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Music Sundays

A large choir, dressed in black, sings from the front of the sanctuary, accompanied by a male pianist and directed by a gray-haired woman dressed.
Music Sunday, November 12, 2023

Twice each year, in November and March, our worship service is given over to music. Highlighting the incredible talents of our congregation’s singers, musicians, and dancers under the leadership of our Director of Music Ministry, Anne Watson Born, our music services invite contemplation, elevate the spirit, and celebrate the richness and diversity of our musical traditions.

Music Sundays for 2024-2025 are held on November 17, 2024 and March 16, 2024. Folk Music Sunday is held on April 27, 2024.

 

 

Music Sunday, November 17, 2024

A flyer with a stylized logo resembling an atomic diagram with a lit chalice labeled "Love" at the center, surrounded by the words, "generosity, transformation, equity, pluralism, interdependence, justice." The flyer reads, "Love at the Center - Music Sunday - November 17, 2024, 10:15am - A service of music and readings reflecting the core values of Unitarian Universalism, featuring the musicians of the First Unitarian Universalist Society in Newton. First Unitarian Universalist Society in Newton, 1326 Washington Street, West Newton, MA 02165, image by Tanya Webster"

Love at the Center is a service of music and readings reflecting the new core values of Unitarian Universalism, featuring FUUSN’s wonderful musicians and dancers. Music of Johannes Brahms, Bob MacWilliams, Carson Cooman, Bill Withers, and more.

Folk Music Sunday – April 28, 2024

A flyer with an image of a double bass, mandolin, banjo, and guitars, reads "Folk Music Sunday - Songs for the Earth, April 28, 2024, 10:15am"“Songs for the Earth,” FUUSN’s annual Folk Music Sunday, is on April 28. The service includes familiar music (“Mercy Mercy Me,” “River”) and newer songs that call us to action for climate change. Demie Stathoplos will speak on The Web of Life, of which we are all a part. There will be readings and, of course, lots of great music by the FUUSN Band and Folk Singers!

 

 

Music Sunday – March 17, 2024

A flyer with abstract pink, blue, and teal designs reads, "Finally on my way to YES - music about transformation and making change in the world - Music Sunday, March 17 2024, 10:15am - CreationDance, FUUSN Band, Lois Shapiro, Bob MacWilliams, FUUSN Choir - First Unitarian Universalist Society in Newton, 1326 Washington Street, West Newton, MA 02465

Finally On My Way to Yes

This service presents music about transformation and change, both personal, healing transformation and being a force for change in the world. There will be  a wide variety of songs, including The Times They Are A-Changin’, Hejira, Swing Down, Chariot, and a gorgeous setting of James Weldon Johnson’s Sonnet (My heart be brave). The FUUSN Choir will be joined by the Band, CreationDance, Bob MacWilliams, and Lois Shapiro. Directed by Anne Watson Born.

Date: March 17, 2024
Time: 10:15am
Place: First Unitarian Universalist Society in Newton, 1326 Washington Street, West Newton, MA 02465

View flyer

Join us on Zoom

 

Music Sunday – November 12, 2023 – 10:15am

A gorgeous stained glass windows with three large panes and three smaller ones.The First Unitarian Universalist Society in Newton will mark Veterans Day with a Music Sunday service on Sunday, November 12, at 10:15am. The service will feature works by Vaughan Williams, Crosby Stills & Nash, Debussy, and more. Pianist Lois Shapiro and guitarist Bob MacWilliams will play, and the choir will sing excerpts from Vaughan Williams’ Dona Nobis Pacem. This timely anti-war piece was composed in 1936 on texts by Walt Whitman, closing with the iconic text from Isaiah, “Nation shall not lift up a sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.”

Date: November 12, 2023
Time: 10:15am
Place: First Unitarian Universalist Society in Newton, 1326 Washington Street, West Newton, MA 02465

Free and open to the public. Invite your friends! Download our flyer. View the Order of Service.

  • A man with gray hair and glasses wearing a gray sweater stands at a podium at the front of the Sanctuary, with choir members seated behind him.
  • A bald man with glasses, dressed in a black long-sleeved shirt and black pants, sits and plays a grand piano in the Sanctuary, with a gray-haired woman standing nearby and many congregants seated in pews.
  • A gray-haired woman with glasses, dressed in a black suit and black shirt, stands in the pulpit. A guitar rests against its base.
  • A man with white hair and beard wearing glasses, a plaid shirt, and blue jeans, lights the chalice as a woman with long, white hair wearing glasses and a red sweater reads from a sheet of paper.
  • A man with gray hair wearing glasses, a black long-sleeved shirt, and black pants, sits in a chair beside a grand piano and plays the guitar.
  • A man with gray hair and a white beard wearing glasses and a long-sleeved black shirt stands in the pulpit, with the pipe organ in the background.
  • A woman with short brown hair wearing glasses, a long-sleeved pink shirt, and black pants sits and plays a grand piano while congregants in the pews listen.
  • A gray-haired woman wearing glasses and a black long-sleeved shirt and a brown-haired woman dressed in black at a podium on the opposite side of the Sanctuary read together, with a choir seated behind them.
  • A group of about ten adults wearing black stand in the choir seating in the Sanctuary and sing from hymnals.
  • A group of eleven men dressed in back and holding binders stand at the front of the Sanctuary beside a grand piano
  • A man with white hair and beard wearing glasses and a black long-sleeved shirt stands in the pulpit of the Sanctuary.
  • A woman with short brown hair wearing a long-sleeved pink shirt and black pants sits and plays a grand piano at the front of the Sanctuary
  • A large choir stands at the front of the Sanctuary and sings, accompanied by a male pianist and directed by a gray-haired woman dressed in black.
  • A large choir stands at the front of the sanctuary, directed by a gray-haired woman dressed in black.
  • A large choir sings at the front of the Sanctuary, accompanied by a male pianist at a grand piano.
  • Music Director Anne Watson Born, a gray-haired woman with glasses wearing a black shirt and black suit, stands holding a hymnal with a congregant in the first pew of a church filled with singing congregants, including a balcony above the main sanctuary.
  • A bald man with glasses dressed in a black long-sleeved shirt and black pants sits at the complex keyboard of a pipe organ, with seated choir members in the background.