Susan Roberta Playfair, of Cambridge and formerly of Cohasset, died after a short illness on February 7, 2021. One of the first female stockbrokers in Boston, she described herself as a maverick with a varied working background; she also worked as a fashion designer, an interior designer, and an author throughout her long career.
Born in 1940 in Plymouth, Susan grew up sailing and exploring cranberry bogs and clam flats in Duxbury, where she was the first female lifeguard on Duxbury Beach. These childhood experiences blossomed into a lifetime love of the ocean and of the outdoors. She spent many happy years sailing on Buzzards Bay with her late husband Richard J. O’Connell and her daughter on their Alden yawl Whisper. And she traveled around the world exploring coral reefs in Fiji, bird-watching in Patagonia, and learning more about nature everywhere from Martinique to Hawaii. Susan’s love of beauty extended beyond the natural world to fashion, art, and design. She graduated from Bard College, where she later served on the Board of Governors, with a degree in Fine Arts. She also studied for two years at Parsons School of Design and took courses at the French Fashion Academy, the Art Students League, and the Fashion Institute of Technology. After working on Wall Street and then as an investment executive for Goodbody & Company in Boston for several years, Susan opened The Sunspot in Gloucester, where she sold clothes designed from imported fabric printed with woodblocks. She then became a fashion designer in her own right, selling her resort wear designs under the Playfair name to Bergdorf Goodman and other buyers. In the 1980s, Susan’s career shifted from fashion design to contract interior design, and she established Interaction, which provided interior design to commercial clients around New England, including New England Baptist Hospital and One Liberty Square in Boston. Susan’s varied careers reflected her curiosity and constant desire to learn more about the world. Her interests all combined in her final career as an author, where she published books about the changing nature of New England industries tied to the land and the sea. She published Vanishing Species: Saving the Fish, Sacrificing the Fishermen in 2003 and America’s Founding Fruit: The Cranberry in a New Environment in 2014, both with University Press of New England. Susan was known for bringing joy to everyone around her, and it was impossible not to share her curiosity and optimism when in her presence. She is survived by her sisters, Marsha Hurd of York, South Carolina, and Holly DiMauro of Tiverton, Rhode Island; her daughter, Lily Faulhaber, son-in-law, Kwaku Akowuah, and granddaughter, Evelyn Akowuah, all of Washington, D.C.; her stepson, Tom Faulhaber, and his wife Sonia and children Thomas and Penelope, all of Seattle; her nephew, Jamie Bornhofft, of Sandwich; and her two nieces, Betsy Lamitina of Pittsburgh and Emily Merrill of Fort Mill, South Carolina. A Memorial Service in honor of longtime member Susan Playfair, of Beacon Hill and Cohasset, will be held at King’s Chapel on Friday, July 7 at 3:00 PM, with a reception following at the Parish House. You are cordially invited by Susan’s family to join them in the celebration of Susan’s remarkable life. Susan died after a short illness in 2021 during the pandemic, and her memorial service was delayed until now so that more family and friends could safely attend. We laughed, we hugged, we cried, and we said goodbye. Our final gathering in the parish house of the First Unitarian Church of Kolozsvár was a poignant moment with friends. We toasted each other with pálinka (Hungarian brandy) and said egészségedre (to your health). We exchanged gifts and short speeches. We shared a sumptious supper and prayed together. It was a moment of deepened feelings and the promise of enduring friendships. We departed the next day and upon arriving home received this message via email: "It was so strange after you all left, we had a wierd feeling that something is suddenly missing from Kolozsvár. Not enough time with you all." Yes, we fell in love with Transylvania, with our new friends, and with the legacy of faith that binds us. We look forward to sharing our experiences with you, our fellow parishioners and fellow Unitarians. We hope to prepare a travel log and photo album, along with some proposals for sustaining our partner church relationship on the threshold of a second century. Thank you all for your encouragement and support of the journey to Transylvania.
Rev. Norbert Rácz
Seven days ago, we landed in Romania to begin our journey in Transylvania and visit our partner church in Kolozsvár (Cluj in Romanian). We were met at the airport by the ministers of the First Unitarian Church of Kolozsvár, Norbi Rácz and Júlia Jobbgy, and driven to our hotel in downtown Cluj. Two hours later, we gathered to dine at the Bistro 1586, located in a medieval building, the former palace of the Unitarian bishop. We were seven from King’s Chapel and six from our partner church. We toasted each other with Palenca (Hungarian plum brandy), downed plates of food, and drowned our jet lag.
Over the next six days we would see the city; drive to Torda where the Edict of Religious Toleration was proclaimed; have lunch in the quaint town of Torocko after visiting the Unitarian church; walk to a hilltop and view the Torda Gorge; worship at the First Unitarian Church of Kolozsvár where Joy Fallon gave the sermon and a welcome reception was held; dine on Goulash served on the grounds of the Second Unitarian Church; meet to share thoughts about life and faith with our Transylvanian friends; drive to Déva where Ferenc Dávid was imprisoned and died in the sixteenth century; and continue the drive in a van for three days of visiting villages, churches, and historic sites in the Szekelyföld area (in the foothills of the Carpathian Mountains), where Hungarian Unitarians reside in large numbers and worship in historic churches, some of them being medieval construction and still in use. Our trip is not over (three more days), but our heads and hearts are full of experiences, stories, reflections, and joys. We are keeping journals, taking photographs, processing our understandings, and thinking about how to share all of this with fellow parishioners at King’s Chapel. Our initial excitement and expectations have been greatly exceeded, and we are eager to return home with our stories and what we have learned. We don’t know what the forum will be, but we do know that what we have seen and heard is extraordinarily inspiring and hugely relevant for us, our church, and you! It is with great pleasure that I announce our guest preacher this week: the Rev. Dr. Barry Vaughn, a friend for nearly 50 years.
A native of Birmingham, Alabama, the Rev. J. Barry Vaughn was ordained to the Episcopal priesthood in 1993 and has served parishes in Alabama, California, Pennsylvania, and Nevada. He was an undergraduate at Harvard University where he earned a BA in history and literature. Then, he attended Yale Divinity School where he received his M.Div., and from 1984 to 1987 he was a student at the University of St. Andrews where he received his Ph.D. in church history. He was also a visiting student at Oxford University from 1986 to 1987. In addition to his parish ministry, Barry has taught at Samford University, the University of Alabama, the University of Alabama-Birmingham, and Lutheran Theological Seminary of Philadelphia. Barry’s partner is Sebastian Pečený, a financial journalist and real estate developer in Prague (Czech Republic). They enjoy traveling together. In addition to his years in Great Britain, Barry has visited many European countries, including a month-long sabbatical in Madrid learning Spanish; several trips to Israel and Palestine; as well as a trip with his clergy group to India and Bangladesh to meet with religious leaders in those countries. A well-known preacher, Barry has preached at Harvard University’s Memorial Church; Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford; and New York’s Chautauqua Institution. His sermons have been published in The Clergy Journal, Preaching, and other periodicals, and Barry has self-published six collections of his sermons. In 2013, the University of Alabama Press published Barry’s history of the Episcopal Church in Alabama, Bishops, Bourbons, and Big Mules: A History of the Episcopal Church in Alabama. Barry’s passions and avocations include music; reading history, biography, and fiction; going to the movies; working out and swimming; and binge-watching great TV. He is also an active and enthusiastic pianist who has performed solo recitals, as well as performances of chamber music with other musicians. We have just learned of three opportunities to visit Montgomery and Selma this fall, one led by the UU Living Legacy group, and two by June Cooper, UCC minister who would have led the trip some of us had planned to take before it was canceled by Covid. We must act soon if we hope for a KC group to travel together, especially for a Cooper trip. The first step is to find out who is seriously interested. The UU trip is November 8-12, four nights: I in Birmingham, I in Selma, and 2 in Montgomery. The fee, $1599 shared room, $1939 single, covers just about everything except travel to and from Birmingham. https://www.livinglegacypilgrimage.org/2023nov_al.html Cooper’s trips are offered October 9-12 or 12-15. 3 nights in Montgomery. Cost $600 plus hotel and meals and travel to Montgomery. The program includes three pre-trip Study Sessions and one post-trip meeting. Details are in the PDF below. If you really hope to go and want to be included in making choices and other updates, email betsytpete@gmail.com as soon as possible. Let Betsy know if you are interested in any of the trips and if you have a strong preference among these choices.
by Denton Crews
As a boy in a family that loved to travel, I thought of trips as packing to go somewhere. In adulthood, I discovered the lasting impact of those trips, spoke often about them, held memories of them, and felt shaped by them. On this coming Sunday, when our worship service will celebrate the historic connection between King’s Chapel and Transylvania, we will share with you the hopes and expectations we carry on our journey to the birthplace of Unitarian faith that commences next Wednesday. And I plan to suggest to you in the homily that this trip has the prospect of shaping all our lives with meaning and joy. It’s my third trip, and I see it as a journey of the highest order – for me and I think for others – because it’s connected to the journey of life and religious faith. This way of experiencing a journey will be illuminated on Sunday in the Scripture reading, in the prayers, in the music and hymns, in the communion service, and by a prominent philosopher, a renowned essayist, a beloved poet, a travel expert, and me. And it will be illustrated in the commissioning of seven parishioners whose journey to Transylvania will bear the torch of King’s Chapel. How fitting on this Sunday, the birthday of the founding of our church, that we set forth to find our roots, affirm a century-old partnership of faith, and discover hope and love. Pentecost?
I heard this startling statement of a reputable podcast: “Christmas is stupid without Easter. Easter is pointless without Pentecost.” If true, Pentecost is vital. It’s coming this weekend. Christmas and Easter are days we know well, celebrated annually with great joy and pageantry. We decorate the church splendidly, host special services, gather in larger numbers, and sing our most beloved hymns. But Pentecost often sneaks past us, easily swallowed up within the Memorial Day weekend, the opening salvo of the summer season. Why? It helps that the vast power of American commerce insists we remember Christmas and Easter: they profit handsomely from all the accompanying toys, Santa paraphernalia, and Easter chocolates. But Pentecost may elude us not just because its commercial value is so small. We may ignore it precisely because it’s so important. It’s where the rubber hits the road. Consider: the birth of Jesus is not worth remembering if he does not continue alive to you after he’s killed, somehow. And Jesus is alive to you after Easter only if God’s eternal spirit, experienced by Jesus’ followers while Jesus lived on earth, is experienced by you, too, invading and surrounding you. Even if only glimpsed. Even if only known as “the great surmise” to which you entrust your life, as Carl Scovel wrote. 2000 years ago, Pentecost was confusing and frightening, exhilarating and life-changing. It still is. In peace, Joy This Sunday, we will travel to the Danish island of Funen for some newly written organ variations on the delightful folk song Opvaavni which is all about flowers, birds, and the peasants getting organized to take political power!
The choir will reflect on both the departure of David Waters and the holiday of Ascension in I will Not Leave You Comfortless by Everett Titcomb who served right in our neighborhood as the music director at the former church of St. John's up on Bowdoin Street. The heavenly visions will continue with an arrangement of Lord, Build Me a Cabin in the Corner of Gloryland. And since it's the end of the official choir season, the offertory will be a rousing Te Deum laudamus by Stanford. Next week's Tuesday recital features tenor Tom Gregg in a program of no less than 4 composers celebrating their centennial this year: Leslie Bassett, Ned Rorem, Russell Woollen, and of course our own Daniel Pinkham. On Sunday we warmly welcome back the Rev. Ned Wight, our longtime member and retired UU Minister, Ned Wight. Ned grew up in Maryland, Michigan and Oregon, where he was affiliated with Congregational and Methodist churches. The son of a Unitarian father and an Episcopalian mother, he gravitated toward King’s Chapel when he moved to Boston in 1970 for school and work. Some of our members remember Ned from those shared days at King’s Chapel when he served the city of Boston and handled public relations for Harvard Community Health Plan. In 1988, Ned enrolled at Harvard Divinity School. After graduation and ordination, he served UU congregations in Belmont, MA, and La Mesa, CA. Ned also served for ten years as Executive Director of the UU Veatch Program at Shelter Rock, a national grantmaking program supporting organizations working for progressive social change. In 2019 he retired as Interim Senior Minister at Shelter Rock Congregation. Ned has served at the national level for the UUA and currently chairs the board of the UU Service Committee (UUSC), partnering with grassroots organizations to champion human rights at home and abroad. We are grateful for his leadership on Sunday, while Rev. Joy Fallon is out of town visiting her mother.
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