St. Nicholas Orthodox Church at 64 Forrester St. in Salem will celebrate its patronal feast day on Saturday evening, Dec. 5, at 6 p.m., with the service of Great Vespers with Litya. Bishop Nikon (Liolin), administrative head of churches in Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Vermont and New Hampshire, will be chief celebrant, and he will be joined by local Orthodox clergy from the surrounding area. 978-744-5869.
Temple Ner Tamid is hosting a blood drive, at 368 Lowell St., Peabody, Sunday, Nov. 15, from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. To schedule an appointment to donate, contact Mimi Levy at 978-535-0838 or mimlevy@hotmail.com. Walk-ins are welcome.
Congregation Sons of Israel in Peabody, as part of its celebration of its 100th anniversary, is holding a dinner and dance on Saturday, Nov. 14, at the Danversport Yacht Club in Danvers. Members and guests are invited. For more information, contact peabodyshul@yahoo.com or 978-532-1624, or visit www.peabodyshul.org.
An Advent workshop will be held at the Congregational Church of Topsfield on Sunday, Nov. 22, at 11 a.m. in the Emerson Center at 9 E. Main St. in Topsfield. For those who want to prepare for the Christmas season, also known as Advent, by creating an Advent wreath complete with candles. There will be Advent calendars and crafts for kids to make. A brunch with music will be available. A free will offering of $5 per person or $20 per family will be used to defray the cost of the event. For more information, call 978-887-2101.
Members of the United Methodist Church of Ipswich will celebrate the 150th anniversary of the erection of their current church building this Sunday, Nov. 15, at 3 p.m. New England area Bishop Peter Weaver will be guest preacher, and the sanctuary will be rededicated. A reception tea will follow in the downstairs Fellowship Hall. The public is invited and is asked to RSVP at 978-356-5169. The church is at 31 N. Main St., and parking is available on the street. The building is the oldest church building in continuous use in Ipswich, and its image appears on the Ipswich Town Seal.
First Church of Danvers, Congregational, 41 Centre St., Danvers, will hold it's annual holiday fair on Saturday, Nov. 14, from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. The fair features new and hand-crafted items for holiday gifting, as well as jewelry, decorations, children's books and toys, jelly, cookies, pies, and more. Lunch will be served from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Coffee, cider donuts, and fried dough will be served for breakfast from 9 to 11 a.m.
The Jewish Federation of the North Shore needs volunteers for its annual fundraising event, Elaine Rotberg Super Sunday, on Nov. 15 from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m., to be held at the Jewish Community Center in Marblehead on Community Road. Volunteers can choose to make calls, help with pledge cards, baby-sit or serve refreshments. To sign up, contact Andrea Mann at amann@Jfns.org or 978-564-0724. For photos from last year's Elaine Rotberg Super Sunday, go to www.jewishnorthshore.org.
"Make a Joyful Noise," an interfaith event featuring violinist Jourdan Urbach and The Dances of Universal Peace will be held Sunday, Nov. 22, at 2 p.m. at Congregation Shirat Hayam, 55 Atlantic Ave., Swampscott, to celebrate our shared humanity through music and dance. Radio personality Jordan Rich will host this event, which is sponsored in part by the Council for Spiritual Connection, members of which belong to a variety of faiths and are dedicated to creating a more compassionate world. Tickets are $15 in advance, $10 for students and seniors, $25 for preferred seating. Tickets at the door are $20, $15 for students and seniors. Group sales are available. Call 781-599-8005 for tickets and more information, or e-mail csh@shirathayam.org.
A sermon series on activist and controversial figures and issues in Unitarian Universalist history is being presented by Rev. Frieda Gillespie and Fred Mills Sundays at the Northshore Unitarian Universalist Church, 323 Locust St. (Route 35), Danvers. Upcoming sermons will address the history of UU multiracial, multicultural awareness, Jan. 17; Northshore UU Church history, March 7; and the Prophetic Sisterhood, April 18. For more information, contact the church at 978-774-7582 or visit www.nsuu.org.
All-you-can-eat dinners are held every Wednesday at 6:30 p.m. for $6 at the First Congregational Church in Boxford. Dinner is followed by classes, prayer and "Hour of Power" for youth. The church also offers the "Friday Night Hang" for young people in middle school and high school every Friday from 7:30 to 10:45 p.m.
First Parish Church in Beverly, Unitarian Universalist, serves a meal to the needy at 5:30 p.m. every Tuesday that is provided by Beverly Hospital. A Yahoo group site has been established, for volunteers who work or would like to work at these dinners, at TuesdayNightDinners@yahoogroups.com. The church is at 225 Cabot St. For more information, call Diane Bianchetta at 978-921-0895 or e-mail auraleeddb@aol.com.
Dinner is served every Sunday at 6 p.m. at St. Peter Episcopal Church, 4 Ocean St., Beverly, for those in need. For more information, to volunteer or to make a donation, call Dena Lisle at 978-922-3291.
The Our Space group at Ascension Memorial Church meets the second Sunday of each month for grades six and seven, and the fourth Sunday of each month for grades eight and nine, at 6 p.m. The church is at 31 County St., Ipswich. For more information, call 978-356-2560 or visit www.amcipswich.org.
Congregation Sons of Israel in Peabody will have three 100th Anniversary Celebrations this year. A gala dinner/dance at the Danversport Yacht Club will be held Nov. 14, and on Dec. 13, the annual congregation meeting will celebrate the original charter. For more information, contact the Shul at 978-532-1624 or www.peabodyshul.org.
Christian Renewal Church, 556 Cabot St., Beverly, will host "Pursuing Peace in a post 9/11 World" on Nov. 15, featuring speaker Dr. Richard Booker, who writes on biblical scriptures and about threats from radical Islam. Also featured will be Ilya Feoktistov, research director for Americans for Peace and Tolerance. The event is free, but an offering will be taken for Booker. Call Denette Abers at 978-502-8101 or the church office of 978-921-4141. www.crcnorthshore.org
The Clifton Lutheran Church, in partnership with Got Books, has a drop-off location where town residents can donate books, videos, CDs and DVDs. Money raised from the purple container with yellow signs at the church, at 105 Humphrey St. in Marblehead, will be used for community charities, including youth scholarships for summer camps. The drop-off site is open to everyone, at any time.
The North Shore Teen Initiative has launched a Web site, www.nsteeninitiative.org, as a resource for Jewish teens to learn about social action and community service opportunities, trips and other sponsored programs. NSTI has also created a calendar on its Web site to post events of interest to Jewish teens. Community organizations that have events targeted to Jewish teens are encouraged to send them to Adam Smith at adam@nsteeninitiative.org. For more information, call Adam Smith at 781-244-5544.
Alternative Church Service, open to all intellectual abilities, will be held on the third Sunday of every month at 5:30 p.m. at North Shore Community Baptist Church, 9 Hart St., Beverly. For more information, call 978-927-2014.
Collections for the Ipswich Food Pantry will be accepted at Our Lady of Hope Parish, 1 Pineswamp Road, Ipswich, in baskets placed near church entrances. Only nonperishable donations will be accepted. The church can be reached at 978-356-3944 or www.ipswichcatholics.org.
