Order of Service

“Commemorating Community: Reflecting Our Values Through Memorials”

Featuring Guest Speaker Dr. Alexandria Russell, Founder, Black Women Legacies

When you look around our First Parish buildings, who and what do you see memorialized in some tangible way? What do these commemorative objects or spaces tell us about our congregation’s history, values, and the evolution of those values? Dr. Alexandria Russell, guest preacher for Alliance Sunday, will help us reflect on how we commemorate community. Guest conductor and musician B.E. Boykin will join the First Parish Choir and accompanist Ken Seitz to offer music this Sunday.

Dr. Alexandria Russell is a historian, public history practitioner, and digital humanities scholar who is passionate about making African American history accessible to people of all backgrounds. Her recent book, Black Women Legacies: Public History Sites Seen & Unseen, examines the evolution of African American women’s memorialization in the United States from the late nineteenth century to the present. She has received several grants and fellowships to support her research, including the W.E.B. Du Bois Center Postdoctoral Fellowship at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst and an American Democracy fellowship from the Charles Warren Center at Harvard University. She has served as the Harvard & The Legacy of Slavery Research Fellow for digital humanities at Harvard Radcliffe Institute and has contributed to other university slavery initiatives. Her experience as a public school teacher has also informed her work as a public history consultant in developing curriculum guides for children. As the Founder and Executive Director of the non-profit Black Women Legacies, she is committed to raising awareness about past and present memorials that have been created to celebrate the legacies of Black women.

About the Alliance 

The Alliance is the women’s organization at First Parish, with a mission to support the women in our congregation, and through that support to advance the interests and efforts of our entire church. The Alliance at First Parish was created in the 1840’s.  At that time, all positions of power and influence in the church were held by men, from the minister to the ushers, along with control of spiritual and financial affairs. In response women of the congregation allied together to form a group that would be a way to take action in their faith community and make a difference in the greater community. They charged annual dues of $.50 for supplies and charity. They invested wisely, contributed generously, and to this day the Alliance is financially independent, with the majority of annual expenditures going to support a charitable giving plan that focuses on supporting organizations that serve women and families in transition. Alliance meetings and activities provide opportunities for ongoing fellowship and rich discussions. Formal membership in the Alliance is open to those in our church who identify as female, while Alliance activities are inclusive across all gender identities and ages.

Guest Conductor and Musician

B.E. (Brittney Elizabeth) Boykin is a distinguished composer, conductor and pianist, renowned for her dynamic artistry and profound contributions to the world of music. Her creative practice encompasses composition, conducting, and artistic leadership at the intersection of scholarship, performance, and community engagement. As a composer of vocal, choral, and operatic works, she contributes to the advancement of the contemporary classical repertoire and has works that are performed nationally and internationally.