An exciting week in December at the Parish!

Two musical performances and a lecture that you won’t want to miss!

Thursday, December 5

Year of Faith lecture series:  Pope Francis

7:00 p.m. in St. Catherine of Siena Chapel

Our Year of Faith lecture series concludes with a presentation on Pope Francis by B.C. professor Francine Cardman. Ms. Cardman is associate professor of Historical Theology and Church History at B.C.’s School of Theology and Ministry. Her teaching and research interests include the history and theology of early Christianity, the development of early Christian ethics, the history of Christian spirituality, feminist theology, women in ministry, and ecumenism.

Friday, December 6

The Barker College Choir and Orchestra

8:00 p.m. in St. Mary Church

We are pleased to announce that the internationally-acclaimed Barker College Choir & Orchestra from Sydney, Australia will perform at St. Mary’s on their U.S. tour! Their trip begins in Boston with performances at Boston Latin School and Faneuil Hall Marketplace as well as workshops at Boston University and a Sunday morning service at Old North Church. This visit will be profoundly memorable for one particular Barker student, performing for the first time in the city of her birth.

The event was scheduled at the request of Barker choral director Peter Ellis, who had read of our organ restoration project in the Boston Globe and reached out to Parish music director Daniel Sauceda. Barker College maintains an active engagement with its local community and is committed to maintaining this engagement whenever it sends groups on tour.

Barker College Choir & Orchestra is an Anglican School (K-12) in Sydney with a large and highly successful music program. The group has regularly performed internationally. Their 2013 U.S. tour includes stops in Boston, New York City, Washington D.C., San Francisco, and Hershey, Pennsylvania. Their repertoire includes religious music for the season from the U.S., Australia, and the U.K. with a mixture of accompanied and acappella works as well as chamber orchestral works and the possibility for enthusiastic audience participation.

A suggested donation of $10 for this wonderful event will go toward St. Mary-St. Catherine of Siena's Woodberry & Harris organ restoration fund.

We appreciate the difficulty in adding  St. Mary-St. Catherine of Siena to their busy itinerary and are looking forward to this talented group. Look for program updates in the Bulletin, Facebook, and stmarystcatherine.org.

Sunday, December 8

Return of the Copley Singers

3:30 p.m. in St. Mary Church

Please join us to experience the Copley Singers, a wonderful group of performers under the direction of Brian Jones, as they fill Saint Mary’s Church with holiday cheer!

The Copley Singers perform across the region, including venues in Boston, Cambridge, Methuen, Plymouth, Duxbury, Cape Cod and the Islands. Many members have sung at Trinity Church in Copley Square, where director Brian Jones served from 1984-2004. This is a free event and open to all! To learn more, please visit copleysingers.org.

(Sponsored by Hammond Residential Real Estate and Friends of the Charlestown Library)