Events Calendar

Join us for Worship each Sunday at 11:00am

Greg Abate and Steve Martorella
Candles, Carols, n’ Jazz
Sunday, December 22 at 2:00 pm
Free and open to the public

Carol Sing
Sunday, December 22 at 11:00am
Your opportunity to request your favorite carol.

Christmas Eve Worship
7:30 Prelude Begins
8:00 Worship Begins

Bring your bells for the singing and ringing of Joy to the World.

Church School for all ages begins at 10am every Sunday

Adult Sessions

December 1st

NO FORUM

December 8th

Lectio divina led by Ruth Marris Macaulay

“For I am about to do something new.   See, I have already begun! Do you not see it? I will make a pathway through the wilderness. I will create rivers in the dry wasteland.” Isaiah 43:19 

December 15th

Out of Darkness: Into Light: Ruth Marris Macaulay

Looking at the light at the end of the tunnel in our Advent journey and in similar traditions in other faiths and cultures.

December 22nd

The Origins of Christmas Carols: Stephen Martorella

Our own Minister of Music, Stephen Martorella will talk about how our favorite Christmas carols originated.

December 29th

NO FORUM

A Time for Quiet Meditation and Reflection

Tuesdays – 12:00 – 1:00
Join us in the Auditorium for a few minutes or the full hour. Please enter and leave silently.

Book Groups

Wednesday Ladies Group at 1:00 via Zoom
Practice the Pause : Jesus’ Contemplative Practice, New Brain Science and What It Means to Be Fully. Human by Carolyn Oakes

Thursday Evening at 5:45 via Zoom
Sessions with Psalms by Eric and Alicia d. Porterfield

For more information contact Linda Bausserman

Garden of Earthy Delights

See you in March to plant peas.

Choir

You are invited to join the choir. We meet in Fellowship Hall each Thursday evening at 7:30 pm and on Sunday morning at 9:30.

Did you know? The Meeting House will be 250 years old in 2025. There will be celebrations next year. While you wait, check back here for some building facts from the book First by J.Stanley Lemons. (You can purchase the book at the Meeting House.)

  • Until 1802, the basement of the Meeting House was primitive and unfinished. It had been rented out to local businessmen, was a practice room for an incipient church choir, and had been used to store the hearse which the Charitable Baptist Society had imported from England in 1791.
  • In 1802, it was improved to create a meeting room, which was still dim and damp when the Sunday School began in 1819. As the Sunday School grew, more space was carved out. In 1837, the floor was leveled and finally in 1857, after years of debate, the whole lower region was excavated and reconstructed.
  • In February 1774, some of the leading men associated with the church began planning for a new larger building. In addition to deciding on the design of the building, they needed land. Unfortunately, the main parcel they wanted was owned by John Angell who despised the Baptists. So, an Anglican friend, William Russell Purchased the Angell property and sold it to the Charitable Baptist Society.
  • Monetary pledges were made to cover most of the cost of the meeting house. Those who could not give money donated labor and materials. Daniel Hawkins pledged £6 to be paid in timber & bords, and John Pettis pledged £9 to be paid in stones. The expense accounts also record “Licker at Raiseings & at other times…£22.
  • James Gibbs sketched four designs for the steeple of the Church of St. Martin’s-in-the-Fieldsin London, one of which was chosen and used in 1726. The other three appeared in Gibb’s Book of Architecture (1728), and Joseph Brown, architect for the Meeting House, picked one of those for the Meeting House.
  • The steeple was erected in 3 1/2 days in June 1775.