From where I stand, it’s a New Year in three ways:
On Friday and Saturday, our sister congregation in residence here, Boston Jewish Spirit, observed Rosh Hashanah, to mark the beginning of the Jewish new year with services in Lindsey Chapel. BJS had graciously invited members of Emmanuel Church to come as guests, so a number of us were there on Friday night when the shofar — the ceremonial ram’s horn — sounded its primordial call to reflect on the year past and then to turn to the future in hope.
How poignant it was to hear the wail of the shofar, and the Hebrew prayers and songs reverberating off the stone walls of that high gothic chapel! In that moment, as a Christian, I couldn’t help but reflect on the past, not only the past year, but past centuries. For so long, through so many generations, acrimony, prejudice, and violence characterized the relation of Christians to Jews, until it bore such bitter fruit in the darkness of the holocaust. In light of that history, how good it seemed on Friday that this fledgling Jewish congregation is making a home in the shelter and welcome of Emmanuel Church.
After the service was over, another Emmanuelite spoke to me about something that had caught her attention in the language of the Jewish service. It was the prayer of blessing, where she heard ‘I will make you a blessing’ in place of the more accustomed ‘I will bless you.’ That’s one of the many good things about worshipping in new ways, with people ways are different from your own — you hear with ‘new ears.’
To my Emmanuel friend, ‘I will bless you’ sounded like it made the person blessed a passive recipient, where ‘I will make you a blessing’ would make the person active, herself a blessing to others. One who is a blessing would be strong and gifted as a moral agent, able to do good — maybe great — things. Such a one could change the world for the better. Now, that’s a blessing worth having, my friend observed.
It’s a happy new year in another sense. After the long summer’s hiatus, today Emmanuel Music returns to its home in this sanctuary. The new Cantata year begins. Beginning today, singers and instrumentalists, scattered since May, recombine to make some of the sweetest ‘soul music’ you’ll ever hear! For so many who worship here, the music they make and the songs they sing are the very language of transcendence, the utterance of holy sound. The gospel sung in Bach’s Cantatas connects many listeners with a power that can overcome doctrinal scruples and disaffection, at least while the music lasts! Week by week from now to May, Craig Smith and the Emmanuel Music singers will provide their breathtaking music during Holy Eucharist.
I have learned during this, my first year in Emmanuel, how profoundly Craig Smith and Emmanuel Music are a part of the Emmanuel Church experience. As I have heard the story, the relationship began more than thirty years ago, when Craig Smith was a young music student singing in the choir. He conceived the notion of performing the entire cycle of Bach’s sacred cantatas in worship, the context for which they had been originally composed. Emmanuel’s rector in those days, the Rev. Al Kershaw, thought it was a great idea and he supported the young man’s plan. Since then, Craig, with the devoted help of his colleague Lenny Matczynski, along with Michael Battle, a strong Board, and many others, grew the original concept into an independent world class music company. Over this summer Emmanuel Music reorganized, bringing Pat Krol over from the BSO — you’ll hear more about that after the service in the Parish Hall.
All the while, Emmanuel Church has cherished the musicians, fostering Emmanuel Music’s growth through generous and constant financial and moral support. For a generation, Emmanuel Church and Emmanuel Music have been a blessing to each other. Together they have served the human spirit.
I say happy new year with a third meaning, because now a new chapter is opening in the life of Emmanuel Church, her ministry and partnerships.
In the winter of 2006, Emmanuel Church’s elected representative leaders, the Vestry, commissioned a Feasibility Task Force to explore alternative options for the Church’s future. During the same months that the Task Force did its work, the Vestry redefined the Church’s mission — whom we are to serve and how we are to be faithful stewards of this extraordinary location and property. At the completion of these parallel projects, the leaders committed to revitalizing Emmanuel Church’s ministry. On the face of the bulletin, you’ll see the new mission statement they composed as their blueprint for decisions and action: Emmanuel Church exists to serve the urban community of Greater Boston as a dynamic center for spiritual discovery and renewal.
What this means essentially is that Emmanuel Church is starting over. Think of old Emmanuel as a new start-up! Like any start-up, it needs all kinds of skills and talents and financial participation. So whether you’ve been here for a generation or today is your first visit, you are asked to jump in, or to continue with renewed energy, to offer your skills and gifts and support — from financial accounting to dramatic storytelling, from organizing small groups to organizing overseas mission trips or cultural pilgrimages to foreign lands — come on in! Come by the Parish Hall after the service to learn what’s already going on or to see what is missing that you might add.
In addition to the renewal of the Church’s mission and ministry, the Vestry initiated exploration of the possibility of creating a new non-profit entity that would enable us to partner in new ways with the two organizations in residence, Emmanuel Music and Boston Jewish Spirit.
Each of these partners uniquely serves the cultural and spiritual life of greater Boston. Under an umbrella corporation, each could flourish as a distinct organization, pursuing their respective missions and development aims with parallel integrity under the same roof. At the same time, by combining our diverse and distinctive strengths in new ways, we may be able to accomplish far more than any one of the organizations alone can do.
I have a dream that it will enable the genius of Emmanuel Church’s and Emmanuel Music’s historic collaboration to grow to the next level, and extend into the next generation, in service of the human spirit.
I am deeply happy to tell you that the leaders of both Boston Jewish Spirit and Emmanuel Music have agreed to participate in the exploratory and planning process toward this non-profit umbrella organization, that is tentatively called, (depending on whom you’re talking to):
Emmanuel: An Urban Center for Interfaith Spirituality & the Arts
OR
Emmanuel: An Urban Center for the Human Spirit & the Arts
At this point, the new initiative is a concept, a vision, no more. It will take careful exploration and discussion and fact-finding to arrive at a commitment. But the process has begun, and we pray that the Spirit of Creativity guides our steps.
I would love to tell you more, and will at every possible opportunity. Right now, however, I know you are eager to return to lifting your thanksgivings and praises to heaven, and to hearing the first Cantata of the New Year.
Happy New Year, Emmanuel: Emmanuel individuals and Emmanuel corporations! Emmanuel veterans and Emmanuel newcomers!
May the coming year bring you health, prosperity, spiritual growth, profound love, and peace of heart. May our world be moved toward reconciliation and peace. May God bless you abundantly in every way, and make you, yourself, a blessing.