Monthly Archives: April 2024

We Celebrate Bishop Barbara Harris

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April 30, 2024

This past Sunday, The Rt. Rev. Dr. Carol J. Gallagher, visited us, presiding and preaching at our Eucharist for the Fifth Sunday of Easter. Bishop Gallagher also dedicated our second pulpit statue. Bishop Barbara Harris’s statue joins that of the Rev. Dr. Pauli Murray, both carved by our resident sculptor, Ted Southwick. Bishop Barbara was known to many of us and stories about her forthright manner and other qualities are legendary. We honor her in this column. While it would be impossible to cite her writings and writings about her, we present a few here.

“I would like to see the church come to some better understanding of what it means to be an inclusive fellowship, how to more fully exhibit the love of Christ in the world.”

— Barbara Harris, The Right Reverend Barbara C. Harris, 1930-2020

Harris, Barbara C. Hallelujah Anyhow! A Memoir. New York: Church Publishing,
2018.

Johnson, Qiana M., “The First Five Black Women Episcopal Priests,” Anglican
and Episcopal History 92:1 (March 2023), p. 81-102. An article about Pauli Murray, Mary, Adebonojo, Barbara C. Harris, Sandye Wilson, and Gayle Harris.

–Mary Beth Clack, Mary Blocher, Cindy Coldren, Pat Krol, Liz Levin
–Published in This Week @Emmanuel Church April 30, 2024

“The Church Awakens”

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April 15, 2024

Our recent discovery of “The Church Awakens: African Americans and the Struggle for Justice,” the exhibit website hosted by the Archives of the Episcopal Church, leads us to describe it briefly for you in this column. We encourage you to spend some time with it: there is much to read, listen to, and explore. The timelines include the key moments in which African Americans and their struggle for justice in the Episcopal Church came to the fore.

Other historical information is found in the topical pages (Legacy, Divergence, ESCRU, Transitions, The Special Program, and Awakening). In the Leadership Gallery, you’ll find important figures who have been the subjects of inquiry and discussion at Emmanuel Church, such as William Stringfellow and Pauli Murray.

Among the important lay leaders, Boston’s Byron Rushing is cited. Byron generously offered Emmanuelites two tours during Chapel Camp 2021, giving us a better sense of the history of Black South Boston writ large, and an opportunity to learn about Emmanuel Church’s connections to the African American community. We visited the building that housed Emmanuel’s mission church, the Church of the Ascension and the original Emmanuel House. Visit the Social Justice page under the Missions heading at the Emmanuel Church website for more on those tours.

Do take some time perusing “The Church Awakens” website; it has much to offer.

–Mary Beth Clack, Cindy Coldren, Mary Blocher, Liz Levin, Pat Krol
–Published in This Week @Emmanuel Church April 17 & 24, 2024

The Harriet Hayden Albums

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April 2, 2024

“Poets, prophets, and reformers are all picture-makers and this ability is the secret of their power and of their achievements. They see what ought to be by the reflection of what is, and endeavor to remove the contradiction.”
–Frederick Douglass (Boston Tremont Temple lecture, 1861)

A remarkable exhibit of materials, inspired by two photograph albums owned by Harriet Hayden is now on display at the Boston Athenaeum. Framing Freedom: The Harriet Hayden Albums brings to life the network of abolitionists and activists who participated in the network of assistance for freedom seekers who traveled to Boston from the 1840s onward. The Beacon Hill home of Harriet and Lewis Hayden was called “a temple of refuge” by fellow abolitionists. About one-fourth of the freedom seekers from the South found support and solace there.

We know of a connection that the Haydens had with Emmanuel’s Beecher Stowe family. Harriet Beecher Stowe, whose daughter Catharine was confirmed at Emmanuel Church in 1862, visited the Hayden’s home in 1853. Stowe referenced Lewis Hayden’s “real life stories” in her response to critics of her books. (See “Lewis and Harriet Hayden House”)

–Mary Beth Clack, Cindy Coldren, Mary Blocher, Pat Krol, Liz Levin
–Published in This Week @Emmanuel Church April 3 & 9, 2024