Parish News

Through a painstaking and possibly once-in-a-lifetime paint restoration project underway at Old North Church in Boston, a host of colonial-era angels is coming into view, one by one, for the first time in over a century, and just in time for Christmas.

Grace Chapel in Brockton, a mission congregation of the diocese, invites the diocesan community on Sunday, Nov. 20, 2022, at 10 a.m. for a celebration of its 12th anniversary.  "My greatest joy has been the opportunity to watch children grow and see individual lives transformed over the last 12 years," the Rev. Moses Sowale, Grace Chapel's vicar, said by e-mail. "We celebrate the beauty of our uniqueness in Christ while breaking down the walls created by our differences."

A refugee family from Afghanistan designated for resettlement in Dartmouth has yet to arrive, but already has a friend in Martin Costa, a member of St. Peter’s Church and that parish’s designated point person for organizing some support.

At St. Paul's Church in Newburyport, preparing the way this Advent means just that. The parish has spent the early days of December getting ready to become the temporary home for an Afghan family of nine who arrived this week, to be followed by a second family of 13 expected in coming days.

What was formerly a blank brick wall on the Fifth Street side of 472 Broadway in Chelsea is now a colorful procession through the community's history.  Just below the blue folds of the Salvadoran dancer Carmen Villalta's costume, we see the Rev. Edgar Gutierrez-Duarte, the vicar of St. Luke's-San Lucas Church.  He's wearing his COVID mask and helping other members of the community distribute food to hungry neighbors.  They're among those brought together in "Chelsea Resilient: Call and Response Through the Ages," a new 80-foot mural by David Fichter that traces Chelsea's history across four centuries.

St. Paul’s Church in Hopkinton and St. Stephen’s Church in Westborough welcomed the Rev. Mary Rosendale as their shared priest-in-charge as of Sept. 1—an unusual arrangement because it brings together churches from two dioceses.  St. Stephen’s, Westborough, where Rosendale had been serving as an interim priest, is about five miles from St. Paul’s and part of the neighboring Diocese of Western Massachusetts.