Upcoming Events

Calendar of Events

Click here to access the most current version of our calendar.

LGBT Senior Brunch

Last Saturday of the month from 10 AM to 12 Noon
South Shore Elder Services is pleased to continue its monthly brunch gathering for the older LGBT community. The brunches are USUALLY held on the last Saturday of the month at 10:00 AM at 196 Elm Street in Braintree in the Parish Hall of All Souls Church.

$2 suggested donation for guests 60 years old and up, $5 fee for guests under age 60.
RVSP by calling 781-848-3939 Extension 325 or e-mail South Shore Elder Services for more information or to make a reservation.
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Pot Luck Suppers

NO POTLUCK SUPPER UNTIL SEPTEMBER There are no pot luck suppers in the summer months of June, July and August or in November and December.

See you in September, last Saturday night of the month at 6 pm. Admission is FREE, Just bring food with enough to share and an ingredient list in case of allergies.

Chalice Circles

These faciliated small groups meet twice monthly to discuss a variety of spiritual issues and those matters closest to your heart. They require an on-going commitment. The scheduled meetings of All Souls Chalice Circles are generally as follows from September through June:

Mark's circle:
Second and Fourth Sunday of each month, from 6:30 to 8:00 PM.
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Don's circle:
First and Third Wednesday of each month: 7:30 - 9:00 PM.
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All Souls Serves The Hungry

Several times a year, members and friends from All Souls Unitarian Universalist Church of Braintree prepare and serve luncheon for people in need at The Table, a 24-Hour Shelter and Housing Program for Homeless Men, Women and Children.

The following article describes our first experience at a Soup Kitchen.

Members and friends from All Souls Unitarian Universalist Church of Braintree gathered in early August to prepare and serve a meal at St. Paul's Table. The All Souls Community donated pasta, tuna, mayonnaise, carrots and frozen peas over a three week period. On Friday, we cooked the pasta, chopped the carrots, drained the tuna and assembled trays of pasta salad to serve the next day. The church kitchen was hot on the first night in August, even with a bank of fans running. On Saturday, fourteen All Souls volunteers arrived at St. Paul's Episcopal Church. We prepared for the diners, rolled napkins around silverware, washed and shredded lettuce, made lemonade and iced tea, and tried to anticipate what we would need to do once the diners arrived. Because this was our first time serving a meal here, many of us were anxious about the logistics and peppered Kathy with lots of questions. Should we serve the salad in bowls? How many drinks should we offer? Who will put the cream in the coffee?

In the end, everything went smoothly and we served over sixty meals in two seatings. After announcements and grace (given by a volunteer among the diners), the serving of the food and beverages went quickly. The diners were polite and appreciative. The All Souls kitchen crew was kept busy filling trays and washing up. We were humbled to realize that a mid-day meal is served at this location six out of seven days a week, and the resources to run it are sparse. Donations of food and funds are needed, particularly in these difficult economic times.

Our day of service was definitely a team effort. We appreciate those who donated the ingredients, those who prepared the pasta salad on Friday night in unbelievable heat, and those who worked on Saturday. A special thanks to Bob, from the First Parish Duxbury UU Church, Rick, the Sexton at St. Paul's Episcopal Church, and Kathy, the Weekday Volunteer Coordinator at St. Paul's Table, and Mike, the Weekend Volunteer Coordinator at St. Paul's Table, all of whom lent their considerable expertise, experience and patience from the initial planning stages to the actual day we served our meal. We could not have accomplished this undertaking without their considerable help!

As one of our crew remarked afterwards, "It was a privilege to be able to serve people in this way." We realize that hard times can come to any of us. It was a great opportunity to give our time, talent and treasure in such a concrete way.

Backpacks Filled with School Supplies for Needy Students

Remember back to school shopping and the excitement of new school supplies to start the year off right? Each August, we collect new back packs and supplies like notebooks, pencils, crayons, markers and pens. Then we fill the back packs and donate them to children who might otherwise not have them.

Our last Backpack Drive was a great success!

Gratitude

We appreciate the many donations of backpacks and school supplies for our summer school supply drive for children in need. We filled 37 backpacks which will be distributed to students in four Braintree schools.

We are grateful for a generous donation of backpacks and school supplies as well as a new bicycle from Linda Flannery in memory of her daughter, Kathleen Flannery. We extend our condolences on the loss of her daughter.

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Here are filled backpacks from one of our backpack drives

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Updating the Massachusetts Bottle Bill

We want everyone to re-think purchasing Bottled Water. We see clean drinking water as a right, not a commodity. Learn more in an article in Braintree Patch.

Also, we would like the Massachusetts Bottle Bill to be revisited.

According to the Massachusetts Chapter of the Sierra Club, "requiring a 5-cent deposit on all drink containers would decrease litter and increase recycling. States that have implemented bottle bills have experienced a 70-85% reduction in beverage container litter and a 30 - 35% reduction in overall litter after the bottle bill was implemented. In our waterways, non-redeemable containers are 9 times more likely to wind up as litter than deposit containers."

Events in the Wider Community

In Braintree, South Shore Habitat for Humanity has monthly meetings where you can find out about other volunteer opportunities. Attend a "Ways to Help" session, on the third Wednesday of each month at 20 Mathewson Drive in Weymouth. The session starts at 6:30 PM and ends by 7:30. For more information, please contact their Community Relations Manager or call 781-337-7744 ext 10.

Water Tasting Challenge!

Our Social Action/Environmental Committee organized the challenge to find out whether people can actually taste the difference between bottled water and tap water.
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Challenge organizers set up a blind taste test, providing samples of Braintree tap water and three popular brands of bottled water.
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We partnered with Braintree Rotary, Sustainable Braintree, and BHS students to present the taste test on three Saturday mornings at the Braintree Farmers Market. A fourth Challenge was conducted at the South Shore Celebration event at the Marshfield Fairgrounds in October (organized by Sustainable South Shore) using Marshfield tap water instead of Braintree water. The tap water was compared to three common bottled water brands: Poland Spring, Dasani, and Aquafina. A total of 224 tasters participated in the Braintree challenge; 68 testers participated in Marshfield.
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In the Braintree Challenge, one quarter of the testers said they could not tell the difference between Braintree tap water and the bottled water, and did not attempt to guess which was from the tap. 44% of the tasters incorrectly identified one of the three popular bottled water brands as tap water. Conversely, 32% of the tasters incorrectly identified tap water as one of the three bottled water brands.
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Read more about it Here
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Faith In Action at All Souls Church

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OUR SOCIAL ACTION AND ENVIRONMENTAL MINISTRY

The Social Action/Environmental Committee seeks to serve the wider community outside the walls of the church, and to involve the members and friends of All Souls in this endeavor. The committee works in a variety of modes, incorporating social service projects, educational events, opportunities to witness for social and environmental justice, and advocating for legislative action in these areas.

SOCIAL SERVICE
Our annual social service projects include the donation of school supplies to fill backpacks for distribution to children-in-need at Braintree's Morrison School. We participate in Braintree's Make A Difference Day, collecting women's career clothing for the Career Closet at Quincy's Interfaith Social Services. During the holiday season, members and friends extend their care and concern to those outside their immediate circle and generously provide gifts for children served by the Braintree-based Dianne DeVanna Center, which works to prevent child abuse and neglect. We also organize a fundraiser in April (National Child Abuse Prevention Month) to benefit the Dianne DeVanna Center. Several times a year, we prepare and serve lunch to people in need at St. Paul's Table, a soup kitchen in Brockton.

EDUCATION
The committee is active in environmental issues, organizing educational opportunities for the community at-large. Working with Sustainable South Shore, it has mentored a Braintree-based environmental group, Sustainable Braintree. The committee has also presented a program on the Low Carbon Diet and is encouraging the formation of small groups to provide support for energy-saving lifestyle changes. Periodic meetings of "Peace and Pizza" (bring your own pizza) provide information and opportunities for discussion on a variety of timely issues, from health care (a screening of the film, Sicko) to the war in Iraq.

WITNESS
Members have demonstrated their concern for child laborers on cocoa farms in West Africa at Halloween. Participating in the national Reverse Trick-or-Treating initiative, they have given out fair trade mini-chocolate bars along with information about the unfair working conditions that characterize many cocoa plantations. All Souls Church supports growers around the world as it serves and sells Equal Exchange coffee at its coffee hour after Sunday worship. Fair trade tea and chocolate from Equal Exchange is also offered for sale at this time, providing an avenue for our members and friends to take concrete action in support of economic justice throughout the world. It also sells Equal Exchange products at the Braintree Farmers Market, educating the general public about fair trade.

ADVOCACY
Members have been active and vocal on issues of social justice, which resulted in All Souls Church being one of three south shore Unitarian Universalist congregations honored at the 2007 Annual Awards Ceremony of the Religious Coalition for the Freedom to Marry. The event was covered in UU World magazine. The committee continues to encourage members and friends to contact their legislators on important economic, social and environmental issues, and has worked collaboratively with the UU Mass Action Network the Alliance for a Healthy Tomorrow, and the Gray Panthers.

MEMBERSHIP
Your participation in the Social Action/Environmental Committee is welcome. There is much that needs doing, and your interest and energy are needed. Meetings are generally held on the second Tuesday of the month at 7:15 P.M. Check the church newsletter for more specific information.