Livestreamed Services, Spring & Summer, 2020

In our efforts to prevent the spread of Covid-19 through public gatherings, we are live-streaming our services and collecting them below.  Feel free to comment there, ‘like’ in various ways, and share the peace virtually! We appreciate your virtual presence, patience, and grace during this time of innovation in worship transmission.

Permission to reprint, podcast, and/or stream the music in these services was obtained from ONE LICENSE with license #A-725712. All rights reserved.

Service of Holy Eucharist, September 13

Service of Holy Eucharist, September 6

Service of Holy Eucharist, August 30

Service of Holy Eucharist, August 23

Service of Holy Eucharist, August 16

Service of Holy Eucharist, August 9

Service of Holy Eucharist, August 2

We had number of technical problems in this video with the tripod, but the audio is still worth a listen.

Service of Holy Eucharist, July 26

Service of Holy Eucharist, July 19

Service of Holy Eucharist, July 12

Service of Holy Eucharist, July 5

Service of Holy Eucharist, June 28

Service of Holy Eucharist, June 21


Service of Holy Eucharist, June 14

Service of Holy Eucharist, Trinity Sunday, June 7

Service of Holy Eucharist, Pentecost, May 31

Service of Holy Eucharist, May 24

Service of Holy Eucharist, May 17

Service of Holy Eucharist, May 10

Service of Holy Eucharist, May 3

Service of Holy Eucharist, April 26

Service of Holy Eucharist, Sunday, April 19

Part 1

Part 2


Our Service of Holy Eucharist on Easter Sunday


DYI Easter Vigil

Here is our Worship Commission’s service bulletin for keeping an Easter Vigil at home.

Good Friday Service, April 10


Service of Holy Eucharist, Maundy Thursday, April 9

Join us for this live-premiere of our Central Boston Ecumenical Maundy Thursday service airing at 7:30pm on Thursday, April 10, 2020. Participating congregations: Emmanuel Church, common cathedral, Old West Church and Church of the Covenant. Come join us to hear about the commandment (mandante) to love our neighbors, and to wash their feet and live into the ways of deep service and compassion. All are welcome! Our offering for this service that will be collected at its conclusion via online giving, will go entirely to the prophetic and loving ministry of common cathedral, who are so dedicated to helping provide dignity, sanctuary and love to those experiencing homelessness in Boston during this increasingly challenging pandemic.

If you are having difficulty with this livestream event, you can also watch it on YouTube.

Service of Holy Eucharist, Tenebrae, April 8

Tenebrae (“darkness” or “shadows”) is the traditional Latin name for the monastic night office of the evening before or early morning of Maundy Thursday, Good Friday and Holy Saturday. Since the 7th century, its distinctive feature has been the gradual extinguishing of fourteen candles placed on a triangular candelabrum in the front of the nave. Known as a “hearse” (derived, like the funeral hearse, from Latin herpex, “harrow,” because of the resemblance between their prongs for holding candles and the teeth of a so-named farm implement). This evening as the lights are extinguished, a single candle will remain burning as a symbol of Christ.

Within the praxis and custom evolving at Emmanuel Church, we are striving to remain faithful to the traditional rituals, while seeking new expressions of worship and spirituality. Here we offer an expansive language and contemporary use of liturgy, music, and Scripture to be consistent with the underlying rubrics of our faith community. The psalm texts are taken from The Saint Helena Psalter.


Service of Holy Eucharist, Palm Sunday, April 5

Welcome to our live-streamed Palm Sunday celebration! Join us in openly defying millennia of Christian anti-Jewish rhetoric and liturgical practice.


Service of Holy Eucharist, Sunday, March 29

Welcome to worship from our sanctuary! In her sermon, our rector teases apart some significant differences between translating the Greek word for sign as miracle.

Part 1

Part 2


Service of Holy Eucharist, Sunday, March 22

Today’s homily tackles the deleterious effects of antisemitism and punctuation in today’s gospel lectionary portion (John 9:1-41). Bring your open mind, Bible (or printout of the gospel portion), and a red pencil/pen! Read a PDF of the sermon with Gospel edits by our rector, the Rev. Pamela L. Werntz.

Service of Holy Eucharist, Sunday, March 15

Our first livestream on Sunday, March 15, appears below with a long leader before the organ prelude. You may jump ahead 32 minutes to reach the start of the sermon by our rector, the Rev. Pamela L. Werntz.