Relief Efforts at First Parish

Gulf Coast Relief

As of Oct 5, First Parish has collected $22,673, including parishioner donations, fundraisers, and a generous $10,000 matching contribution, which has been sent to the UUA/UUSC "Gulf Relief Fund ".

If you would like to donate, checks may be made out to First Parish with “Gulf Coast Relief Fund” on the memo line.  Bring or send your check to the church office (75 The Great Road, Bedford, MA 01730).  All donations that have already been received will be credited toward the match.  If you contributed on-line through the UUA website or mailed a contribution directly to the UUA, these may also be applied toward the match if you let us know the amount.

There are descriptions and updates about the Fund and this crisis on both the UUA and UUSC websites:  http://www.uua.org/ and http://www.uusc.org/.

Everything about this Gulf Coast crisis feels like a challenge: a challenge to “bind up the broken,” but also a challenge to address some of the underlying, ugly and unresolved issues of race, class and infrastructure.  These generous parishioners are also challenging us to make more than a symbolic difference.

I know that we’ll respond with compassion and liberality.

Rev John Gibbon

UU Transylvania Flood Relief

 Tuesday night August 23, the area of the Nyiko Valley of Transylvania was hit with an 8-foot wall of water in a flash flood that swept through the Unitarian villages of Simenfalva, Kobatfalva and Kadacs (located today in Romania . Rev. Lajos Lorinczi reports that every household in Simenfalva, a village of 1000, was impacted. Two women died in Simenfalva and three more in Kadacs as the waters rushed through taking livestock, crops, food and wood stockpiles, utensils, furniture, and in some cases entire houses and barns.

Flood damage in Transylvania

The UUA and the UU Partner Church Council are asking for your help because no one else is going to help our Transylvanian Unitarian community to start their lives anew, to create new hope in a time of despair. The Unitarians are an ethnic minority in their own land. The government will not help them to rebuild their lives. They need us now, and we can do this.

How to Donate
First Parish  has now raised $3795 to assist flood relief efforts.  If you would like to donate you can make a check payable to First Parish with " Transylvania Flood Relief Fund" on the memo line.  Bring or send your check to the church office.  Members of the Social Responsibility Council will be available at Coffee hour the next few weeks to collect donations

 Further Information is available at the UUA website:
.uua.org/ransylvania

South East Asia Earthquake

The UUA and UUSC have announced a joint relief effort to act the victims of the
disastrous earthquake which struck Himalayan regions of Pakistan and India.

For further information about the UUA/UUSC relief effort link to:
http://www.uusc.org/earthquake/report.html

If you would like to donate, checks may be made out to First Parish with
“Southeast Asia Earthquake Relief  Fund” on the memo line. 
Bring or send your check to the church office (75 The Great Road, Bedford, MA 01730).