi-Platform Service – The Courage to Covenant
October 16 Service at 10:30 AM in the Church and on Zoom
Carol Strecker – Interim Minister
Our Next Multi-Platform Service – The Courage to Embrace Change
October 9 Service at 10:30 AM in the Church and on Zoom
Carol Strecker – Interim Minister
Our Next Multi-Platform Service – Stepping Out of the Shadows – Ignoring Social Stereotypes
October 2 Service at 10:30 AM in the Church and on Zoom
Gerri Cannon
Gerri Cannon is a New Hampshire State Representative and a spokesperson for transgender equality. She says, “I grew up learning that men and women had defined societal roles. What if you feel that you don’t fit? How do you break out of your own learned personal biases? I’ll share my journey and breaking all the expectations along the way.”
Our Next Multi-Platform Service – Beginning Again
September 25 Service at 10:30 AM in the Church and on Zoom
Carol Strecker, Interim Minister
Beginning with Rosh Hashanah and ending with Yom Kippur, the Jewish High Holidays are a time of intentionally turning toward one another. It’s time to reflect on the past, making a commitment to reconcile, renew and recommit to being in right relationship with self, others and with God.
Our Next Multi-Platform Service – Belonging
September 18 Service at 10:30 AM in the Church and on Zoom
Carol Strecker, Interim Minister
The need to belong is a driving force in our lives – right up there with food, shelter and safety. How does the need to belong impact the choices we make in our daily lives? And as people who value the worth and dignity of all people, how can we create open-hearted spaces and relationships that facilitate a sense of belonging for ourselves and for others?
Our Next Multi-Platform Service – Water Ceremony and Ingathering
September 11 Service at 10:30 AM at the Church and on Zoom
Carol Strecker, Interim Minister
If you are a drop of water, then you will evaporate halfway;
but if you go as a river, you will surely reach the ocean.
Thich Nhat Hanh
The Water Ceremony celebrates our connections with one another and with the Earth. We return to our beloved sanctuary in the woods on September 11th, bringing water from many sources that speak to us of those connections. Water symbolizes the power of community as drops gather to form rivulets that meet and merge to form mighty rivers flowing together to the sea. Bring a little water that has special meaning for you to pour into a common bowl.
You can also send a picture of a watery place to Gary Nelson at ammodytes2000@yahoo.com. Gary has graciously agreed to create a slideshow of those places that quench our thirsty souls for our service.
This service will include special music provided by the NSUU Singing Group under the direction of Georgia Bills, our new Music Director.
In the interest of protecting the most vulnerable among us, we ask that you wear a mask inside the building.
The Board invites everyone to join us after the service
for coffee and ice cream treats as we kick off this new church year.
Feel free to bring a bag lunch as well!
Our Next Virtual Service – Returning Home
August 14 Service at 10:30 AM on Zoom
Virtual Service via Zoom
Marty Langlois will lead a sharing service.
Topic: Returning Home
The service will be informal and there will be an opportunity for sharing your thoughts on returning home.
Here are two questions you might ponder and share your thoughts at the meeting.
- What does “home” mean for you? Is it a place or places? Present or past? Perhaps the experience and meaning of home for you is more connected with people than with place; or is home a state of mind? Or a place you can access anywhere you are, even in solitude.
- Has the meaning, the actuality, or the experience of “home” changed for you over time? If so, how?
Marty thought this would be a good topic to follow our last formal Sundat service in June, “Going away.”
Our Next Virtual Service – Meet the Moment: Reimagining Radical Faith Community
July 17 Service at 10:30 AM on Zoom
Virtual Service via Zoom
A replay of the UUA General Assembly service from the GA taking place in Portland, OR. We will be streaming the service over ZOOM at our usual worship time 10:30am.
This Sunday’s Virtual Service – Blessings on Your Journey
June 19 Service at 10:30 AM on Zoom
Religious Services Committee
As we go from community to our own separate journey over the summer, whether they be far or near, we consider the journey, what it means, how to deepen it, and what we will bring back to the whole when we come together again in September. We will explore this theme through poetry; including a recitation by our own prize-winning poet reciter, Ava Beringer. This service will be broadcast from the sanctuary via zoom without an in person congregation.
This Sunday’s Multi-Platform Service – Flower Ceremony
June 12 Service at 10:30 AM at the Church and on Zoom
Carol Strecker, Interim Minister
Come join us in person, outside (weather permitting) or via Zoom to celebrate this historic Unitarian ritual that lifts up the blessings of unity in diversity. Bring a flower or two to share if you’re able to join us in person. Bring a flower or two to your share with others on Zoom if you’re joining in from home. A highlight of this special day will be a celebration of the amazing gifts of volunteers and staff.
This Sunday’s Virtual Service – Transcending the Binary
June 5 Service at 10:30 AM on Zoom
Carol Strecker, Interim Minister
June is PRIDE month. We celebrate the many ways people express gender and sexuality in our culture, many of which transcend cultural norms, male and female. Now more then ever it seems important to understand the issues facing people who don’t fit neatly into the gender binary of male and female. Learning from each other and expanding our understanding of the full range of human experience is an important way Unitarian Universalists can honor the worth and dignity of all people. Finding a spiritual home where you feel seen in the fullness of your humanity is what being a Welcoming Congregation is really all about.
The Annual Meeting will be held
immediately following the service.
This Sunday’s Virtual Service – Remembering Well
May 29 Service at 10:30 AM on Zoom
Carol Strecker, Interim Minister
Memorial Day ushers in the official beginning of summer but it was born of the need to remember well those Americans who died in the course of their military service. Memorial Day gives us the opportunity to mourn those losses as a nation. But there are other “national losses” we’re facing. How can we remember well those 1 million souls lost to the Corona Virus and the victims of gun violence that plagues our nation? Memorial Day invites us to lament all of these “national losses,” honor the dead and advocate for peace.
This Sunday’s Virtual Service – “The Journey” A Bridging Service
May 15 Service at 10:30 AM on Zoom
Carol Strecker, Interim Minister
Join us in uplifting and celebrating the bridging of one of our youth, Abby Ruggles, as she sets off on a journey into college and young adulthood. In this service we will contemplate the thresholds of life and how we as members of a congregation can provide blessings, advice of direction but cannot make the journey itself for bridging youth. In this service we gift our support and encouragement to Abby and send her off with wind in her sails.
This Sunday’s Multi-Platform Service – Walk in Beauty
May 15 Service at 10:30 AM in the Sanctuary and on Zoom
Carol Strecker, Interim Minister
This Sunday’s Multi-Platform Service – The Ancient Practice of Sound Healing
May 8 Service at 10:30 AM in the Sanctuary and on Zoom
Kristen Miller
Shamanic sound healer Kristen Miller discusses and demonstrates how sound can be used to heal ourselves and the world. Drawing on history and practical examples, Kristen shares some of the ancient sound healing practices from Nepal and Tibet.
This Sunday’s Multi-Platform Service – Mayday, Mayday, Mayday !
May 1 Service at 10:30 AM in the Sanctuary and on Zoom
Carol Strecker, Interim Minister
Yes, it’s May! The days are longer and warmer now. In many UU congregations this is the time of year we begin to wrap things up for the more leisurely pace of summer. But the last couple of years have been anything but business as usual at NSUU. We’ve survived, even thrived in some ways during the pandemic but so much has changed – so much is changing. What’s next? That’s up to you, the congregation.
Mayday is an international distress signal that was adopted by the British because it sounds like the French m’aider, which means “help me.” It’s time for every person who cares about this congregation to respond to this distress call – to help answer some big questions: Who are we now? What are we here for? Who do we hope to become and what will it take to get there?
This service will provide some thought-provoking inspiration for a Congregational Conversation following the service at 11:30am. The Board needs to know what you want, what you’re willing to invest your time, treasure and talent in service to the future of NSUU.
This Sunday’s Service – We Belong to the Earth
April 24 Service at 10:30 AM on Zoom Only – There Will be No Service in the Sanctuary
Earth Day Celebration
Green Sanctuary Team and Guests
Join the Green Sanctuary Team and guests for our annual Earth Day Celebration. The seventh principle of Unitarian Universalism calls us to affirm and promote the interconnected web of all existence of which we are a part. There has never been a more important time to deepen our sense of connection with all that is and the reciprocity of our relationship with the Earth. The Earth will only take care of us if we take care of the Earth.
This Sunday’s Multi-Platform Service – Easter Sunday
April 17 Service at 10:30 AM in the Sanctuary and on Zoom
Carol Strecker, Interim Minister
This Easter we’ll explore what it might mean to wake from the dead; to the wonder of life renewing itself, in the natural world and in the human heart. What is it that has the power to wake us up? To startle us? To open our eyes, our minds, our hearts to new ways of seeing and being in the world?
This Sunday’s Multi-Platform Service – Wayfinding: Spiritual Signs From Florida to Maine
April 10 Service at 10:30 AM in the Sanctuary and on Zoom
Rev. Marcus Lisle
Rev. Marcus Lisle is an Interfaith Minister who works full-time as a chaplain at Brooksby Village in Peabody, MA, and is a member of the First Religious Society Unitarian Universalist, in Newburyport, Massachusetts. He will weave many stories of the remarkable and mystical ways the spiritual realm has intervened, guided and shaped his spiritual journey from Florida to Maine.