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Here are the latest updates from Good Shepherd. Want to share news with the Good Shepherd community? Click here to submit your news.
Fun, food, and good works!
All are welcome to indulge in pancakes, sausages, and fruit on the final day before Lent
Volunteer or donate to furnish a home
Rev. Ellie offers an uplifting message on Christmas Eve.
Mission Outreach: Faith in Action 2025
Rev. Ellie explores how during the time of Advent we can prepare for not just a one-day celebration of Christmas, but for an incarnation that will be born in us and will last for all time. Secular Christmas preparations happen in many ways but preparing our hearts is often harder to do. Easier to forget. Advent provides us the gift of time – to pause, reflect, slow down. A time to prepare our hearts for the extraordinary thing that is about to happen.
We gather to hold open together a strong and tender space of courage and compassion. We are part of one another, in communion with all that is.
Gospel & Sermon for the second Sunday in Advent, December 7, 2025, Rev. Eleanor Terry, Rector
The service for the first Sunday in Advent opens with a piano and handbell improvisation inspired by the Gregorian chant introit for Advent 1.
If we remind ourselves of God’s ever-present love, we can move past fear and insecurity to grace, gratitude, peace, and love. This prepares us not only for Christmas joy but also for the coming of God’s kingdom. Advent is a time of preparation.
In this age of “No Kings” protests, what does it mean to celebrate the Feast of Christ the King? Rev. Ellie draws a stark contrast between what today’s world understands about power, leadership, authority, and strength and what we know as the Kingdom of God.
What if resurrection isn’t just a promise for the afterlife, but a way to live right now? Rev. Ellie reveals how ordinary acts of kindness, courage, and love can become moments of resurrection—signs of God’s transforming hope breaking into our world.
In 2006 Barb Magee joined Good Shepherd’s delegation to El Salvador. It was her first personal experience with the impoverishment and reality of life in a third world country. She channeled that experience into broadening Good Shepherd’s assistance and outreach efforts. Today our church offers many opportunities for individuals, families or groups to do something tangible and helpful for our neighbors - whether here in Acton, or for our far-flung neighbors around the world.
Rev. Ellie suggests, “It is a human thing, love; a holy thing, to love what death has touched.” We all know that death is part of every life. But with Jesus’ death and resurrection we also know that in death life is changed, not ended.
In the midst of our 2026 Pledge Drive Toni Berryman reflects on the ways the Good Shepherd community has found a home in her heart.
Deacon Ken asks, “What does Jesus command us do?” Jesus’ second Great Commandment instructs us to love God, and to “love your neighbor as yourself.” Do we truly love and accept ourselves with all our faults and imperfections?
The Episcopal church calls us to follow Jesus through prayer, worship, proclamation of the Gospel, and by promoting justice, peace, and love. Rev. Ellie notes that prayer comes first in that list. What exactly is prayer? Why is it foundational to being a Christian?