About Us
We are a community bound together by our common worship. We strive to answer our Lord’s calling to love and serve God through service to others.
When a group of Bostonians first gathered to form the Advent in 1844, they created in her charter a clear objective: “to secure to a portion of the City of Boston the ministrations of the Holy Catholic Church, and more especially to secure the same to the poor and needy, in a manner free from unnecessary expense and all ungracious circumstances.” This objective remains central to our identity as a parish today.
Clergy
The Reverend Douglas E. Anderson, Rector
The Reverend Douglas Anderson began his ministry at the Church of the Advent in February 2020. He is a native of Ontario and took his undergraduate degree at Trinity College and University of Toronto. Father Anderson and his wife Traci have three daughters and a Lab/hound mix named Nellie. Father Anderson was ordained to the priesthood in 1994, and has spent his entire ministry in Anglo-Catholic parishes.
The Reverend David J. Thompson, Parochial Vicar
Fr. Thompson joined the Advent staff in the summer of 2020 and previously served at Church of the Incarnation in Dallas, TX. He attended seminary at Wycliffe College in Toronto, ON and has experience in ministry to the homeless, schools, church planting, and evangelism to the unchurched. Fr. David and his wife Heather are originally from central Oklahoma. They have three school-aged children.
The Reverend Doctor Jeffrey A. Hanson, Priest Associate
Fr. Jeffrey Hanson began the ordination process in the diocese of Massachusetts in 2009. In 2011 he and his wife Roxene and their son Tristan moved to Melbourne, Australia, to take up a position as a research fellow in philosophy at Australian Catholic University. Jeffrey continued the ordination process in Melbourne, studying at Trinity College.
The Reverend Jay C. James, Assisting Rector
The Reverend Thomas Adams, Honorary Assistant
The Reverend Dr Clarence Butler, Honorary Assistant
Music
Mark Dwyer, Organist & Choirmaster
Mark Dwyer came to the Advent from St. Paul’s Parish, K Street, in Washington, DC, in 2007. He was formerly the Music Director at the Cathedral of All Saints in Albany, NY, and before that Associate Organist & Choirmaster here at the Advent. A Worcester native and 1985 graduate of the New England Conservatory, he studied with Yuko Hayashi, William Porter, Frank Taylor, and Charles Krigbaum. Mark has also been a faculty member and choirmaster at the annual Saint Michael’s Conference for Young People for many years. He is featured on several recordings by the Advent Choir and is the performer on a JAV recording of the Advent’s Aeolian-Skinner organ in the series “Great Organ Builders of America: A Retrospective.” Mark and his wife Cheryl have a son, Douglas.
Andrew Scanlon, Associate Organist & Choirmaster
Andrew Scanlon came to The Advent in September 2021. From 2009-2021 he was the organ professor at East Carolina University and Organist-Choirmaster at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Greenville, NC. Prior to Greenville, Andrew has spent time at Duquesne University, Christ & St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church (New York), St. Paul’s Episcopal Cathedral (Buffalo), First Presbyterian Church (Pittsburgh), and Marquand Chapel at Yale Divinity School. His CD recording, Solemn and Celebratory, featuring the Fisk organ at St. Paul’s in Greenville, was released in 2013.
Vestry (2023)
Meg Nelson, Rector’s Warden
Thatcher Gearhart, People’s Warden
Ryan Taliaferro, Treasurer
Andrew Huss, Clerk
John Boyd
C. Thomas Brown
Amanda Daley
Maria Denslow
Stephanie Krein
Carolyn McDermott
Xander Mojarrab
Frederick Ou
Julianne Turé
Maggie Westberg
The Church of the Advent was born in 1844 from the inspiration of a group of Bostonians who desired to establish a new parish that would put into practice the ideals of the then-11-year-old Oxford Movement.
This movement was attracting attention, converts, and controversy in England. The Oxford Movement called upon the Church of England to return to its historic roots in the undivided Catholic Church, including a restoration of liturgical practices that had fallen out of use. The Movement’s ideas quickly spread to America, where these Boston gentry resolved to found a church that would espouse and preach them.
The Advent’s founders had one other idea that was even more radical in mid-nineteenth century Boston: They refused to follow the widespread custom of renting pews, whereby those who had the means leased the best seats, often from generation to generation, and where servants and the poor were relegated to places in the back or to galleries. This effectively enforced social distinctions contrary to the essential teachings of Christianity.
The Advent has always strived to witness to “the beauty of holiness and the holiness of beauty,” acquiring a worldwide reputation as a “shrine church” of Anglo-Catholicism in the United States. In 1936 a parishioner, master organ-builder G. Donald Harrison of the Aeolian-Skinner Company, designed and installed a pipe organ that remains a world-renowned masterpiece of the art. Its reputation was such that no less a personage than Albert Schweitzer, on his tour of the United States in 1948-49, made playing it a highlight of his Boston visit.
To this day the Church of the Advent continues to contribute to the life of the wider Church and remains a parish whose name is recognized throughout the world as an icon of Anglo-Catholicism in America.
Use the form below for general inquiries, or scroll to find a specific contact.
Office
Office Hours
Monday through Friday, 9am to 4:30pm
Main Number
617-523-2377
James Singletary, Parish Administrator
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Clergy
Father Douglas Anderson, Rector
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Father Jay James, Assisting Rector
Father David Thompson, Vicar
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Father Jeffrey Hanson, Priest Associate
617-552-3984
Music
Mark Dwyer
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Andrew Scanlon
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Comptroller
Joseph Brown
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Sexton
Moses Buyondo
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Acolytes
9:00am: Paul Roberts
11:00am: Julianne Turé
Altar Guild
Church School
Events & Special Projects
Karen Harrington
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Flower Guild
Property Manager
Rich Lyerla
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Stewardship
Tuesday Night Community Supper
Ushers
9:00am: John Boyd
11:00am: Kyriell Palaeologue
Website
Julianne Turé, Webmaster