The Compass, June 4, 2025
- Jun 4
- 5 min read
Updated: Jun 5
Did you miss Sunday service? Watch it here!
June 1, 2025 service with Matt Meyer and his sermon titled "Holy Curiosity."
Upcoming Services
I've Got a Song! A Living History & Stories from the McCarthy Era, with a Q&A following the Service.
“They believed in a better life for the working class. They were among the first Americans to perceive the fascist threat of Hitler’s Germany. But as anti communist hysteria swept the country following World War II, people in the communist movement found themselves either denying their principles or defending them before various state and federal committees. They lost friends, jobs, and sometimes even their freedom.” (from the Boston Globe,
“Communism in the US: They Remember..” by Mary Thornton, Globe Staff, April 30, 1977)
June Soul Matters Packet - Living Love Through The Practice of Freedom
Soul Matters Themed Videos
Soul Matters Themed Music Playlist
Our Sunday school is a collaborative effort.
Everyone works together to share their skills, time, and energy to enrich our programs. We use the “Spirit Play” curriculum to share goals and objectives for the younger children. Children spend the first fifteen minutes in the sanctuary, and then we head upstairs to the classroom space. You are welcome to accompany your child.
The RE (Religious Education) Team meets monthly to determine the programs, policies, and events for the children, youth, and adults. Parents are encouraged to join the RE Team.
Don't hesitate to contact the Director of Religious Education, Yasmin Flefleh-Vincent, for further information, questions, or comments about our Sunday School.
Please share these events with your family and friends and attend yourself. We would love to see you!
FREE Events Happening at UUNB
Being Human takes place every Friday at 11 AM. Please use the parking lot door.
Join us for PRIDE at Buttonwood Park on Saturday, June 7, from 12 to 5 PM with friends from UU Fairhaven. There will be food, entertainment, vendors, and more!
Save the Date!
The 41st Annual Jazz Concert is brought to you with grants from the New Bedford, Acushnet, and Mattapoisett Local Cultural Councils, which are supported by the Mass Cultural Council, a state agency.
Vendors will be in the churchyard from 10 AM to 2 PM (Confirmed vendors below)
Sarah Mulvey: NB Poet Lauriat with custom poems
NB Pottery: Handmade pottery by Stephanie Sherman
Pat Duarte
Jennifer Fields
If you would like to be a vendor at this event, please email admin@uunewbedford to express your interest. Spots are $35 and are first-come-first-served.
Ticketed Events
A special performance from Whatever Mike, June 6, 2025. Tickets are $25
whatever mike crafts lush, genre-defying soundscapes that exist at the intersection of queer spirituality, emotional depth, and vocal mastery. Their music is a meditation on healing, devotion, and self-discovery--an invitation to sit with life's paradoxes and embrace both light and shadow, movement and stillness.
With soulful vocals and hypnotic production, whatever mike holds space for nuance and complexity, refusing to seek easy answers. Their songwriting is deeply felt, cutting to the core with lyrics like, "I pray for the victims and pray for the shooter," a reflection of their willingness to hold compassion and contradiction at once.
Sonically, their work lives somewhere between James Blake's emotional depth, Bon Iver's layered intimacy, and Frank Ocean's fluid, genre-defying warmth. whatever mike's music isn't just meant to be heard--it's meant to be felt.
In collaboration with Infinity Productions, we are excited to welcome Roy Book Biner to UUNB on Sunday, June 22, at 5 PM. Tickets are $20 in advance or $25 at the door.
Roy has the goods—the original, the bare-knuckle, the low-down blues.
Who else can say they were friends with Rev. Gary Davis, Pink Anderson, and Robert Lockwood Jr.? Who toured with Arthur “Big Boy” Crudup, Hot Tuna, J.J. Cale, and Bonnie Raitt? Roy can.
He’s got the stories, the licks, and the mystery of timeless music in his fingers.
Roy has been featured on a PBS special and interviewed by Terry Gross on Fresh Air. He’s also a regular instructor at the famed Fur Peace Ranch, teaching alongside Jorma Kaukonen.
When Roy rolls into town with his “Tour Bus,” it’s a one-man blues festival. He plays, he entertains, he shares—feeding us music and stories in equal measure. Every performance becomes a celebration.
We’re privileged to have Roy with us, preserving—and expanding—the great tradition of American blues.
—James Hipp
Doors open at 4:30 PM for a 5:00 PM start. Please use the Union Street entrance unless you need elevator access, then please use the parking lot door.
Tickets to all of our shows can be purchased in the office with cash or check during regular business hours, Monday through Friday, 10 AM to 1 PM, or online with a credit card.
The calendar on our website shows everything happening at UUNB. Updates are displayed immediately, so you will always know what is planned
Let your spirit soar! The Z, New Bedford Historical Society, and New Bedford Symphony Orchestra are teaming up again to present Lift Us Up: A Juneteenth Celebration.
Join us for an afternoon of poetic prose and symphonic sounds at Abolition Row Park featuring Maia Jaye Livramento, Hendrick Hernandez - Resto, Iva Brito, Sidy Maiga, and Gabriel Johnson!
Saturday, June 14 from 1-2:30PM at Abolition Row Park. This event is FREE and open to all. Save your spot at zeiterion.org/events/lift-us-up-2025
Our Mission is to encourage diversity and mutual acceptance and work for positive change in ourselves and our community.
"We envision a congregation in which we practice the principles of our faith. We seek to enjoy peaceful reflection and inspiration in intellectually and spiritually satisfying church services. We aim to embrace the people and efforts of our church community by supporting our children and their programs, our committees and their goals, our staff and their efforts on our behalf, and each other."
Our Promises
Each person is important.
Be kind in all you do.
We help each other learn.
We search for what is true.
Each person has a say.
Work for a peaceful world.
The web of life’s the way.
Build the beloved community, free from racism and oppression.
First Unitarian Church in New Bedford
71 8th Street, New Bedford, MA 02740
(508) 994-9686
Administrator ext. 10
Minister ext. 13
Karen cell: (508) 441-9344
Thrift Shop ext. 12
Board Members & Officers
Steve Carmel, President
Charles Morgan, Vice President
Deborah Carmel, Treasurer
Cora Peirce, Clerk
Trustees
Camilla Brooks
Elise Rapoza
Mary Rapoza
Niko Tarini
Jack Vitale
Committee Chairs
Staff
Minister: Rev. Karen LeBlanc
RE Director: Yasmin Flefleh-Vincent
Music Director: Randy Fayan
Administrator: Jessica DeCicco-Carey
Facilities: Tony Gonsalves
The Thrift Shop is open Tuesdays and Saturdays from 10 AM to 1 PM
(508)994-9686 ext.12
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