WEST PARIS — The First Universalist Church will welcome spring during April worship services. The services are held at 9 a.m. Sundays, with refreshments afterward. All are welcome.
April 7: “The Sermon on the Amount” led by the Rev. Fayre Stephenson. This service will be a spiritual reflection on heartfelt giving.
April 14: “Aunt Hattie Tells All” led by guest speaker, Jude Lamb, who will portray a Ferry Beach maid. She will tell the story of the Universalists at Ferry Beach, Saco, from 1901 to 1947. Learn about the Rev. Eleanor B. Forbes, minister of the West Paris Universalist Church for more than 30 years, as well as other key people who formed the still popular summer retreat.
April 21: “Rolling Away the Stone” led by the Rev. Fayre Stephenson. On Easter Sunday the congregation will seek possibilities for new life in themselves and in the world.
April 28: “Poetry as Prayer” with guest speaker, Stuart Kestenbaum, Maine’s Poet Laureate, who will present readings of his poems. He is the author of four collections of poems, “Pilgrimage” (Coyote Love Press), “House of Thanksgiving” (Deerbrook Editions), “Prayers and Run-on Sentences” (Deerbrook Editions), and “Only Now” (Deerbrook Editions) and a collection of essays, “The View From Here” (Brynmorgen Press).
Kestenbaum has written and spoken widely on craft-making and creativity, and his poems and writing have appeared in small press publications and magazines. He was appointed poet laureate of Maine in 2016.
Kestenbaum was the director of the Haystack Mountain School of Crafts in Deer Isle for 27 years, where he established innovative programs combining craft and writing and craft and new technologies. He is an honorary fellow of the American Craft Council and a recipient of the Distinguished Educator’s Award from the James Renwick Alliance.
For more information about the church and services, contact Marta Clements at 207-674-2143, mclements96894@roadrunner.com, or Bob Clifford at 207-674-3442, bobarlen@megalink.net. To learn more about Unitarian Universalist Association of Congregations, visit http://www.uua.org/.
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