Existential Threat of Despair

Sunday November 16, 2025 at 10:30 am

This Sunday, First Parish will honor and mourn Trans Day of Remembrance. Drawing from trans and genderqueer writers and activists Kai Cheng Thom and Andrea Gibson, Rev. Catie’s sermon will reflect on personal despair, and how our social-emotional environment can worsen our struggles or shore up our resiliency. Content warning: this service will explicitly address depression and suicide. First Parish will also host Needham’s interfaith vigil for Trans Day of Remembrance on Thursday November 20th on Zoom (learn more at uuneedham.info/TDOR2025). Both of our choirs (adults and SongSquad) and both of our music directors (Laura Nevitt and Chris Lockman) will offer music.

Choosing Hope Service Series

During our ministry theme month on “Choosing Hope,” services led by Rev. Catie will interconnect and interrelate. Here are the different aspects of Hope that the upcoming Sundays will address:

November 2: collective hopelessness and competing philosophies about hope

November 9: our faith tradition’s history as a “house for hope”

November 16: personal despair and resiliency

November 23: choosing hope congregationally