Tag Archives: art therapy
Greetings from Our Art-Therapy Intern
2013
March. With support from the Lilly Foundation, our rector Pamela Werntz left on her sabbatical pilgrimage to Iona, Scotland, several sites in the Holy Land, and Ste. Maxime, France, where she sought inspiration from Mary Magdalene. The Rev. Susan Ackley became our Sabbatical Priest/Artist in Residence.- April 13. Faculty from Leslie University’s Expressive Arts Therapy Program spoke after the service about how their students might assist with such programs as Emmanuel Cafe and Common Art. Our Leslie interns have described their experiences since then in Musings from the Margins, the first post of which describes its founding in more detail.
- April 15. Two bombs exploded on Boylston Street near the finish line of the annual Boston Marathon, killing three people and injuring several hundred others. Leslie students joined people at Emmanuel in creating memorial flags in an event called “When Words Are Not Enough.”

The Rev. Susan Ackley, our Sabbatical Priest/Artist-in-Residence, and participants in “Words Are Not Enough” carry prayer flags down Newbury Street to the Boston Marathon bombing memorial site in Copley Square.
1999
- Common Art began meeting. Administered by Ecclesia Ministries, it meets every Wednesday from 10am – 2pm in our parish hall. Please see G. Jeffrey MacDonald’s They made me an artist and our expressive-arts intern’s blog Musings from the Margins, which was created after the Marathon bombing in 2013.
- Nov. 17. Safe Haven, a shelter for abused women, opened.
Founding of This Blog
While our rector Pamela Werntz traveled on her 2013 sabbatical, we also had opportunities to explore Spirituality and the Arts at Emmanuel (thanks to the generosity of the Lilly Foundation). A collaboration with Lesley University’s Expressive Arts Therapy program seemed like a perfect means of enriching the church’s mission for using the arts as vehicle for healing and spiritual growth. On April 7, 2013, faculty from Lesley joined us for the service and offered a stimulating presentation about their program and ideas for working with Emmanuel.
In order to build upon this exciting beginning, a group of Lesley University faculty met with representatives from Emmanuel to discuss our future collaborations. Between these two meetings, the bombings at The Boston Marathon resulted in feelings of pain, loss, fear, and anger. The group decided its first event should involve the healing power of creativity in addressing these wounds, so we called it “When Words Are Not Enough.” When Our first intern arrived that Fall, we chose the name to Musings from the Margins for a blog to record their thoughts about their experiences at Emmanuel.

The Rev. Susan Ackley, our Sabbatical Priest/Artist-in-Residence, and participants in “Words Are Not Enough” carry prayer flags down Newbury Street to the Boston Marathon bombing memorial site in Copley Square.

