Who hasn't wrestled with God?

 

Because of what we mess up, or ways the world is messed up, we wrestle with God.

 

We tackle and lunge at God, shout and rail, plead through gritted teeth or tears, head butt God in desperation, struggle to wriggle loose, twist God's arm, or collapse exhausted into God. We wrestle to figure out if God is friend or foe, will succumb to our desires, is strong enough, will show mercy, or is even real. When you wrestle, you're in a relationship.

 

When did you last wrestle with the Divine? Could it be overdue?

- Joy

 

We mourn with many in the Boston area for Jedediah Mannis, a long-time member of King's Chapel and the founder of The Outdoor Church, a ministry to persons without homes in Cambridge. As an attorney, Jed offered pro bono legal services to homeless people at common cathedral on Boston Common, one of our church's social justice partners. Feeling called to ministry by this experience, Jed attended Harvard Divinity School, was ordained in the United Church of Christ, and spent the next 20 years serving those who live on Cambridge streets. Rev. Mannis established a weekly outdoor service in Porter Square, programs to feed people at Cambridge Common, a one-on-one visiting ministry near Central Square, and a robust training program for other seminarians interested in this work. Throughout Jed's long ministry, he sat to listen, visited prisons, advocated for medical treatment and housing, and in ways little and large, was the face and hands of God to many of us. All are welcome to Jed's memorial service, which will be officiated by the Revs. Fallon and Scovel.

If you love the Requiems by Fauré and Duruflé, Alfred Desenclos's setting is just waiting for you to discover it. First published in the 1960s and described as "highly expressive and atmospheric, yet rooted in rigorous compositional technique", it is in fact so gorgeous that an American fraudster composer tried to pass it off as his own work in the 1990s!

Hubert Parry wrote his Songs of Farewell during World War I, a war that profoundly affected this composer who had great affection for all things Germanic. Parry chose to set English poetry from the 16th and 17th centuries, by Henry Vaughan, John Davies, and Thomas Campion.

William Schuman was a fascinating character in American music life. He started out as a composer of popular song, and went on to serve as president of the Juilliard School and Lincoln Center. Carols of Death are set to the haunting Civil War Poetry of Walt Whitman.

Following the performance, the music committee invites everyone to a splendid reception at the Parish House - we hope to see you all there!

With this triple entente of musings on mortality, we hope to echo last season's Armistice program, Dona Nobis Pacem.

King's Chapel has a rich and complicated history, but most often we focus on our first century -- when our Anglican church was founded amidst Puritan Boston, when our stone building was created, and when American Revolutionary and democratic values influenced our decision to support James Freeman's call for congregational governance and amendment of the prayer book.  

This November our clergy will offer a three-part sermon series on the lesser known pre-Civil War period in the 1800s, including the congregation's white and black abolitionists; the African Americans affiliated with the church; and the position of King's Chapel ministers on the most hotly debated issue of the day - slavery. How did the faith of King's Chapel congregants impact their positions? Professor  Catherine Brekus will explain how both sides of the issue found justification for their views in the Bible. 

King's Chapel -- the oldest Unitarian church in the US -- is a "partner church" with the First Unitarian Church of Kolozsvár, Romania -- the original Unitarian church in Europe. Our connection with this historic Transylvanian Unitarian Church began in 1921-22 after WW I's devastation of that land, and became one of the earliest partnerships between international Unitarian churches, a model now replicated hundreds of times. 

In 2021-22, we hope to celebrate the Centennial of this historic partnership. Last year, First Unitarian's minister, the Rev. Norbert Rácz, invited us to plan this centennial with him. The Rev. Joy Fallon and Denton Crews, Chair of our Denominational Affairs Committee, had three phone conferences in the winter and spring this year with Rev. Rácz and his colleague, the Rev. Júlia Jobbágy. One early suggestion made by our partners is that King's Chapel members travel to Transylvania in 2021 and Kolozsvrar church members travel to Boston in 2022. We're delighted to have just begun further conversations to flesh out this preliminary schedule. For more information CLICK HERE .