2024

  • 6 Jan. Our Candidate for Holy Orders, The Rev. Joshua Padraig (Paddy) Cavanaugh, was ordained to the priesthood at All Saints Church, Richmond VA.
  • The Rev. Lisa Faber Ginggen, Senior Warden Liz Levin & Julian Bullitt

    4 Feb.  Senior Warden Elizabeth (Liz) Levin retired after an eventful three-year tenure.  She ably steered us through the Covid pandemic, our rector’s sabbatical, and much more.  May her successor Rebekah Shore fill her big shoes!

2023

Peter & Margaret Johnson

 

1 Feb.  The US Mint announced that The Rev. Dr. Pauli Murray and four other women will be honored on quarters next year as part of its American Women Quarters series, celebrating the contributions of women to American history.

5 Feb. At our annual meeting, Peter Johnson and Elizabeth Richardson retired from our vestry.  He (or his wife Margaret) had served almost continuously since 1985.

Peter was senior warden for two rectors:  William Blaine-Wallace and Pamela Wertnz.  He was project manager for renovations of our back wall (see image above) and facade.  While becoming a Master Gardener in 2018, he assumed responsibility for our garden and continues to serve on our Building Commission.  Elizabeth had served almost continuously since 2003 as a vestry member, clerk of the vestry, or junior warden.  She continues to serve on our Communications Commission and History & Archives Commission.

9 July. We celebrated the feast of our own saint, Pauli MurrayOur rector preached about Murray’s ordination and significance for The Episcopal Church and justice in the United States. Murray’s niece Rosita Stevens-Holsey spoke after the service and signed copies of her book Pauli Murray: The Life of a Pioneering Feminist and Civil Rights Activist.  A statue of Murray sculpted by Artist-in-Residence Ted Southwick was installed in a niche on our Sanctuary pulpit.

September.  The Rev. Dr. Martha Tucker joined us as Interim Priest while our rector began her 3-month sabbatical.

1 December. On Rosemary Harbison’s birthday we celebrated John Harbison’s 85th birthday (Dec. 20) with dinner and music in the Parish Hall.

The Widow’s Mite

Lately I’ve been thinking about some of the contrasts that chase us through life at Emmanuel. They start on Sunday when I walk over the small round disk embossed BOSTON GROUNDWATER TRUST, which is set into the sidewalk in front of the church. It’s one of 800 wells monitoring the groundwater that still covers the 200,000 Maine spruce-tree trunks that were steam-pile driven-in 160 years ago to keep our feet out of the soup below. Sure, I know that part of the motivation for filling the Back Bay was to keep prosperous white Protestants from decamping to the suburbs, and my Irish great-grandfather south of the tracks. But still, there’s no way to get into Emmanuel without at least an unthinking pilgrimage over that magical, invisible, upside-down forest.

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2020

  • March 7. 10th anniversary of our 12th rector’s installation.  On its eve, we feasted with dinner, speeches, poetry, and song.  Thanks to the efforts of our deacon The Rev. Robert Greiner, Mayor of Boston Martin J. Walsh proclaimed it Reverend Pamela L. Werntz Day.  Pictured in the banner of this post are Pam Werntz, Amanda Grant-Rose, Rebekah Rodrigues, Joy Howard, Grace McElroy-Howard, Laura Simons, Bob Greiner, Rabbi Devon Lerner, Gennifer Sussman, The Rev. Tamra Tucker, and Jaylyn Olivo.
  • Bill Wallace seen on a Sussex Directories Inc site

    The Rev. William Blaine-Wallace

    June 28.  Our 11th rector, the Rev. William Blaine-Wallace, read for Chapel Camp from his book When Tears Sing:  The Art of Lament in Christian Community (Maryknoll NY:  Orbis, 2020).

  • July. Before he left to study at Virginia Theological Seminary, our Candidate for Holy Orders Joshua Padraig (Paddy) Cavanaugh compiled a liturgical customary, an illustrated manual which is used by our Altar Guild in its preparations for services throughout the year.
  • Oct. 21.  Parish Operations Manager Kevin Neel set up our YouTube Channel and with video equipment bought by Emmanuel Music, Brad Dumont and Matt Griffing began to livestream our services.
  • Nov. 1. A Saint for All Saints, a conference about the legacy of our own saint, Pauli Murray, organized by a committee led by Jr. Warden William Margraf, was held via Zoom.  The Rev. Dr. Yolanda A. Rolle, Episcopal Chaplain of Howard University, whom we sponsored for the priesthood,

    The Rev. Dr. Anna Pauline Murray

    moderated a panel comprised of Assoc. Dean Melissa W. Bartholomew of Harvard Divinity School; the Rev. Dr. Cameron Partridge, rector of St. Aidan’s Church, San Francisco; and the Very Rev. Dr. Kelly Brown Douglas, Canon Theologian of the National Cathedral and Dean of Episcopal Divinity School at Union Theological Seminary.  Please see our page for the program and more.

 

1978

 

  • 21 April.  Gov. Michael Dukakis proclaimed it to be Johann Sebastian Bach Day in the Commonwealth as “the orchestra and chorus of Emmanuel Church in the City of Boston…after seven years [had] completed for the first time in the USA the cycle of [his]194 sacred cantatas”.
  • Constance visited us in Oct. 2017

    Constance Hammond was elected our first woman (junior) warden. After ordination in our diocese, she served as rector of St. Stephen’s Episcopal Parish, Portland OR (1990-98) and then as rector and priest in other churches in the Episcopal Diocese of Oregon Since 1998, she has been a practitioner and instructor in the Healing Touch Program.  See also:  1986.

1936

December 13. Celebration of our 75th Year

Bishop Wm. Lawrence

The Rt. Rev. William Lawrence, D.D., Bishop of Massachusetts (1893-1927). Photo credit: WikiCommons

Our fifth rector, The Rev. Dr. Phillips Endicott Osgood, said in his sermon:  “We are stewards of an inheritance, interpreters of a tradition”.  Organist Dr. Albert Snow composed an anthem for the service.  Bishop William Lawrence praised our first four wardens:

  • Edward Sprague Rand (1st senior warden), a trustworthy, public-spirited lawyer
  • his uncle William Richards Lawrence (1st junior warden), who had bought the land for our church
  • Benjamin Tyler Reed (2nd senior warden), who founded in Cambridge the Episcopal Theological School, which became the Episcopal Divinity School
  • Enoch Reddington Mudge (2nd junior warden), who later built St. Stephen’s Church, Lynn

For more detail, see Boston Globe, Dec. 14,1936, p. 4:  “Bishop Lawrence in Tribute to Early Emmanuel Wardens. Services Celebrate 75th Birthday of Church. Dr. Osgood Views Future”.

Seated on the right at his desk in our Emmanuel Room is  Dr. Osgood with The Rev. Ivol Ira Curtis (center), who became Bishop of Olympia.

 

1917

  • President Theodore Roosevelt came to Emmanuel for his son Archie’s wedding.  See a Library of Congress clip of their arrival on Newbury Street.
  • Emmanuel organist Lynnwood Farnam designed and supervised the installation by Casavant Frères of a 137-stop pipe organ, which was the third-largest in N. America.  See also Timeline entry 1918 about its dedication &  2007 about its sale and restoration.

Casavant567

1907

Ruth Baylies Schulze (1907-1986) by Alfred Jonniaux

Walter Cabot Baylies (1862-1936)

Walter Cabot Baylies became senior warden.  He purchased the buildings at 11-13 Newbury St. for our Parish House.  His wife Charlotte (Lottie) Upham, daughter of founding member George Upham, gave birth to their daughter Ruth.  They resided at 5 Commonwealth Ave., which now is the Boston Center for Adult Education.

See also:   Jim Cronin, “BCAE Mansion Built for Textile Merchant, The Boston Courant 13(11):1, Dec. 1, 2007.