Volunteer at the Tuesday Community Supper: summer is a good time to try this, as we tend to have more guests and fewer volunteers. Contact Barbara Boles by phone if interested, 617-501-7572, or email her.

Will you volunteer to serve as an usher at the 9:00 or 11:15 Masses? Duties include: greeting arrivals, handing out bulletins, fielding questions and assisting at the Eucharist - the burden is light! For the 9:00, families are especially invited to volunteer to bring up the gifts (the congregation's offering of tithes, bread and wine) during the offertory, as well as to serve together as ushers. For more information, or to get on the rota, email our Verger, Ray Porter.

 

Back to School - Mission Opportunity: This August, our parish is collecting school supplies to be given as care packages to students at the Epiphany School in Dorchester. Supplies needed include:

Pencils (Regular and Pencils with fun designs are often used for rewards)
Pencil sharpeners
Erasers
Markers
Colorful Sharpie Markers (fine tip)
Glue sticks
Highlighters
Dry-erase markers (not black)
Dry-erase marker erasers
Printing paper
Notebooks, Binders and Folders
College-ruled looseleaf paper
Pens (blue or black)
Bookbags

The supplies will be blessed at the annual Blessing of the Backpacks at the 9:00 Mass on September 13, then delivered to Epiphany School students to start the academic year off right! Please join this project to serve kids in our city in the name of God and of the Advent. More details? See Deacon Daphne or contact Fr Wood.

 

Blessing of the Backpacks // Sept 13 at 9:00a
Church School at the Advent kicks off SEPTEMBER 13! We start by Commissioning the Church School Teachers as a parish family at the 9 o'clock mass, which is also the service for the sixth annual Blessing of the Backpacks. Students of all ages -- from pre-school to grad school -- come forward with their backpacks during the 9 o'clock mass to be blessed by a priest. Don't worry if you're not old enough for a backpack yet -- just bring a lunchbox, a pencil box, something you'll carry to school with you every day. Parents are encouraged to bring their children so they may experience the support of the parish as they begin a new school year. After mass, Register for Church School in the Library. Why not join us and invite a family that doesn't yet have a church home? Come out for refreshments, to meet the Church School staff, get a blessing for your backpack, and celebrate as a parish the beginning of another great school year!

The fall season is rapidly approaching, with the first rehearsal of the Advent's famed Parish Choir taking place two weeks from now - Wednesday evening, September 16, from 6:30 to 8:30 PM in the Choir Room. This ensemble provides music for the 9:00 Sung Mass on a regular basis and for several evening services throughout the year. The choir meets mostly on Sunday mornings an hour before the mass, but has one full choir rehearsal per month on a Wednesday evening. If you wish to join them to sing masterworks of the Renaissance and Anglican traditions, please contact Mark Dwyer or Ross Wood after Mass, or call Mark Dwyer at 523-2377 extension 141 or email him for more information.

 

A second Church of the Advent Pilgrimage will take place next spring. This time we will be going to Turkey - known as the Second Holy Land - to cities and churches visited by St Paul and also described in the Acts of the Apostles. It will be a very different trip from the first pilgrimage, but will be equally astonishing, inspiring, and unforgettable.

We will leave on Sunday, April 10, 2016, flying on Turkish Airlines from Boston to Istanbul and on to Kayseri in Cappadocia and return on Saturday, April 23, 2016, flying from Istanbul to Boston.

Brochures for the Pilgrimage, giving a detailed itinerary, can be found at the rear of the church. The cost will be approximately $3,300, but is not quite set because of fluctuations in airline and fuel expenses. However, since almost everything is included, this, like the first pilgrimage, will certainly be a bargain. If you wish to be part of the pilgrimage, please speak to Fr Warren.