Lasagnapalooza

Friday Night, November 5
6:00 -- until we run out of lasagna or diners

$8/adult $6/senior $4/child

$22 family maximum

It is that time of year -- the Male Bonding Band is hosting an evening of fun and food. After work and school, don't worry about dinner: just come to First Parish for a nice meal with fellow parishioners and friends of the church. The Male Bonding Band is cooking a variety of meatful and meatless lasagnas, including at least one gluten-free lasagna. In other words, there will be something for everyone -- along with salad, garlic bread, and a bit of ice cream. 


Warning: Corny sing-alongs of Italian songs could ensue! 

MainSpring Lunches -- Monday morning

Every month for as long as we can remember, members of First Parish have helped to support the work of MainSpring House in Brockton by packing lunches. On the first Tuesday of every month, the 100 lunches prepared at First Parish are used by shelter occupants who go out on work projects that are a core part of the program by which MainSpring (and now Father Bill's) helps to connect people to permanent housing. In order to get the lunches there on time, we meet at 9:00 a.m. on the Monday before that first Tuesday (a bit like the way election dates are set, but backwards).

This month, we will gather in the church kitchen at 9:00 a.m. on Monday, November 1. As Betty always says, "Many hands make light work."

Nicaragua Film -- Ben Linder

Thursday, November 4
7:00 PM
Library Lecture Hall, Bridgewater State University

Geographer and First Parish member James Hayes-Bohanan will be showing the film American/Sandinista as part of a program on U.S. volunteers who worked in Nicaragua in the years following the Sandinista Revolution. The focus will be on Benjamin Linder, an engineer whose assassination by the contras helped to bring about an end to U.S. funding for that insurgency.
The university recently decided not to name a new cafe in Linder's honor; discussion following this film will include other possibilities for honoring the Linder legacy.
Fair-trade coffee and refreshments will be served.

Kiado Cruz & Sustainable Farming in Mexico

Sustainable Agriculture and Social Justice: Cultivating Peace, One Garden at a Time


Thursday, October 21  7:00 PM
Moakley Center Auditorium
Señor Cruz will speak on sustainable agriculture as well as the community organizing that has been instrumental in the current autonomous movements in Oaxaca and Chiapas, southern Mexico. He will also address questions about the effects of U.S. trade policies and increasing privatization that have been damaging to Mexico, and about related migration issues.

With this presentation, Witness for Peace New England and the partners at Bridgewater State aim to enrich the cross-borders dialogue between those who are creating and supporting local food systems and local economies; engaging in education reform; advocating for immigration reform; and/or promoting fair and just international trade, both in Latin America and in the U.S.

Co-Sponsored by: The Anthropology Department, The Sociology Department, The Latin American and Caribbean Studies Program, and The Center for Sustainability

Raina Terry Story

Photo: Emily J. Reynolds

The Brockton Enterprise reporter Maria Papadopoulos recently wrote about Raina Terry's October 10 presentation during our morning worship service. The service -- entitled "Raina's Dream" -- was dedicated to promoting racial equality, acceptance, and justice. Raina is a Bridgewater teen who spoke of the isolation and taunting she experienced as the only African American student in her middle-school class in Bridgewater. Her hope is to promote a better future for other children growing up in this community, and vision shared by First Parish and its First Principle Project.

Rebecca Hyman of the Bridgewater Independent also covered this story, in an article entitled Raina's Dream, and had written about Raina's case in a 2009 article entitled Through Raina's Eyes.

Note: Because the Enterprise permits anonymous comments on its online news stories, the reader comments below this story include affirmations and reasonable questions, but also some offensive remarks.

Guatemala atrocity

The Joys and Concerns portion of our service this morning included mention of atrocities committed by the United States in Guatemala. I had already begun to write something about this on my Environmental Geography blog, since that blog also covers the geography of Latin America. The reference was to unethical medical experiments conducted by the U.S. National Institutes of Health in Guatemala the 1940s. My article is entitled Beyond Tuskegee, because of the connections to that better-known atrocity closer to home.