Boston University Marsh Chapel
Greetings!

Christmas greetings and all good wishes to you, the faithful community of Marsh Chapel, Boston University. Amid all the changes, challenges, and uncertainties of the moment, please be assured that I and the entire Chapel staff have you in prayer. We are with you, we are for you, and we carry a daily pastoral embrace of you.
 
Whenever we approach the end of the calendar year, I start to hear a very welcome question: what’s the best way to support Marsh Chapel? Sometimes it’s posed by someone who has heard a sermon or service that has touched them. Other times, it’s someone who is grateful for our daily offerings in programming and worship, and wants to help sustain this work. Or it’s someone who has stopped by the Chapel for a prayer, and then wondered aloud about how they might “help the cause.” Again, what a welcome question!
 
The COVID-19 challenge has made this past twenty months a challenging time for houses of worship—and that challenge continues. We hope that you will consider continuing your strong financial support for us. Our full ongoing ministry— especially our pastoral ministry and ministry of music—welcome and need your support.
 
This Christmas, we look forward with new eyes. We look toward a new year, new challenges and opportunities, with the return of blessed things that we once took for granted: gathering for worship, fellowship in groups, ease of travel, and so much more. Your year-end gifts can help us realize those hopes, as we rebuild our common life.
 
This Advent we invite you to join the BU community in-person for Marsh Chapel’s Forty-Eighth Annual Service of Lessons and Carols, which will be celebrated Friday, December 10 at 6:00 p.m and again on Sunday, December 12 at 11:00 a.m. The liturgy for one of BU’s most popular annual events is inspired by the century-old iconic Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols at King’s College, Cambridge. Music will be provided by the Marsh Chapel Choir and the Majestic Brass Quintet. All are welcome! The Dean’s Annual Christmas Party follows the Sunday service, from 12:15—1:15 p.m. in the BU Castle at 225 Bay State Road.
 
The envisioned mission of Marsh Chapel is to be a heart for the heart of the city and a service in the service of the city. We seek to help the transcendent love and power of God become incarnate in our time, in our place, and in our life. Your generosity helps make that possible.

Grace and Peace,
Bob
Dean, Marsh Chapel
Professor, New Testament and Pastoral Theology
Chaplain to the University, Office of Religious Life
Connect with us!
Our everyday lives are made up of extraordinary moments where we experience hope, joy, sorrow, and the presence of God. This Advent season we will take a moment each day to consider a Psalm and the ways God has shown up in our ordinary moments at home, work, play, and in our lives of faith. Music from the Marsh Chapel Choir will provide additional opportunities for reflection each day of our journey together. Join us in (Extra)Ordinary Miracles as we look for God in the everyday this Advent.

To sign up to receive a daily emailed devotion to your inbox, please click on the image above or visit https://www.bu.edu/chapel/worship/devotions/.
All are welcome to join us this Sunday at 3:00 p.m. in-person in the Marsh Chapel Sanctuary. A prerecorded Blue Christmas service, along with the bulletin, will be available on our website throughout the holiday season.
The holiday season can be a time of great sorrow and loss, even in the midst of holiday cheer. This year, these feelings are perhaps made even more challenging by the emotions aroused in us, not just by the dark and the cold, but by the realities of the pandemic, economic instability, social and political unrest, and increasing global climate change. In this Blue Christmas service, in scripture, prayer, poetry, music, reflection, and silence, we bring these challenges, sorrows, and losses to God. We mourn them, we claim the promises and power of God at work in their midst, and we find solace and hope in the shared awareness that in them we are not alone.
We hope that this Blue Christmas service, in this unique holiday season, will be for you a blessing.
Music at Marsh Chapel Advent Carols
Marsh Chapel Choir has curated a special playlist of Christmas carols for you, our beloved Marsh Chapel community. Click on the picture above to start listening on YouTube.
An “invitation to view” WHY SLAVERY?: A Documentary Series on PBS’s WORLD Channel from Abolitionist Chapel Today. To join the conversation, contact Rev. Dr. Victoria Hart Gaskell, vgaskell@bu.edu

The work of Abolitionist Chapel Today is to study, educate/program, and advocate around the issues of human trafficking and modern-day slavery, on behalf of the 40+ million children, women, and men around the world and in the US who live in literal and figurative chains. This documentary series, through interviews with slaves, recruiters, and slaveholders, explores some of the reasons why the systematic modern-day slave trade continues to exist, despite its internationally illegal status and world-wide condemnation. The 5-part series – continuing to be shown around the world with millions of viewers – was produced under the auspices of THE WHY FOUNDATION, which is based in Denmark and donates documentaries about human rights to underserved and fragile countries. WHY SLAVERY? debuts on PBS on International Human Rights Day – December 10 – and continues on into January 2022. It can also be viewed on GBH Passport.

Caution: This kind of content can be difficult to watch and to hear. We commend our own practices of not watching alone (human and animal companions are all good), not watching in the dark, not watching before trying to sleep, the doing of something comforting or enjoyable afterward, and one’s usual practices of self-care.

Film 1: “I was a Yazidi slave” – Sunday 12/12 10 pm/Monday 12/13 10 am
The struggles of girls recovering from the trauma of sexual violence at the hands of ISIS.
Film 2: “A Woman Captured” – Sunday 12/19 10 pm/Monday 12/20 10 am
One woman’s story of her enslavement.
Film 3: “Selling Children” – Sunday 12/26 10 pm/Monday 12/27 10 am
Explores the situation of the millions of children bought and sold as slaves, deprived of education, and enduring dangerous and unhealthful work for a lifetime.
Film 4: “North Korea’s Secret” – Date and times to be announced for January 2022 The North Korean government’s theft of its slaves’ income in Russia, China, and Poland
Film 5: “Maid in Hell” – Date and time to be announced for January 2022 Kenyan women deceived into slavery in the Middle East

The annual fair-trade gift-buying guide from Abolitionist Chapel Today has arrived! Follow this link to view their recommendations.
Boston University Marsh Chapel 
735 Commonwealth Avenue
Boston, MA 02215
www.bu.edu/chapel | 617-353-3560 | chapel@bu.edu 
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