Lately I’ve been thinking about some of the contrasts that chase us through life at Emmanuel. They start on Sunday when I walk over the small round disk embossed BOSTON GROUNDWATER TRUST, which is set into the sidewalk in front of the church. It’s one of 800 wells monitoring the groundwater that still covers the 200,000 Maine spruce-tree trunks that were steam-pile driven-in 160 years ago to keep our feet out of the soup below. Sure, I know that part of the motivation for filling the Back Bay was to keep prosperous white Protestants from decamping to the suburbs, and my Irish great-grandfather south of the tracks. But still, there’s no way to get into Emmanuel without at least an unthinking pilgrimage over that magical, invisible, upside-down forest.
Tag Archives: Back Bay
2013
March. With support from the Lilly Foundation, our rector Pamela Werntz left on her sabbatical pilgrimage to Iona, Scotland, several sites in the Holy Land, and Ste. Maxime, France, where she sought inspiration from Mary Magdalene. The Rev. Susan Ackley became our Sabbatical Priest/Artist in Residence.- April 13. Faculty from Leslie University’s Expressive Arts Therapy Program spoke after the service about how their students might assist with such programs as Emmanuel Cafe and Common Art. Our Leslie interns have described their experiences since then in Musings from the Margins.
- April 15. Two bombs exploded on Boylston Street near the finish line of the annual Boston Marathon, killing three people and injuring several hundred others. Leslie students joined people at Emmanuel in creating memorial flags in an event called “When Words Are Not Enough.”
The Rev. Susan Ackley, our Sabbatical Priest/Artist-in-Residence, and participants in “Words Are Not Enough” carry prayer flags down Newbury Street to the Boston Marathon bombing memorial site in Copley Square.
2009
Our vestry called The Rev. Pamela L. Werntz to be our twelfth rector.
The Rt. Rev. Gayle Harris blessed our new garden.
Brett Cook and others in Durham NC completed the installation of Face Up: Telling Stories of Community Life, which includes five murals picturing The Rev. Dr. Pauli Murray. Installed at 117 S. Buchanan Blvd. is “Soul Roots” with an inscription from Proud Shoes: “It had taken me almost a lifetime to discover that true emancipation lies in the acceptance of the whole past, in deriving strength from all my roots, in facing up to the degradation as well as the dignity of my ancestors”.
2006
- July 3. Mezzo-soprano Lorraine Hunt Lieberson died.
- Pat Krol arrived from the Boston Symphony Orchestra to become Executive Director of Emmanuel Music and an ex-officio member of our vestry.
- Parish Administrator Kelly Reed hired Sid Richardson as the youngest of several event sextons.
- Fences designed by David Polando were installed by DeAngelis Iron Work with funding from the Edward Ingersoll Brown Fund and the City of Boston.
1986
- Our vestry adopted a resolution on inclusive language and welcomed changes in the language of liturgy and hymns.
-
Constance Hammond helping Gabriela Perez get a haircut, 1983. Photo credit: Michael Thompson & Hillsboro (OR) Argus
Ordained as a deacon in our diocese,The Rev. Constance Hammond launched its Refugee Immigration Ministry, which continues to provide community-based support to individuals and families who have been uprooted by violence. In the summer of 1983, between semesters at Harvard Divinity School, she had worked with people in the Latino community in Portland, Oregon. We are proud to have sponsored her for the priesthood.
- 19 August. Constance Rulison Worcester, daughter of our 4th rector, Elwood Worcester, died. She had converted his rectory at 186 Marlborough St. to affordable housing for seniors. Bequeathed to an organization overseen by the Episcopal City Mission, it still provides affordable housing.
See also 1978.
1894
August 15. Architect and vestryman Arthur Rotch died of pleurisy at the age of 44. In 1892, he had moved to 82 Commonwealth Avenue with his bride Lisette DeWolf Colt. Son of Benjamin and Annie Rotch, founding members of Emmanuel, Arthur had graduated from Harvard College in 1871, studied architecture at MIT in 1872-3, and then gone to Paris to study at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts. In 1880, he joined George Tilden in designing houses at 197, 211, 215, 231 & 233 Commonwealth Avenue, among others. In 1886, with associate Ralph Adams Cram, they built Church of the Holy Spirit, Mattapan. In 1889, they designed a mission chapel for Emmanuel, which was never realized.
In 1886, Arthur became a member of the Corporation of MIT and served as chairman of its Department of Architecture until his death. Having with his sisters established in 1883 the Rotch Traveling Scholarship in memory of their father, he bequeathed funds for the Rotch Library at MIT. He was chairman of Harvard’s Visiting Committee of Fine Arts, founder of the Boston Architectural Club, trustee of the Museum of Fine Arts, and trustee and benefactor of the Mass. Eye & Ear Infirmary. Our Rotch Reredos was given by his sister Aimee Sargent in memory of him, their sister Edith. and their parents.
Houses at 231 & 233 Commonwealth Ave.
215 Commonwealth Ave.
See also
- Wikipedia’s entry for Arthur & for a list of their works Rotch & Tilden
- Back Bay Houses for their works in the Back Bay
- Bainbridge Bunting‘s Houses of Boston’s Back Bay (Cambridge: Harvard U. Press, 1967) discusses several of their works in depth.
- A Continental Eye: The Art and Architecture of Arthur Rotch: the Catalogue of an Exhibition Held at the Boston Athenæum, December 10th, 1985, through January 24th, 1986, and at the Klimann Gallery of the MIT Museum, February 10th through April 5th, 1986, by Harry L. Katz and Richard Chafee.
211 Commonwealth Ave., Boston