Pride is a Holy Day at First Parish in Malden. This year we’ll explore hidden history: how Queer people have always been a part of myths and how their stories often still aren’t told.

In 1949 Joseph Campbell identified what he called a “universal story structure” of the hero’s journey that involves a hero going on an adventure, facing a crisis, and coming home changed. We’ll explore this idea, how it’s infiltrated our ideas of who we are as individuals and in community, and how we can explore its ideas in our lives.

UU poet and abolitionist Julia Ward Howe held the first mother’s day as an anti-war protest as a reaction to the American Civil War and the Franco-Prussian war. She believed that women held a responsibility to help shape the world we live in. In this moment when we are in the midst of a war, how can this message give us a renewed understanding of the holiday?

As we explore the hero’s journey this month and finish our pledge drive we turn to the future. Who are we called to be in this moment? What possibilities lie ahead? Where are we going?

The extraordinary in the ordinary. The thing that makes things more themselves. We’ll explore the spirituality of salt and how it connects us to the earth and the sacred.

There’s wisdom deep underground in the life of worms. Charles Darwin spent decades studying them. They are doing this important work underground and unseen, making something compost out of what we think of as death. What can we learn from the secret lives of earthworms that will help us in above ground world?

Drag Easter: An annual First Parish tradition! As our country attacks the rights of transgender and non-binary people, we celebrate the joy and love that they bring to our lives. We look to the story of Easter as one of hope and resurrection for all people in our midst. 

Join us for our Annual Malden Reads service where we will be discussing the themes from the book “Our Missing Hearts” by Celeste Ng. This book explores, through a dystopian fiction lens, authoritarianism’s impact on families, the dangerous of xenophobia, and the power of resistance. You do not have to have read the book to enjoy the service, but the service will be followed by a discussion of the book.

Join First Parish member Suad Mammadkhanli and Rev. Otto for a service on the holiday of Nowruz, also known as the Iranian or Persian New Year and as a celebration of the spring equinox. Suad shares her experiences and celebration of this holiday from her native Azerbaijan, where traditions of pakhlava-baking, wheat-sprouting and festive jumping over the fire brought families and friends together in anticipation of Spring.

Alice Walker says “resistance is the secret of joy” but the inverse is also true. Joy is the secret of resistance. In these tough times we often focus on resistance and forget to be joyful together. But Joy is essential! Our joy is what scares them, our joy is what we are fighting for. Join us to hear about some of UUSC’s joyful resistance and to learn about how you too can lean into joy in these troubling times.