WEST PARIS — As a former TV weatherman always said, April is a winter month. But April also gives us many beautifully warm days with hardy bulbs popping up, and let’s not forget the return of our migrating birds. There is a lot to be hopeful for (“you’ve gotta have hope, mustn’t sit around and mope…”). Please join us for Sunday services at 9 a.m. Music will be performed by Davy Sturtevant. Refreshments will follow the service.

•  April 6, “Slower Customs” led by Maryli Tiemann. After finally unpacking boxes stored in her basement for over 40 years, Maryli Tiemann visits us again to share what was lurking in the boxes: treasures and unexpected views from days when we wrote letters to one another, sharing slower customs and long forgotten details of a different culture. Let’s gather and share our experiences of discovery, childhood pastimes, or misremembering relationships. Let’s honor today by taking time to reflect on this “almost spring” morning together in April, in this 21st century. Of course, there will be music by Davy Sturtevant, and dandy poetry, and reverberations of your stories shared, too, if you choose.

•  April 13, “What grows here?” led by Emily Cherry. Many churches and religious institutions these days are facing uncertainty about their futures. Rather than focusing on what is lacking, what if we chose instead to tend the seeds that have already been planted in our communities? What future of connectivity and thriving can we imagine together for the community within the walls of this church, and beyond? Join us for an exploration of how we might engage the practices of spiritual leadership to meet this moment in history.

Emily Cherry is a Congregational Life Field Staff member of the New England Region team at the Unitarian Universalist Association. Previously, they served in roles in the UUA Transitions Office and the larger Ministries and Faith Development Office. As a former congregational lay leader in Brookline, MA, Emily volunteered as a board member and co-chair of the worship committee during the acute phase of the pandemic. They also served on the board of the Young Adult Revival Network, which promotes the growth and ministry of UU young adults around the globe. Emily believes in the Holy power of our choice to build community with one another and in our ability to foster collective resilience in a complicated world.

•  April 20, Easter Sunday, and new membership day, led by The Rev. Fayre Stephenson.

•  April 27, Christian Nationalism, led by The Rev. Scott Campbell, who leads a service each month at our church. “I preached my first sermon from my first pulpit some 56 years ago.  Not in all the years that have followed has the real Gospel been needed more than it is right now. In its place, an impostor called “Christian Nationalism” has emerged, pretending to be the divine word for our day. Love, acceptance, forgiveness, and redemption have been displaced by power, dominance, exclusion, and retribution. The church cannot remain silent before this distortion of its identity.”

For more information, contact Marta Clements at 207-674-2143 or email [email protected]. We are located at 208 Main Street in W. Paris.