Tag Archives: bishops

“In Christ, Called to Collaborate”

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The theme of our October Diocesan Convention was “In Christ, Called to Collaborate.” Several of the sessions were recorded and can be viewed here.  In summary:

Clergy and delegates of eastern Massachusetts Episcopal congregations, gathered in Diocesan Convention last month, adopted measures to advance ongoing racial justice work in the diocese as well as congregational health and wellness, and they expanded organizational procedures in the diocesan canons to allow for a new category of ‘intentional Episcopal communities.’ Continue reading →

Abundance

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Epiphany 5C, 6 February 2022.  The Rev. Pamela L. Werntz

Isaiah 6:1-8[9-13]. Keep listening but do not comprehend.
1 Corinthians 15:1-11. Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me.
Luke 5:1-11. Put out into the deep water.

O God of the Deep, grant us the strength, the wisdom, and the courage to seek always and everywhere after truth, come when it may, and cost what it will.

Whenever our lectionary assigns optional verses, like (the bracketed verses 9-13 in) today’s reading from Isaiah 6, I exercise the option. In this case, including those verses helps keep us from getting too sentimental about Isaiah’s famous call. The verses that follow explain just exactly what Isaiah is being called to do: say to the people, “Listen but don’t comprehend, look but don’t understand,” so they will not turn and be healed. “How long [do I have to do that], O Lord?” Isaiah asks. “Until the desolation is complete,” says the Holy One. “Until there’s nothing left.” Yikes! If Isaiah agrees to be sent, this is what he can expect if he does his job: God’s Word will not be comprehended; people will not repent. I hear echoes of this story in Luke and in our own time. Is this prescriptive or descriptive? I don’t know, but I find it true. Continue reading →

And that’s not all.

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The Fifth Sunday after Pentecost, Proper 8B, June 28, 2015; The Rev. Pamela L. Werntz

2 Samuel 1:1, 17-27. Greatly beloved were you to me. Your love to me was wonderful, passing the love of women.
2 Corinthians 8:7-15. In order that there may be a fair balance…’the one who had much did not have too much and the one who had little did not have too little.
Mark 5:21-43. Do not fear, only believe.

O God of Healing and Restoration, grant us the strength, the wisdom and the courage to seek always and everywhere after truth, come when it may, and cost what it will.

What a week. What a week of so many tears. Tears of sorrow, of anger and despair, tears of amazement, tears of joy and relief, and tears of hope and brave determination. The people of Charleston, South Carolina are still burying the nine faith-filled people massacred in Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church a week ago last Wednesday while they were praying together and studying the Bible. The families of the martyrs have declared forgiveness for the shooter. They are continuing to testify and demonstrate that love is stronger than hate, and more powerful than death. Wednesday Bible Study went on as scheduled this past week with about 100 people jammed into the room where so much blood had been spilled the week before. Pastor Pinckney’s lesson the week before had been about the parable of the sower. Pastor Goff’s lesson the week after was about the power of love – full of parables from both Hebrew and Christian Testaments that reportedly had the people in that gathering laughing and crying at the same time. What powerful seeds of love are being sown by Mother Emanuel. And that’s not all. Continue reading →

2010

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  • InstitutionMarch 7.  The Rev. Pamela L. Werntz was installed as 12th rector with the Rt. Rev. Thomas M. Shaw presiding.  See The Musical Intelligencer‘s interview with John Harbison, in which he discusses the history of Emmanuel Music, its founder Craig Smith, The Rev. Alvin L. Kershaw, Pam’s musical background, and her dedication to our music program.
  • September.  Bishop Shaw presided at our celebration of the 150th anniversary of the church’s founding.
  • Vintage Books published Mary Catherine Bateson‘s Composing a Further Life: The Age of Active Wisdom, in which she discusses the influence of our 9th rector, Al Kershaw (pp. 171-2 & 1979-80). See also Timeline:  1963 & 1969.

2009

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PL WerntzOur vestry called The Rev. Pamela L. Werntz to be our twelfth rector.

 

bishopblessing253

 

 

 

 

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”.

2004

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Ball team with The Rev. Sara Irwin (front left), The Rev. Bill Blaine Wallace (back row, orange shirt) & Emmanuelites

June 4. Boston Globe reported that The Rev. Dr. Willliam Blaine-Wallace had performed same-sex marriages despite The Rt. Rev. Thomas Shaw‘s proscription of such in the wake of a Massachusetts Supreme Court ruling in May, which had made them legal.

June 20. Boston Globe quoted Bill Blaine-Wallace, who supported the Rev. I. Carter Heyward in her retirement from out diocese saying,  “I want the wider community to know that a straight priest and mainstream parish are participating in constructive disobedience.”

July. Our vestry endorsed our rector’s disobedience with a statement, “Support for Same-Sex Marriage”.

Summer. Emmanuel fielded a team* for an interfaith wiffle-ball match on the Boston Common with First Church (Unitarian Universalist). Behind them are Polish freedom fighters in a sculpture called The Partisans, which has since been moved to the intersection of Congress & D Streets.

Rabbi Howard A. Berman

Bill Blaine-Wallace invited the nascent congregation Boston Jewish Spirit to hold its services as guests at Emmanuel.  Rabbi Howard A. Berman became Rabbi in Residence.  The first meetings of what would later become Central Reform Temple were held in our library.

*If you know any missing members of this line-up, please advise us:  archivist@EmmanuelBoston.org.

  • Back row from the left:  Margo Risk (seated), ??, Donald Langbein, Jimmy Tirrell (straw hat), ??, Bill Blaine-Wallace, Marianne Iauco & Mary Blocher
  • Front row:  Sara Irwin, Kelly Reed, Hugh Doherty?, Victoria Blaine-Wallace & David York.

1976

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  • 27 Jan. Craig Smith & Edward Simone conducted a free concert in celebration of Mozart’s 220th birthday.  With standing-room only in our sanctuary, soprano Jane Bryden brought the house down with Popoli di Tasaglia (K.318), which Globe correspondent Richard Buell deemed “flabbergasting [and] insouciant”. They celebrated Mozart’s birthday with a concert for years to come.

  • Pauli Murray received a Master of Divinity degree from General Theological Seminary.  She was then ordained a deacon in The Episcopal Church by The Rt. Rev. Morris F. Arnold, Suffragan Bishop of Massachusetts.

  • The Episcopal Church, at its General Convention in Minneapolis, voted to ordain women as priests, beginning January 1, 1977.

1936

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December 13. Celebration of our 75th Year

Bishop Wm. Lawrence

The Rt. Rev. William Lawrence, D.D., Bishop of Massachusetts (1893-1927). Photo credit: WikiCommons

Our fifth rector, The Rev. Dr. Phillips Endicott Osgood, said in his sermon:  “We are stewards of an inheritance, interpreters of a tradition”.  Organist Dr. Albert Snow composed an anthem for the service.  Bishop William Lawrence praised our first four wardens:

  • Edward Sprague Rand (1st senior warden), a trustworthy, public-spirited lawyer
  • his uncle William Richards Lawrence (1st junior warden), who had bought the land for our church
  • Benjamin Tyler Reed (2nd senior warden), who founded in Cambridge the Episcopal Theological School, which became the Episcopal Divinity School
  • Enoch Reddington Mudge (2nd junior warden), who later built St. Stephen’s Church, Lynn

For more detail, see Boston Globe, Dec. 14,1936, p. 4:  “Bishop Lawrence in Tribute to Early Emmanuel Wardens. Services Celebrate 75th Birthday of Church. Dr. Osgood Views Future”.

Seated on the right at his desk in our Emmanuel Room is  Dr. Osgood with The Rev. Ivol Ira Curtis (center), who became Bishop of Olympia.