St. Anne's held its Annual Holiday Fair. It some things 'old' and some things 'new'. There were once again activities for toddlers, arts and crafts for the kids, and plenty of food, holiday items, raffles and baked goods for all. There were opportunities for digital family photos - with Santa if desired! For the first time, we sold Live Christmas Trees and Holiday Wreaths.

There will be a Thanksgiving Eve service of Holy Eucharist with organ and trumpet.

A Lighted Basket Workshop was led by Rev. Peggy Howell.

A workshop to 'Learn How to Make Episcopal Prayer Beads' was held in the Nichols room at St. Anne's; it was led by Wendy Kessler.

The first day of this month was our All-Parish event at Kohlrausch Park (1/4 mile down the street across from St. Andrew's). The weather was perfect for an outdoor picnic! One of the things to note even though the ball field was a bit damp, we still managed a softball game. The game ended with a score of 18-14 after some of us realized that our bodies were not keeping up with our youthful minds.

For the second time, 18 residents from Billericay, UK visited our town, Billerica. Once again they chose to worship at our 10:00 AM service. By the hard work of our own St. Elizabeth's Guild, we had tea and sandwiches following the service. It was really a pleasure to worship with them, and to not only speak with them, but get to know them as well.

The last Saturday of the month was St. Anne's Harvest Fair! There were games, arts and crafts for kids of all ages, which included pumpkin-decorating contact (drawings). Food was provided from our chuck wagon. We also had baked goods, auction and raffles. Of course, there were plenty crafts and other items to purchase.

September - as usual - was a busy for the parish.
In the middle of the month, more than 25 parishioners went to Washington DC at the Washington National Cathedral during Massachusetts Day weekend.

The following weekend was the start of the new church year with our traditional Welcome Back Brunch. A nice light breakfast of pastries, bagels, fruit, cereals, coffee, tea and juice mixed in with catching up with others made for a great start for the new year.

Over 20 teams participated in St. Anne's Annual Golf Tournaments at the Tewksbury Country Club in Tewksbury, MA. This 9-hole tournament with teams of 4, using best-ball format, had a picture-perfect day. A barbecue lunch was included. All proceeds benefited St. Anne's Episcopal Church.

We held a special Memorial Day Service at the 10:00 AM service on May 22. All veterans of Billerica were invited to our service. We were honored to have more than 20 veterans show up.

This year's Lenten/Easter was filled with things old and new. Our traditional involvement with the Ecumenical Lunches continued. Also continued from year to year was the traditional Maundy Thursday service, the Good Friday Liturgy at noon, the Way of Sorrows service on Friday evening and the joyful Resurrection Day services with the organ, piano, flutes and trumpet. Continuing with its third annual event on Holy Saturday was a Catechesis of the Good Shepherd event. This year the focus was on the bread of the Last Supper. The children went over why have bread each week during Eucharist. Then each child made their own matzo bread based on a recipe that one of our parishioners supplied. (Thanks again Wendy K.!) As the matzo baked, the children went on the Easter Egg hunt. (Thanks to Jean M. for supplying the candy-filled eggs.) Once done, the hot matzo was eaten!

On January 23, St. Anne's held its Annual Parish Meeting after the ONE service of 9:30 AM. Honduras, a church-school "lesson", saying 'hello' and 'good-bye' to new and retiring vestry members, and good food were all part of this year's meeting. Go to the Current Rector's Corner link (on the left-side navigation bar) for more details.