Building

Our building is a home and resource for a dynamic group of programs and organizations who partner with us to preserve this historic structure and project our ideals of justice, spirituality, and art into the community of the Boston metropolitan area.

As is often the case with urban churches, Emmanuel Church was built for a large and affluent congregation, which migrated to the suburbs during the mid-twentieth century, leaving a small congregation responsible for a large, historic, and expensive edifice. Emmanuel Church views its building as a resource, not only for itself, but for the larger community of the city of Boston, and has found that by careful management and partnership with a wide variety of programs and institutions we have been able to maintain our historic building while supporting our missions of Social Justice and the Arts.

Although in a typical week the congregation of Emmanuel Church holds only one worship service, our weekly building calendar shows between 30 and 40 events of many different types, run by many different organizations.  We also provide a home for a women’s shelter, an outreach program for unhoused people, two resident artists, and offices for Emmanuel Music, Central Reform Temple, and our staff. Sometimes it seems like Grand Central Station in the lobby! In the course of a day, almost every day, our building serves hundreds of people. Organizations which use the building are affiliated with various faiths or are completely secular.  Our choice to be in community with them is based on the good work they do.