Known as the “Black Bishop of the Episcopal Church,” Absalom Jones’s feast day is February 13. Following tradition, numerous Episcopal churches and dioceses are holding commemorative services. The Cathedral Church of St. Paul in Boston announced that our diocese’s celebration would be held at 4pm on February 14, 2026, with the Rt. Rev. Julia E. Whitworth presiding and the Rev. Canon Dr. Kelly Brown Douglas preaching. Continue reading
Cover of A.R.C. Neighborhood Liturgy (Princeton U. Press, 2025)
The Gardner Museum and the Boston Athenaeum are hosting exhibitions of the work of Allan Rohan Crite, artist and chronicler of life in Boston’s Lower Roxbury and South End neighborhoods. Both shows opened on October 23, 2025. Allan Rohan Crite: Urban Glory and Allan Rohan Crite: Griot of Boston are creating a resurgence of interest in the work of Crite (1910-2007), who was known as a civic leader, storyteller, and community activist. Influenced by his lifelong devotion to his faith and to local Episcopal churches he supported and loved, his work is again in our midst.
Our Racial Justice Working Group follows the news of ongoing reparations processes as they unfold in institutions of The Episcopal Church. One of TEC’s oldest seminaries, the Virginia Theological Seminary (VTS), recently announced the next phase of its historical research and monetary reparations: “VTS breaks ground on reparations memorial honoring at least 557 African American laborers.” —Episcopal News Service, September 26, 2025 Continue reading
photo credit: WGBH Boston
On September 14, 2025, King’s Chapel unveiled its Memorial Sculpture, “Unbound,” by artist Harmonia Rosales.
Rosales’s work was stewarded by the MASS Design Group. It is a tribute to the 219 enslaved parishioners brought to church by their enslavers.
As many of you know, King’s Chapel has been actively engaged in studying and revealing many aspects of its racial history over recent years. A rich summary, including their plans for an ongoing project, is presented online via the page entitled King’s Chapel Memorial to Enslaved Persons.
September 22, 2025 –Mary Beth Clack, Mary Blocher, Cindy Coldren, Pat Krol, Liz Levin.
Emmanuel Church dedicated its third pulpit statue this past Sunday to the Rev. Dr. Suzanne Radley Hiatt (1936-2002), priest, theologian, prophet, professor, and advocate. Sue Hiatt was ordained as one of the Philadelphia 11 (July 29, 1974), and served as an inspirational mentor to many, including our rector.
Pam’s sermon on Sunday included examples of Hiatt’s devotion to equality and justice; as “bishop to the women,” Pam said that she was “pressing the Church to deeper inclusion and fuller love.”
It was interesting to learn that Suzanne Hiatt wrote about her connections to Pauli Murray (1910-1985), who had discerned from our parish and in 1977 became the first African American woman to be ordained in the Episcopal Church. In April 1970, they attended the Graymoor Conference, an important event in the history of women’s ordination, attended by about 60 women and numerous male supporters. One of the organizers, Hiatt was stalwart in her advocacy of the movement. After years of experiences as a civil rights lawyer, professor, and Women’s Movement activist, Murray attended Graymoor. After the conference, she and Henry Rightor, a former lawyer and professor of pastoral care at Virginia Theological Seminary, studied the Church’s Canons and Constitutions. Their report presenting their findings after the conference set the stage for persuasive arguments for women’s ordination.
Sue Hiatt’s admiration for Pauli Murray was expressed in an article she wrote in the Journal of Feminist Studies in Religion.* She noted that she had learned a lot from delving into Pauli Murray’s writings about her unceasing dedication to the pursuit of justice. Hiatt considered Murray a “foremother, not only to be proud of, but also to learn from and emulate.” Those who came before Hiatt’s generation “shook the foundations so that we could topple the walls.” Hiatt deeply admired Murray’s contributions: “Pauli believed above all in justice, and despite a lifetime of disappointments and tragedies, she never stopped seeking it. She just never quit.”
May we be inspired by the women who now live on in our sanctuary, and, as Pam said in her Eastertide sermon: “Arise, wake up, come alive to become who and whose you are called to be.”
*Hiatt, Suzanne, “Pauli Murray (1910-1985): May Her Song Be Heard at Last,” Journal of Feminist Studies in Religion 4 (Fall 1988), 69-73.
See also the chapter of the same title in The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me: The writings of Suzanne Hiatt, ed. Carter Heyward and Janine LeHane (New York: Seabury, 2014). This compilation of Hiatt’s writings is a wonderful tribute to her.
—May 15, 2025. Mary Beth Clack, Mary Blocher, Cindy Coldren, Pat Krol, Liz Levin
March 22, 2025
Addressing the historical harms of slavery starts with facing up to a good deal of uncomfortable truth. What does this mean for white Americans like me or for members of an historically white American church like ours?
We must acknowledge first that the truth has been hidden from us. Participants in the “Stolen Beam” course on reparations that Connie Holmes and I teach will sometimes say, Why was I never taught this? We must seek information from unaccustomed sources, which requires effort and research.
For many of us this research may stir up internal resistance and denial, as well as underlying guilt and shame. These emotions can lead us either to turn away or to become self-congratulatory about our awareness. Such reactions may hinder our ability to address the situation effectively.
To avoid such emotional fragility, we need to rely on our spiritual resources, starting with knowing by faith that we are already forgiven. With insight also we recognize that our involvement in oppressive systems has not been entirely voluntary; external forces compromised our moral clarity. Even more reason to undo the harm that has been done through us!
We forgive ourselves not to ease discomfort but to move past blame and stagnation. This allows us to act from a place of truth and grace as we reclaim our essential connection to all lives across enforced divisions.
But repentance and conversion require collective effort. We need one another for this work. As we connect across our divisions, we find that, even as we let go of the false securities of privilege, we don’t fall into oblivion but rather find instead the supportive embrace of beloved community.
Initially, this may involve a small group of committed individuals, a circle of trusted companions on the journey with whom we can hold the true sight of who we truly are – children of a loving God – while also holding one another accountable for our actions.
Will you join us?
–The Reverend Steven Bonsey
(Steven is the former Canon Pastor at the Cathedral Church of St Paul and current co-facilitator of the “Stolen Beam” course for Episcopal City Mission.)
–Mary Beth Clack, Mary Blocher, Cindy Coldren, Pat Krol, Liz Levin
November 3, 2024
In May 2024, the Episcopal Church’s Church Pension Fund (CPF) announced the completion of a report that augments its previously published history. Incorporated in 1914 by an act of the New York Legislature, the CPF was conceived by Massachusetts Bishop William Lawrence. Lawrence introduced a resolution at the 1910 General Convention to create a Joint Commission on the Support of Clergy.
The “Report by the Church Pension Group on the Origins and Sources of Its Assets” presents an accounting of the initial donors’ sources of wealth, original donation to the CPF, and “Connection to Enslavement of Humans or Racist Ideology.” The report concludes with the Fund’s ongoing commitment to address injustice.
The Living Church summarized the effort here.
The previous published history of the CPF is found in this timeline.
–Mary Beth Clack, Mary Blocher, Cindy Coldren, Pat Krol, Liz Levin
–Published in This Week @Emmanuel Church November 3, 2024
October 22, 2024
We first learned of the United Kingdom’s Black History Month, which is celebrated in October, from the Episcopal News Service article, “Church of England prepares to mark October as Black History Month.”
In addition to the musical offerings mentioned in the above article, one of the several lectures hosted by cathedrals and churches will be given by David Olusoga, OBE, professor of Public History at the University of Manchester and author of Black and British: A Forgotten History (London: Macmillan, 2016). A BBC documentary of the same name is also posted on YouTube.
This year’s theme for the month is “Reclaiming Narratives,” and the Church of England has a rich page of resources for additional prayer, contemplation, and reflection. Study days, lectures, services, and other events have been planned, listed here:
We were happy to see that a film that we viewed a few months ago is now widely available on YouTube: “After the Flood: The Church, Slavery, and Reconciliation.”
–Mary Beth Clack, Mary Blocher, Cindy Coldren, Pat Krol, Liz Levin
–Published in This Week @Emmanuel Church October 22, 2024
September 24, 2024
The first summary of the Episcopal Church’s recent Summit on Truth-telling and Reparations has been published in the Episcopal News Service: “Church Summit Deeply Explores Truth-telling and Reckoning with an Eye Toward Reparations”.
The meeting included 106 people representing 34 dioceses who gathered “to share strategies, best practices, and resources and to pray for and encourage one another in their work.” These representatives from parishes across the country have done work in three areas; truth-telling, reckoning, and discernment. “In practical terms, truth-telling means identifying theologies and practices to unearth and name historic and systemic racial injustices; reckoning takes the form of publicly owning and naming harms and injustices; and discernment is coming to a collective, agreed-upon definition of what constitutes healing and repair.”
We recommend this article which includes a helpful link to a page with resources gathered by the Episcopal Diocese of Washington, DC. You will “meet” several of the leaders in the Church that our group has learned from in the
past year of our study in the videos linked therein.
–Mary Beth Clack, Mary Blocher, Cindy Coldren, Pat Krol, Liz Levin
–Published in This Week @Emmanuel Church September 25 & October 2, 2024
September 4, 2024
Several years ago, the Episcopal News Service reported on Old North Church’s deepening its research into its connections with the slave trade, “Iconic Boston
Church Reckons with its Links to Slavery.”
Our curiosity about what has been learned since, and how the church tells its stories, led to tour Old North, Boston’s oldest surviving church. Guides lead visitors to the gallery where they narrate the history of individuals and families who were not able to purchase pews and who sat in the balcony of the church. Parishioners’ children sat on the right side facing the altar while free blacks, enslaved persons, indentured servants, and Indigenous peoples were assigned to the left side. After combing through pew records and other materials, the church has been able to piece together stories of community support and relationships that developed in the gallery. The stories are incomplete–many with questions remain–yet some patterns of social interactions are discernable. The results of their inquiries are well-presented in signage placed in certain pews, as well as on their web page, “The People in the Pews.” Continue reading