Rev. Manish Mishra-Marzetti

The First Parish Church of Lincoln (FPL) will formally welcome the latest minister in its history of more than 250 years with the installation of Rev. Manish Mishra-Marzetti as FPL’s new Senior Minister on Sunday, March 6 at 3 p.m. in the church sanctuary at 4 Bedford Rd.

In this time-honored tradition, the installation ceremony honors the understandings that will guide the congregation’s new ministry. “According to the installation ritual, the minister and the congregation honor the path they have chosen to walk together publicly, acknowledging in ceremony and in celebration the values and understandings that will guide the ministry they now share,” says Mishra-Marzetti. “I am looking forward to the events of this Sunday.”

The church’s parishioners anticipate a new chapter with Mishra-Marzetti at the helm. “These are exciting times,” said Peter Pease, chairman of FPL’s Parish Committee. “Rev. Manish has so many skills and interests, and so many paths and bridges to the universe of people and religious expression. He will continue our tradition of engagement in the important issues of our time. We had 18 wonderful years with Rev. Roger Paine that enrich us still, and our new era is off to such a promising start.”

Mishra-Marzetti has preached at First Parish since September 2015, succeeding Paine. He came to Lincoln after serving a decade in congregational ministries, including churches in New Jersey and Florida. Following graduation from Harvard Divinity School in 2005, Mishra-Marzetti was ordained a Unitarian-Universalist minister.

Mishra-Marzetti’s early years in Pittsburgh introduced him to many religious beliefs, setting the stage for his future career. He was, in his words, “raised Hindu, in a Jewish neighborhood, in a predominately Christian country—religious pluralism and cultural bridge-building are inherent to who I am.”

Following college at Georgetown University, where he graduated Phi Beta Kappa from the School of Foreign Service, Manish entered the U.S. Diplomatic Corps. Serving in Oman, Finland, Switzerland and Washington, D.C., he acquired a deep understanding and appreciation of cultures shaped by Hinduism, Buddhism, Islam and Christianity.

First Parish’s Sunday morning service at 10 a.m. will be led by the Rev. Ken Beldon, Lead Minister of the Wellsprings Congregation located in the metro Philadelphia area. Following the 3 p.m. installation ceremony, there will be a reception in the Parish House (14 Bedford Rd.). All are welcome.

First Parish of Lincoln was officially formed in 1942 by the union of the then-existing Congregational and Unitarian-Universalist churches. Today it is an open and welcoming community church, comprising more than 30 distinct theologies and spiritualities. Services each Sunday are at 10 a.m., with Sunday School and childcare offered concurrently. Information about the church, as well as audio files of Rev. Manish’s sermons, may be found at FirstParishInLincoln.org.

Editor’s note: This letter is in response to the February 17 letter to the editor by Peter Sugar headlined “Campus report pays ‘little attention’ to previous work.”

To the editor:

As a resident of this town since 1998, I have come over the years to have an appreciation for the Lincoln Way in all its strengths and weaknesses. Its biggest strength is its inclusiveness and spirit of genuine community engagement. Its weakness is that when compromise is required because we just can’t address everyone’s concerns, the Lincoln Way struggles.

With the school addressing the concerns of every interested group, it resulted in a building that very few of us like—large, sprawling across the landscape, and very expensive. In at least one iteration, internal circulation problems, created by a footprint that addressed everyone’s building footprint concerns, were solved by adding another cafeteria.

What I particularly liked about the Campus Master Planning Committee report is that it distills a very complicated problem to a set of options that each represent a set of tradeoffs. It’s a great approach—it keeps the spirit of the Lincoln Way and gives us a way out of the logjam. I thank all the people who volunteered large amounts of time and energy to the CMPC report and commend them for the approach they took.

Sincerely,

Margaret Olson
17 Boyce Farm Rd.

Letters to the editor must be signed with the writer’s name and street address and sent via email to lincolnsquirrelnews@gmail.com. Letters will be edited for punctuation, spelling, style, etc., and will be published at the discretion of the editor. Letters containing personal attacks, errors of fact or other inappropriate material will not be published.

A February 16 Lincoln Squirrel article headlined “Residents learn about voc-tech options at forum” included an incorrect enrollment figure for Minuteman High School. Its current enrollment is 673 students. Also, a February 15 article headlined “Cambridge Trust Co. closings its doors” gave an incorrect spelling for the name of William Barrett. Both articles have been updated to reflect this correction.