Service Description:
First Sunday FEAST (FSF) is First Parish’s version of a combination of Small Group Meeting and “Dinner Church”. This is a service and a meal woven together to tap into what it means to be in community with one another. Unfortunately due to Covid, we will not be having FSF over a meal. But as soon as we feel it is safe to do so, we will have FSF over a shared breakfast!
For now it will be a Small Group discussion with the addition of a few short components from a typical service, such as Chalice Lighting and Extinguishing, some music and short readings.
There will not be a long message, but instead a 3-4 minute story or reading, along with a few questions to get a lightly guided conversation started. We will be using the Soul Matters monthly themes. The November theme is Holding History. You will have the option to join in the conversation or just listen. We may break into groups and then rejoin and share a word or phrase that can be taken away. We may talk about actions that we can take as a group.
Led by the Worship Committee
Join the Worship Committee on November 7 for First Sunday FEAST!
Below are the questions and quotes that will be used to guide our conversation. We hope you will take a few moments to read these and reflect on November’s theme, HOLDING HISTORY.
Your Question – Don’t try to answer every question. Instead, pick the one question that speaks to you most. Which question captures the call of your inner voice?
1. Do you believe that history is “written by the victors?” How have you experienced the “losers’” version of history winning out? Or altering your own calling in the world?
2. What memory has been with you the longest? What does it want from you so badly that it has held on to you for so long?
3. What group of memories holds your truest self?
4. Have you figured out the story you want to be remembered by?
5. Is it time to question the ancestors’ wisdom?
Wisdom from Word Roots & Definitions
The Ancient Greek roots of the word history carry the meanings of “inquiry,” “knowledge from inquiry,” or “to judge.” In all European languages, “history” is still used to mean both “what happened” and “the study of what happened.” In modern German and French, the same word is used to mean both “history” and “story.”
So the roots contain a calling not simply to recount what has happened but to study and “judge” it, to tease out its significance and challenge for us today. History’s close connection to storytelling is also a caution that there is no “history” that doesn’t involve someone’s imposed “story.”
It’s also helpful to think about the definition and roots of the word “remember,” which some dictionaries define as “To do something that one has undertaken to do or that is necessary or advisable.” There is a powerful connotation here of responsibility to complete a task one has pledged themselves to or a task that has been given one to complete.
Wise Words
History is written by everyone. The more accurate quote would be, “History is temporarily twisted by people who’re going to profit from it in the short term.” ~ Subham Jain
To acknowledge our ancestors means we are aware that we did not make ourselves. ~ Alice Walker
Amnesia gets in the way of atonement in America. But amnesia is actually too benign a word because it sounds as though people just forgot about the horrors of slavery, forgot about people who were forced to work in the fields literally until their death, forgot that between 50,000 and 85,000 Africans died during their forced migration to this country in the way one forgets where they placed their car keys or their passport. We’ve been through more than a willful forgetting; we’ve had instead an assiduous effort to rewrite history. We’ve built monuments to traitors and raised large sums of money to place the names of generals who fought against their own country all over highways and civic buildings. We’ve allowed turncoats to become heroes…. On a personal level, this false narrative about America is another act of cruelty, even a kind of larceny. ~ Michele L. Norris
Don’t cling to a mistake just because you spent a lot of time making it.
~ Aubrey De Graf
The prophetic tasks of the church are to tell the truth in a society that lives in an illusion, grieve in a society that practices denial, and express hope in a society that lives in despair. ~ Walter Brueggemann
It’s not forgetting that heals. It’s remembering. ~ Amy Greene
Memory invites us to maintain our grip on the past, but it also calls us to pay attention to who we are in the present. Memory’s question is not just “Do you remember?” but “How do you want to be remembered?”
~ Rev. Scott Tayler
NOTE: This service will meet in person and also be broadcast on Zoom. If attending in person, we ask that you wear a mask to help protect the most vulnerable in our community. Please attend online if you are experiencing COVID symptoms or if you have been in close contact with someone who has recently tested positive for COVID.
Zoom Information:
Join Zoom Meeting (online – computer, tablet, smartphone): https://zoom.us/j/99622652377
Meeting ID: 996-2265-2377
THIS ZOOM MEETING IS PASSWORD PROTECTED The password was sent to the First Parish Stoughton mailing list. If you did not receive the email with the password, please email webmaster@firstparishstoughton.org.
Call-in from Phone (Audio only, no video):
+1 301 715 8592 US
Meeting ID: 996-2265-2377
You can use Zoom on a computer, smart phone, or tablet. If you don’t already have it downloaded, you can create a free account at: https://zoom.us/ You do not need your own professional account, you will be joining a meeting hosted by a professional account so your personal account can be the free one. Some answers for Frequently Asked Questions about Zoom can be found here: https://support.zoom.us/hc/en-us/articles/206175806-Top-Questions
Topics: FEAST