March 2. The Rev. Pamela L. Wentz arrived as priest in charge.
Fall. Hartney-Greymont of Needham prepared the beds and planted shrubs and perennials in our garden, which was designed by Susan Doolittle. The stone paths were given in memory of vestry member Frank Rose.
Nov. 14. Craig Smith, our music director and founder of Emmanuel Music, died. Richard Dyer wrote an obituary for Emmanuel Music.
Piano collector Hu Youyi purchased our Casavant organ and shipped it to the Organ Art Center on Gulangyu Island, Fujian Province, China, where it was restored by Rieger Orgelbau and installed in a concert hall (above) in 2017. See also the record for Opus 700 in the Pipe Organ Database.
The Rev. Dr. Maureen Kemeza
After The Rev. William Blaine-Wallace retired as rector in protest of our bishop’s ban on priests officiating same-sex marriages, The Rev. Dr. Maureen Kemeza was sent as priest in charge.
Second Sunday of Advent (A), December 8, 2013; The Rev. Pamela L. Werntz
O God, hope of the prophets, grant us the strength, the wisdom and the courage to seek always and everywhere after truth, come when it may, and cost what it will.
It’s the second Sunday of Advent, and once again (in the Church, anyway) we have to go by John the Baptist in order to get to the baby Jesus. I don’t know about you, but whenever I encounter John the Baptist, in scripture or in people that remind me of him in day-to-day life, I have a strong urge to steer clear. It’s not that I disagree with John the Baptist’s message; it’s just hard for me to look at him and hard to listen to him, especially when he starts his blistering critiques of well-meaning religious teachers and priests (which is what Pharisees and Sadducees were). I feel inclined to respond, “Look, come back and talk to me when you’ve calmed down and you’ve had a good meal and a shower.” But John the Baptist never calms down. And I don’t want to look him in the eyes any more than I want to look people in the eyes who are rough and wild and eating whatever they can find out of garbage cans in the wilderness of places like the Back Bay. I don’t want to listen to John the Baptist any more than I want to listen to the angry rants about injustice from a disgruntled resident of the women’s shelter downstairs or anyone else, for that matter. Continue reading
Ball team with The Rev. Sara Irwin (front left), The Rev. Bill Blaine Wallace (back row, orange shirt) & Emmanuelites*
June 4. Boston Globe reported that The Rev. Dr. Willliam Blaine-Wallace had performed same-sex marriages despite The Rt. Rev. Thomas Shaw‘s proscription of such in the wake of a Massachusetts Supreme Court ruling in May, which had made them legal.
June 20. Boston Globe quoted Bill Blaine-Wallace, who supported the Rev. I. Carter Heyward in her retirement from out diocese saying, “I want the wider community to know that a straight priest and mainstream parish are participating in constructive disobedience.”
July. Our vestry endorsed our rector’s disobedience with a statement, “Support for Same-Sex Marriage”.
Summer. Emmanuel fielded a team* for an interfaith wiffle-ball match on the Boston Common with First Church (Unitarian Universalist). Behind them are Polish freedom fighters in a sculpture called The Partisans, which has since been moved to the intersection of Congress & D Streets.
Rabbi Howard A. Berman
Bill Blaine-Wallace invited the nascent congregation Boston Jewish Spirit to hold its services as guests at Emmanuel. Rabbi Howard A. Berman became Rabbi in Residence. The first meetings of what would later become Central Reform Temple were held in our library.
*If you know any missing members of this line-up, please advise us: archivist@EmmanuelBoston.org.
31 May. Our 12th rector, The Very Rev. Pamela L. Werntz, was ordained to the priesthood in our diocese by The Rt. Rev. Thomas M. Shaw, SSJE. Having graduated from the Episcopal Divinity School, she was sponsored for ordination by Christ Church, Cambridge, whose rector The Rev. Robert Tobin was her mentor.
As Christmas approaches I have been thinking about the importance of family and of the unique ways we create family. It is not just marriage or children that grows a family — making new friends adds new members to a family. While interning at Emmanuel I have had the opportunity to experience moments of love that have expanded my own definition of family. Continue reading
As Thanksgiving approaches, it is becoming abundantly clear to me, all of the things about which I have to be thankful. I am of course, incredibly appreciative to have been welcomed into such a unique and accepting community at Emmanuel, to have found my career path in Expressive Arts Therapies, to have my family and so many new friends. There is connection, laughter, creativity, and joy in my life where there was not always. This is quite a contrast to the first part of my life, which was filled with struggles to survive in a world I felt misunderstood me. My desire to create and march to my own drum always seemed in conflict with a need for acceptance and pressure to conform. I could not find my courageous, creative voice or give myself permission to be who I was. I am realizing now that the struggles were part of the journey to finding purpose and authentic freedom and open other doors of possibility. Continue reading
Roof and other post-fire repairs began.
Dec. Under the editorship of Nelina Bachman Emmanuel News was published with its new name, Voices.