Hey there;

I am picking the blog back up, hoping to post regularly. We are currently searching for an Acting Music Director and so music is on my mind even more than usual which is really saying something. Anyway, I wanted to pass on a few of the musical highlights from last year. We produced an amazing concert to benefit Area Interfaith Outreach. We raised over $10, 000 and had a really wonderful evening. Church folks stepped up all over the place and, even though it was a community chorus; the evening had UUR fingerprints all over it. Mimi Bornstein, who was our music director at the time, did a great job spearheading the effort and acting as artistic director of the show. It was a great night in which everyone won.

I was blessed with the opportunity to give an invocation during the show. It was a chance to name our intention, to raise awareness and to open people up to the experience they would soon be immersed in.

Here is a copy of those words.

This is a perfect moment. This is a perfect moment because we are waking up, realizing that we are the ones we’ve been waiting for and that we can change the world with our own two hands.

Welcome everybody and thank you for joining us tonight. We are so happy to see all of you here. My name is Mark Glovin and I am the minister of the The First Universalist Church in Rockland. One of the privileges of my work is to be the public face for a dynamic community full of amazing people doing really good work in the world. This concert is one such occasion. This show is the result of many people putting a lot of skill and heart and soul to good use.

We have been focusing on becoming the change we want to see in the world. And that means putting our faith into action. It means working for change by first being open to change in ourselves. I often say I want church to be an excuse to do the things that you love. We are all here because people who are passionate about making music are using that love to do some good work in the world. We are here because this group of people can’t accept that in the year 2007 in the United States of America there are still people who are hungry or who have food insecurity. We are here because hunger is a growing problem in the mid-coast. People gathered in this room aren’t sure where their next meal is coming from and the latest surveys tell us that 6 people in the chorus and people in your row are hungry tonight.

This benefit is the result of hearing and answering a call. And through singing and weaving community the chorus and musicians have changed if only a little bit. You gathered here are also creating some small change just by being here with us tonight.

May this sharing raise awareness, may this benefit change the world a little bit for those who need the good service provided at Area Interfaith Outreach.

And May this benefit inspire you to do the things that you love
May it inspire you to use your passion to make some small difference in the world.
We can change the world with our own two hands.

Concert for Kissehman - Rockland, Maine

I just found this video from the benefit concert we did back in March. This is video of the group Djump led by church member Jeff Wolovitz. This was my favorite night of the whole church year. It was a groovy show as we stacked all the chairs from the back of the sanctuary to create a makeshift dancefloor. There were a lot of families from church who came out for the night. You can see some of our young ones dancing in the video. It was a wonderful spontaneous free night. We raised some money to help out this orginization and we had a lot of fun. I loved the looseness and the fun family-friendly atmosphere and the great music; this evening was exactly what I have always wanted to be part of in a church