South Wall of the UUHoulton Church in early snow (photo by Dave) 2021
In most cases, the front of a building is the side most frequently photographed; the architect has that in mind with his design and the highest visibility and traffic flow is typically on the front. That is certainly true of our building on 61 Military Street facing north. And while the front view, is indeed remarkable, as one is driving or walking by, the back view of the building is equally notable. Interestingly enough, it wasn’t until the two and a half story structure next door to the church on Kelleran Street was removed (and converted into our present parking lot) could it be easily seen in its full breadth. Since our building predates the automobile era, there were no considerations at the time for a parking lot. Most people who attended the Unitarian Church lived in town, walked to the service or brought their horse and carriage. The driveway around the church was a shared easement with the house next door on Military Street and a pass through to Kelleran with limited parking (if any) along the side. The acquisition of a parking was a big deal. It also exposed an expanded view of the south wall;
a massive wall of cedar shingles, trim, and interesting angles which feature the Gothic tracery window, slender spire and brickwork. In this photo, there is just enough snow to highlight the roof and expose the cap-line against the slate gray December sky. Just this year we replaced the wooden sill under the stain glass window and repainted the trim on the entire building. There are discussions in place about replacing the original shingles on the south wall (which are exposed to the harsh sunlight) sometime in the near future. With a building over a hundred and twenty years old there are always building projects…
This Sunday is the first Sunday of Advent and the parlor is starting to get dressed for the holiday season. We already have the Advent Wreath and the tree should be up (and ready to decorate) by the second Sunday of Advent. Bill White delivers the message this week on the Book of Revelations and the Seven Churches. It is titled, “The Apocalypse.” The minister assists with service and Dale Holden is our musician which includes a familiar selection from Handel’s Hallelujah Chorus. Our YouTube Channel content for this week is a group-led service by our UUHoulton Church Board on Covenant and Remembering our Stories. There is plenty of congregational singing and the Unitunes share a music special. It’s also the Pledge Drive Kick-Off for 2026. Lots of good content in this service.
We hope you can join us for one of the services online or in-person.
Enjoy the Thanksgiving weekend!
In Ministry,
Dave
Interesting Coincidence;
A couple of weeks ago I mentioned some memorable sermon topics that UUHoulton service leadershave shared through the years. One that I thought of, but didn’t mention, was “Leaf Mold” written bya former UUHoulton minister, Rev. Ken Sawyer, who served the church from 1970-74, and delivered by Michael Fasulo, a long-time member of our group. Michael actually delivered this message several times, typically in the Fall season, as it was such a popular sermon. So I contacted Michael to see if he happened to have a copy in his files that I could share in the Support Page. As it turns out, he did not, not that he didn’t try. In the meantime, I located a book of Ken Sawyer sermons that I remembered was in my attic, and sure enough,
“leaf Mold” was in it!
Then, in last week’s service, one of the speakers mentioned “Leaf Mold” as an interesting sermonthey remembered from years past. What are the odds?! So with that, I have included a short excerptfrom the aforementioned sermon.
“Leaf Mold”
Rev. Ken Sawyer
former UUHoulton Minister 1970-74
I find that there are terms in our theological handbag I still cannot do without; “sacred” is one of them. The moments I’m talking about are sacred, times when we are in the presence of that which commands our reverence or awe (those are all terms I mean to keep), when something breaks through the gloom. the haze, the fog through which we move day by day, reaches through our routines and defenses, grabs us by our scrawny necks and yells, “Hey! I matter more than that TV show, than that worry you’re stewing about. It may even be that I am what life is all about, that in me you may find some hint as to what the whole thing adds up to.”
Sacred. Wonder-full. Leaf mold. I love leaf mold. Come autumn (if you haven’t noticed), the leaves turn color, fall off and land on the ground. If they have the misfortune to fall on a part of the earth immediately surrounding the home of an American middle class family, they have intruded upon something called “lawn” and stand a fair chance of being put in plastic bags and buried in some public facility with Clorox containers and dog food cans. But most will land within the woods, or be put there by those other middle class Americans, equally defendant of those places called their lawns, who have woods convenient to dump their leaves in and thereby save the cost of plastic gabs and the trip to the public facility. If the leaves do end up in the public facility, the story ends there, in that plastic bag, if properly sealed and not damaged in transit or burial, will provide (one is told) a virtually timeless vault insuring that the leaves never do anything good for anyone ever again.
If they end up on the forest floor, however, they rot. This also happens in compost heaps. They return to that whence they came, in a way more literal than is true of humans in recent centuries. We return people to the earth, but not, insofar as can be eternally prevented, to earth itself. The leaves less begrudgingly, more gracefully restore the elements that fed the tree they shortly before adorned. To dirt they soon return. If you have somehow never dug down through the layered leaves to view their return to earth, deep, rich earth, that is your assignment before lunch: to seek out a nice, deep blanket of oak or maple or beech leaves made dirt; and then a forest floor deep with pine needles, and plunge your hand down into it. It’s good for the soul.
It’s good for my soul, anyway. along with the ocean and the woods themselves and some other things I listed earlier, leaf mold has the power to provoke in me a response that maybe deserves to be called worship. Maybe that’s what worship is, in some part: being brought into contact with those things that speak most deeply to one’s heart, that touch on matters of ultimate faith. And surely leaf mold may do nothing for you but get your hands dirty; then find the thing, the place, the activity that does it best for you. Church services, incidentally, one likes to hope, at least occasionally function as worship in that sense, calling forth in us a depth of appreciation for the wonders of life and a renewed aspiration to personal lives more aligned with the holy things of life – more loving, more supportive, less distracted, more firmly grounded, more in touch with that which is not mere fashion or fancy but which persists from generation to generation, upon which one’s hope and faith may be grounded…
Culture is like leaf mold, the rich soil available to our roots as they stretch down into our past to find beauty and inspiration to enlighten and beautify and sustain us in our days, laid down for us as a gift by those who h ave died, just as we shall leave behind us the works that later souls shall probe in search of insight and inspiration and wisdom. Turning it around slightly, our own live may be seen reflected in the process the trees go through in feeding on themselves – in effect, in drawing strength and vitality from the processed product of previous years. We, too, feed on our own pasts: our roots take nourishment, our lives seek for strength and vitality, in the soil of a past enriched by the experiences for seasons gone by – or not enriched but impoverished bye the paucity of our effort so far, or by our failure to process those layers of past mistakes and successes into the well rotted, well digested humus called wisdom that comes of time and reflection. We are not born new every morning, any more than society must begin from scratch each day. Our life as a people is rooted in a cultural heritage, and our own lives are rooted in the wealth of our past experience, the leaves produced in seasons past on our out-stretching limbs, just as today from us comes the crop that in future years our root shall probe in search of sources for strength and vitality.
And the reason, I contend in conclusion, that leaf mold works so conveniently as a metaphor for a variety of disparate points is because it does embody a reality that is central to the structure of the world, a truth about continuity that to me has sacred import, has religious dimension that informs my understanding of life and death, of the purpose of life, of the nature of reality. Life dies in order that life may live. The present feeds upon the past. To quote poet Robert Frost, “However it is in some other world, I know that this is the way in ours.”
First delivered on November 14, 1976 at First Parish in Wayland, Massachusetts.
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: Nov 30, 2025 11:00 AM Eastern Time (US and Canada) Join Zoom Meetinghttps://us06web.zoom.us/j/88367146935?pwd=FMLh0d3YQFsbryp23umdSJnll3anKV.1
Meeting ID: 883 6714 6935Passcode: 499589
Calendar of Events @UUHoulton
Nov 30 Sunday Service: Bill White
Dec 3 Climate Group Meeting in the cafe 6PM
Dec 7 Sunday Service: David Hutchinson
Dec 7 Monthly Trivia Event at The Cup 12:30-2-30PM
Dec 9 Meditation Group 5PM (online)
Dec 13 LGBTQ+ Luncheon 12 Noon
Dec 13 Houlton Coffeehouse 7-9PM
Dec 14 Sunday Service: Dale Holden
Dec 21 Sunday Service: David Hutchinson
Dec 21 Winter Solstice Celebration (time to be announced)
Dec 24 Candlelight Christmas Eve Service 4PM (followed by a potluck in the fellowship hall)
Dec 25 Merry Christmas!!
Dec 28 Sunday Service: Kathryn Harnish
Another picture of Christoph at the UU Craft Sale
Group selfie in the coffee room before the service last week.(My arm isn’t long enough!)
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 the peace process in the Middle East
Prayers for those affected by Hurricane Melissa in the Caribbean
Prayers for those still affected by the interruption of SNAP benefits and heating assistance
(the government shutdown is now over, but it may take time for benefits to resume)
Prayers for those affected by the extreme weather conditions and drought in Iran
Prayers for those affected by the extreme weather conditions and flooding in California
Prayers for those affected by the National Guard shooting in DC during Thanksgiving
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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