Join us immediately following Morning Prayer on Sunday January 26 for an open meeting gathering those interested in furthering the work of the Ad Hoc Committee on Slavery and King's Chapel on developing next steps towards acknowledging and memorializing the connection between King's Chapel and slavery in colonial Massachusetts. 

Following the November sermon series and presentation of the Ad Hoc Committee's report by Faye Charpentier, it was determined that how we choose to memorialize this part of our history must include congregational input as we continue to move forward. The intentions of this meeting are to identify congregation members interested in furthering the work started by the Ad Hoc Committee and to provide an opportunity to share thoughts, ideas, suggestions, criticisms, and more. We hope for an active discussion of what our next steps will be as we move towards a physical and living memorial to the enslaved people connected to our church.

Copies of the committee's report, presented in November, can be obtained by emailing  faye@kings-chapel.org

Questions regarding the January 26 meeting can be directed to   deandenniston@rcn.com 

In  this new year (both liturgical and secular!), we've been greeting one another at the beginning of our Morning Prayer with a sign of peace. Whence this ancient tradition? Much as we greet each other with a handshake or a hug today, those in the ancient Mediterranean would greet one other in their time. Paul references-and transforms-this custom in his New Testament letters when he exhorts his listeners to greet one another with a holy greeting. These letters would often be read aloud to the gathered faithful, and at their conclusion, at these words from Paul, they would greet one another, their familiar greeting-like the hug or handshake or simple smile that we exchange today-becoming an expression of God's own love and peace.

 

This is the provenance of the sign of peace we exchange at the beginning of our worship: not an innovation, nor a novel form of welcome, but a spiritual work. The work of which we will hear the Psalmist speak on Sunday:

 

I have not hid thy righteousness within my heart;

I have declared thy faithfulness and thy salvation;

I have not concealed thy lovingkindness and thy truth

from the great congregation.

 

Indeed, when we accompany our greeting with the traditional salutation, "Peace be with you," we echo the Hebrew shalom aleichem, and the very greeting Jesus uses with his followers in the Gospels. Thus do we express not merely our affection for one another, but something of God's own lovingkindness for each one of us. May it be so.

 

In faith and love,

 

David

Mary Katherine Morn has served UU congregations in five states and is currently President/CEO of the Unitarian Universalist Service Committee.  Mary Katherine is married to John Rakestraw and they have a young adult son. 

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.

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.

The budget meeting for the FY2020 budget  for the Society of King's Chapel will be held on Sunday February 2, 2020 at 12:15 PM after the Morning Prayer service.  

All members should expect a copy of the budget via email by the end of next week. 

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.

  

On sale in Hungary since May is this stamp depicting this famous painting of the Diet of Torda.  Read more about it HERE

Boy Scouts Visit

On Monday evening our own Roger Wellington and friends from his Boy Scout troop visited the Parish House for a tour as part of their ongoing exploration of different faith traditions. As they traveled with David Waters through the different rooms and floors of 64 Beacon, they learned about our history, worship, community involvement, and our unique identity as a Christian Unitarian community open to all. (David's jar of gummi bears was a big hit as well!)

Theology on Tap

On Wednesday evening after Contemplative Communion, several King's Chapel members gathered over drinks and appetizers at The Emory for our latest installment of Theology on Tap, featuring the work of Beat poet Gary Snyder. David Waters led a close reading and lively discussion of Snyder's poem "Piute Creek" and the group explored reading itself as a spiritual practice, the role of spirituality and imagination in the fight for climate justice, and ways Snyder helps us to re-imagine and see more clearly our relationship to nature and the environment in which we find ourselves. Stay tuned for our next Theology on Tap, where we explore beauty in the theological imagination.