While interning with Art and Spirituality, Common Art, and Café Emmanuel I frequently find myself explaining who I am and that I am studying to become an art therapist and mental-health counselor. Recently while at prison, one of the women asked me if I could prescribe her pain medication. I said that while I could not prescribe her any medication, I could prescribe her some meditation. This received a round of laughs from the table and others who had heard the exchange. We live in a fast-paced world where I, for one, can say choosing the option that takes the least amount of work to fix a problem seems extremely appealing. Have a headache? Take a pill with a large glass of water and presto, headache no more. In addition, I can take a moment to think about the cause of the headache in the first place, most likely for me being dehydrated, to avoid it in the future. Continue reading
Author Archives: Elizabeth Richardson
Real Life
Fourth Sunday in Lent, B; March 15, 2015; The Rev Pamela L. Werntz
Numbers 21:4-9 But the people became impatient on the way.
Ephesians 2:1-10 This is not your own doing; it is the gift of God
John 3:14-21 Those who do what is true come to the light.
Ephesians 2:1-10 This is not your own doing; it is the gift of God
John 3:14-21 Those who do what is true come to the light.
O God of grace, may we have the wisdom, the strength, and the courage to seek always and everywhere after truth – come when it may and cost what it will.
I’ve spent most of this last week without a voice – a terrible malady for a singer or a preacher! Imagining that I would need to be prudent with my speaking today, last week I asked Clark if he would preside. He offered to preach as well, which was generous and great, but I already had a head of steam building about the readings, about some of the translations, and about punctuation and so I was too greedy to talk, to explore these heavily freighted scripture passages that some Christians cling to and some want to get as far from as possible. Emmanuelites are often in that latter group of saints! To many here, the passage from John seems like one more description of a divine sorting mechanism to decide who is in and who is out of God’s realm. One esteemed member of our community has called our Gospel reading a shakedown. Continue reading
Live long and prosper!
Second Sunday in Lent, B; March 1, 2015; The Rev. Pamela L. Werntz
Genesis 17:1-7, 15-16 I am God Almighty.
Romans 4:13-25 Hoping against hope.
Mark 8:31-38 For what will it profit them to gain the whole world and forfeit their life?
Romans 4:13-25 Hoping against hope.
Mark 8:31-38 For what will it profit them to gain the whole world and forfeit their life?
O God of the Word, grant us the wisdom, the strength and the courage to seek always and everywhere after truth, come when it may, and cost what it will.
A few weeks ago at our Annual meeting, we engaged in an exercise of writing words that we relate to prayers for Emmanuel for help, of thanksgiving, and of awe. We saw a graphic representation of the words in our Annual Report document, a picture called a word cloud, which shows the words in font sizes that increase the more times a word appears in a document. Joy Howard took the words of our prayers and made word clouds at the meeting. The word clouds are now on Emmanuel’s web page in the section about the Annual Meeting. Mike Scanlon is in the process of transferring the images onto a banner for the lobby – so look for that in the next few weeks. Continue reading
Let’s work with what we’ve got!
A collapsing infrastructure is a time to connect and rebuild stronger.
On Monday night when the women came in for Art and Spirituality, we were greeted with a mix of excitement, eagerness, curiosity, and some mellowness. Overall I felt like everyone was glad to be back in that room with paper on the tables and art supplies ready to go. Since Art and Spirituality happens on Monday’s and so do all the blizzards in Boston, we have not been able to hold the group in four weeks. Part of our weekly opening prayer is “What we want is certainty. What we get is ambiguity.” I found myself referencing this prayer a lot in the past week. Continue reading
A Gentle & Generous Presence
This week I’ve been thinking a lot about power, leadership, and how these notions intersect with age. This comes to mind when I think about the group that Jessi, Bekah, and I started called Café Arts, which came out of a process of brainstorming ideas about how to provide an intermodal space for safe exploration of self as well as build deeper community connection for participants a part of Café Emmanuel. It has been an interesting experience in group process; Café Arts has been held in a collaborative spirit since its inception. From the design of the flier, to the overall structure of the groups, to our co-facilitation, the dynamics, which have existed and continue to blossom among us, have been the central piece of the project for me. This centrality is further emphasized in my mind by the reality that the group participants have been so varied and sparse throughout its time. Bekah, Jessi, and I have been the stable presence throughout and our group leadership has been quite fascinating and dynamic. Continue reading
Take that chance!
First Sunday in Lent, B; February 22, 2015; The Rev. Pamela L. Werntz
Genesis 9:8-17 I will remember my covenant.
1 Peter 3:18-22 An appeal to God for a good conscience.
Mark 1:9-15 The Spirit immediately drove him out into the wilderness.
1 Peter 3:18-22 An appeal to God for a good conscience.
Mark 1:9-15 The Spirit immediately drove him out into the wilderness.
O God of love, grant us the wisdom, the strength and the courage to seek always and everywhere after truth, come when it may, and cost what it will.
I always love praying The Great Litany with you each year on the first Sunday of Lent. Intended to be used during times of great duress or danger or devastation, The Great Litany seems particularly appropriate this year as we are in the midst of what feels like a slow motion, wide-spread, ongoing disaster of a winter in Boston with record-breaking snowfalls and low temperatures which are straining people and systems to the breaking point. I hesitate to call weather disasters “natural” disasters because the most disastrous parts have the fingerprints of humans all over them. (People are a part of nature, I guess, but that’s not usually what’s meant.) The suffering is born by most people, of course, but the disparate impact on those who have limited or insufficient resources is scandalous and painful. With coming cycles of melting and freezing, hoped for warmer temperatures are actually going to reveal and result in much more structural damage and flooding in buildings including our own parish house, where it’s been raining in the kitchen, music room, and basement for much the last week. I’ve been hearing similar stories from parishioners all week. If you are distressed by the disaster, I’m glad you’ve found your way here to this warm building and, more importantly, warm community. If you are not distressed by the disaster, please take a little time in the weeks to come to see what you can do to help people who are struggling. Continue reading
Dazzling White
Last Sunday after the Epiphany, B, February 15, 2015, The Rev. Pamela L. Werntz
2 Kings 2:1-12 Please let me inherit a double share of your spirit.
2 Corinthians 4:3-6 We do not proclaim ourselves; we proclaim Jesus Christ as Lord.
Mark 9:2-10 Dazzling white.
2 Corinthians 4:3-6 We do not proclaim ourselves; we proclaim Jesus Christ as Lord.
Mark 9:2-10 Dazzling white.
O God of blessing, grant us the wisdom, the strength and the courage to seek always and everywhere after truth, come when it may, and cost what it will.
Reflecting on white more dazzling than any bleach could achieve struck me as I pondered our Gospel passage for this morning as the threat of yet another blizzard developed. However you feel about the snow, invigorated or exhausted, it sure is dazzling white.
Continue reading
Sharing the Blessings of the Gospel
Fifth Sunday after the Epiphany, B, February 8, 2015; The Rev. Pamela L. Werntz
Isaiah 40:21-31 Lift up your eyes on high and see: Who created these.
1 Corinthians 9:16-23 I do it all for the sake of the Gospel, so that I might share its blessings.
Mark 1:29-39 Everyone is searching for you.
1 Corinthians 9:16-23 I do it all for the sake of the Gospel, so that I might share its blessings.
Mark 1:29-39 Everyone is searching for you.
O God of Blessing, grant us the wisdom, the strength and the courage to seek always and everywhere after truth, come when it may, and cost what it will.
When I look at the three scripture readings we have before us today I am reminded that, one of the things I love about the Bible is that it gives us more questions than answers. And I love the questions. I hear a question being called out in each of our readings. Our first reading, from the 40th chapter of Isaiah follows the famous plea from God for comfort and consolation for a people who have been devastated and who are despairing. “Comfort, comfort ye my people, says your God. Speak tenderly to Jerusalem and call to her that she has served her term, that her penalty is more than fully paid…‘in the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord, make straight in a desert a highway for our God. Every valley shall be lifted up, and every mountain and hill be made low; the uneven ground shall become level, and the rough places a plain. Then the glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all people shall see it together. God is going to gather up the lambs and carry them and gently lead the mother sheep.’” What we hear today in Isaiah is the last part of a tender overture to an opus of consolation – a continuation of a love song written to bring relief to people who had been far from home, in exile in Babylon for more than half a century. Continue reading
Supportive Community
Over the last several weeks I have been taking a step back and looking at the therapeutic essence of the work my co-interns and I have been doing with Art and Spirituality, Common Art, and Café Emmanuel. As I look at the big, all-encompassing picture, I am able to see many similarities. However, the one I feel most drawn to and inspired by is community and the support around that community which we have formed together.
In a music therapy course I took last fall we were taught a song: “Come to the circle, bring what you have to bring, and take what you need.” As I allowed my experiences to stew in my mind, I was drawn to the image of making vegetable soup with the culinary artists at Common Art. This image of the vegetable stew is both literal and symbolic, in my eyes. We came together to make the soup, only able to use the ingredients we had on hand. We were able to create something that was much more than the sum of its parts. What the artists experienced was at once a creative outlet to express their connection and contribute to the group, and at the same time a filling meal to keep them warm as well as nourished. By the end, I felt all individuals involved had been nourished in body, soul and spirit. Continue reading
Asserting Exousia
Fourth Sunday after the Epiphany, B, February 1, 2015; The Rev. Pamela L. Werntz
Deuteronomy 18:15-20 If I hear the voice of the Lord my God any more…I will die. 1 Corinthians 8:1-13 Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up. Mark 1:21-28 What is this?
O God of love, grant us the wisdom, the strength and the courage to seek always and everywhere after truth, come when it may, and cost what it will. In our reading from Deuteronomy this morning, the last book of the Torah, we hear a portion of the section of Moses’ teaching about developing and maintaining the welfare of the community. A couple of chapters earlier, Deuteronomy has taught, “If there is among you anyone in need within the land that you inhabit, do not be hard-hearted or tight-fisted toward your needy neighbor. You should rather open your hand…give liberally and be ungrudging when you do so…open your hand to the poor and needy neighbor.” Compassion is one of the hallmark values of Deuteronomy. [1] Compassion is an ordering principle for Torah and Gospel. Continue reading