All Souls Unitarian Universalist Church of Braintree, MA, USA

Upcoming Events

Sunday, September 12	Homecoming Celebration on the church lawn - 11:30 am - pot luck refreshments
Sunday, September 19	What's the Buzz @ All Souls: Activity Fair - 11:30 am

More ways to stay informed

Printed Newsletter: Our monthly newsletter, The Chimes, is posted on this website by the first day of each month during the regular church calendar year which runs from September through June. At your request, the church administrator can mail a hard copy of the Chimes to your home. You can access the current issue by following the link on the left sidebar of this page or visiting our blog. Visit All Souls Church on Facebook

The deadline to submit articles is mid-month with the exact date listed in the previous issue.

Weekly E-mail List: A list of members and friends of All Souls is used to send weekend updates and other timely announcements. To be added to the list, please give the office your email address with your full name.

What's the Buzz @ All Souls Church?

Come bee and see what's the buzz @ All Souls!! All Souls Church will kick off the new church year on Sunday, September 12 beginning at 10:30 am, with the traditional water communion service. The annual Homecoming Celebration on the church lawn will follow at 11:30 am. A potluck brunch and coffee hour will be served outdoors where there is lots of room for the whole family to play outdoor games. In the event of rain, the celebration will be held indoors in the Parish Hall.

What's the Buzz @ All Souls: Activity Fair will be held on the following Sunday, September 19. The fair will feature information about the wide array of activities that makes the All Souls community a vibrant place to be. Join us for the service beginning at 10:30 am, where a special guest drummer, Matt Moyers, will be adding a special rhythm to our Sunday morning ceremony and then stay for light refreshments and get a taste of what keeps All Souls buzzing. Looking for a place where your children will learn important life values? The Religious Education program involves young people in an engaging, life-affirming curriculum. Want to learn more about meditation and Buddhism? The Buddhist Reflections discussion group is for you. Haven't sung with a group since your high school days? Find out how easy it is to sing with the All Souls choir. Looking for a meaningful book discussion group? There's one at All Souls that meets monthly. Want to join with others to find ways to make our community a better place? All Souls Social Action/Environmental Committee is doing just that. Maybe drumming moves your spirit. Join up with our Hand Drummers Circle. Don't miss this great opportunity to see the swarm of activity @ All Souls Church!

All Souls Church is affiliated with the Unitarian Universalist Association which honors each individual's search for truth and meaning. All people are welcome to attend services and other church events. All Souls Church is located at 196 Elm Street, Braintree, MA, at the corner of Elm and Church Streets. For more information telephone 781-843-1388. Find All Souls on Facebook, read the All Souls Church blog or e-mail office@AllSoulsBraintree.org

Calendar of Events

See The Chimes - Our Church Newsletter. You can access the current church newsletter by following the link on the left sidebar of this page.

POT LUCK SUPPERS

Pot Luck Suppers build the church community as we share food and fellowship. Watch for future pot lucks typically held at 6:00 PM on a Saturday. All are welcome!

All Souls Partners with South Shore Elder Services to host and serve LGBT Senior Citizens

South Shore Elder Services is pleased to continue its monthly Saturday brunch program for the older lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community. The brunches are held on the last Saturday of the month at 10:00 am at 196 Elm Street in Braintree in the social hall of the All Souls Unitarian Universalist Church. An optional donation of $2 is suggested for guests 60 years old and up. Please contact Maryanne Ryan 781-848-3939 x 325 or e-mail South Shore Elder Services for more information or to make a reservation. Click here for a flyer.

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:

Mark's circle:
Second and Fourth Sunday of each month, from 6:30 to 8:00 pm

Don's circle:
First and Third Wednesday of each month: 7:30 - 9:00 pm

Sustainable Braintree

After a year of careful nurturing, All Souls' Social Action/Environmental Committee successfully launched Sustainable Braintree into the wider community! Sustainable Braintree's Food Task Force has brought the Farmers Market to Braintree - Its Recycling Task Force is promoting recycling in the community. Its Energy Task Force is working collaboratively with BELD to promote energy conservation and the use of alternative energy. It has also completed the first calculation of Braintree's carbon footprint.

Find out more about the Cool Mass Campaign to make energy-saving changes, with a COOL MASS Eco-Team.

The Braintree Farmers' Market hosted by Sustainable Braintree had a successful inaugural season in 2009 at the Braintree Town Hall Mall at One JFK Memorial Drive. It became a treasured resource for the community, providing locally grown and made products such as vegetables and fruits, locally raised, hormone-free beef & pork, fresh local seafood, gourmet pies, granola, plants, flowers, herbs, gourmet cupcakes, and much more. For more information go to Sustainable Braintree's Farmers Market pageor e-mail us here.

Once again, volunteers from All Souls Church are selling fair trade Equal Exchange products at the 2010 Farmers Market every Saturday morning throughout the summer. Making these products available (the coffee is roasted locally) allows us to raise public awareness about fair trade and issues of global economic justice.

Events in the Wider Community

The 2010 Fair Trade Conference is coming to the Quincy Marriott Hotel, (an LEED certified building)from Friday, September 10 through Sunday, September 12. Registration is required to participate in the plenary sessions and workshops, but a vendor marketplace will be open to the public on Friday, 9/10 from 8:30 - 10 pm and on Saturday 9/11 from 5 to 8 pm. Take advantage of this world-wide gathering of representatives from Fair Trade businesses and organizations right in our own backyard!

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 7:15 PM at the Braintree Heritage United Methodist Church, 236 Grove Street. Call 781-843-9080 ext 12 for more information.

All Souls Community Forum

This lecture/film series is presented by All Souls Church to inform and educate the general public about vital social and environmental issues.

All Souls Community Forum -- Bankers, Brokers, Bubbles & Bailouts: An Economic Crisis Workshop was presented by Jeannette Huezo of United for a Fair Economyin April, 2010. This workshop was designed to help us understand the policies and practices that led to last year's financial meltdown. It explored what has gone wrong, illustrating and demystifying our underlying economic structures. It identified the steps that led to the housing bubble and its collapse, reviewed the impact of the crisis on jobs, families and communities, and explored strategies for building power through a broad-based social movement for economic justice. Our towns, states, and nation must construct an economy that is more equitable for everyone.

In March 2010, we screened "The People Speak", the new tribute to Howard Zinn, a documentary based on his groundbreaking books, A People's History of the United States and Voices of a People's History of the United States. The film shows the rich history of dissent in our history, and explores why it is so relevant and urgent today. The likes of Matt Damon, Viggo Mortensen, Sean Penn, Don Cheadle and others pay tribute to a Boston Great.

The March 2009 Forum featured All Souls' Interim Minister, Rev. Dr. Robert R.N. Ross, co-author of Walking to New Orleans: Reconstruction and Social Responsibility after Hurricane Katrina. His presentation included photographs and personal accounts that led to his book, co-authored with Deanne E.B. Ross, More information about the book can be viewed on Amazon.com and on the publisher's website. View the press release here.

The first forum of the year, Help for the Homeless, took place in January 2009. Joe Finn, Executive Director of the Massachusetts Housing and Shelter Alliance, and Tom Washington, Director of Community Relations of Father Bills & MainSpring described the work of their agencies to insure that homelessness does not become a permanent part of the social landscape even as they struggle to address the burgeoning numbers of newly homeless individuals. MHSA advocacy has resulted in more than 300 homeless men and women being placed into permanent, supportive housing through Home & Healthy for Good, a statewide Housing First Initiative. Participants generously donated toiletries, blankets and towels for shelter residents. Read the press release.

Quilts for Kids Workshop

An old fashioned Quilting Bee? Yes!
On Saturday, October 10, 2009, about 15 generation-spanning women and girls gathered in the Parish Hall of All Souls Unitarian Universalist Church in Braintree, thread, thimbles and scissors in hand. They came to make Quilts For Kids from materials assembled by the non-profit group of the same name. Mary Ann O'Neill, the group's coordinator, planned the event with Marge Kearns and All Souls' Social Action & Environmental Committee. Sewing machines and long tables framing the large room were ready and waiting. As kits, each containing colorful fabric squares for a quilt were presented, it was explained to the needlewomen that the materials were excess and discontinued fabrics from textile factories, collected and assembled by the Quilts For Kids organization, thus keeping thousands of pounds of material out of landfills. Knowing that the material is used to make Quilts For Kids, many of whom have never owned anything, makes the program even more worthwhile and exciting.

So it began -- pinning, un-pinning, aligning, basting, stitching on a sewing machine! Some of the attendees shared their wealth of experience with the novices, as it was a first time experience for a number of the young girls. Expressions of "oops, aha, look, see?!" erupted and blended into the legendary hum of the Bee. And at last, ten kits became ten quilts for ten kids we care about.

We left with new knowledge and new friends and it was so much fun (we even shared a delicious lunch), we will do it again during school vacation week on Thursday, April 22 and Friday, April 24, from 10 am to 4 pm.

All Souls Serves in Brockton Soup Kitchen

Members and friends from All Souls Unitarian Universalist Church of Braintree gathered on July 4, 2009 to prepare and serve a traditional Fourth of July luncheon, complete with hot dogs, baked beans, watermelon, and cupcakes decorated with American flags at St. Paul's Table, a soup kitchen that serves homeless people and others in need in Brockton. We returned in March, 2010 and plan to serve again on
Saturday, October 2, 2010.

The following article describes our first experience at the Soup Kitchen in August, 2008.

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, and we hope to return several more times in the upcoming church year.

Faith In Action at All Souls Church

_______________________________
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 7:30 P.M. Check the church newsletter for more specific information.