Our worship leaders for this Sunday are two ministers, each with her own long and respected career, who recently worked together to better understand all the ways in which the COVID-19 pandemic was challenging for religious communities throughout the country. They will preach about the pandemic wilderness and what we all learned, as well as how all wilderness experiences shape us and change us. 

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Rev. O’Connor was ordained in the United Church of Christ has served in 5 churches in Massachusetts as an interim pastor. A former psychotherapist, Peggy is also a spiritual director who was on the staff of St. Anthony’s Shrine in Boston. Rev. Cartmell is a UCC pastor who has served in 4 churches in Massachusetts and one in Wisconsin. 

Together they spent two years interviewing clergy from Cape Cod to Alaska, from Florida to California, to gather their stories of the pandemic and what they faced and learned. The experiences that were shared with them are collected in the book they co-authored, The Perpetual Pivot: Ministry in the Pandemic and Beyond, which was published in December.  

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If joining by Zoom, please use the regular First Parish Zoom account: https://zoom.us/my/firstparishdot If you attend in person, you are most welcome to join us for fellowship in the Parish Hall afterwards!

We always have nursery care starting at 10:30. Our children start in the sanctuary with their families, then go with their teachers to Sunday School after the Time for All Ages, unless it is an intergenerational service. Recordings of Sunday services can be found later at https://www.firstparishdorchester.org/worship/past-worship-services/