Christmas Eve Candlelight Service, by Rev. Marta Morris Flanagan, Lead Minister, worship service December 24, 2024

Rev. Marta Morris Flanagan, Lead Minister, preaching

Worship service given December 24, 2024 Prayer by Rev. Erica Federspiel Richmond, Parish Minister Reading of "The Christmas Story" by Robin Richstone by Rev. Stevie Carmody, Minister of Religious Education https://firstparish.info/

First Parish A liberal religious community, welcoming to all First gathered 1739

Join us for our annual Christmas Eve candlelight worship service. 

Offering and Giving First

The full amount of the gifts received during the live worship service supported the work of Renewal House, a domestic violence shelter for individuals in crisis and their children. Since 1980 Renewal House has provided temporary emergency shelter and advocacy services as part of the Unitarian Universalist Urban Ministry.

About our Lead Minister: Rev. Marta Flanagan began her ministry as our twentieth called minister at First Parish in the fall of 2009. She is a genuine and forthright preacher. In conversation she is direct and engaging. She speaks of prayer with as much ease as she laughs at human foibles. We call her “Marta.” Marta is a religious liberal, a theist, a feminist, and a lover of the woods. As a student of American history at Smith College she was captivated by the stories of social reformers who were motivated and sustained by their faith. That led her to consider the ministry and to study at Harvard Divinity School from where she was graduated in 1986. She was the first woman minister in the city of Salem, Massachusetts, serving at the First Universalist Church there (1987-1997). She served in a co-ministry at South Church (Unitarian Universalist) in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, (1997-2005) from where she is minister emerita. Marta served as interim minister in Montpelier, Vermont (2008-2009). She is trained as a spiritual director. For three years she lived in the Vermont woods practicing voluntary simplicity and the spiritual life. Marta enjoys the vitality of First Parish and our strong sense of community. She celebrates the yearning for depth and the desire to make a difference in the world that she finds here.