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This Week at
Emmanuel Church
February 10 - 17
Read below about some of the things that are important to us...
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Our Lenten season at Emmanuel began today with an Ash Wednesday Service held at
12 noon
in the Lindsey Chapel. Join us on Sunday as we continue our observance with the first Eucharist of Lent.
SUNDAY PARKING
- the Back Bay Garage on Clarendon Street - address: 500 Boylston St., Boston 02116. Pink tickets are available during coffee hour. Your ticket is good for a 3 hour period on Sunday between 8:00am to 8:00pm. The price for 3 hours is $5. Beyond that the regular rate applies.
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Upcoming Events & Important Information:
DioMass Mission Strategy Development
It's time to create a new mission strategy for the Episcopal Diocese of Massachusetts. A mission strategy is a plan for our future. It identifies our priorities, so we know how to best use our financial, staff and other resources. Our mission strategy is a response to the particular gifts of our diocese and the changing needs of our communities in eastern Massachusetts. It identifies the ways that we hope to answer Jesus' call to be disciples together across our Diocese.
We need your voice in the listening process.
Make a plan to attend one of the open forums or to complete a survey by phone or via the diocesan website. Encourage other members of our congregation to take part with you. Pray that together we will be open to the movement of the Holy Spirit.
* Attend an open forum discussion: this Saturday, Feb 13, 2016 - 3:00- 4:30 pm at St. John's Church, Beverly Farms, MA or Feb 27, 2016 - 10:00-11:30 am at Cathedral Church of St. Paul, Boston, MA
* Take the phone survey: The toll-free number is 855-208-5877
Of special note
- Emmanuel Church will host a conversation designed to
hear the perspective of young adults on how the church can grow and change to better meet the needs of the world as the mission strategy is formed. We invite young adults (aged 18 to 30ish) to take part in this conversation on
Saturday, February 20 from 4:30 to 6:00 pm
(following the collegiate Lenten Retreat day - information below) at Emmanuel. A light supper will be served. For more information or to let us know you're coming, please contact Thea Keith-Lucas at
[email protected]
.
As mentioned above - a first-of-its-kind Intercollegiate Lenten Retreat for undergraduate and graduate students in Greater Boston will be held on Saturday, Feb. 20, 10 a.m.-4 p.m. at Emmanuel Church. Students will join one another for a day of prayer, conversation and creative reflection featuring sessions led by the Rev. Ed Cardoza, a spiritual director at Still Harbor. This day of Lenten exploration, led by area students and several Episcopal chaplaincies, will help retreatants reconnect with spirituality in their daily lives and re-center for service in the world. Advance registration is required, and can be done here. FOR INFORMATION: The Rev. H. Mark Smith, Office of Youth Ministry
(617-482-4826, ext.215
or
[email protected]
).
Make plans to attend the 2016 Lindsey Chapel Series, each Thursday in Lent at 12 noon. See below:
Lenten Series: Preparing to be made new.
This year's Lenten Supper Series for three Thursdays in Lent:
February 18, February 25, and March 3 from 6:30 - 8:30 pm. Local artist and educator, Hannah Burr, is returning to Emmanuel to collaborate with Pam Werntz in an exploration of prayer practices involving collective art-making. A simple vegetarian soup supper will be provided. Come for one, two or all three Thursday sessions as you are able. Space is limited. Register by emailing Pam at
[email protected].
I Win, We Lose
is the title of a new book of selected writings of John Hall Snow, who was professor of theology at Episcopal Divinity School for nearly two decades.
Congratulations
to
The Rev. Dr. Rick Stecker
for editing the work and getting it to press! We will plan a reading and forum in the near future!
Congratulations also to
Betsy Bunn who has just published
Another Look: Growing up in The Jim Crow South. Our former rector, Bill Blaine-Wallace has written the foreward, and parishioner Meg Abbey has contributed the artwork. Betsy will do a book reading on
Sunday, March 13 after our worship service.
Are you a baker?
Emmanuel's tasty Communion bread is baked by a few members of the congregation and they would like some company! If you enjoy baking bread and could contribute to the supply a few times a year, please let Penny Lane know at
[email protected]
. She'll send you heartfelt thanks, a recipe and packaging instructions.
Are you a knitter?
The Emmanuel Knitting Group has embarked on its fifth afghan project. Members of our group knit squares for an afghan that will be raffled off this spring to benefit the B-SAFE program. If you can help with the knitting or are interested in joining the group or both, please contact Penny Lane during coffee hour or at
[email protected]
.
More fruits of our labor
- Catherine Healy was our seminarian in 2014-2015 and was ordained to the transitional diaconate in the Diocese of Oregon this past June. Here is the invitation to Cat's priestly ordination. Our rector will be preaching.
By the Grace of God and the people consenting, The Right Reverend Alan MacIntosh Gates, Bishop of Massachusetts will ordain Catherine Healy to the Sacred Order of Priests in Christ's One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church, on behalf of the Bishop of Oregon on Saturday, February 27 at 10:30 am at St. Andrew's Church in Wellesley. Your prayers and presence are requested. Clergy: Red stoles
The Orpheus Singers
, directed by James Olesen, will have their next concert, "Across the Centuries - A Song Recital for Many Voices," on Saturday, Feb 27 at 8:00 pm in the Lindsey Chapel. This concert of choral songs is like an anthology of poems, gathered together from many ages to form one volume. The poems these songs set bear relevance in all times without regard to fashions or trends. Reverence for music; the ever-abiding concern for the soul; the present relevance of writing from the past; being in nature at the break of day or longing for summer as winter approaches; and thoughts at the end of a day, either meditating on meaning, anticipating the dawn, or experiencing deep quiet are all in this concert's pieces.
Admission is by donation. Flyer below:
"Celebration of Light" Stained Glass Window Dedication,
Sun, Feb. 21 - 5:15pmat theCathedral Church of St. Paul, 138 Tremont Street, Boston. This is a dedication of the new stained glass window in the St. John the Evangelist Chapel at the Cathedral with Bishop Alan M. Gates presiding, followed by a reception at 6 p.m.
Two
Pre-Confirmation Retreats
will be held this spring for adults who are considering confirmation in the Episcopal Church: Saturday, Feb. 20, 2016, and Saturday, April 2, 2016. Locations are still being decided. Either Bishop Alan M. Gates or Bishop Gayle E. Harris will be with present for part of each retreat day. FOR INFORMATION: Amy Cook, Congregational Resources and Training
(617-482-4826, ext. 645
or
[email protected]
).
Fruit of the Vine at Communion
- Our trial use of adding grape
juice at communion has been declared a success! Both grape juice
and wine will be served at the communion station in front of the baptismal font. The grape juice will be in the ceramic chalice. Only wine is available at the rail. Our offering of non-alcoholic fruit of the vine is in response to recent calls within the Episcopal Church for Episcopalians to re-examine our relationship with alcohol, and because of our heritage of the Emmanuel Movement (forebear of AA). As a matter of theology, the Episcopal Church teaches that receiving only bread or only wine constitutes full communion. However, just as we began to offer gluten-free bread, we add non-fermented grape juice to our sacramental offering to extend the hospitality of the sacrament.
Name Tags for All -
Because it's always nice to be able to attach a name to a face, we encourage you to wear a name tag. You may find them along the wall in the Parish Hall, alphabetized by FIRST name. And in our efforts to make Emmanuel Church a more welcoming and inclusive community for all, we invite you to put your pronouns (he/him, she/her, etc.) on your name tag. By doing this, we help make Emmanuel Church a more welcoming place for transgender worshippers. If you don't see a name tag along the wall in the Parish Hall, and would like to have one, please find Penny Lane at coffee hour or email her at [email protected] with your name and pronouns.
Have you ever wondered about the stories behind Emmanuel's beautiful building? Today, it is home to thriving communities from Emmanuel Church and Central Reform Temple, to Twelve-Step programs and ministries to the homeless, and to dozens of music and performing arts events from Emmanuel Music and others every year. We are excited to announce that Emmanuel Church is starting to offer free, guided tours of its historic Sanctuary and Leslie Lindsey Chapel. For a taste of Boston's 19th century history and an eyeful of Boston's best architecture in the oldest building on Newbury Street, call Christen Mills at (617) 536-3355 x21 or email at
[email protected] to schedule a tour.
"This Week at Emmanuel"
E-News & Updates
"This Week at Emmanuel" is a weekly e-mail digest of announcements and upcoming events at Emmanuel. If you'd like to receive these, simply e-mail Amanda March at [email protected].
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Musings from the Margins...
There is a woman at common art who doesn't like me. Well I'm actually not sure if she doesn't like me or if I remind her of someone she dislikes, but either way, I'm now the target of her provocative remarks. This doesn't necessarily offend me because I honestly don't take it personally, but it does intimidate me. I am intimidated by the idea of offending someone so deeply that they show disdain for me, and I have started to withdraw into myself while in her presence because I felt like I am insulting her by merely existing. When I began notice that I was withdrawing, I knew something had to change; I cannot properly serve a community if I am retreating internally. I do not want to disengage from the common art community, so I decided to nip this problem in the bud by going to my supervisors for advice.
Through some in-depth conversations with several of my supervisors, I learned that this was not an abnormal pattern of behavior for this particular community member; she provokes people, in part, because of her mental illness and also because she wants to push away others. By withdrawing from this community member, I was allowing her to alienate herself, which is just what she wanted but not what she needed. It can be presumptuous to determine what others do or don't need, but when I say that withdrawing is "not what she needed" I am simply saying that withdrawing is not the way I can best serve this woman - it is not what she most likely needs from me.
I believe that I need to respect the fact that she wants to alienate herself and that she may just not like me, but I also want to show her that I am there to support her despite her attempts to push me away from her. I have resolved to give her a wide, respectful berth but to still reach out to her every time I see her - even if it is to just say hello in passing. This isn't about changing her view of me; it's about imbuing her with the knowledge and feeling that she is worth care - despite her shortcomings or unpleasantness. I will not condone her provocative remarks towards me, but I will also not abandon her because of them. Maybe for me this is a lesson about learning to balance compassion for self and compassion for others. I invite you to look at your own lives where there seems to be an either/or contest between compassion for yourself and compassion for another, and practice exhibiting both.
-Briana Heller
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Amanda March,
Parish Operations Manager
617-536-3355, x 10
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