Celebrating 13 Years of Love & Friendship
Sunday, October 15, 2017; Rabbi Howard A. Berman
This morning, in my first sermon of both this new church program season, as well as our Jewish New Year, 5778, I want to share some reflections on a very special shared milestone for all of us — of both Central Reform Temple and Emmanuel Church. The New Year, that we have just celebrated, is indeed a momentous one for all of us of the Temple, as we mark the 13th Anniversary of the Founding of our Congregation! Just three weeks ago, our celebration of Rosh Hashanah inaugurated what we are calling our Kehilat Mitzvah Year– an egalitarian Hebrew variant on the Bar and Bat Mitzvah 13th birthday tradition, which means “ A Community of the Commandments.” In this very symbolic way, we seek to frame and reaffirm many of our Temple’s core values as we celebrate this milestone.
Thirteen years, a coming of age, a time for us at CRT to both look back at our journey together and to anticipate our hopes for the future. We have certainly passed the youthful “start-up” phase of our early years and have become a strong force in the lives of our members, a significant presence in the broader community, and a distinctive alternative in the Boston Jewish community. This clear alternative embraces a number of core principles:
First and foremost, CRT, as our name proudly proclaims, is a Reform congregation– grounded in the broad, progressive spiritual vision that has shaped liberal Judaism over the past two centuries. We are inspired by the ethical and moral values mandated by the great prophets of our Hebrew Bible, who taught that what God ultimately wants of us is to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly together.
According to its intentional mission, CRT is a small and intimate spiritual family, rather than a large institutional synagogue — a cohesive, caring community of people who know each other and their rabbi, who care for one another, and share each other’s lives as loving friends.
We are also a very diverse spiritual community — where individuals, couples and families of many ages, profiles, experiences, and backgrounds can feel unconditionally welcome as participants in Jewish life; where the embrace of interfaith families and LGBTQ people are not the politically correct marketing slogans of the moment, but are viscerally woven into the DNA of this congregation’s makeup and values; where differing understandings of faith and varied paths of spirituality are honored in the midst of a shared encounter with the Jewish faith and tradition.
And, we are CENTRAL Reform Temple, an urban-based metropolitan congregation, located in the heart of the City of Boston–with all of its challenges and opportunities. For this congregation, the living out of our values is the ultimate measure of our religious commitment — through the ethical ideals upon which we build our lives and relationships, which we express in our civic engagement in our community and in our participation in the work of justice and peace in our city, our nation, and in the world.
All of these core values and commitments as a congregation are dramatically reflected, and powerfully proclaimed, by our particular location here in our shared home with Emmanuel Church. Whatever else CRT may be known for the broader community, what most distinguishes us in the minds of many people is that we are “the temple in a church.”
When this congregation was born in the Fall of 2004, and word began to spread that there was a new synagogue being organized in the Back Bay, I received a phone call from The Rev. William Blaine-Wallace, who was then the rector here at Emmanuel. Bill and I had met shortly after I first arrived in Boston in 1997, and worked together on various community issues and in the early unfolding of the struggle for Marriage Equality here in Massachusetts. He told me that the leadership of the church had heard about us and wanted to express their support – making the extraordinary invitation to use their building for our services and programs. The offer was clearly made stating that no fees would be accepted by Emmanuel – we would be the warmly welcomed guests of the Parish. It should be noted that this was at a time when the membership and the financial condition of this church were at a low ebb, and its own future was precarious.
Our first Sabbath services were held in November of 2004, with fifteen people sitting in a circle in the library upstairs, and the rest is history. A wonderful, loving relationship grew and deepened, nurtured by the clergy who have successively led Emmanuel over the past 13 years – first, Maureen Kemeza, and since 2008, our beloved friend, Pamela Werntz. As Emmanuel went through its own period of discernment and renewed vision, it became very clear that the two congregations shared a common spiritual understanding. While clearly-, authentically-, and separately-grounded and faithful to our respective religious traditions, we both represented, within those traditions, the same progressive and cutting-edge point on the spectrum – forthrightly non-traditional, unconventional, open to those not always welcomed or served by other synagogues and churches — and perversely delighted to be called heretics by the narrow-minded in both the Jewish and Christian communities.
Now, as we well know, Episcopalians, even the most progressive, have a special delight in official sounding canonical terms for roles within the Church. In 2005, named, with the approval of the Bishop of Massachusetts, Rabbi in Residence of Emmanuel Church, I began preaching regularly at Sunday worship, offering the message of Judaism not only as the root of the Christian faith, but as a continuing vital, dynamic spiritual voice of truth in the world today.
The nurturing of the special relationship, which has emerged over these years, early on became a core commitment of Emmanuel Church in many ways. By the time the church was ready to search for a new rector in 2007, I had already been serving in the rabbi-in-residence role for three years. In that interim period of visioning and discernment, I was asked by the Vestry to serve on the commission that had been appointed to help the church chart its course for the future. It was already evident that the presence of a new and growing Jewish congregation within these walls was proving to be a source of energizing inspiration for Emmanuel. Our growing relationship had become so key to the church’s sense of its own distinctive mission, that the search committee determined that a condition of suitability for the position of rector would be the candidate’s strong support for the relationship with the Temple. It was also decided that I would interview the finalists, to attest to my own comfort level with their ideas and understanding of interfaith issues. Now, as Pam herself has often observed, this was a virtually unique situation, not only in the Episcopal Church, but in 2000 years of the history of Christianity! I’m sure it caused many raised eyebrows throughout the Diocese, but then Emmanuel had always marched to the beat of its own drummer and charted its own unconventional course.
When I first met with Pam for that interview, I immediately knew that she was the real deal – a woman with a brilliant mind, a warm heart, and a broadly embracing spirit, whose knowledge and love of Jewish tradition were core to her own deep Christian faith. She and I, and our spouses Joy and Steven, have become loving, loyal friends as well as co-workers – on and off duty — who share a common vision and remarkably similar spiritual convictions.
In the years since, as CRT has grown in strength and resources, we have considered it our privilege and our sacred obligation to fully share in the stewardship of this, our shared home. We are now one of the three primary partners — with the Church and Emmanuel Music — that reside at 15 Newbury Street. A significant part of our congregation’s own financial resources are devoted to our regular support of Emmanuel’s annual and capital campaigns. Together, both congregations have formed the Emmanuel Center, which is the structure for our joint programs of education and exploration of interfaith issues – in particular, the themes of spirituality and the arts.
In its depth and integration in the lives of the Temple and the Church, which goes far beyond merely sharing physical facilities, this relationship is probably unique in the entire world. We fully share our celebrations and our community service together. Each Sunday, as you come up to the altar to receive the sacrament of Holy Communion, you pass by our Holy Ark, which always stands next to the chancel, at the front of the sanctuary. Our respective signs and symbols adorn the building – whether our banners for the Holy Days or Chanukah, or our magnificent Sukkah, which stands prominently out front on Newbury Street each year, as it has during the past week of our Harvest Festival, which follows Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. Anyone who watches the steady stream of the thousands who pass by this place each and every day, cannot help but notice the double take so many of them pause for when they see the Star of David or our other symbols on the doors of the church. For so many people, especially visitors from other countries, this shared presence is unheard of. There are always bemused looks, usually with a surprised smile, and the inevitable photos and selfies!
We of CRT worship here in this magnificent sacred space fully, proudly and faithfully as Jews. On the Sabbath and Holy Days, this place, consecrated to Christian spirituality, is transformed, with our Ark, Menorahs, and other symbols, into an authentic synagogue – its Gothic architecture reminding many people of the historic temples of 19th-century America and Europe.
There are, of course, occasionally some visitors and guests, both Jews and Christians, who just don’t get it and sometimes aggressively challenge the propriety of our presence here. My internal reaction, usually– but not always — sublimated, is to approach these naysayers with the conviction that the condemnations of fools is our badge of honor. My more diplomatic, pastoral response is to always reply that it is totally fitting for us, when here in the Main Sanctuary, to be worshipping as Jews under a depiction of a Passover Seder, and, when in Lindsay Chapel, to be offering our Hebrew prayers under the serene gaze of the most famous Jewish Mother in history! Actually, there are times when I look up at the image of the Virgin Mary, in the stained-glass window over the Chapel altar, when I am convinced that I see her lips moving, joining us in the prayers that she knew and loved throughout her own life!
Coming at a time when our world is broken by bigotry, hatred, and violence between religious and ethnic groups, and when our nation is torn by racial polarization, economic inequity, and political dissension, this very special relationship is a rare and wonderful thing. Our presence here together reflects both of our congregations’ core values. As the Temple’s mission statement affirms:
“The People of Central Reform Temple of Boston seek to work for justice and peace in our community and the world… . We strive to respond to the mandate of our Hebrew Prophets, through our service to others.”
And, in turn, as Emmanuel’s mission statement proclaims:
We strive for justice and peace… . We honor individuals of every age, gender, ethnic heritage, sexual orientation, and religious background, and we respect the dignity of every living being.”
Friends, we enter upon this milestone anniversary in memory and hope. Our respective worship under this roof is made all the more powerful and inspiring by the company of friends who share the journey each of us is on, as we seek meaning, healing, and guidance in our lives. Our prayers and our hopes and dreams go forth from this place, a sanctuary of love and understanding, which transcends religious, ethnic, racial, and economic difference in the midst of a city– and indeed a world — that also desperately need a sense of community and a realization of the common ties of friendship and love, which should bind all of us together as the beloved children of God.
As we gratefully celebrate the many blessings that have been granted to Emmanuel Church and Central Reform Temple over the past 13 years, let us carry from this place into this city and the world the Eternal message of both Torah and Gospel. Together, let’s continue our shared commitment to the beautiful vision of Psalm 133:
Hiney mah tov, u-ma-naim, shevet achim gam yachad.
How good it is and how lovely, for people to dwell together,
Living and working in friendship, building a world of peace!