Saint Theresa Parish in Henniker and Saint Mary Parish in Hillsborough are preparing to welcome many of the faithful for Christmas. Safety measures are in place to assure no one contracts the coronavirus at church. Reservations are being made for attendance in both of the churches and church halls. Screens have been set up in our church halls. Holy Communion will be distributed in both churches and in the halls. Online reservations can be done at parishreservations.com/theresamary.
St. Andrew’s Church in Hopkinton invites your to join them for Advent and Christmas worship. Advent services are held via Zoom on Dec. 13 and 20 at 9 a.m. An Advent service of healing will be Dec. 13 at 4 p.m. at the Contoocook Bandstand. A Christmas Eve family service with pageant and Holy Eucharist will be on Dec. 24 at 5 p.m. via Zoom. An in-person service with Holy Eucharist will be held at 7 p.m. on Dec. 24 on the church front lawn and a 9 p.m. service with song will be on Zoom. They also invite you to visit the giant Advent wreath at 354 Main St. For more information and links to Zoom, visit standrewshopkinton.org.
The Greater Concord area Chronic Pain Support Group will have a Zoom meeting Dec. 8 at 1 p.m. To celebrate our third anniversary, we have a special guest speaker Julie Morgenlender. She will be discussing her recently published book, The Things We Don’t Say: An Anthology of Chronic Illness Truths. This was a huge undertaking that Morganlender worked on for six years with authors from all over the world contributing their very personal and intimate thoughts about their experience with chronic illness. She will do some readings, speak about how she defined chronic illness and chose which writings to include, talk about how she completed this book while living with multiple chronic illnesses herself, and answer any questions. You do not need to read this book in order to participate in the session. Register in advance for this meeting at https://zoom.us/meeting/register/tJAucOypqzIsEtRCWXFFbjU9RGXCXPqx81R-. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting. If you want to join by phone please email at bobbibnh@comcast.net or call at 540-3119.
Santa will come through town on a fire truck on Dec. 12 from noon to 3 p.m. Greet him at one of many stops for a picture next to the truck and receive a holiday craft. For more information, visit hopkintonrec.com.