Cottage Party Notes II
What do we yearn for in Worship?

Many yearn for more variety—in services, music, and leadership of both
o Flexibility and variety in order of service
o More emotional connection, more individually meaningful spiritual sharing, less history, less intellect, less meeting-like
o More sermons that speak to Jesus’ life teachings and other teachings of other religions, rather than just saying “we are diverse”
o Open and challenging community for me with peers and non-peers
o Lay-led services (including sermon, without ministerial involvement)
o More member _expression (in music, testimonials)—preferring amateurish member participation to smooth professional performance
o More musical variety, drumming, visiting musicians, recorded music and subtle use of video
o Spontaneous dancing in the aisles
o Better more inspiring choir
o Time for reflection with background music
o Chanting

o A place for spiritual reflection and prayer (affirming what we already have)
o A familiar spiritual place
o Outward focused congregation
o More festive decorations in the Meeting House
o No community concerns

What do we yearn for in congregational diversity and growth?

We focused on educational inclusiveness, as well as racial and political
o Educational inclusiveness. Working class people can be uncomfortable at FP
o Political inclusiveness. Let’s not patronize Republicans and other conservatives.
o Accessible to people of color, without being patronizing in our racial inclusiveness
o Congregation to be more FEARLESS (a good antidote to political correctness)
o We want to be appealing to a more diverse congregation, and keep our intellect too, with whole body preaching, less name-dropping sermons
Let’s celebrate the diversity we already have
o Get our auditorium space back. Use it for coffee hour. We can have tables set up for programs
o Church to be something I need, not just sometime I like
o Spaghetti dinners

What do we yearn for in religious education and spiritual development programming?

We focused on breaking down boundaries between worship, RE, and various programs
o More integration of miscellaneous programs—opportunities to connect
o More mixing of worship programs with RE/spiritual dev programs
o Have our kids in service with RE available for everyone at a different time than worship
o More going on Sunday afternoons in church – get rid of free parking

Also
o Shorter community concerns! Promote programs through better presentation of information about opportunities (in order of service, more posters, better website, more brochures)
o More lifespan faith development
o More planning of sustained curricula for programs, fewer one-shot deals
o More opportunities for lay involvement
o What is Jory’s role? Does she need better admin support to free her for more important work? Is she more minister than we need for our RE program?
o Spirituality & Technology program

What do we yearn for First Parish’s community presence to become?

o We want to be a major presence in Harvard Square
o Evangelistic materials in pews at all times (for example, when Cambridge Forum hosts big public events)
o Our ASL interpreters are great! We are well known for this.
o Let’s get involved with Racial Justice in Cambridge/Somerville. Get over the feeling that “they are not us.”

Other comments

Let’s explore staff issues and church budget more thoroughly
o Our endowment is killing us. We should fund ourselves
o We need $300K more per year.
o Higher expectations of members will lead to greater commitment of time and money

o We want to understand architecture of front of Meeting House
- posted by Bruce Hoppe @ 3:00 PM