Good morning, friends. My name is Pat Krol, and I’m happy to be sharing my Emmanuel journey with you today. The first time I came to Emmanuel Church was September 2006, because I had just become Executive Director of Emmanuel Music, known internationally for its weekly presentations of Bach cantatas as part of the Sunday liturgy. I knew that Seiji Ozawa, Music Director of the Boston Symphony, where I worked, conducted Bach cantatas here, though I never attended.
When I first entered the sanctuary, I found a dark, tired-looking space, with a huge blue plastic sheet covering what I came to know as the Pilgrims Progress window, and heard about the damage to it and other windows and spaces in a fire in the early 2000’s. In those first years, I remember stepping around buckets placed in the sanctuary and in the kitchen when the roof leaked during nearly every rainstorm. There was ugly damaged black linoleum covering the main lobby floor that added to the gloominess of the space where most people enter the building. I learned that the church was facing bankruptcy and there was talk of “turning the keys over to the diocese”.
The music, however, was glorious, with some of the best professional musicians in the city under the direction of Craig Smith, Emmanuel Music’s founder and artistic director. There was an overarching feeling of family among both the musicians and the Emmanuel congregation. I immediately felt comfortable, and in addition to my duties with Emmanuel Music, I served on a committee exploring the emerging collaboration of the Emmanuel community with Central Reform Temple, then called Boston Jewish Spirit.
I was also impressed with the outreach programs held at the church, and its historical commitment to serving people “on the margins” – the many AA support groups, Ecclesia, Common Art, Ethos LGBT senior lunch program, and others, and I’ve made many friends with the staff and participants in these groups.
Over the years, with financial and hands-on contributions from many volunteers, and under the leadership of the Vestry and Pam Werntz, who arrived at Emmanuel one year after I started, things began to change. Pam inspired and empowered people to step up with gifts they had to share, both through service and financially. Folks were encouraged to propose ideas, and began to volunteer in areas where they identified a need. Funds were found to restore the reredos in Lindsey Chapel and repair the back wall of the entire building, to fix the roof, to improve the lighting in the sanctuary, to restore the Pilgrim’s Progress window, and the list goes on.
It’s not only the physical improvements to our building, but many in our congregation are involved in other lay-led initiatives. Today, I’m on the Vestry, and as one of my projects, with others I’ve been involved in an exploration of Reparations, which the diocese and individual parishes are undertaking, to acknowledge and right the wrongs of a legacy of slavery that has all but been ignored. You may have seen our postings since the summer in the weekly Emmanuel e-news. We look forward to sharing some early results and inviting interested people to join us in our work later this year.
AND, the list does go on and on! Emmanuel Church needs ongoing financial support to enable our work together to address the inequities in our community and the world, to ensure that our valued staff is rightly compensated, and that our beloved building, “Locus Iste” as the choir sings each year when we return to the sanctuary after the summer break, is maintained. That’s where each and every one of us must step up during this Stewardship season. I will be increasing my support for 2024, and hope that you will join me. . . .
Thanks for listening.
-Pat Krol, 10/29/23