Between Sundays
Keeping the Parish Community Connected
Thursday, December 9, 2021
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Worship With Us | Sunday, December 12
Third Sunday of Advent
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Advent III Morning Light Worship Service | 9:00 AM
In-Person at 64 Beacon Street or Virtual on Zoom
For those who wish to continue to worship with us virtually, the Zoom link and service will remain the same. We'll open up Zoom at 8:50 for greetings, start the service promptly at 9:00, and a short "coffee hour" will follow the service, hosted by our musician Skip Lewan.
If you would rather join us in-person for Morning Light, doors will open at the Little Chapel at 8:45 AM. Proof of COVID vaccination is required by all those eligible for full vaccination and masks are required. Congregants will also be asked sign in for contact tracing purposes.
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Advent III Morning Prayer Worship Service | 11:00 AM
In-person at 58 Tremont Street or Live-Streamed on YouTube
For those who wish to worship with us in-person, doors open at 10:30 AM. Masks required. Proof of vaccination required (for those eligible for full vaccination). Worshippers will be asked to sign in for contact tracing purposes and masks are required. Prelude and live-streaming will start at 10:50 AM.
For those who wish to worship virtually, we are continuing to improve our live-streaming equipment and process. Join us on YouTube 10:50 AM from the comfort of your own home. You can find the link on our YouTube channel homepage or our website homepage. The livestream link and Order of Service will be also be posted in tomorrow's From the Minister eblast as well as our Sunday Worship eblast.
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****Reminder: Proof of COVID Vaccination Required for Services***
Please note that starting on December 1, proof of COVID vaccination is required by those eligible for full vaccination to enter any King’s Chapel facilities for worship, concerts, meetings, or rentals. worship services, concerts, meetings or parish house rentals.
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UUSC Keynote Presentation from Isabel Wilkerson
TONIGHT! Thursday, December 9th at
7:00 PM
In recognition of International Human Rights Day, the UU Service Committee (UUSC) will host a celebration on Thu. Dec. 9th at 7:00 p.m. featuring a keynote presentation from Pulitzer Prize and NY Times Best-Selling author Isabel Wilkerson. In 2020 she published the highly acclaimed Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents, and in 2010 The Warmth of Other Suns. Wilkerson demonstrates how history can help us understand ourselves, our country and our current era of upheaval. "A gifted storyteller, Wilkerson captivates audiences with the universal human story of migration and reinvention, as well as the unseen hierarchies that have divided us as a nation, in order to find a way to transcend them." This online UUSC event is open to everyone and free, although donations in support of crucial UUSC programs are always welcome and appreciated. To register, click here: https://donate.uusc.org/event/uuscs-human-rights-leadership-celebration/e375905
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Bell Ringing with the Environmental Action Initiative
Saturday, December 11th at 11:00 AM
Show up at 10:45 AM
The science is clear: climate change is already happening, and unless we reduce carbon emissions and the manufacture and use of plastics, our earth will quite soon be unsustainable. It’s urgent, it’s the 11th Hour.
And so, at 11:00 AM on the 11th day of each month, the King’s Chapel Environmental Action Initiative and friends ring our wonderful bell for 11 minutes, to call attention and to invite others to join us in this good work. We need three bell ringers and an unlimited number (the more, the better) of people to stand in front of the Church, holding explanatory signs and greeting people. And if you have time, we usually have a jolly lunch nearby.
WON’T YOU JOIN US at 10:45 on Saturday, December 11?
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Advent Sunday School
Sundays, December 12 and 19 at 10:00AM at the Parish House
David Waters will be teaching our Church School children after Morning Light at 10AM during the season of Advent. The Third Sunday of Advent will be dedicated to our grade-school age children and the Fourth Sunday of Advent will be dedicated to our younger children. We look forward to gathering during Advent!
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Lunch and Worship with common cathedral at the Boston Common
Sunday, December 12 at 12:30 PM
Join Joy Fallon & the Community Action Committee as we gather with our unhoused neighbors at Brewer Fountain (and we will make sandwiches again, of course). We hope you will join us. Please email Tim to sign up for attending service, and Carol to sign up for sandwich making.
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Virtual Christmas Party
Sunday, December 12 from 5:00-6:00 PM on Zoom
Gather together, wherever we may be, to celebrate Christmas and our KC community! Plan for a toast—KC recipes here, or choose your own. If you wish, sport a Santa hat, festive garb, or an ugly sweater. We’ll have breakout rooms for smaller conversations too. Register now so you don't forget!
Hospitality Committee
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Advent Book Group: Mary Oliver’s Poems
Monday, December 13 at 5:00 PM on Zoom
All are welcome to join Rev. Fallon any Monday evening at 5 PM for an Advent discussion of Mary Oliver’s poems, via zoom. The theme this week is “Joy.”
A taste of one poem:
“If you suddenly and unexpectedly feel joy, don’t hesitate. Give in to it… whatever it is, don’t be afraid of its plenty. Joy is not made to be a crumb.”
For the free, downloadable booklet and poems for our congregation, which contains daily suggestions for Advent, the link is available here.
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Tuesday Recital
Tuesday, December 14 at 12:15 PM
Next Tuesday, the Pioneer Singers of Lynnfield return with favorite selections for the holiday season.
If you can’t make it in person, you can check out the livestream here.
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Blue Christmas Service Video
Wednesday, December 15 at 4:00 PM on YouTube
Each year King’s Chapel offers a “Blue Christmas” service for any of us for whom this Christmas season finds us “blue.” To be saddened or grieving at any time is hard; when everyone else around you seems to be celebrating, we feel especially lonely. This year there is cause for grief: from the pandemic to a divided nation, and hardships in individual lives.
In a recent New York Times opinion piece entitled, “I’m not Ready for Christmas. I Need to Take a Minute,” Tish Harrison Warren suggests we take time in Advent to reflect on and mourn our losses: “Part of living in a good but aching world is that all of us have experienced loss of some sort this year. I grew up thinking that if anyone had it worse than I (which is always), I didn’t have a right to grieve….Of course, it’s good to have perspective. The suffering [during the pandemic has not been] evenly distributed. But still, comparatively smaller losses deserve to be mourned. Moreover, if we don’t grieve the pain of the past few years, the pain will not simply disappear – it will come out sideways as anxiety, anger, depression and the like. Our job is not to compare our losses or pain with others’; it’s simply to acknowledge and honor our own.”
Feel free to reach out to our ministers, a lay pastoral minister, or watch the pre-recorded Blue Christmas service on the King’s Chapel YouTube channel, which will premiere at 4:00 PM next Wednesday. You are all part of our beloved community.
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Weekly Bible Study
Wednesdays at 6:15 PM on Zoom
Join members on Wednesday evenings as we gather on Zoom for a discussion on the weekly lectionary readings. Check out the online calendar for details of each week's focus.
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Weekly Thursday Coffee
Thursdays at 10:00 AM on Zoom
Bring your cup of coffee or tea and join other King's Chapel folks for an informal conversation by Zoom every Thursday morning. A great way to get to know each other a bit better. Drop in for any part of the hour.
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Mini Milk Punch
Sunday, December 19 at the Chapel after Morning Prayer
We’ll gather to toast each other with holiday punches—indoors. Covid can rule out the feast we’ve enjoyed in the last few years, but it can’t squelch our festivity! We have permission from the Reopening Task Force to offer simple refreshments to celebrate each other and the holidays and a long-standing KC tradition. Hospitality Committee
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Looking Ahead at Christmas Services |
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Family Christmas Eve Service
Friday, December 24 at 5:00 PM
(Prelude begins at 4:45 PM)
In Person and Virtual
The story of Jesus’ birth comes alive through word and carols. In this service, the ministers serve as narrators and tell the story of the birth of Jesus as children in the congregation participate in various ways. With classic Christmas carols and an age old story, this service is rooted in time-honored traditions.
Any child who wants to participate as a shepherd or angel in our nativity pageant will have the opportunity to do so. Come at 4:30 to get your costume!
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Lessons and Carols Christmas Eve Service
Friday, December 24 at 8:00 PM
(Prelude begins at 7:30 PM)
In Person and Virtual
This traditional service with full choir and candlelight was modeled after the service offered at Truro Cathedral in 1880. The King's Chapel Choir serves as our guide, as we hear again the message of the angels told through scripture and song. The candlelit sanctuary helps us to keep vigil as we celebrate the birth of the Prince of Peace.
Please note that this service has a new, EARLIER time - at 8:00 PM!
Be sure to arrive early. This is our most popular service of the church year.
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Christmas Day Worship Service
Saturday, December 25 at 10:00 AM
(Prelude begins at 9:50 AM)
In Person Only
Join us for our Christmas Day service! King's Chapel was the first known Christian church to celebrate Christmas Day in New England. In 1686, Boston Anglicans (and curious onlookers) gathered to celebrate Holy Communion. This tradition continues to this day.
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History Program Winter Hours
As the fall season comes to a close, the History Program is shifting to its winter hours. Beginning in December, the History Program will be open for visitors and guided tours on Fridays and Saturdays through the winter season. Click here to plan your visit.
Home for the Holidays: Online Content and At-Home Activities
Did you know that King’s Chapel is one of, if not the first, churches in New England to celebrate Christmas? Holiday traditions at King’s Chapel date back to the 1680s, at a time when celebrating Christmas was actually illegal in Massachusetts!
For the second year, the King’s Chapel History Program is delighted to offer virtual content and activities sharing the history of Christmas for you to explore from the comfort of your home!
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From the Environmental Action Initiative |
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A Little History Behind our EAI Logo
December 7 is the day in 1972 that Apollo 17 astronauts took the famous “Blue Marble” photograph of the Earth. It was one of the first clear images of the whole Earth, since the sun was directly behind the camera, and so the entire face of the planet was lit up in brilliant blue, white, brown, and green. The photograph quickly became a symbol of the burgeoning environmental movement. The astronauts were 28,000 miles away when they took the shot; it was the last time human beings were that far away from the Earth.
In 1948, astronomer Fred Hoyle put it this way: “Once a photograph of the Earth, taken from the outside, is available — once the sheer isolation of the Earth becomes plain — a new idea as powerful as any in history will be let loose.” In this time of climate crisis, such images may again become emblems of just how precious — and how fragile — our home truly is.
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From the Community Action Committee |
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Common Cathedral Service this Sunday- Join Us!
Attending service with our neighbor church, common cathedral is a truly unique and transformative experience. Although the weather may be cold, there is a warmth and a spiritual fire there every week that is rare to find. Won’t you join us there?
On December 12th, Joy Fallon will join us as we once again join our neighbors for common cathedral’s worship service at Brewer Fountain (and we will make sandwiches again, of course). This outdoor church has been meeting for 25 years on Boston Common, rain or shine, to serve both the unhoused and housed community. We hope you will join us. Please email Tim to sign up for attending service, and Carol to sign up for sandwich making.
Survivors Homicide Month with the Louis D. Brown Peace Institute
We are in the midst of Survivors of Homicide Month, which began November 20th and ends December 20th. Nearly 35,000 people a year are killed in the US leaving family, friends, neighbors, teachers, and peers grieving. This pain is deeply felt, especially during the holidays.
Survivors of Homicide Month is a month-long effort to educate the public and policy makers about the impact of homicide on families and communities, and give recognition to the diverse contributions of survivors. This month, we are asked to keep survivors of homicide all over our country in our awareness and prayers, and work to create communities of healing and peace, love and justice.
Join the our community action partner, the Lous D. Brown Peace Institute, in their Zoom presentation of the closing ceremony on Monday, December 20 from 6-7:30PM. Contact Carol for information on how to attend.
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"We rejoice with those who rejoice,
and weep with those who weep."
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Our beloved Co-Warden, Lee Glenn, is resting at home after a period of hospitalization and rehab, well attended to by her adult sons. Her husband Bernie is glad to have her at home. Please join us in prayer for Lee’s steady healing and recovery. As the former Chair of our Prayer Circle, Lee is a firm believer in its power. If you would like to send her a note at home, the address is: 14 Park Lane, Jamaica Plain, MA 02130. |
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Condolences to choir member Heather Holland on the loss of her father on December 5. Please keep Heather and her entire family in your prayers. |
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Our Stewardship year is coming to an end and we need to be sure that everyone does their part to be sure our beloved King's Chapel has all the funds it needs for the coming year. Our recent letters hopefully reminded you to send in your gift, right away. In this season of giving, let us all remember the gifts we receive every week from King's Chapel and do our part to show our thanks with our gift in return.
Your Stewardship Committee
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The King's Chapel Prayer Circle, led by Cynthia Perkins, stands ready to pray for any who request it, in complete confidence.
To request prayers email Joy (joy@kings-chapel.org) or Cynthia Perkins
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In the love of truth, and the spirit of Jesus Christ,
we unite for the worship of God
and the service of all.
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