Keeping King's Chapel's members, friends, and subscribed visitors connected each week between Sunday worship services with updates from the Parish House.
Spotlight On...

The work of our Task Forces: Presentation and Discussion this Sunday after Morning Worship

Last Spring, two task forces gathered to do the grueling leg-work that informs our congregation's discernment about how to move forward as a church.  One task force visited and reported on worship experiences at other thriving churches; the other task force researched changing demographics in our neighborhood, in our city, and in churches generally, to understand who we can reach and how we can reach them.  

This Sunday, after our service, we will hear from members of these two task forces and have the opportunity to discuss their findings and recommendations as a community.  We hope you will join us!  

--Joy
Upcoming Events

This Sunday February 1 - 11 AM - Partner Church Sunday and Kolozsv�r Communion, followed by Task Force Reports and Discussion

          

Our service will include the annual tradition of communion offered in the beautiful way it is served in our Unitarian Partner Church in Kolozsv�r, Romania, with us all standing in a circle, and receiving communion, looking directly into the eyes of one another, to see Christ. 

 

After the service, we will hear from the two King's Chapel Task Forces, who gathered last year to study and learn from the worship services offered by other area churches, assess demographics in the city of Boston, and ways to reach out to those not yet members of the King's Chapel community.  The findings of these task forces has led to the proposals offered in the fall for two new services (Wednesday at 6 PM at the church, beginning in Lent, and Sunday morning at 9 AM at the Little Chapel).  For more information, see the document distributed and discussed in a congregational meeting in November, found on our website, "We're On the Journey Together," http://www.kings-chapel.org/budget-narrative-for-2015.html

UPCOMING Adult Religious Education Events:
Learning Our Past as We Look to Our Future - Hold the Dates

How did King's Chapel come to be so open in its Theology, and so rooted in the Prayer Book?

 

We'll be exploring these questions this spring - come and join us.

 

Wednesday, February 4, 7:15 pm at the Parish House: Book discussion rescheduled

We'll discuss two excellent, short books, written by members of King's Chapel: Journey Towards Independence, by Carl Scovel, Minister Emeritus, and Charles Forman; and King's Chapel The First Century: 1686-1787, by Andre Mayer. Both are available for those interested, by contacting the Parish House.  The Journey Toward Independence, originally given as a Minns Lecture, is available as a pdf on the Minns Committee Website.  Sponsored by the Adult Religious Education Committee.
 
Wednesday, March 11, 7:15 pm at the Parish House. An overview and discussion of European Unitarianism, also sponsored by the Adult Religious Education Committee.
 

 

February 8 - 11 AM -Guest Preacher, Tina Chery, President and Founder, Mother's Day March for Peace, and Louis Brown Peace Institute, Boston

 

In 1993, Boston teenager Louis Brown was killed, caught in the crossfire of a gang shootout while on his way to a Teens Against Gang Violence meeting.  Louis, a Boston school student at West Roxbury High, had said that he wanted to be the first African American U.S. President, and to work for peace, to change the image Americans had of young black men. Through his mother, Tina Chery, and the Louis Brown Peace Foundation, which Louis' grieving parents established in his name, Louis' cause of peace goes forward in Boston, and now nationally. Ms. Chery and her organization support other families and victims of violence, and promote violence prevention through peace curriculum used in the public schools, at all levels.  Last year alone, 1000 children studied it. In May 2014, King's Chapel members Denton Crews, Kathe German, and Emanuel and Carol Genovese, marched in the Mother's Day March Against Violence, and reported to us all the profound effect of talking and marching with thousands of adults and children from all over Boston and its suburbs, on a Sunday morning, through Roxbury and Dorchester.  For more information, http://ldbpeaceinstitute.org/

 

February 15 - Churchwide Pancake Breakfast Hosted by Our Children's Ministries - at the Parish House before Morning Prayer, 9:30 - 10:30 AM.  $5 

Heinrich Christensen to perform with the Seraphim Singers 

 

King's Chapel Music Director and organist Heinrich Christensen will perform in concerts with The Seraphim Singers on Sunday, Feb. 8th at 3pm at First Church Cambridge (11 Garden St., Cambridge) and Friday, Feb. 13th at 8pm at St. Cecilia's Parish (18 Belvidere St., Boston).  "'For heaven is a different thing': Choral Settings of Sacred Poetry" features a world premiere by Boston composer Richard J. Clark, a U.S. premiere by Norwegian composer Jon Lautvik, and exquisite settings of poetry by John Donne, George Herbert, Jones Very and more by Gerald Finzi, Hildegard von Bingen, Carson Cooman, James Woodman, and others. Tickets are $15-20; visit www.seraphimsingers.org for more information. 

News from the Parish
The staff will be celebrating Theresa's many years of service at King's Chapel on Tuesday afternoon, February 3rd.  If you would like to send a note to Theresa wishing her well on this new journey in her life, please contact the Parish Administrator.

My Dear King's Chapel Friends,

 

There are two lines from a Serbian poem by Ivan V. Lalc that have been running through my head non-stop the last couple of weeks. They keep popping into my conscience uninvited; it's almost become a mantra:  

Places we love we can never leave,
Places we love together, together, together...  

There are few places that have had such an impression on my relatively young life as King's Chapel. I was hired here as Assistant Head Guide of the Visitor's Program when I was 23 and just out of Harvard Divinity School. I remember the moment that I thought this was the coolest place I had ever been; it was up on the platform right below the bell tower looking at the undressed granite and the dark wood beams and realizing that there were still places in Boston that were secret and ancient. The physical beauty of the interior is immediately obvious, but it's the dark, quiet corners of this building that have always felt magical to me. What a joy it has been to live in that magic for the last seven years.
 

As impossibly difficult as this feels, it is time for me to leave my position here. The reasons for this decision are joyful: I am graduating from the Graduate Division of Religious Studies at Boston University in May, and I now need to focus on the next stage of my academic career.  More pressing than this is the fact that my husband Mike and I are expecting our first child in July; I have heard a rumor that babies require some attention!
 

I have experienced so much with, in, and alongside King's Chapel. It was both a major character in the story of my young adult life, and also a touchstone, always there, quiet and constant, no matter how chaotic the rest of the world could be. I have been the Head of the Guide Program for the last five years, and, at times, a verger and administrator. I lived in the garden apartment in the Parish House for three years and got married in the Chapel. I have spent every forth of July for the last seven years in colonial costume and every October watching the late afternoon light come in the windows and wondering how it's possible for anything to be so beautiful. I've met every kind of person from every corner of the world, and have been so proud to share this space and its stories with them. I've met all of you; the devoted, talented staff and the kind, loyal parishioners. You have shared so much with me. Please know how much I will carry you all with me; we will always be united in our love of this place and the time we have spent here. I look forward to coming back often to visit King's Chapel, and seeing it with new eyes. I can't wait to show my child its magic.  Thank you all for being a part of my time here. Goodbye for now, but not for long!
 

All my best wishes,
Theresa Cooney O'Hara
Congratulations to Beth and Walter Chapin!

A new grandbaby, born January 20th, has blessed their lives.  Join us in welcoming Aidan Walter Johnson to this world!  
WANTED: Videographer/ Camera volunteer for recording Sunday Sermons

Since last Fall, King's Chapel has benefited from the regular volunteer work of Bill Sears in recording the sermons on Sundays for use on our website and YouTube channel.  Thank you, Bill!! 

We are now looking to build out the team.  If you are interested in bringing your skills to this important outreach effort, please contact the Parish Administrator: [email protected]
In This Issue
Worship Services
SUNDAY FEBRUARY 1st
Rev. Joy Fallon, preacher

 

  • Anne Sexton, Head Usher
  • Richard Weeks, Usher in Charge
  • Cathy Price and Cliff Allen, Ushers
  • Carolyn Russ and Cynthia Perkins, Lectors
  • Bill Kuttner, Volunteer Guide
  • Karen Hawthorne, Hospitality
  • Carolyn Conley, Verger

The Readings:

  • Psalm 111
  • Epistle: 1 Cor. 8:1-13
  • New Testament: Mark 1:21-28

The flowers on the communion table are given by Anne and Peter Sexton in loving memory of their parents, Molly and William Barthorpe, Donald and Teresa Sexton
and Anne's sister Sheila Elizabeth Barthorpe.

Second Sundays 
On Sunday February 8th, all donations not designated for the King's Chapel Annual Appeal will be given to the Unitarian Universalist Service Committee
From the Bench
By Heinrich Christensen

This Sunday for Transylvanian Communion, the choir will sing selections from Palestrina's Missa Pater Noster. In observance of Candlemas, we will sing James MacMillan's Lux Aeterna, light eternal. Heinrich will play a Suite by Norwegian composer Jon Laukvik. Laukvik is professor of historical keyboard instruments at the Musikhochschule in Stuttgart, and mixes French Baroque form with jazzy idiom in this work.
Tuesday Recitals
Tuesday, February 3rd 
at 12:15 pm

Carson Cooman plays the C.B. Fisk Organ.  Works by Henning, Woodman, Leclerc
Little Chapel News
Since my relocation to Boston in 2012 from a place with a reasonably temperate climate, I have enjoyed observing myself and others sink into the culture created by weather. I remember being confused upon moving here when I would hear people talk about the impending 6-month winter. "Could it really be that bad?" I would think to myself.

I reflect on this to serve as a preface to how delightful and fascinated I have been during this most recent blizzard (Juno, I think they're calling it?). The grocery store crowds and emptying of bread and milk shelves, the rush to get home before the storm begins and locating water bottles, and flashlights and batteries tucked into forgotten corners of closets. It struck me during my day off from school yesterday, as my roommates and I played cards and watched movies under warm blankets and watched the wind and snow outside our windows, that snow days are kind of like nature's way of enforcing Sabbath. With a travel ban in place, schools and offices closed across the city, and public transit closed down, what else is there to do but pause? In a society dependent on the constant activity of consuming and producing, it seems as if a forced day off is God's way of getting us to stop and be. 

I am grateful for time to pause, and for those who continued to work during the storm in the service of others. May God bless us with compassion and mindfulness as we continue our journey in this new year. 


God's Peace,
Eva 
Church School Director
Upcoming Church School Events/Things to Note: 

 Feb. 15: 
Church-Wide Pancake Breakfast Celebration
9:00-10:30am

Come be a part of celebrating Shrove Tuesday (a couple days early!) or Mardi Gras, the celebration which precedes the season of Lent in our church calendar. We'll have Early Worship at 9:00 at the Parish House, followed by pancakes from 9:30-10:30. The event is sponsored by the church school, but is for the whole congregation to be a part of. 

We are suggesting a donation of $5, to benefit homeless communities in Boston. Volunteers are needed to bring griddles and/or waffle irons, as well as to help cook the pancakes! The Church School staff will provide pancake batter, eggs, and syrup. Please contact Eva if you are interested in being a part of organizing this fun event! 

 Volunteer to Host Coffee Hour!
Accessibility and Hearing Assists
Our beautiful Georgian sanctuary designed by Peter Harrison and completed in 1754, has been lovingly maintained by the congregation since its completion.  Some of the box pews have been made wheel-chair accessible.  Ushers are available to assist those who are wheelchair-bound to those pews.  

Many of us have trouble hearing in our sanctuary, which does not have amplification.  Small hearing devices are available; an usher also will be happy to provide one, and explain how they work.  

The Book of Common Prayer According to the Use in King's Chapel is the cornerstone of worship at our 11 am Morning Prayer Services.  Printed orders of service including hymns, Psalms, and responsive sections of the Prayer Book liturgy are available to facilitate participation in worship for everyone.