WEST PARIS — A good way to welcome the new year is to join with others in community. Please join us on Sundays at 9 a.m., when we explore a wide variety of topics led by a variety of speakers. Guitarist Davy Sturtevant performs music. Refreshments follow the service, and all are welcome.

January 5,” Following a Star,” led by The Rev. Scott Campbell. The topic focuses on lessons we can draw from the Magi.  Here is an excerpt:
The Magi knew that the only beliefs that really matter are those that enable us to act.  Such beliefs empower us to overcome the domain of darkness and despair and to follow the light in our lives, and that light will lead us inexorably to a place where gifts of love are shared.

January 12, “We Are Stronger Than We Think,” led by Amy Wight Chapman, who will read from and discuss her recently published family memoir, “Just Like Glass.” Just Like Glass is the story of one transformative year in the life of the author’s four older siblings and their mother, Ruth. In 1958, just as the school year is ending, Ruth’s husband, Bill, is felled by a fatal heart attack. Not knowing what else to do, she loads her grief-stricken children, ages eight to fourteen, into the station wagon with the family dog and drives north to spend the summer at their lakeside camp in western Maine. Told in the several voices of the ones who lived it, this family memoir relates how a tough-as-nails matriarch and the stillness of North Pond set them on the path to healing, even as they struggle to redefine themselves as a family unit, with one unexpected addition. Amy is a member of the First Universalist Church of West Paris. She is the author of a weekly column in the Bethel Citizen, and is also very active with the Bethel Historical Society and the Bethel Library.

January 19, “Wisdom and Nonsense,” led by guest speaker, Marilyn Hammond, a member of the South Paris Universalist Church, and a frequent speaker at the West Paris church. Continuing the poetry series, Marilyn will share some of Shel Silverstein’s poetry. A man of many talents, writer, cartoonist, and musician, his work has been valued by people of all ages and also has been the subject of controversy. He has won Grammy Awards, Golden Globe Awards, and Academy nominations, and has also been on the banned book list. We’ll let the magic of Shel Silverstein open our eyes and tickle our minds.

January 26, “…but what kind of a Christian?” led by guest speaker Bob Neal, who regularly leads services at the First Universalist, and until recently wrote the column “The Countryman” for the Sun Journal. This exploration will be based, in part, on a recent column in the New York Times by Pope Francis.

For more information about the church and services, please contact Marta Clements, 674-2143, mclements96894@roadrunner.com, or Suzanne Dunham, 665-2967, dunhamfarm@msn.com. To learn more about the Unitarian-Universalist Association, visit http://www.uua.org/. The First Universalist Church of West Paris is located at 208 Main St., W. Paris