RIP Donald Peter Miller, Priest

The Rev'd Donald Miller died peacefully the morning of 15 October 2014. A long-time priest associate of the parish, Fr. Miller was a tireless and devoted minister of the gospel, who took great satisfaction during his retirement in assisting the Ashmont clergy by visiting parishioners in their homes.

He was greatly loved and will be missed.

The Requiem for Fr. Miller will be celebrated at All Saints' at 2 p.m. on Saturday, 1 November. A collation will follow.

Donald Peter Miller was born in Boston on 4 May 1929, the son of John and Alice Miller. He was awarded a BA from Suffolk University (1959) and a Master of Divinity from the School of Theology, the University of the South (1962). He was ordained deacon on 23 June 1962 by Bp. Anson Phelps Stokes, Jr. He was priested by Bishop John Melville Burgess on 1 June 1963. He married Ann Wells Weston seven years later on 20 June 1970.

After his retirement from paid ministry, Fr. Miller and his beloved wife, Ann, sought and found a parish home at All Saints.

Prior to his retirement, Fr. Miller served at St. John the Evangelist, Taunton (1995-2003), Trinity Episcopal Church, Rockland (1989-1992), Emmanual Episcopal Church, Wakefield (1981-1983), All Saints' Church, Whitman (1972-1977), St. Peter's Church, Weston (1966-1967), St. Bartholomew's Church in the Highland, White Plains (1963-1966), and Emmanuel Church, Braintree (1962-1963).

Autumn 2014 Evensongs & Vespers

Past Events

St. Gabriel's Conference

St. Gabriel's is a annual conference in the Anglican tradition welcoming adults of all Christian Communions, aged 21 and above.

This year, the conference was held Friday evening through Sunday morning, 17-19 October 2014 at the Espousal Center in Lexington, Massachusetts.

The courses presented this year were: Angels, Devil and Demons, The Passion Narratives, Hymns of the Christian Year, Some Women of the Bible, The Psalms in the Christian Tradition, and The Epistle to Philemon.

The photograph shows the statue of a winged Gabriel carved in the Caen stone reredos at All Saints'. His pallium bears the interpretation of his name, God is My Strength. He bears a lilly in his left right hand, while he gestures with his right.

Kick-off Sunday 2014

Sunday, 21 September, was Kick-off Sunday this year.

This was the first meeting of the Sunday School. Throughout the academic year, the children of the Sunday School attend the solemn mass until just after the gospel, when they process out of the church and to their classes in the Parish House. They then come back to the church for Communion, returning to the Parish House until after the mass.

The Choir of Men & Boys began its season with a mass by Franz Josef Haydn and a motet by William Byrd (I have longed for thy saving help). The organ voluntaries before and after mass were by Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy. For the Fall Music List see here. We will continue to rely on the Estey reed organ (affectionately known as Old Wheezy) until we are able to unwrap and re-tune the C.B. Fisk organ at the end of the year.

The Hospitality Committee hosted the potluck Fall Barbecue immediately after the Solemn Mass. Hamburgers and hot dogs were grilled by volunteers and parishioners brought a side dishes to share.

Benefit Recital, Memorial Church

William Porter played a recital at Harvard University's Memorial Church to benefit All Saints' Skinner Organ restoration project on Sunday, 21 September.

Over $17,750.00 in contributions was received as a result of the recital to directly benefit the ongoing restoration and installation of Skinner Organ, Opus 708. Through a combination of generous challenge grants from an anonymous donor and from the Joseph G. Bradley Foundation, this amount was augmented three-to-one resulting in $71,016.00.

The program was reviewed by the Boston Music Intelligencer.

The program on the Skinner Organ (Opus 793) was:

Camille Saint-Saëns: Fantaisie in E-flat major
Charles Tournemire: Epiphania Domini (Prélude à l'Introit, Offertoire, Élévation, Communion, Postlude)
Marcel Dupré: Prélude and Fugue in g minor

Prof. Porter also played Charles-Marie Widor's Symphonie Romane on the C.B. Fisk Organ (Opus 139).

Prof. invited those in attendance to join him in Appleton Chapel for the first part of the program. They returned to their seats in the church for the Widor.

The Parish of All Saints is deeply grateful to Prof. Porter for proposing this recital and for giving of his time and talent in bringing it about. Long a friend of the Parish, he is often seen at festival services, and he is further linked to All Saints as a teacher of current Organist and Choirmaster, Andrew Sheranian. All Saints also extends thanks to our friends at The Memorial Church for their support and gracious hospitality in hosting this recital.

When the restoration of Opus 708 is completed in 2015, All Saints' will join Memorial Church in having an instrument from both E. M. Skinner's workshop as well as from C.B. Fisk (Opus 103).

See here for more information on the Skinner restoration project.

Here is a stop list for the C.B. Fisk, Op. 103 and for the E.M. Skinner, Op. 708.

William Porter is recently retired Professor of Organ and Harpsichord at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York, and he also teaches in the organ department at McGill University in Montreal, where he lives. From 1985 to 2002 he taught organ, music history, and music theory at the New England Conservatory in Boston, and from 2001 until 2005 he taught improvisation at Yale University. He holds degrees from Oberlin College, where he also taught organ and harpsichord from 1974 to 1986, and from Yale University, where he was director of music at Yale Divinity School from 1971 to 1973.

Widely known as a performer in the United States and in Europe, he has also achieved international recognition for his skill in improvisation in a wide variety of styles, ancient and modern. He has performed at major international festivals and academies, including the North German Organ Academy, the Italian Academy of Music for the Organ, the Smarano Organ and Clavichord Academy, Organfestival Holland, the Göteborg International Organ Academy, the Dollart Festival, the Lausanne Improvisation Festival, the Festival Toulouse les Orgues, the Boston Early Music Festival, the Oregon Bach Festival, the McGill International Organ Academy, Eastman's Improvfest, and the National Convention of the American Guild of Organists.

He is organ consultant for the ConstellationCenter, a new performing arts center to be built in the Boston area, which will house several organs in different styles. He has recorded on historic instruments, old and new, for the Gasparo, Proprius, BMG, and Loft labels.

Capital Campaign Update

Having reached our minimum Capital Campaign goal of $500,000 in pledges and gifts just about a year ago, the Campaign has shifted into the "maintenance" phase, during which we continue to collect and log payments made by pledgers. On the one hand, this is rather mechanical and dry accounting work. On the other, it is heartening to witness on a daily basis the touching testaments of love and support for our Parish as pledgers faithfully continue to pay down their pledges, many in small increments and in weekly or monthly payments.

We have reported in the past that, in the end, the Campaign exceeded its goal, raising about $534,000 in gifts and pledges from 180 donors. As of this writing, we have collected just under $370,000 toward this total, or about 69.3%. This is a healthy pace, and we are optimistic that we will have fully collected the remaining $164,000 in pledges by the end of 2015, which is the formal end of the Campaign.

You should also note that the new permanent capital repairs endowment that the Campaign proceeds are helping to fund has been established and that we have received the $1,500,000 matching grant from our major donor. The Campaign proceeds combined with our donor's match are already carefully invested and earning income that will help us and those who follow us keep our beautiful and historic buildings in excellent condition in the decades and centuries to come.

Finally, on behalf of the Capital Campaign Committee, we wish to thank everyone who has given or pledged for your generosity of spirit, for your hard work, and for your faithful and sacrificial giving which have combined to make the Capital Campaign such a success for All Saints'.

Jeffrey Gonyeau, Capital Campaign Manager

Boy Choir Camp in Essex, NY

Again this year, our boys of the choir traveled with their chaperones to beautiful Essex, New York, on the western edge of Lake Champlain, for a week-long choir camp, hosted by our good friends of St. John's Episcopal Church.

For a week, the boys participated in choir rehearsals each morning to prepare them for the up-coming Montréal Choir Course. Then in the afternoons, they swam, hiked, and did crafts, before retiring in the evening for a meal and bed at their hosts' homes.

On Sunday, 27 July 2014, they sang the Sunday eucharist service.

We are grateful to our friends at St. John's for hosting our boys again this year. Many of our choristers are inner-city residents with limited opportunities for travel. The land around Essex, against the great Lake Champlain is good for their souls and bodies.

If you know of a boy in the 2nd through 4th grade, who might like to investigate joining this professional choir, please contact the Master of Choristers, Mr. Sheranian, at 617-436-6370 or at organist@allsaints.net.

Spring Construction Tours

Our close neighbors and the wider preservation and architectural community have not failed to take notice of the stem-to-stern restoration now underway at All Saints.

In addition to the numerous "up-the-scaffold" tours conducted for the parish, members of the building committee have conducted at least a dozen tours for our neighbors and the wider community.

Of the most recent tours, on Saturday, 3 May 2014, Jeff Gonyeau brought thirty people from our neighbors, the St. Mark's Area Main Street, on a detailed tour of our buildings, covering both the work completed to date, as well as the work in progress.

The evening of Thursday, 8 May saw twenty people from the Boston Preservation Alliance, begin a tour at the Lyn Hovey Studio in Codman Square, where they saw master craftsmen working on the badly damaged window Ralph Adams Cram gave to the parish. This window, at the head of the St. Stephen aisle, sits beneath some particularly tricky and formerly ill-maintained roofing. They also saw a few restored lancets from the Risen Christ window in the clerestory.

After forty-five minutes with Mr. Hovey, the tour moved to the church, where Andrew St. John lead a tour of the restoration and construction, assisted by Mr. Gonyeau.

Afterward, the tour assembled in the Guild Hall of the parish house for a gracious reception hosted by the firm of Smith + St. John, the parish's owner's representative for the project.

Both of these tours were featured in Buildings & Grounds [12MB PDF], a booklet compiling many activities promoted by the Boston Landmarks Commission in honor of National Preservation Month.

The Men & Boys in Lenox, Mass.

The Choir of Men & Boys traveled by bus to Lenox, Massachusetts, to sing a service of evensong at the parish of Trinity Church, Lenox, on Sunday, 11 May 2014. The music was:

This is one of the many opportunities the All Saints' choir has had to share the choral tradition it preserves and lives out Sunday by Sunday. Other churches at which the choir has sung recently are St. Paul's, Harvard Square, S. Stephen's, Providence, and All Saints', Worcester. The choir also sang the mass for Corpus Christi 2014 at the Church of the Advent, Boston.

Sixteenth Bishop of Massachusetts Elected

The Rev. Alan M. Gates, Rector of St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Cleveland Heights, Ohio, was elected to succeed the Rt. Rev. M. Thomas Shaw, SSJE as Bishop of the Diocese of Massachusetts. The election at a special meeting of the Diocesan Convention on 5 April was the culmination of a fifteen month process. Seven candidates were considered by the convention, their names proposed by the nominating committee or petition by convention delegates.

Since 2004, Fr. Gates has served as Rector at St. Paul's, a large congregation on Cleveland's east side. Previously he served in the Dioceses of Chicago, Western Massachusetts, and Massachusetts. He was ordained priest in 1988 at the Parish of St. John the Evangelist, Hingham, MA, having been ordained deacon at the Washington Cathedral.

A graduate of Middlebury College, he worked as a Russian linguist and Soviet analyst at the U.S. Departments of Defense and State before enrolling in seminary at Episcopal Divinity School. He is vice-chair of the Board of Bexley Hall Seabury-Western Seminary Federation. Prior involvements have included board service with the Teleios Foundation for US/Russian church relations, and St. Leonard's House ministry for ex-offenders; faculty for the Episcopal Preaching Foundation; and mentoring numerous candidates for parish ministry. In the Diocese of Ohio he has chaired the Commission on Ministry and is currently on the Standing Committee.

Fr. Gates is passionate about collegial parish ministry and community involvements. He has been married since 1980 to Patricia Harvey. They have two grown sons, Philip and Ethan.

The consecration has been scheduled for 13 September at the Agganis Arena at Boston University. See here for more information.

Sam Rodman, Holy Week Preacher

The Rev. Sam Rodman was our Guest Preacher this year for the Triduum. He has served as Project Manager for the Campaign Initiatives in the Diocese of Massachusetts since 2010, engaging congregations, clergy, and laity, in collaborative local and global mission through the Together Now campaign. For 23 years he served as a parish priest in Pennsylvania and Massachusetts, mostly recently as Rector of St. Michael's in Milton for 16 years from 1994-2010.

While in Milton, St. Michael's expanded their mission through partnerships and completed a seven-year plan that included a capital campaign for a major renovation of the church school building. From 1989-1994 Fr. Rodman served as the Assistant Rector at Church of the Redeemer, Chestnut Hill. He began his service in the Church as an Assistant in the Office of Evangelism and Congregational Development at the Episcopal Church Center in New York. In Massachusetts, he also served on the Commission on Ministry from 1995-2004 and was co-chair from 2001-2004.

Fr. Rodman has been associated with Bethany House of Prayer for the past four years serving as a retreat leader and chaplain with groups, congregations, and dioceses. He is a graduate of Bates College and Virginia Theological Seminary. Sam is married and he and his wife have two adult daughters.

A wise and gifted parish priest, he will guide us on our journey through these profound days of our Lord's sacrifice and victory.

Wednesday Evenings in Lent

Lenten Wednesday evenings at Ashmont were observed this past Lent with Stations of the Cross & Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament, followed by a Lenten meditation by William Buckingham.

Bill is an architect, principal of the firm Sullivan Buckingham Architects, has been a parishioner at All Saints' for over forty years, and is currently the parish's Junior Warden. He designed the oak west gallery for the C. B. Fisk Opus 103 and the wrought iron votive light stand at the Shrine of Our Lady of Walsingham (both 1995).

Bill's meditations in five parts discussed the spiritual and liturgical significance of the space and adorning art of the nave, the chapels and shrines, the rood, the choir, and the sanctuary.

St. Paul's at Ashmont

The Choir of St. Paul's, Harvard Square, joined the Ashmont Choir of Men & Boys to sing the service of evensong on the third Sunday of Lent, 23 March 2014.

We were happy to welcome back the Choir of St. Paul's, along with Fr. Michael Drea, the Pastor of St. Paul's, John Robinson, the Director of Music, and Jonathan Wessler, the Assistant Organist.

This is one of an occasional series of shared services where St. Paul's and All Saints' travel the Red Line to sing at each other's parish. We have been sharing these evening services since 2011 and are delighted to continue this collaboration between the two remaining liturgical boy choirs in the Boston area.

Please see here for the music for this service.

Bp Shaw preaches Candlemas

The Rt. Rev. M. Thomas Shaw, SSJE, diocesan bishop of Massachusetts, preached at All Saints' at its Candlemas service of Solemn Evensong & Benediction on 2 Februrary.

Bp. Shaw last visited All Saints' at the deanery confirmation in 2009. We were very grateful that he was been able to squeeze us into his busy schedule as he nears his retirement.

See here for more information about Bp. Shaw.

All Saints' at St. Paul's, Harvard Square

The afternoon of the Second Sunday after the Epiphany, 19 January 2014, the All Saints Choir of Men & Boys joined the Men and boys of the Choir of St. Paul's Church, Harvard Square in a Vespers service at St. Paul's Church, Harvard Square.

The music was:

Gaude Virgo – Josquin des Prez
Psalm 115 Anglican Chant: Gerald Knight
Magnificat in C – Charles Villiers Stanford
Sicut cervus – Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina
Organ
Fugue in G minor BWV 542 – Johann Sebastian Bach

For several years now these two boychoirs have been singing at each other's parish once or twice during the year.

We are delighted to continue this ecumenical Red Line tradition.

All Saints' Boys sing at inaugural service

The All Saints' Boy Choir were invited to sing at the interfaith inaugural service for the Mayor-elect of Boston, Marty Walsh. The service was held Sunday afternoon, 5 January 2014, at the Old South Church and was hosted by Reverend Jeffrey Brown.

They boys were excited to travel into Back Bay and participate in with other choirs in this city-wide service. They beamed as they greeted the mayor-elect and shook his hand.

Ralph Adams Cram's 150th

December 2013 saw the 150th anniversary of Ralph Adam Cram's birth. A small committee organized a weekend celebration of this seminal figure of 20th century architecture, Friday & Saturday, 13 & 14 December 2013.

On Friday, informal tours took place at the Church of the Advent, Ruggles Street Church, and Boston University. The day finished with a reception and dinner at the MIT Media Lab, and featured an address by Richard Guy Wilson, Commonwealth Professor and Chair of Architectural History, University of Virginia.

Saturday opened with an organized bus tour of the conventual church at the Society of Saint John the Evangelist, Cambridge, St. Elizabeth of Hungary Chapel, Sudbury (the Cram family chapel at St. Elizabeth's Episcopal Church), and Cram's Federal-style house in Sudbury, "Whitehall".

The day ended with an Advent Service of Nine Lessons and Carols sung by the Choir of Men & Boys at the Parish of All Saints, Ashmont. A reception followed this hour-long lessons and carols service, with a brief presentation by John G. Waite, Senior Principal, John G. Waite Associates, Architects, PLLC.

Feasts of All Saints & All Souls

The parish celebrated All Saints Day, its feast of title, on Friday, 1 November 2013, with with a low mass in the morning and again in the evening with a procession to the shrine of Our Lady of Dorchester and a solemn mass.

We were delighted to hear the Rev'd Truman Welch, Rector of the Church of the Good Shepherd, Waban, preach at the solemn mass. See here to read more about Fr. Welch.

The mass was sung by the All Saints Choir of Men & Boys. Missa 'O quam gloriosum est regnum' by Tomàs Luis de Victoria was the setting. His motet of the same name was the communion anthem. The organ voluntaries were Andante sostenuto (Symphonie Gothique) by Charles-Marie Widor and Prelude in B minor by Johann Sebastian Bach.

All the Faithful Departed were commemorated on Sunday, 3 November, at both the 8 and 10 o'clock requiem masses. The mass setting at the 10 o'clock mass was Josef Gabriel Rheinberger's Requiem in E-flat major.

Later that day, the choir travelled to All Saints', Worcester, to sing a service of Choral Evensong within the Octave of All Saints with the Worcester All Saints'. See here for the service music.

Michaelmas at Ashmont & Providence

All Saints' was privileged to be able to celebrate the Feast of St. Michael and All Angels twice this year: once at Ashmont in the morning and a second time that evening hosted by S. Stephen's, Providence. The feast was observed at the usual Ashmont Sunday masses, 29 September 2013, at 8 a.m. and 10 a.m. The All Saints' Choir of Men & Boys sang the Solemn Mass at 10 o'clock. The mass setting was Josef Gabriel Rheinberger's Missa Brevis 'Misericordias Domini' and the anthem was his Angelis suis (Ps. 91:11-12).

St. Michael peers past scaffolding erected adjacent to the high altar reredos.

The choir then traveled to Providence to sing a service of Evensong and Benediction at S. Stephen's Church, followed by a reception in S. Stephen's newly renovated Great Hall.

Feast of the Assumption

All Saints' celebrated the Feast of the Assumption Thursday evening 15 August 2013, amidst the scaffolding with a Procession and Solemn Mass sung by the Choir of Men and Boys. The setting was Philip Stopford's Keble Missa Brevis. There was a reception following the mass.

See the Building Restoration photo blog to learn about the temporary relocation of Our Lady of Dorchester and Our Lady of Walsingham.

Ashmont at the Advent for the Ascension

The Feast of the Ascension fell on 9 May, this year.

As we usually do, the folk from All Saints will took the Red Line from Ashmont to Beacon Hill to celebrate this great feast of the year with our sister Parish, the Church of the Advent, with a procession and orchestral mass. The preacher was the Rev'd Mark Edington, priest-in-charge at St. John's Church, Newtonville, Massachusetts.

Sunday within the Octave of the Ascension

The choir of St. Paul's Church,, Harvard Square, came to Ashmont Sunday afternoon, 12 May 2013, for a 4 pm Solemn Evensong & Procession for the Sunday within the Octave of the Ascension.

Earlier in 2013 the All Saints' Men and Boys Choir traveled to Harvard Square to sing with the St. Paul's Choir. We were happy to return the hospitality.

The music for this service was:

Responses – Philip Radcliffe
Psalm 19 – Anglican Chant: Herbert Howells
St. Paul's Service – Herbert Howells
God is gone up – Gerald Finzi
Ave maris stella – Edvard Grieg

Organ
L'Ascension – Olivier Messiaen

The organ voluntaries were played by Dr. Jonathan Wessler, Assistant Organist at St. Paul's, Harvard Square.

Hunger in Dorchester

Many people in Dorchester go to bed hungry every night. Our parish does its small part to address this problem by contributing food to two local food pantries.

In 2013, we have given food donations to the food pantry at St. Mary's Episcopal Church in Uphams Corner and the food pantry at the Codman Square Health Center.

Please help by bringing the following items: canned goods, pasta, and peanut butter to the church by the second Sunday of each month. Items can be left in the baskets at the front entrance to the church or in the hallway at the top of the handicap ramp.

Ashmont in the News

The All Saints' Choir of Men & Boys has been in the news twice in 2013.

Most prominently, the Boston Herald columnist Peter Gelzinis visited Ashmont to see a rehearsal of the Boy Choir and to chat with Damone and Devin Clark. See the video here at BostonHerald.com

Read the full article here.

The Winthrop Sun Transcript, in their Thursday, 20 December 2012 edition, featured a picture of the All Saints' Men & Boys Choir singing the 11th annual Lessons and Carols at St. John the Evangelist Church, Winthrop, Massachusetts. After the jump there was three-quarters of a page of photographs of the choir, the clergy, and the reception.

Society of Mary Annual Meeting

The Annual Mass & Meeting of the American Region of the Society of Mary took place on Friday & Saturday, 3 & 4 May 2013, at S. Stephen's Church, 114 George Street, Providence.

The Rt. Rev'd Lindsay, OGS, the Administrator of the Anglican Shrine of Our Lady of Walsingham, was in the country to address this meeting.

Friday at 6 pm he presented an address on "One Faith, Two Shrine," with panelists the Rev'd Henry Bohah, Catholic Chaplain, Brown University, and the Rev'd Dr. Arnold Klukas, Professor of Ascetical & Liturgical Theology, Nashotah House, Wisconsin.

Vespers of Our Lady were served at 7 pm that evening. Bp. Irwin preached the Solemn Mass at 11 am the next day.

There was a lunch after the mass. See this link for a poster describing the event.

Walsingham Shrine Administrator to Preach

The Rt Rev'd Lindsay Urwin OGS, Administrator of the Anglican Shrine of Our Lady of Walsingham preached at All Saints' on the Sixth Sunday of Easter, 5 May 2013.

This was the second visit to Ashmont in recent memory of the administrator of "England's Nazareth," for Fr. Philip North, Bp. Irwin's predecessor, has also graced the pulpit at Ashmont.

Three Tailors Plus Eight for Martin

Together with President Obama, Governor Patrick and Mayor Menino requested a moment of silence at 2:50 p.m. on Monday, 22 April 2013 for the victims of the Boston Marathon bombings a week earlier.

After a minute of silence in Peabody Square the stopped clock was restarted at 2:51.

The large bell in the All Saints' tower chime tolled three times for the death of our neighbor, the child Martin, and then it tolled eight more times, once for each year of his short life.

Please pray for the repose of Martin's soul. Pray also for strength and healing for Bill, Denise, and Jane. And, for the others who have died, and for all those affected by last week's terrible events.

[See the coverage at the Dorchester Reporter.]

Children Sing for Peace

A benefit concert entitled, "Children Sing for Peace," was held on Saturday, 27 April at 7 p.m. at Saint Mark Church, 1725 Dorchester Avenue, Dorchester, to directly benefit the Richards Family.

Participating choirs included our own All Saints' Choir of Men and Boys, the Boston City Singers, the Junior Choristers from St. Paul's, Harvard Square, and Nick Page, Song Leader of the Mystic Chorale.

Stopping the Clock in Peabody Square

Dorchester Reporter tells the story of Richards Family, the Ashmont clock winder, and the stopped clock in Peabody Square.

Visit RichardFamilyFund.org to see how you can help this devastated family in their time of grief.

Stop all the clocks, cut off the telephone, Prevent the dog from barking with a juicy bone, Silence the pianos and with muffled drum Bring out the coffin, let the mourners come. Let aeroplanes circle moaning overhead Scribbling on the sky the message He Is Dead, Put crepe bows round the white necks of the public doves, Let the traffic policemen wear black cotton gloves. He was my North, my South, my East and West, My working week and my Sunday rest, My noon, my midnight, my talk, my song; I thought that love would last for ever: I was wrong. The stars are not wanted now: put out every one; Pack up the moon and dismantle the sun; Pour away the ocean and sweep up the wood. For nothing now can ever come to any good. — W. H. Auden

[A hat tip to UniversalHub for this story.]

Carl Scovel Preaches the Triduum

The Rev. Carl Scovel was our Guest Preacher for the Sacred Triduum this year. These Great Three Days celebrate the Death, Burial, and Resurrection of Jesus Christ and at Ashmont are comprised of the services of Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, the Easter Vigil, and Easter Morning.

The Rev. Scovel was born and grew up in North China where his parents were medical missionaries. They were interned by the Japanese during part of World War II. He is a graduate of the Shanghai American School, Oberlin College and Harvard Divinity School.

He has served two churches, The First Parish of Sudbury for ten years and King's Chapel in Boston for thirty-two. During that time he travelled some, preaching at various churches, frequently trying to interpret Bible passages and Christian teachings to mainstream Unitarian Universalist churches.

Rev. Scovel and his wife share a house in Jamaica Plain with their eldest and her family. A son and his family live a mile away. Their youngest and her family live in Toronto. Now retired, he continues to do some counseling and spiritual direction and occasionally teaches classes in parishes.

While studying at Harvard, Rev. Scovel and Fr. Purnell were roommates. Over the years he has graced our pulpit a number of times. We are delighted and honored to continue that tradition.

Lenten Preaching Series

Seven Last Words — Preached by the Rector

Our Lord's last sayings from the cross have held a special place in the devotion and spirituality of Christians throughout the ages. Source of countless sermons and meditations, they have even been the inspiration for musical composition. Taken from all the Gospels, these seven 'words' powerfully focus our attention on the sacrifice which Jesus is at that moment offering and the redemption which he is procuring for those who turn to him in faith.

The series began on the Sunday before Ash Wednesday, the traditional Quinquigesima.

Capital Campaign Kick-off Lunch

As many in the parish are aware, All Saints' has been challenged to raise $500,000 to support the restoration and preservation of our church buildings. This money will be matched 3-to-1 by the generous donor funding the restoration project.

The resulting $2 million will be used to create the Parish Preservation Fund, which will help pay for future capital repairs to the building. To lead the Parish through the fundraising, a Capital Campaign Committee has been formed, which is co-chaired by Bob Godfrey and Tim Van Dyck.

To kick off the Capital Campaign, the Committee is hosted a lunch directly after Mass on Sunday, 24 February 2013, in Peabody Hall. During the meal, Committee members provided a brief update on the status of the building restoration project, and explained in detail how the Capital Campaign will work.

Then, members of the Parish were asked to consider what kind of gift they would be able to make toward this important Campaign, which will help ensure a healthy future for All Saints.

Tim suggested that parishioners consider their contribution in terms of a multiple of their current annual giving to the parish: one times, two times, three times their annual pledge to the parish. Tim also urged every parishioner to contribute. It is essential that we demonstrate our donor our own commitment to the health of the parish.

Andrew Sheranian at St. Paul's

On Sunday, 10 March 2013, at 3 o'clock in the afternoon, Andrew Sheranian offered an organ recital at St. Paul's Church, Harvard Square.

The program was:

Erbarm dich mein, O Herre Gott (BWV 721)
Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750)

Prelude and Fugue in A minor (BWV 543)
Bach

Tempore Quadragesimali (from the Tabulatura Nova)
Hymnus: "Christe, qui lux es et dies"
Samuel Scheidt (1587-1653)

Choral (from Deuxième Symphonie, Opus 20)
Louis Vierne (1870-1937)

All Saints' at St. Paul's, Harvard Square

The afternoon of the Third Sunday in Lent, 3 March 2013, at 4 o'clock, the All Saints Choir of Men & Boys joined the Men and boys of the Choir of St. Paul's Church, Harvard Square in a Vespers service at St. Paul's Church, Harvard Square.

The music was:

Super flumina Babylonis – Palestrina
Pater Noster – Stanford
Magnificat for St. Paul's Cathedral – Howells
Salvator mundi – Tallis

Last year the St. Paul's choir came to Ashmont for a special Marian Solemn Evensong & Procession. And, last year, also on the Third Sunday in Lent, All Saints' went to Harvard Square, to sing a Vespers service with the St. Paul's choir.

We are delighted to continue this Red Line tradition between our two choirs of men and boys.

Fr. Sam Keyes, Preacher and Celebrant

Our celebrant and preacher for the Third Sunday of Lent was Fr. Sam Keyes.

Fr. Keyes is a priest of the Diocese of Dallas. He has studied at Nashotah House, and is currently a graduate student at Boston College in historical theology, with particular interest in the medieval period.

Fr. Keyes covered the masses last July during the Rector's vacation. We are delighted to have welcomed him back to All Saints' again.

Shrove Tuesday Pancake Supper

Despite snow banks and crowed roads, the faithful came out to support the Shrove Tuesday Pancake Supper in the lower hall of the Parish House. Proceeds of the supper benefited the Choir Fund.

The Friends of the Choir prepared the meal and the trebles of the choir provided table service.

Several times during the meal the teens took a break from serving food to serenade our guests. Our nascent Ashmont acapella group borrowed a page from the Harvard Glee Club and performed "Good Old Acapella" and a rendition of Michael Jackson's "Beat It."

Peter Johnson Preaches

Peter Johnson was the guest preacher for All Saints' at the Sunday 10 a.m. mass on 3 February 2013.

Mr. Johnson is a postulant for Holy Orders in the Diocese of Connecticut. He is a graduate of Hinsdale High School in Illinois and of Yale College where he received honors in Humanities. At Yale he was chairman of the Tory Party of the Yale Political Union (Yale's debating society), president of Choose Life at Yale, and a member of the Yale Baseball Club. He is currently a second year student at the Berkeley Divinity School at Yale. He is the holder of a full merit scholarship from the Yale Institute of Sacred Music. Prior to attending Berkeley he served as administrator of Christ Church, New Haven, the great Anglo-Catholic parish in that city. He currently serves as seminarian intern at Trinity Church on the Green in New Haven. He is an ensign in the U.S. Navy and part of the Chaplain Candidate Program.

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