May 1

Choir Sunday: Jazz Mass
The First Unitarian Choir
Mr. Michael Thorn, Director of Music

Sermon: Unexpected Wisdom
Rev. Dr. Lee Barker,
President, Meadville Lombard Theological School

Michael Thorn, who began his tenure as Director of Music at First Church last September, studied piano with Hyde Parker Gavin Williamson and organ with Edward Mondello. He received a Masters in Music Theory and Composition from Roosevelt University. Michael is a prolific composer, writing music for organ, piano, chorus, voice and chamber groups. He and his wife, Eva, lived for several years in Sweden, where he was music director at Arentuna Kyrka, a parish of 7,000 members. One of his many compositions while living in Sweden was an early version of this "Jazz Mass."

Rev. Barker writes, "As the strains of a jazz mass remind us, life can dip and rise unexpectedly. And in those variations there can be born new understandings about the meaning of our days.”

Children in the Village

Kathleen Green
Seminarian, Meadville Lombard Theological School

Kathleen Green is pursuing a Master of Divinity degree at Meadville Lombard and has recently accepted an internship at the Unitarian Church of Evanston. Ms. Green and her husband Mitchell and son Adam moved to Chicago from Connecticut just one year ago. The Greens feel at home at First Unitarian Church and are involved in a number of activities in the life of the church. Kathleen also enjoys music, theater, knitting, and looks forward to working as a parish minister in the future.

May 15

What Did You Learn in Sunday School?

Rev. Millie Rochester,
Interim Minister for Religious Education

As we near the end of the church and academic year, children, youth and adults share with the congregation some of their experiences. Prepare to be impressed!

... I'll Meet You There

Rev. Rosemary Bray McNatt,
Minister, Fourth Universalist Society of New York City

The mystic poet Rumi invites readers to a place "out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing," a place where "the world is too full to talk about." In a world full of labels, judgments, and chatter about moral values, what invitation might religious liberals offer a needy world?

A former editor of The New York Times Book Review, Rosemary Bray McNatt is a widely anthologized writer whose work has appeared in such magazines and newspapers as The New York Times, Ms., Glamour, Essence, and Redbook. She is the author of several books, including Martin Luther King, a children's biography; the memoir Unafraid of the Dark, and the forthcoming Beloved One: Prayers for Black Children. She is a contributing editor to UU World, the magazine of the UUA.

Dancing to Our Hearts' True Song

Naomi King

When our hearts have been broken and our spirits denied, what do we Unitarian Universalists turn to for restoration of our being and learn to trust love again?

Naomi King is a graduating senior of Meadville Lombard Theological School, and has been called to minister the Utica Unitarian Universalist Church in Utica, New York.

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