“Chickering Piano in the Sanctuary” (photo by Dave)
First Church Houlton is fortunate to have the historic Frisbee organ in the sanctuary and a grand piano in the parlor, but we also have a very fine Chickering upright piano as well. The Chickering Piano Company was founded in Boston in 1823 and became the largest piano manufacturer in the country by the mid 19th century. I’m not sure when the Houlton church purchased their Chickering piano (or the story behind it), but it has held its spot in the front right hand corner of the sanctuary for a very long time now. Last week, as I was straightening things up after the service, I took a photo of it.
This week’s Sunday Service is led by Randi Bradbury and Ira Dyer titled “Good Vibrations.” Part of the service will be a half hour sound bath of Good Vibrations utilizing multiple instruments including the gong, crystal singing bowls, buffalo drum, rain drums, thunder can and other various instruments. Randi says, “One does not have to understand the science behind it to benefit from it.” Come and experience it for yourself. YouTube Channel content for this week is
an introduction of our theme for the new church year, Covenant and Transitions. Covenant is one of our theological concepts that refers to shared spiritual community. Why do we assemble together? What is it that keeps us together? And how do we keep it going? One of the books we are using for our study this year is “Unlocking the Power of Covenant” published by the UUA. Here is a brief excerpt from the back flyleaf:
We are living in immensely difficult times. Deep societal issues including racism, economic inequality, and environmental injustice mar our current lives and threaten to harm the life of future generations. There are no easy remedies to these community ills, but returning to the practice of covenant may offer a path forward. Living in covenant creates and develops community. It also furthers both the mission and the health of our faith movement.
We hope you can join us for one of the services online or in-person.
In Ministry,Dave
THIS WEEK’S YOUTUBE SERVICE:
HERE IS THE SERVICE LINK FOR THIS WEEK’S YOUTUBE SERVICE
(Please note it won’t be active until 10AM on Sunday morning)
HERE IS THE ZOOM LINK FOR SUNDAY COFFEE HOUR:
Topic: UUHoulton zoom coffee hour & check-inTime: Sep 28, 2025 11:00 AM Eastern Time (US and Canada) Join Zoom Meetinghttps://us06web.zoom.us/j/87577040562?pwd=sP9oySXbObjz5BTFxq6Ec65SC0X5bS.1
Meeting ID: 875 7704 0562Passcode: 688546
Calendar of Events @UUHoultonSept 28 Sunday Service: Randi Bradbury &Ira DyerSept 30 Meditation Group 5PM (online)Oct 1 Aroostook Climate Group 6PM in the cafeOct 5 Sunday Service: MaryAlice MowryOct 5
Trivia Night at the UU’s Cup Cafe 5:30-7:30PMOct 12 Sunday Service: David Hutchinson Oct 13 UUHoulton Board Meeting 4PM in the parlorOct 18 LGBTQ+ Luncheon 12 NoonOct 18 Houlton Coffeehouse 7-9PM Feature: Brian BouchardOct 19 Sunday Service: Kathryn HarnishOct 26 Sunday Service: David Hutchinson
Book Reviews:
These are two books that we are recommending for our study of “Covenant & Transitions.” They can be ordered online at the UU Bookstore uuabookstore.org
Unlocking The Power of Covenant
Unitarian Universalist Association
We are living in immensely difficult times. Deep societal issues including racism, economic inequality, and environmental injustice mar our current lives and threaten to harm the lives of future generations. There are no easy remedies to these community ills, but returning to the practice of covenant may offer a path forward. Living in covenant creates and develops community. It also furthers both the mission and the health of our faith movement.
The 2021 Commission on Appraisal report, Unlocking the Power of Covenant, examines the nature, substance, and structure of covenants within Unitarian Universalism. Drawing from focus groups, interviews, and surveys, the Commission describes and interprets the role that covenants do, can, and should play in the individual lives of Unitarian Universalists, as well as in our relationships with other congregations, other faith traditions, and the Unitarian Universalist Association. With its recommendations and resources, Unlocking the Power of Covenant is a powerful must-read for all looking to tap into a richer, fuller utilization of covenant.
Trusting Change;Finding Our Way Through Personal and global Transformation
by Rev. Karen Hering
Minister and award-winning author of Writing to Wake the Soul Karen Hering invites readers on the cusp of great change–which is all of us today–to explore the new possibilities emerging in our times. Whether you are living through significant personal transitions or navigating a world reshaping itself faster than ever, the book offers ten skills for living on the threshold as well as spiritual practices and inspiration for connecting with your own inner wisdom. From the first page, you’ll find a storytelling companion ready to journey with you through uncertainty and change. Hering does not pretend that change is simple. But she offers reassurance that it becomes easier to trust the more we participate in it. Sharing wisdom found in the body, in nature, and in metaphors, these reflections include creative and embodied exercises that invite readers into a larger story of change. With suggestions for using the book alone and with others, Hering reminds us that trusting change is made possible by sharing its challenges and its possibilities with others. This book is a conversation with the reader meant to also stir conversations between readers as we learn to live into and through our transformative times together.
About the Author:
Karen Hering is an ordained minister in St. Paul, Minnesota, and serves as a threshold guide to people and communities on the cusp of change. She is the author of Writing to Wake the Soul: Opening the Sacred Conversation Within, winner of a silver Nautilus award and named one of the best spiritual books of the year by Spirituality & Practice. Her writing has appeared in literary journals, periodicals, and anthologies. She leads retreats and programs in a literary ministry that engages writing as a spiritual practice and a healing tool for personal and social change.
Reviews:
“This book has come just in time, reminding us that our own capacity for transformation is as mighty as the roiling upheavals of these uncertain times. Trusting Change faces global loss and crisis without flinching, but also, with compassion, the twists and turns that come to all of us, both welcome or unbidden, the blessings and sorrows comprising every human life. Karen Hering is a wise and generous guide, providing writing prompts, meditations, queries and stories, inviting us to look within and also beyond, for courage, strength and trustworthy hope. This is a book to read quietly, by yourself, when change and loss come crashing down, and it is a book to read together, in circles of mutual support, building together the creative communities that keep us resilient and brave. In these pages we remember what changes we’ve already weathered. Trusting Changeinsists that our wisdom is old and deep, nimble, collective, and constantly evolving.”
–Victoria Safford, author of Walking Toward Morning and With or Without Candlelight
“Trusting Change spoke to me at a time when the world seems dark and uncertain and hope seems to evaporate without a trace. It opened the eyes of my heart to see what is deep inside the chrysalis: life wiggling and squirming in the mass of goo, which has rekindled my flickering hope. Our journey may encounter obstacles along the way, but we can trust that life finds a way when all roads seem closed. Let’s continue the journey of transformation with Trusting Change on your side!”
–Eleazar S. Fernandez, author of Burning Center, Porous Borders and President of the Union Theological Seminary, Philippines
During the month of September we are featuring historical articles about UUHoulton that were written during our Bicentennial year in 2011 by Dr. Bill White. These articles were researched and written by Bill and published in the Houlton Pioneer Times. Thank you, Bill!
A CHRONICLE BY BILL WHITE – George Edward Mac Ilwain, minister from 1899 to 1902
By Dr. Bill White
June, 2011
Rev. Mac Ilwain was born October 24th 1867 in Oxford, Oakland County, Michigan and an only child. His father was John Alexander Mac Ilwain and his mother was Elizabeth Redfield Mac Ilwain. Both of his parents were originally from New York. His father was a Methodist minister and his family moved ten times around Michigan while George Edward Mac Ilwain was growing up. His mother died when he was 21 and at the age of 23 he went East to attend Harvard Divinity School. After graduation his first ministry was in Toledo, Ohio. He moved on after about two years to serve as Universalist Minister in Newark, New Jersey. We have a sermon he gave while he was the minister in Newark, New Jersey. Next he was called to the pulpit in New Britain, Connecticut.
On September 26, 1898, Rev. Joseph A. Chase, then minister at the Houlton Unitarian Society resigned. The Houlton church search committee came up with two possible names to receive a call. First to receive the call was Rev. James Bagley of Wollaston, Massachusetts. Rev. Bagley declined the offer and the call was extended to Rev. George Edward Mac Ilwain, then minister in New Britain, Connecticut. Rev. Mac Ilwain became the minister of the Houlton Unitarian Society on March 1, 1899 at a salary of $1,000. He married Grace L. Bates on August 24th, 1896 and she accompanied him to Houlton. She was a native of Hingham (Plymouth County), Massachusetts.
Rev. George Edward Mac Ilwain was important in our church history because he represents the start of the “modern” period of our church. He became the minister of the Houlton Unitarian Society when the 1900’s were just beginning. For us this seems so long ago it is hard to imagine what life was like back then. For certain the invention of a clothes dryer was a few years in the future and you split your own wood for your stove. Just imagine that six rolls of bread cost 5 ¢, three pounds of oatmeal was 10 ¢, and six eggs were 13 ¢. The national newspapers were producing stories about Lizzie Borden and how her father and stepmother were found murdered in their home. Although Thomas A. Edison had finished his first motion picture studio in New Jersey, it would be some time before this form of entertainment would reach Houlton.
One can imagine that Rev. Mac Ilwain was a striking individual when he walked the streets in Houlton. He was six feet two inches tall, blue eyes, bright red hair, and what one would call a very self assured liberal-thinking Unitarian from Harvard. His personal appearance would no doubt be enough to attract attention of Houlton natives.
He was active in the life of the Houlton Unitarian Church and helped to establish a parish that was quite liberal in its thinking. He helped Dr. Harry L. Putnam, the clerk, research the possibility of changing the date of the founding of the Houlton Unitarian Church, from 1835 to 1811, in the Unitarian Year Book; he introduced changes in the Church By-Laws; he published his sermon on “The Year of Nineteen Hundred and One,” on January 6, 1901, in the Aroostook Pioneer {we have a copy of this}; and was the minister on May 17, 1902 when the Unitarian Church burned.
Later in 1902, after the church burned and the Houlton Unitarian Society was developing plans to build a new church {our current building} Rev. Mac Ilwain moved to Middleboro, Massachusetts where he served as their Unitarian Minister. In 1910 was still the minister at the First Unitarian Society, South Main Street, in Middleboro, Massachusetts. In 1909 he began to do part time work with the Babson Statistical Organization in Wellesley Hills, Massachusetts. He applied for a U.S. Passport in 1909 and apparently did statistical work in England and France. Shortly after 1910 his wife Grace died suddenly, she was about 40 years old.
George Edward Mac Ilwain gave up the ministry after 1913 and worked full time for the Babson Statistical Organization and the U. S. Department of Labor. In 1914 he married Helen. She was from Constantine, Michigan so I assume he was first acquainted with her while he was growing up in Michigan. One major job he accepted after World War I was to work as a statistician for the Commission of Industrial Reconstruction in Europe.
George Edward Mac Ilwain worked as a statistician for the rest of his life. He continued to live near the community where his first wife was born (Hingham, Massachusetts.) In 1924, a short time before he retired, he and his wife Helen took a six-month tour of England, Scotland, Wales, Ireland, and France.
In 1934, they moved to Santa Clara, California by ship {the SS President Taft} from New York City to Los Angeles, California. On May 1, 1943, George Edward Mac Ilwain died in Santa Clara, California at age 75 years, five months. His wife, Helen, died April 8, 1960 at age 86 in Santa Clara, California.
Two Practices to Start and End Your Day with Intention
Thupten Jinpa offers two daily practices to bring intention and meaning to your day.
In the Tibetan Buddhist tradition, we recognize compassion as both the highest spiritual ideal and the highest expression of our humanity. The Tibetan word for compassion, nyingje, which literally means the “king of heart,” captures the priority we accord compassion.
In Compassion Cultivation Training, an eight-week program which I developed, we begin every session with a practice called setting your intention. This is a contemplative exercise adapted from traditional Tibetan meditation, a kind of checking-in where we connect with our deeper aspirations so that they may inform our intentions and motivations.
In everyday English, we often use the two words intention and motivation interchangeably, as if they mean the same thing. But there’s an important difference: deliberateness.
Our motivation to do something is the reason or reasons behind that behavior, the source of our desire and the drive to do it. We may be more or less aware of our motivations.
Intention, on the other hand, is always deliberate, an articulation of a conscious goal. We set and reaffirm our best intentions to keep us inclining in the directions we truly mean to go. But, we need motivations to keep us going over the long haul. If our intention is to run a marathon, there will be times when we’ll ask ourselves, quite reasonably, “Why am I doing this?” We need good, inspired answers to get us over such humps. Conscious or unconscious, motivation is the “why,” and the spark, behind intention.
You could do this intention-setting exercise at home, first thing in the morning if that is convenient. You could also do it on a bus or a subway on your commute. If you work in an office, you could do it sitting at your desk before you get into the day. You only need two to five uninterrupted minutes. Our intention sets the “tone” of whatever we are about to do. Like music, intention can influence our mood, thoughts, and feelings—setting an intention in the morning we set the tone for the day.
Practice: Setting an Intention
First, find a comfortable sitting posture. If you can, sit on a cushion on the floor or on a chair with the soles of your feet touching the ground, which gives you a feeling of being grounded. If you prefer, you could also lie down on your back, ideally on a surface that is not too soft.
Once you have found your posture, relax your body as much as you can, if necessary with some stretches, especially your shoulders and your back.
Then, with your eyes closed if it helps you to focus, take three to five deep, diaphragmatic or abdominal breaths, each time drawing the inhalation down into the belly and filling up the torso with the in-breath from the bottom to the top, like filling a jar with water. Then with a long, slow exhalation, expel all the air from the torso, all the way. If it helps, you can exhale from your mouth.
Once you feel settled, contemplate the following questions: “What is it that I value deeply? What, in the depth of my heart, do I wish for myself, for my loved ones, and for the world?”
Stay on these questions a little and see if any answers come up. If no specific answers surface, don’t worry; simply stay with the open questions. This may take some getting used to, since in the West, when we ask questions we usually expect to answer them. Trust that the questions themselves are working even—or especially—when we don’t have ready answers. If and when answers do come up, acknowledge them as they arise and stay with whatever thoughts and feelings they may bring.
Finally, develop a specific set of thoughts as your conscious intention. You could think, “Today, may I be more mindful of my body, mind, and speech in my interaction with others. May I, as far as I can, avoid deliberately hurting others. May I relate to myself, to others, and to the events around me with kindness, understanding, and less judgment. May I use my day in a way that is in tune with my deeper values.”
In this way, set the tone for the day.
Once we become more familiar with intention setting, we can do this practice in a minute or less. That means we can find opportunities during the day to check in with our intentions. We can even skip the three-phased formal practice and do a quick reset by reading or chanting a few meaningful lines. You could use the four immeasurables prayer:
May all beings attain happiness and its causes.
May all beings be free from suffering and its causes.
May all beings never be separated from joy that is free of misery.
May all beings abide in equanimity, free from bias, attachment, and aversion.
Practice: Making a Dedication
The intention-setting practice is paired, in Tibetan tradition, with another contemplative exercise called dedication.
The role of this exercise is to complete the circle, as it were. At the end of a day, or a meditation, or any other effort we have made, we reconnect with the intentions we set at the beginning, reflecting on our experience in light of our intentions and rejoicing in what we have achieved. This is like taking stock at the end of the day. It gives us another opportunity to connect with our deeper aspirations.
At the end of day, for instance, before you go to bed or as you lie in bed before sleeping, reflect on your day. Briefly review the events of the day (including significant conversations, moods, and other mental activity) and touch back on the spirit of the morning intention setting. See how much alignment there is between the two. It’s important not to get caught up in the details of what you did and did not do. The idea is not to keep exhaustive scores, but to broadly survey to see the synergy between your intentions and your life that day.
Whatever thoughts and feelings this reviewing might bring, just stay with it. There’s no need to push them away if they have a negative quality, or grasp at them if they seem positive. Simply stay with whatever you experience for a while in silence.
Finally, think of something from the day that you feel good about—a helping hand you gave your neighbor, an empathetic ear you lent a colleague in distress, not losing your cool in the drugstore when someone cut in line. Then take joy in the thought of this deed. If nothing else, take joy in the fact that you began your day by setting a conscious intention.
Keep this exercise short; three to five minutes is a good length. If you normally do some reading before bed, you could set aside three to five minutes at the end for dedication time. If your habit is to watch TV, could you watch three to five minutes less? Or go somewhere quiet during commercials?
Taking joy in the day, even in the simple fact of the effort we have made, is important. It gives us something positive to carry into the next day, and helps us harness motivation in the service of our intentions. Joy plays a crucial role in our motivation, especially in sustaining motivation over a prolonged period of time.
Exercise: Focused Review
Sometimes it’s helpful to do a more focused review. This is especially true if we are struggling with a particular issue or are engaged in some endeavor, such as an eight-week compassion training course! Each week in Compassion Cultivation Training we work on certain qualities and attitudes we seek to foster. Say, one week it’s self-compassion. During this period, we set intentions around being kinder to ourselves. In turn, at the end of a day, our dedication might pay special attention to kindnesses we may have shown ourselves that day.
Now, when we undertake such a targeted assessment, most of us will find that we fall short. We will see the gaps between our intentions and our behavior, between our aspirations and our actual life.
When this happens, it’s important not to beat ourselves with negative judgment and self-criticism. We simply acknowledge the difference and resolve to try again the next day. This awareness itself will help us be more attentive the next day, opening opportunities to bring our everyday thoughts and actions into closer alignment with our goals.
Adapted from Thupten Jinpa’s book, A Fearless Heart: How the Courage to Be Compassionate Can Transform Our Lives, with permission from Hudson Street Press.
Thupten Jinpa is a former Tibetan monk who holds a B.A. in philosophy and a Ph.D. in religious studies, both from Cambridge University. Since 1985, he has been the principal English translator to H.H. the Dalai Lama and has translated and edited numerous books by the Dalai Lama, including the New York Times Bestsellers Ethics for the New Millennium and The Art of Happiness. Jinpa’s own publications include works in Tibetan, English translations as well as books, including A Fearless Heart: How the Courage to be Compassionate Can Transform Our Lives and Tsongkhapa: A Buddha in the Land of Snows. Jinpa is the general editor of The Library of Tibetan Classics series, the main author of CCT (Compassion Cultivation Training), an eight-week formal program developed at Stanford University, and the founder and president of the Compassion Institute. He is the Chair of Mind and Life Institute, founder of the Institute of Tibetan Classics, and an adjunct professor at the School of Religious Studies at McGill University. Jinpa lives in Montreal and is married with two daughters.Prayer List
For those working for social justice and societal change
Pray for peaceful action and democratic process in our nation
The war in Ukraine continues
Prayers for the worsening humanitarian crisis in Gaza
Prayers for those affected by recent governmental (and policy) changes in DC
Prayers for Peace in the Middle East
Prayers for those affected by Hurricane Erin on the American East Coast
Prayers for the lives lost and those affected by the school shooting in Minneapolis
Prayers for those affected by the earthquakes in Afghanistan.
Prayers for those affected by the school shooting in Colorado
Please pray for peace and civility as the nation responds to the assassination of Charlie Kirk
The Four Limitless Ones Prayer
May all sentient beings enjoy happiness and the root of happiness.
May we be free from suffering and the root of suffering.
May we not be separated from the great happiness devoid of suffering.
May we dwell in the great equanimity free from anger, aggression and delusion.
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