The coming week presents two rich opportunities to address the climate crisis: King's Chapel having a meeting for all those interested in addressing the climate crisis and issues of environmental stewardship on Sunday, February 12. Those interested in forming a subcommittee to pursue action related to this issue are encouraged to attend the meeting after Morning Prayer. And on Wednesday, January 15, following evening contemplative worship, David Waters will be leading a Theology on Tap focused on the work of Gary Snyder, a Beat poet and environmental activist whose poetry and prose are evocative of the spiritual elements of our response to the environment. We'll explore some of the ways that reading and spiritual practice can inform our response to the challenges before us.

+Joy

John Reidy is happy to be back in Boston after living in New York City for 40 plus years.  He is delighted to be returning to the King's Chapel family.  Welcome back John!

At Parish Council this week, the idea of moving Christmas Eve's Lessons and Carols service to an earlier time was floated. So we thought we'd ask for input from all our faithful readers!

The options are:

1) Keep it where it is, prelude music at 10 PM, service at 10:30, done just before midnight

2) Move it back on hour, so prelude at 9 PM, service at 9:30, done before 11

Realistically, we could probably not do it any earlier than that, at least not without also moving the afternoon service to an earlier time, which might just compound the confusion for everyone.

Vote today by emailing  heinrich@kings-chapel.org and let him know if you prefer 1 or 2, or even if it makes no difference at all to your plans for attending this service.

Ceiling work is underway in the sanctuary, and you will see a construction zone when you enter!  The work is being performed by the John Canning Co., a preservation company from Cheshire, CT.  The scaffolding was put in place last week.  The ceiling is now being stripped.  Prior to repainting, the insulation above will be removed and replaced, and the ceiling then painted and plastered.  The end date projection is February 20, just in time for the February concert!

More news to follow as the project progresses. 

Immediately following our Morning Prayer service this Sunday there will be instruction on how to set up the chancel table on Communion Sunday.  This opportunity is open to all members interested in the preparation of the table for Holy Communion.  The instruction should take approximately 30 minutes. 

~Anne Sexton

As many of you know, we received the gift of two magnificent pianos for our Parish House last year. As we did then, the King's Chapel Concert Series will celebrate and share these gifts by giving a concert, The Big Chill, on Sunday afternoon, January 26, at 5:00. The concert will be approximately two hours long, including a light supper break between pianos. We will present works by Barber, Bernstein, Brahms, Copland, Debussy, Faure and others. It will be festive and fabulous.

 

Space at the Parish House for this concert is limited, so if you plan to attend, we'll need for you to reserve a seat as soon as possible, so that you will have one! It will be first come, first sit.

 

Please respond to sylviasoderberg@verizon.net to reserve, and indicate how many seats you would like.

On Sunday, January 26, following Morning Prayer, there will be an open  meeting for those interested in developing the next steps To acknowledge and memorialize the connection between Kings Chapel and slavery in colonial Massachusetts.

 

Following the presentation of the report of the King's Chapel ad hoc Committee on History and Slavery by Faye Charpentier in November of last year, it was decided that how we choose to memorialize this part of our history should include congregational input.

 

To this end, the ad hoc committee is looking for your thoughts, ideas, suggestions, criticisms, and all that will lead to an active discussion of what our next steps should be and what outcomes we want.

 

Copies of the committee's report can be obtained from Faye faye@kings-chapel.org

The Adult Education Committee invites all interested to come see the newly released movie  Just Mercy, based on the acclaimed book of the same title by public interest lawyer Bryan Stevenson, about his organization Equal Justice Initiative, and their tireless work on behalf of inmates on death row who been wrongly convicted.

Betsy Peterson will buy tickets online for  people interested  in sitting in a block together. Contact her betsytpete@gmail.com  by Thursday evening if you are interested in this option. Otherwise, you may buy your ticket independently but may not be able to sit with the group.  The g roup will meet at 3:40 PM in the lobby. After the movie, the  group will decide if  and where they they want to meet afterward for a discussion. 

For more information about EJI and Stevenson's work, click here

On Sunday February 9, 2020, King's Chapel is invited to join our neighbors from  common cathedral at the fourth  annual  Winter Walk  which raises awareness and funds to help end homelessness.

  

Epiphany Service and John Beuhrens Book Event

On Monday, February 6, we gathered to celebrate Epiphany with a brief evening worship service of music and shared prayers of joy and concern in the Little Chapel, followed by refreshments in the gathering space. Our members enjoyed time to visit and connect with one another before returning to the Little Chapel for a conversation with John Beuhrens about his new book, Conflagration: How the Transcendentalists Sparked the American Struggle for Racial, Gender, and Social Justice. John spoke about his desire to expand the story of Transcendentalism from the literary, individualistic version we often encounter in high school, to a more nuanced and yet more exciting version that understands many of the leading figures not as lone characters, but as people involved in rich and varying relationships with one another and the institutions of which they were a part. John spoke movingly of how figures such as our of James Freeman Clark inspired him and serve as an example of how we might model faith and belief in our own challenging times.

The book will be arriving from the publisher on or around January 20th.  We will keep you posted when it becomes available for purchase.