The morning church bell calls all to worship in our home! You will be greeted by our friendly ushers and offered a bulletin, a guide to our weekly Sunday morning service. Your children can stay in worship with you for the beginning of the service and then they are invited to the front of the church for the Children’s Message, before being dismissed to Sunday school. Our Sunday School students enjoy challenging discussion, biblical teaching, movies and games led by our gifted volunteer teachers. Classes are dismissed shortly after the end of the worship service and all join together in Parish Hall for snacks, beverage and conversation.
We are blessed to celebrate Worship in The Garden during the summer months. Join us at 10am in the outdoor chapel at the rear of our property overlooking Sperry pond. Celebrate weekly communion and our relationship with God amidst the pines and warmth of a summer morning. At any season, we look forward to sharing our worship service with you!
Special Worship and Holiday Services
Confirmation
Confirmation is celebrated in late spring. It is traditional in this church that the confirmands share with the congregation their experiences and reflections of their confirmation year.Laity Sunday
Laity Sunday, organized by the Board of Deacons, is held once a year. It follows the traditional order of worship, but the laity plans and leads this service.
Intergenerational Services
These services involve more music and visual elements and often a dramatic presentation of some type replaces the sermon. Intergenerational services are held in lieu of our traditional worship 3 or 4 times annually. Children remain in the sanctuary with the adults though this is not a children’s worship.
World Communion Sunday
Celebrate on the first Sunday of October with communion elements from countries and cultures afar. In communion and Christian unity, we recognize and remember our Christian brothers and sisters from around the world.Youth & Children’s Services
The Youth of the church lead worship several times each year. On a Sunday in September, they celebrate “Mission Sunday” where they share reflections of their mission trip. In the winter, “Youth Sunday” honors the talents of our Senior High Youth. Led entirely by our youth, this service reflects teachings learned in Sunday school through music, drama, and stories. Sunrise Service is lead by middle school youth on Easter morning. Children’s Sunday is in June and lead by our younger children with their teachers. Older children are invited to usher and participate in various ways.
Music Sunday
Music Sunday is usually held in the spring. Although the traditional order of worship is followed, music plays an important part in the liturgy and often the presentation of a major choral work takes the place of the sermon.
All Saints Day
On the Sunday closest to All Saints Day (November 1), we pause to remember the saints of our church who have died in the previous year. With the reading of the names and the tolling of a bell, we pause to remember the saints who have touched our lives and have now joined the cloud of witnesses that surrounds us and supports us with love.
Memorial Day Service
Memorial Day worship has been a long-standing community service held jointly with the First Church in East Boxford. Location alternates yearly from East to West, with the “host” Pastor leading worship and the “guest” Pastor preaching.Welcome Sunday
Welcome Sunday is the official start of the church program year. Held at 10:00 on the first Sunday after Labor Day, Welcome Sunday is always filled with the excitement of renewing old friendships and making new ones, and the anticipation of another year of growing in faith together. The service includes the Blessing of the Backpacks, through which we send our children off into the new school year with a blessing.
Ash Wednesday
This service includes communion and imposition of ashes saved from the previous year Palm Sunday. Also, a Bitterness Burning, provides an opportunity to symbolically rid ourselves of any grievances, grudges or bitterness by writing these feelings on slips of paper which are then burned.
Maundy Thursday Worship
This is a very moving service of both Tenebrae (a service of shadows) and communion. Deacons and Pastor read the events of Holy Week as candles are extinguished and the church is left in total darkness for 3 minutes, representing the 3 days in the tomb. A single candle is then returned to the sanctuary and the service concludes with the saying of Lord’s Prayer.Good Friday
The sanctuary is open from 12:00 PM to 3:00 PM for quiet prayer and guided meditation.Easter Sunrise
This sunrise service is a joyful worship service written by Middle School youth. This festive service full of music, poetry and prayers begins at Nason’s Stonehouse Farm and proceeds up the hill for the decoration of the cross and sunrise. The worship is followed by a wonderful time of fellowship and food ~ the famous Eggs McHenry, homemade donuts, coffee, hot chocolate.
The 10:00 AM Easter Service is a glorious celebration of Resurrection featuring choirs and trumpets, and ends with the entire congregation joining in to sing the Hallelujah Chorus from Handel’s Messiah.Blue Christmas
A service of readings, prayer, music and candle lighting which provides all those who have suffered loss an opportunity to acknowledge the difficulty and pain that the holiday season often brings.White Gift Sunday
The Third Sunday of Advent is our White Gift Sunday, a long standing joyous tradition at Second Church where church members bring a gift for a needy family in a white box or gift bag. The gift is then placed at the feet of a “holy family” who has been chosen from young family in the congregation. Gifts are distribiuted to local charities.Christmas Eve Services
* Our 5:00 pm Family Service is geared towards young children and includes singing by the Choir.
* There is a quiet, reflective 11:00 pm Communion Service that concludes at midnight.Star Sunday
A joyful and unique service celebrated at Epiphany on the Sunday closest to the 12th day of Christmas. All are invited to choose a Star to discover their guiding word for the year ahead.