Pastors' Blog
Dear Ones,
Advent IV is upon us again, the Sunday where we help re-tell the story of the first Christmas (which, like our pageant, was unrehearsed). We'll hear the call of the angels, follow the star to Bethlehem, pay homage to the infant Christ, and return home by another way.
One of my favorite lines in the Christmas Story is "But Mary treasured all these things and pondered them in her heart."
In these few short days before Christmas, I invite you to do some pondering...
You probably remember that right after Mary heard from the angel Gabriel that she would be bearing the "Son of the Most High," she went hastily to tell her elder relative Elizabeth. After she arrived and greeted Elizabeth, little fetus John the Baptist leapt in Elizabeth's womb, and the older woman immediately recognized what was happening to Mary.
And then Mary breaks into a kind of poem or song, traditionally called the Magnificat (Latin for "magnifies,"...
Reminder: this weekend we have our long-anticipated production of Amahl and the Night Visitors in the Sanctuary Friday, December 7, 7pm Sunday, December 9, 4:30pmBring your friends, bring your family, bring people who need some heartwarming holy wonder.Come enjoy this beautiful story of how...
Dear Ones,
If you couldn't tell from the Christmas music I was blasting in my car well before Thanksgiving (Advent used to start on November 15th!), Christmas is my favorite holiday of the Christian year, and Advent is my favorite liturgical season. I'm so ready. I've got Love, Actually queued up on Netflix, my roommate and I are buying our Christmas tree this weekend, and Kent, Susan, Wilson and I have...
Grace to you and peace, from the one who is and who was and who is still to come!
For a recording of Kent's sermon from last week, and to subscribe to our podcast, click here!
This Sunday is the last Sunday in the Christian calendar, the last Sunday before Advent begins and we prepare to welcome the infant Christ. This particular Sunday is often called Christ the King Sunday, or Reign of Christ...
This Sunday, we have our annual autumn all-parish meeting and potluck. I hope you will come for the food and stay as long as you like. Our Gathering Team invites you to bring a favorite family dish to share. If you cannot bring a dish, come anyway.
Now, five years into my pastorate with you, I want to discuss some current trends at United Parish and where I believe they are leading us. If you’re new to us, I especially hope you will come to listen in.
Some of you may know of...
This Sunday, we have an opportunity that few churches get to experience: we will hear a brand new musical piece that has been commissioned especially for us.
A few years ago, two members of our Chancel Choir commissioned then-section leader, Christopher LaRosa, to compose a choral piece that would incorporate trombones, honoring our long-standing relationship with the...
REMINDERSWe invite you to bring photos or mementos to worship as part of our All Saints celebration this Sunday.We invite you to bring non-perishable food for our monthly communion donation to the Brookline Food Pantry.Daylight Savings ends at 2am this Sunday. We turn our clocks back an hour.
In our worship planning meeting for this Sunday’s service, I joked to others on...
I'm wrestling about what to say on Sunday.
This autumn, we have been preaching from the standard lectionary, that three-year cycle of scripture readings that Christian churches have used in some form since the fifth century. It forces a sort of discipline on us as preachers and worship leaders. Rather than choosing texts to fit our topics, we figure out how to make sense of the texts assigned and as...
As an interdenominational church, we like to welcome the local reps from our three denominations, to keep active ties with our national religious movements and legacies. Last Spring, you will recall that Mary Day Miller, Executive Minister of The American Baptist Churches of Massachusetts, preached about John Leland and the legacy of religious freedom. Sometime this...
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