Folks on Beacon Hill remember a time when the King’s Chapel Church School and the family services at the Little Chapel on Beacon Street epitomized community.
Families raised their children and watched them grow up together in values they treasured. The recent arrival of two new staff, Assistant Minister Shawn Fiedler, and Church School Director Eva Englert, has recently brought fresh energy and vision to the Little Chapel.
Fiedler joined the staff at the beginning of September. He has served as a pastoral fellow at Old South Church in Copley Square, earned a master’s of divinity degree at the Boston University School of Theology and served a year of intentional volunteer service with the Episcopal Church in Seattle. Fiedler, who will be ordained on Oct. 4, was drawn to King’s Chapel’s “arms-wide-open” theology. He believes strongly in the progressive liberal Christian notion that God is open to all.
Englert, who joined the staff just this month, is a first year master’s-of-divinity student at the Boston University School of Theology. She is a candidate for ordained ministry (the third generation of women in her family to be ordained), and has previously interned at Grace Episcopal Church in Medford. Englert is passionate about environmental justice and brings enthusiasm to her mission of strengthening the King’s Chapel children and families programs.
Together, under Rev. Joy Fallon’s leadership, they look forward to opening the Little Chapel at 9:45 a.m. on Homecoming Weekend, Sunday, Sept. 21, with a joyful spirit. Their hope is to fill the children’s backpacks, minds and hearts with tools of compassion, mercy, and justice to take with them as they journey through a broken world from week to week. Strengthened in these basic Christian values, Fiedler and Englert hope to assure all children that they are loved and valued, and empower them to demonstrate this love to others.
“It’s simple really,” Fiedler said. “We want to practice and protect basic human dignity that transcends race, class, and other differences.”
What more could people want for their children in today’s world than for them to grow strong enough to face the world’s ugliest conflicts with compassion and conviction?