Regular Sunday services include readings, music, a time for children, candles of joys and sorrows, an offering and a sermon. You are invited to center your thoughts as you enter to the beat of quiet drumming. Our minister, guest ministers and lay leaders offer sermons on a wide array of topics. After a Time for All Ages, children are invited to Sunday school classes, which are led by volunteer teachers. A nursery is available for little ones.
From September through June, services are held in the magnificent sanctuary, featuring music from two organs, a grand piano and choir. We welcome guest musicians, like the New Wave Singers and Peabody students and professors. From July through August, services are held in the Enoch Pratt Parish Hall, where the temperature is cooler and setting is more intimate.
Don't miss coffee hour in Pratt Hall after each service--a time to meet new people and touch base with old friends. And during the church year, Sunday afternoons are often filled with opportunities to learn more, including one-on-one conversations with the minister, open discussions on the themes discussed in the service and tours of the church.
Throughout the year, special services mark special events and times:
- September's Homecoming Service launches the beginning of the church year with a water ceremony.
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On Winter Solstice, we honor the return of the sun with an evening ritual.
- There are two Christmas Eve services -- an early service for families (featuring a play starring our children) and a later service for everyone.
- In May, Union Sunday celebrates William Ellery Channing's "Baltimore Sermon," given in the sanctuary on May 5, 1819. The Channing Sermon is regarded as the "declaration of independence" for the about-to-be-born Unitarian movement.
- On the last day of the official church year, we celebrate with a Flower Communion service.
