As much as we are a community bound together by our common worship, so too are we a community that strives to answer our Lord's calling to love and serve God through service to others.
When a group of Bostonians came together to form the Advent back in 1844, they created in her charter a clear objective: "to secure to a portion of the City of Boston the ministrations of the Holy Catholic Church, and more especially to secure the same to the poor and needy, in a manner free from unnecessary expense and all ungracious circumstances." That objective remains core to who we are as a parish.
Please read on to learn more about both our standing ministries and current service opportunities.
Prayer and Care
Abandonment is the gravest “sickness” of the elderly, and also the greatest injustice they can suffer: those who have helped us grow must not be abandoned when they are in need of our help. -- Pope Francis
The Advent has many faithful parishioners who are no longer able to attend services, or who have specific needs -- spiritual, emotional, physical -- that members of the parish can assist in meeting. The Advent’s Prayer & Care Team members serve as living connections to the parish. Since its inception in early 2014, the Prayer & Care team has provided post-operative support, accompanied a parishioner to a family reunion, provided transportation to medical appointments, and rides to those needing assistance to get to church, as well as friendly visits.
As we complete our first year of service, we look forward to a growing ministry serving God and each other.
Now and at the Hour of Our Death — Medical Decision-Making in the 21st Century
Designed for people of any age, in any state of health, this interactive seminar provides knowledge and resources to help in navigating today’s complex healthcare system and prepare for the future. [Learn More]

Suppose a brother or a sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to them, “Go in peace; keep warm and well fed,” but does nothing about their physical needs, what good is it? In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead. (James 2:15-17)
The Tuesday Night Supper Program
Each Tuesday evening for more than thirty years, a nourishing meal has been served by members of the Advent and friends to needy people. Often their need is as much for companionship as it is for something to eat, and so a friendly and safe environment is provided for our guests.
Volunteers for this important ministry of the Advent are always welcome to help with set up, serving and cleanup. If you can help please speak to Barbara Boles or one of the clergy.

Virtual Walk for the Advent’s Community Dinner – May 3, 2020
Advent parishioners have supported our Tuesday Community Dinners every year for over 30 years. This year, in the midst of the Coronavirus pandemic, is no different. Donations to support our valuable outreach program are even more critical.
On Sunday, May 3, the Briggs-Kiernan Family kept the Advent’s tradition alive and walked for 20 miles as in years past. Virtual companions joined in a shared Virtual Advent Walk in their own neighborhoods, walking virtually together. Here is a video of images from the walk:
Donations to the Community Dinner are always welcome and can be made through our secure online-giving portal. Just choose "Community Dinner" from the drop-down list on the "Fund" line.
Suzi + Bruce, Ellie + Emma
Advent’s Virtual Community Dinner Walk 5/3/2020 Team Leaders
Contact Suzi.Briggs@gmail.com
Anglo-Catholic Roots III: Oxford Comes to Boston: 175 Years of Anglo-Catholicism in America
December 5-6, 2019
We are glad to announce and invite you to our third annual conference, co-sponsored by The Living Church Institute.
Registration:
$75 for employed persons
$50 for students and retirees
Optional Banquet: $75
To buy tickets online please use Eventbrite: ACRoots.eventbrite.com. Remember that tickets are limited. Please consider registering for the celebratory banquet after the conference as well.
Banquet attendees should please bear in mind that the venue’s dress code calls for coat and tie (or clerical collar) for gentlemen and equivalent attire for ladies. Jeans, sneakers, as well as cellular phones and all other electronic devices (including for picture-taking) are strictly forbidden by the banquet venue.
For accommodations at the Wyndham Boston Beacon Hill, make reservations at tinyurl.com/ACRootsRooms.
Please register by December 1, 2019.
Questions about the conference? Please contact Fr. Jeffrey Hanson at frhanson@theadventboston.org. Please mention in your message if you would like your email address to be added to the mailing list of the conference.
Keynote speaker
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The Rev. Dr. Andrew McGowan, Dean and President of Berkeley Divinity School and McFaddin Professor of Anglican Studies and Pastoral Theology |
Other speakers
Schedule of Events
Thursday, December 5, 2019
3:30 p.m. — Moseley Hall — Check-in
4:00 p.m. — Moseley Hall — Keynote: Andrew McGowan, Yale University
6:00 p.m. — Nave — Solemn Evensong & Benediction
Reception in the Library (immediately after service)
Friday, December 6, 2019
9:00 a.m. — Chancel — Morning Prayer
10:00 a.m. — Moseley Hall — Arnold Klukas, Nashotah House
11:00 a.m. — Moseley Hall — Sarah Coakley, Cambridge University
2:00 p.m. — Moseley Hall — Matthew Olver, Nashotah House
3:00 p.m. — Moseley Hall — Christopher Wells, The Living Church
6:00 p.m. — Main Nave — Solemn Mass
Banquet (immediately after mass; coat & tie)
Questions?
In partnership with The Living Church
“Anglo-Catholic Roots II: Is Christ Divided? Full Visible Unity”
November 1-2, 2018
We are glad to announce and invite you to our second annual conference, co-sponsored by The Living Church Institute.
Registration:
$75 for employed persons
$50 for students and retirees
Optional Banquet: $75
To buy tickets online please use Eventbrite: tinyurl.com/y8sujmmz. Remember that tickets are limited, and last year we had a complete sell-out. Please consider registering for the celebratory banquet after the conference as well.
Banquet attendees should please bear in mind that the venue’s dress code calls for coat and tie (or clerical collar) for gentlemen and equivalent attire for ladies. Jeans, sneakers, as well as cellular phones and all other electronic devices (including for picture-taking) are strictly forbidden by the banquet venue.
Questions about the conference? Please contact Fr. Jeffrey Hanson at frhanson@theadventboston.org. Please mention in your message if you would like your email address to be added to the mailing list of the conference.
Keynote speaker
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The Rt. Rev. John Bauerschmidt, Bishop of Tennessee |
Other speakers
Schedule of Events
Thursday, Nov. 1, 2018
3:30 p.m. Moseley Hall — Check-in
4:00 p.m. Moseley Hall — Keynote / J. Bauerschmidt: “Heresy and Orthodoxy Revisited”
5:30 p.m. Chancel — Evening Prayer
6:00 p.m. Library — Reception
Friday, Nov. 2, 2018
9:00 a.m. Chancel — Morning Prayer
10:00 a.m. Moseley Hall — D. Olsen: “Oxford Movement 2.0”
11:00 a.m. Moseley Hall — M. Burdette: “Ut Unum Sint across Time and Space”
2:00 p.m. Moseley Hall— K. Sonderegger: “Catholic Visibility”
3:00 p.m. Moseley Hall — C. Wells: “Anglican Augustinianisms”
6:30 p.m. Main Nave — Solemn Requiem Mass
8:30 p.m. Club of Odd Volumes — Banquet
Questions?
Abstracts
In partnership with The Living Church
The Advent in Mission: One Warm Coat
One Warm Coat is a nationwide organization with the mission of improving the quality of life for people in need by providing outerwear so that the recipients have adequate protection from cold weather.
For several years, the Church of the Advent has run an autumn drive to benefit local affiliates of One Warm Coat. For 2016, our coat drive will run from October 2 to November 27 (Advent Sunday, our Feast of Title & Dedication). Please take a look in your closet for that rarely worn or outgrown coat. Donate clean, wearable coats to our coat drive to benefit Friends of the Children, Boston. Tax receipts are available. Questions? See Deacon Daphne, or visit One Warm Coat’s website.
The Advent in Mission: Christopher’s Haven
Christopher’s Haven is a Boston organization that provides housing and services to the families of pediatric-cancer patients who have traveled to Boston to seek medical treatment. The Advent has had a long-running relationship with Christopher’s Haven, supporting it both spiritually and materially, and even providing sweat equity for the apartments near Massachusetts General Hospital.
For more information about Christopher’s Haven, visit their website.
Wednesday, June 15: Special Healing Mass with Litany for Victims of Gun Violence
Please join us tomorrow night for our weekly Wednesday Healing Mass at 6.00 p.m. in the Lady Chapel. We will pray a special Litany for all victims of gun violence, especially for those in Orlando.
Lord, have mercy;
Christ, have mercy;
Lord, have mercy.
Read Bishop Gates’ letter to the Diocese: http://www.diomass.org/diocesan-news/hard-work-be-done-letter-bishop-gates-following-orlando-shootings
The Walk for Hunger
Spring is here and the Walk for Hunger is beckoning!! Please join us on Sunday, May 7th. The Advent has been participating in the Walk for over 30 years!
This year, Team Advent’s goal is $10,000. Please help us reach our fundraising goal by joining our group as a walker and by donating to Team Advent. See the links below.
Project Bread financial grant supports The Church of the Advent’s Tuesday Community Dinners which is a vital part of the Advent’s community outreach program.
Register to walk or volunteer yourself at www.projectbread.org. (Hit the purple button on the right-hand side of the page and add yourself as a no fee “walker”.)
Join our team and donate by clicking on links on our Team Advent webpage.
Photos from the 2017 Walk for Hunger:
Support the Advent in Mission – Buy a Print!
Boston Print for Sale to Support the Advent in Mission—Our friends at Old Try (www.theoldtry.com) have created a limited edition vintage letterpress print now on sale in our bookstall to support the Advent in Mission. The beautiful print reads “In Boston as it is in Heaven” (a prayer we pray implicitly every time we say the Our Father), and depicts the skyline as it appears in our city seal. The limited edition prints are $39 and supplies are limited—so buy one (or three!) soon as a prayer for our city and to raise funds for missions at the Advent.
TONIGHT @ 7p // Special Theology on Tap: “The Syrian Refugee Crisis”
Join us tonight for a very special Theology on Tap!
Isis rises.
Syria: 12 million displaced persons.
In America, Facebook pages erupt.
What is an appropriate response from the church?
In today’s worldwide refugee crisis — in which 4.1 million Syrians are displaced by civil war and the rise of ISIS — Heather Salfrank Joseph joins us to provide some historical context and suggestions about response strategies and durable solutions, including third country resettlement. In the current political climate, and with efforts to restrict the resettlement of Syrians, Iraqis, and Muslims in the U.S., what is our role in what the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees has called “the world’s worst refugee crisis since WWII”?
Heather Salfrank Joseph (B.A., International Studies, Univ. of Washington) has worked with refugees and immigrants since she first started teaching English to Mexican migrant workers’ children in the Democratic Republic of Georgia in 1998. Since then, she’s worked with refugees and immigrants in Philadelphia, PA, Washington, DC, Central Asia (Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, and Tajikistan), and New York, NY. Heather worked with the International Organization for Migration in Vienna, Austria and Almaty, Kazakhstan, and managed a refugee and migrant rights’ project in Central Asia in collaboration with the Danish Institute for Human Rights and the Danish Refugee Council, conducting research on internally displaced persons in the region. After moving back to the States, Heather worked with the U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants, one of nine national agencies that resettle refugees in the U.S. in collaboration with the Department of State and the Office of Refugee Resettlement under the Health and Human Services Department. In 2011, she moved to Brooklyn, NY to take a job with Episcopal Migration Ministries, another national refugee resettlement service provider.
Join us (and bring a friend!) @ the Rattlesnake on Boylston to give Heather a huge Theology on Tap welcome on December 8 @ 7p!
Follow @adventboston for more info.
Simon says: Honor the Animals on the Feast of St. Francis
On Sunday, October 4, we celebrated the feast of St. Francis and had a lot of fun at the Blessing of the Animals (check out some pictures in the Photo Gallery!). At that service, we gathered donations for Angell Memorial Hospital, but there is still time for you to make a contribute.
Angell helps the more than 5,000 animals annually and donations of pet food, kitty littler, old towels and blankets are always appreciated. Please have a look at their wish list for more information.
