Order of Service
A Moment for Healing: Readings and Music
Time for All Ages Erica Shadowsong, Director of Religious Education
Liturgist Jen Layman
Music Ellen Gozion, Director of Instrumental Music; Ahmer’e Blackman, cello; with Corey Layman.
Tech Nicky Baldy & Will Snavely
Prelude Bach Suite No. 1 in G – Ahmer’e Blackman, cello
Welcome – Jen Layman
Lighting the Chalice & Call to Worship
Opening Hymn #1000 Morning Has Come
Collective Grounding Led by Jen
We name our collective recommitment to care for the earth.
Knowing the ground we live upon is sacred,
We pledge to bring new life to the earth
New Life to the air
New Life to the waters
New Life to each other
For all Life is sacred
Story for All “The Cracked Light” a Hasidic wisdom tale | Erica Shadowsong, Director of Religious Education
Singing For Our Children
Go now In Peace, Go now in peace,
May the spirit of love surround you
Everywhere, everywhere you may go.
Offering
Donations by check may be mailed to the church office. Electronic donations can be made online through the church website or by texting “give” to (412) 435-1050 and following the instructions.
Share the plate for March is the Khasi Hills School Partnership
Joys and Sorrows: During the offertory music, you are invited to light a candle or place a stone in Blessed Community water as you offer silent gratitude or prayers. Two tables are in the sanctuary; one in the front, to the right of the platform, and one in the back right alcove.
Offertory Music Flowers in the Field by Ellen Gozion
Join in singing the Last Chorus:
See the flowers in the field, how they grow, how they grow.
Then rest your worried, troubled mind, lay down your woes, lay down your woes.
Meditation, Silence or Prayer
Guided Meditation Led by Jen
Congregational Hymn #1002 Comfort Me
Poem The Gift by Li-Young Lee
Music Spiegel im Spiegel by Arvo Pärt | Ahmer’e Blackman, cello, Ellen Gozion, piano
Responsive Reading #552 My help is in the mountain
Homily “Healing Resistance” by Erica Shadowsong, Director of Religious Education
Song Anthem by Leonard Cohen | performed by Corey Layman
Poem Blessing the Boats by Lucille Clifton (1936-2010)
Closing Hymn #346 Come Sing a Song With Me
Extinguishing the Chalice Flame
We extinguish this flame but not the light of truth,
the warmth of community, or the fire of commitment:
these we carry in our hearts until we are together again.
Benediction “As soon as healing takes place, go out and heal someone else.” — Maya Angelou
Postlude Nostalgia by Ennio Morricone| perfomed by Ahmer’e Blackman, cello and Ellen Gozion, piano
To donate to Share the Plate
– by check mailed to the church office, please include STP on the memo line
– online on the church website, use the drop down to select Plate.
– by texting “Give” to 412-435-1050 following the directions with the word share or pledge after the donation amount as appropriate.
To make a pledge payment
-by check, please put pledge in the memo line
– online on the church website, keep the default General Fund 2025 option
First Unitarian Church is honored to Share the Plate in March with the Annie Margaret Barr Higher Secondary School in the village of Kharang in the Khasi Hills of northeast India. As part of a global Unitarian Universalist Association initiative, we have been partners with our Unitarian friends in the Khasi Hills since 2003. This mountainous, rural region is home to the 3rd largest population of Unitarians in the world. The school – founded in 1968 by a Unitarian minister – is open to boys and girls of all backgrounds. With your generous support, First UU Pittsburgh raises $9,600 each year to pay the salaries of two of the high school teachers.
Poet Lucille Clifton was a professor of literature and creative writing at the University of California, Santa Cruz, Distinguished Professor of Humanities at St. Marys’ College of Marylan, a visiting professor at Columbia University and in 2006, she was as a fellow at Dartmouth College. She died in Baltimore on February 13, 2010. Clifton received a Creative Writing Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts, a grant from the Academy of American Poets and was the winner of multiple awards for her poetry, including an Emmy Award. Her children’s book Everett Anderson’s Good-bye won the 1984 Coretta Scott King Award and she was the first author to have two books of poetry named finalists for one year’s Pulitzer Prize. She won the 1996 Lannan Literary Award for Poetry and the 2000 National Book Award for Poetry.