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...

Christmas Caroling for the Holiday Stroll | December 10

Join us tomorrow on December 10 as we go caroling up and down Charles Street for the annual Beacon Hill Holiday Stroll!

We will gather a merry bunch at the Parish House at 5:30PM and take to the streets once we have a quorum. Carol books will be provided.

Come one, come all! Contact 
heinrich@
kings-chapel.org with any questions.
From the Minister | Third Sunday in Advent

A more simple life - is that something you'd like, found in a small box, under your Christmas tree?  It might be wrapped in simple paper, with a little bow and lots of love.  Inside there is a way to be less frantic, to get more rest. Opening it, we become disentangled, unknotted.  Our wants diminish, we breathe more deeply, we eat good, healthy meals and are satisfied. A simpler life that feeds our souls.
 
In Advent, with its busyness and sparkle, have you wished for a more simple life, the way we feel on a cold clear night, when the world is hushed, and we gaze up at the stars in wonder? 
 
There once was a man who was born into high society, guaranteed to inherit a high position, enough money, and prestige.  But something led him away from all of that, far from the city, out into a barren geography where he discovered simpler ways to live. Other people -- confused by the complexity of life, international tensions, their suffering and the pain of those they loved -- came out to hear him. "What should we do," they asked?
 
I thought I knew his answer, but I'd forgotten.  On Sunday we'll listen, together.
Upcoming Events
Blue Christmas - Tonight at 6PM at the church

For any who worry or wonder or weep this season, who feel "blue," join us for a 6 PM candlelit service.  We'll read some poetry, listen to beautiful music, hear words of assurance and love, sit among others who know these feelings, too.  The service ends with shared communion and the chance to light candles of light in life's darkness.
Hungry for a More Meaningful Christmas?

Join the Rev. Joy Fallon in reading a small book, 1-2 pages a day, during Advent, the four weeks leading up to Christmas. Copies of Preparing for Christmas: Daily Meditations for Advent, by best-selling author Franciscan monk Richard Rohr,  Read and reflect on your own, or join Joy for an informal conversation on Wednesday
evenings, December 9 and 16 at 7PM, following the 6PM worship service.  We'll meet over soup in the Vestry room, behind the pulpit.
Light a Candle to Remember Children Gone Too Soon
 
Sunday, December 13, 6PM to 8PM, Church of the Covenant, 67 Newbury Street.
 
The Boston Chapter of The Compassionate Friends, a nonprofit group offering friendship and understanding to bereaved parents and siblings, invites all to join in the 19th annual Worldwide Candle Lighting.  This unique and free event, with music and readings, gives bereaved families the opportunity to light a candle in memory of their loved ones who have died. Regular meetings are held at Trinity on the 1st
Tuesday of each month. To learn more, contact Louise Strasenburgh,
Old Fashioned Clean Up and Greening Before Christmas
 
An impassioned band of friends and eager parishioners are being gathered by Bill Wilson and Todd Lee to meet at the church on Saturday, December 19, 8AM 'til 10AM,  to clean, straighten up, and make presentable our wonderful King's Chapel for the Christmas season.  We will also be completing our Greening of the church from 10AM to Noon.

Help us spruce up our house of worship to help make us look our best as we welcome young and old, long time members and first time visitors and all who wish to join us to celebrate our faith and traditions. 

Doughnuts, coffee and cider - and old-time community spirit - before we get on to a busy last Saturday before Christmas. Join us!

Please let Gretchen Horton ([email protected]) know if you will be there - and bring a friend to meet us at work. 


Festive "Milk Punch" Sunday After Church - December 20th, 12:30PM  
 
In a grand Yuletide tradition of King's Chapel, on the Sunday before Christmas, all are invited to gather after church at the Parish House, 64 Beacon Street, for festive food, good cheer, and the famous Milk Punch, something akin to a deliciously powerful eggnog. If you've had it before, we know you'll be returning.  If you haven't tried Milk Punch yet, you won't be sorry you did.  Join old friends and meet new ones.
Retreat at Glastonbury Abbey, January 15-17 2016

Hymns: Experience and Reflection, led by Rev. Shawn Fiedler and Heinrich Christensen.

Martin Rinkart was a minister in the city of Eilenburg during the Thirty Years War. Apart from battles, lives were lost in great number during this time due to illnesses and disease spreading quickly throughout impoverished cities. In the Epidemic of 1637, Rinkart officiated at over four thousand funerals, sometimes fifty per day. Rinkart lost his wife during the Epidemic. In the midst of these horrors, it is difficult to imagine maintaining faith and praising God, and yet, that's exactly what Rinkart did. He wrote the popular hymn, "Now Thank We All Our God." Somehow, Rinkart found the strength to write a hymn of praise and thanksgiving to God even in the midst of great horror and heartache. Could you compose a hymn of hope and praise in the midst of such pain? Could you sing one? 

In the beauty and peace of the Glastonbury Abbey in Hingham, Massachusetts, we will explore the theology, history and spirituality of Christian hymnody. We will discuss and reflect on classic hymns, and of course, sing! Start the new year making a joyful noise! To register, click here.
Christmas at Kings


Family Service
Christmas Eve 5PM
 
The story of Jesus' birth comes alive through word and carols. Any child who wants to participate as a shepherd or angel in our nativity pageant will have the opportunity to do so.
 
 
Lessons & Carols
Christmas Eve 10:30PM
 
A traditional service with full choir and candlelight modeled after the service offered at Truro Cathedral in 1880.
The first Christmas Eve service offered
at King's Chapel was held in 1929.
Organ prelude begins at 10 p.m.
 
 
Holy Communion
Christmas Day 10 a.m.
 
Join us for our Christmas Day service with Holy Communion in celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ.
New Years at Kings

Holy Communion
5:30PM at the Little Chapel
64 Beacon Street

We greet the coming new year with this service of Word & Sacrament from the King's Chapel Book of Common Prayer. 
 
Potluck Dinner
6:15PM to 9PM
King's Chapel Parish House
64 Beacon Street

A potluck dinner in the 2nd floor parlors of 64 Beacon Street. Advance reservations and potluck assignments should be made by December 29th through the Parish Administrator: [email protected].

First Night Concert
9PM at King's Chapel

Heinrich Christensen plays
the C.B. Fisk Organ.
J.S. Bach: Toccata and Fugue in d minor Modest Mussorgsky: Pictures at an Exhibition. Free and open to the public.
Upcoming Worship Schedule

There will be no Evening Worship (Wednesdays 6PM) on December 23 or December 30.

Additionally, there will be no Morning Light (Sundays 9AM) on December 27th. Please join us for Morning Prayer on December 27th at 11AM

All regularly scheduled services will resume on January 3rd

News from the Parish

Generosity Thriving and On The Rise - 2015 Appeal!

We have been receiving marvelous gifts from you! Thank you!

In the past couple of weeks, following our request for  your annual contributions, and the announcement of the Matching Contribution Fund, it is splendid to see the groundswell of additional support helping us finish out the drive with a flourish by the end of the year.

A significant number of you have added 10, 15...50%, (in one case 100%!) above the pledged or habitual amount of your gifts.  Qualifiers for the match have numbered so many that new match funders have stepped forward to increase the available program.  

Our giving may be the clearest way for us to show each other that we like what is going on at King's Chapel.  Supporting our church with our "treasure" - as modest as that perforce may seem for many of us - is a joyful expression of thanks for all we get from it.  

For those who have made a contribution to date, we thank your for  this participation and understanding of practical responsibility, as well as spiritual possibility,which makes the Annual Appeal a joyful enterprise.


Many thanks.  Many blessings,


Todd Lee and Orian Welling
Co-chairs,  2015 Annual Appeal
Holiday Baked Goods Project - Massachusetts Coalition for the Homeless

One in seven children in Massachusetts is living in poverty, many without a bed.  The Christmas season is nearly upon us and the Massachusetts Coalition for the Homeless is seeking our help to make its annual holiday baked goods project a success.  Again this year Dancing Deer Bakery is partnering with the Coalition.  The funds raised through this sale support the Coalition's initiative "A Bed for Every Child."  The Coalition partners with public schools to assist students whose families are at risk of becoming homeless.

A good night's sleep has a major effect on a child's ability to come to school prepared to learn; falling behind in school due to a lack of sleep can have negative long-term consequences on a student's education and future.  A proven pathway out of homelessness is to ensure children of low-income families receive an education that will allow them to graduate from high school.  To do this, children must have the tools they need to succeed.  One of these tools is a bed.

A complete bed includes a twin mattress, box spring, frame and linens for each student referred to the Coalition by its public school partners throughout Massachusetts.  Your purchase of baked goods or making a monetary donation to "A Bed for Every Child" will help children living in poverty.  For every $250 raised, a child receives a complete bed.  So far, well over 2,000 children have received their own bed, but hundreds more are still on a waiting list.

This year your baked goods will be delivered directly to your home address or to the address of someone to whom you are making a gift of baked goods.  Please place your order by December 17, 2015, at 10:00 AM, to ensure delivery by December 25.  Orders will ship December 18, 2015.  Just go to mahomeless.org; click on "Our Programs"; click on "A Bed for Every Child Initiative"; and click on "Holiday Baked Goods Project - Shop now".  If you wish to donate instead, click on "Donate".  If you have a problem navigating the site, contact me (Cliff Allen) and I will lend my assistance.  I may be reached at 12 Jewett Road, Beverly, MA 01915; [email protected]; or 508-517-7904.

Cliff Allen, Senior Warden

Update on Communications

Are you inspired by King's Chapel and all that happens here? Are you an avid photographer who loves to have the "feeling" captured in photograph?  If the answer is "Yes!" then we would like to talk with you!

We are searching for people to photograph many of the wondrous and busy events and activities that happen here, for use in updating our website and communications brochures. From our Sunday Morning Prayer to Tuesday Recital series, weekly renter activities to Milk Punch Sunday, there is a lot to capture!

Please contact Gretchen to learn more about this opportunity to give back to King's Chapel and find out how you can help!  Thank you!

Gretchen can be reached at  
[email protected]
In This Issue
Wednesday, December 9, 6PM, Blue Christmas

The Rev. Joy Fallon,
preacher
  • Joei Marshall Perri, Soloist
  • Cathy Price, Hospitality
Sunday, December 13, 11AM, Communion Service

The Rev. Joy Fallon,
preacher
  • Joei Marshall Perri, Soloist
  • Anne Sexton, Usher-in-Charge
  • Sylvia Soderberg and Gregg Sorensen, Ushers
  • Judy & Paul Luca, Hospitality
  • Carolyn Conley, Verger
The Readings:
  • Psalm 40: 1-10
  • Old Testament: Isaiah 12:2-6
  • New Testament: Luke 3:7-18
 Volunteer to Host Coffee Hour!
From the Bench
By Heinrich Christensen
This Sunday, the choral Introit will be Jacob Handl's Rorate Coeli (Drop down dew, ye heavens). You will hear another anthem by our featured Advent composer Charles Wood, this one entitled Expextans Expectavi. Inspired by Psalm 40 (I waited patiently for the Lord), it sets an original poem by C.B. Sorley.

The choir will also sing Randall Thompson's beautiful setting of Robert Herrick's The Best of Rooms:

Christ, He requires still, wheresoe'er He comes,
To feed, or lodge, to have the best of rooms:
Give Him the choice; grant Him the nobler part
Of all the house: the best of all's the heart.

The organ voluntaries will be J.S. Bach'a three settings of the chorale Savior of the Nations, Come, from his so-called "great 18" Leipzig chorale prelude collection.
Tuesday Recitals
Tuesday, December 8, 12:15 PM

Pioneer Singers of Lynnfield
Steven Bloom, director
Holiday Favorites
Second Sundays, This Sunday!
On Sunday, December 13th, all collection not designated for the Annual Appeal will go to
Horizons for Homeless Children.
Church School
Coming of Age Group Needs Mentors

The King's Chapel Church School is looking for volunteers who will serve as mentors to participants in our Coming of Age group. Responsibilities include meeting with your Coming of Age mentee at least twice (meeting more often is welcome and encouraged if your schedules allow), helping your mentee write a statement of faith, and attending the Coming of Age luncheon in May and Confirmation on June 6th. If you have any questions, please contact Ryan Harrison at
Interested in Membership?
Click here to learn how to become a member of King's Chapel!
More News from
The Parish
Young Adult Recap

Last Thursday evening, many young adults of King's Chapel gathered at the home of Rev. Shawn Fiedler for conversation and good cheer. Those in attendance watched the lighting of the Boston Common Christmas Lights from the fifth floor balcony while singing Christmas carols!
We Rejoice with Those Who Rejoice, and Weep with Those Who Weep

Our longtime members, Leo and Dorothy Johnson, have just moved into a independent living facility in Dedham.  Leo recovered well from the hip surgery he had nearly a year ago, and they've packed up a whole house!  Congratulations to them both.  Leo reports that they'd love a phone call or visit from KC friends. Their new address and new phone number are:

Leo and Dorothy Johnson
Traditions of Dedham
735 Washington Street
Apt. 130
Dedham, Ma. 02026
781-471-7997 (new)


Do you recognize this person?  The Wedding Coordinator at King's Chapel, Louise Perkins, has been working on weddings for years, it seems - even since childhood!  Many thanks to Louise for the many weddings with which she helps Joy, Shawn, Heinrich, and countless brides and grooms each year.  Whatever the emergency that arises at the last minute, Louise has seen it before, and always has a calm response.  Thank you!

This past weekend, there was a memorial service in Virginia for the Rev. Charles Speight, father of our member Allen Speight.  We continue to hold in prayer Allen, his wife Hallie, and their son Will.

Advent Crafts

This past Sunday, children and adults gathered for our traditional Advent Crafts.  They stuffed backpacks to give away, made candles, created glass mosaic ornaments, made wreaths of greens, stuffed oranges with cloves, and other fun activities.  Thanks to all who made it possible!
Backpacks for the Homeless

Thank you for all the donations thus far for our Backpacks for the Homeless program. The children filled 40 backpacks at the craft fair this past Sunday. We have enough backpacks, hats and gloves now but we still need several items. We need, scarves, tooth-brushes and trial size toothpaste, deodorant, chapstick, small packets of wet ones and gift certificates to Dunkin Donuts ($5 is a good amount). We will be collecting items until December 15th. We will bless the backpacks on December 20th then walk them down to Common Cathedral to give them to our neighbors in need. We need volunteers to walk down to the Common after service on the 20th so please consider joining us in making another's holiday a little brighter. Thank you for all your support. Please contact me at  [email protected] for more information.
King's Chapel Outreach

As many of you know Community Action Committee is gathering information about organizations in our community for our church to get more involved in. We would like to get your input. Please email me at [email protected] to let me know what issues you would like to see our church get more involved in. Let me know what your interests are, what your passions are or if you are involved in volunteering for any organizations now. I look forward to hearing from you. Thank you for your support. Together we can make a difference in our beautiful city!
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. One of the box pews has been made wheel-chair accessible.  Ushers are available to assist those who are wheelchair-bound to that pew. 
Contributing to Between Sundays

Want something in Between Sundays? Feel free to email Simon at [email protected] with a written piece and/or pictures before Wednesday at 12 PM!