Online worship is on the rise as congregations respond to COVID-19
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St. Paul's Church
in Bedford was one of many congregations that live-streamed their services on Sunday, March 15--allowing people to participate from the comfort and safety of their own homes.
Courtesy photo
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With the wave of closures and restrictions sweeping aside daily routines and business as usual--all in the attempt to slow the spread of the COVID-19 coronavirus in Massachusetts--congregations are rising to the occasion in all kinds of ways, as they move worship services online, find ways to stay connected with their people, strategize about physically distanced outreach to the vulnerable in their communities and settle in for what public health authorities say will be a long haul.
"In all of this we face dilemmas of incomplete epidemiological information and varying pastoral imperatives that do not always point clearly in a single direction. God invites us to respond as fully as we can, with the best information we have, with both patience and timely determination, and with hearts full of compassion and concern for the most vulnerable in our midst," Bishop Alan M. Gates said in a
March 12 pastoral guidance sent to the diocesan community.
He has convened an advisory group of professionals with expertise in epidemiology, public health and disaster response to provide guidance for diocesan congregations and organizations, and regular conference calls are being scheduled with clergy and wardens for information sharing and mutual support.
With the bishops' full support for local decisions to close, nearly a third of the diocese's 180 congregations reported the suspension of worship services and other in-person group activities in the days prior to Governor Charlie Baker's March 16 ban on gatherings of 25 or more people. Nearly 50 congregations of the diocese, to date, have listed their online worship opportunities on the diocesan website
(find the list here).
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Young members of the Church of the Good Shepherd in Reading watch a livestream of the service on Sunday, March 15.
Courtesy photo.
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"It's very odd in the sense that it feels like the run-up to a blizzard," the Rev. Phil LaBelle, the rector of
St. Mark's Church in Southborough, said by phone--but without knowing when it will hit or how long it will last.
"People are wanting to do things for others and don't know how best to do that because there's not much to be done right now," in terms of direct service, he said.
So the immediate focus, he said, is finding ways to keep people connected in these days of mandatory physical distancing.
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A sampling of pastoral words selected from recent congregational newsletters:
“Along with all the virus-fighting information coming our way online, I am also reading a lot about what high-anxiety times do to us as a society.
We tend to either direct our anxiety at others, blaming, shaming and attacking, or we look for ways to help...As we do what we can to help, let’s also pray. Let’s pray for those who are under attack;…Let’s pray also for those for whom this virus has the potential to be very scary, mainly older adults, people with pre-existing health problems, those who are self-employed, underemployed, or who simply live paycheck to paycheck, and those who live alone. May our prayers be prayers of grace and healing, and also prayers that awaken in us what more each of us can do for one another.”
--The Rev. Becky Gettel, Rector, St. Paul’s Church, Natick, March 10
“This crisis offers us a time to be prayerful and calm. If we take the steps necessary for our well being and the well being of others we can demonstrate the sort of love that is spacious and giving.”
--The Rev. Pattie Handloss, Interim Priest, St. Peter’s Church-on-the-Canal, Buzzards Bay, March 12
“We know that nothing can separate us from the love of God. We know that God’s grace is available to us at all times, in all circumstances. We know that God hears us when we pray, and has compassion on us in our times of fear and distress. We know that God grants wisdom to those who seek it. We know that God can fill up our emptiness with renewed strength and love. We know that the church is not contained in a building or constituted by a gathering, but that it is the body of believers past, present and future. We know that Jesus says to us in this moment too, ‘Come to me, all you who are weary and carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.’ ”
--The Rev. Regina Walton, Rector, Grace Church, Newton, March 12
“The good news is that God is often revealed in the midst of trying times. We do know that there will be glimpses of hope and resurrection all around us, even in the days ahead. We pray that through this, we will emerge renewed, strengthened and emboldened in our faith.”
--The Rev. Cheryl Minor and The Rev. Paul Minor, Co-Rectors, All Saints’ Church, Belmont, March 12
“It is important to note that at a time like this, precautions are necessary, NOT panic or knee-jerk reactions. Use common sense, check in with one another, keep communications open, say your prayers and have confidence in God's guiding hand...We are blessed with an incredible public health system and some very excellent medical facilities here in the U.S.A. We do not need to succumb to fear or anxiety...and definitely NOT to zenophobia or fear of our brothers and sisters. This is a time to show the world the strength and confidence of our faith and our love for one another, even if the love should require great sacrifice from us.”
--The Rev. Phil Kuhn, Rector, Trinity Church, Randolph, March 13
“We are embarking on an adventure of faith in challenging times, and while we do not know what will unfold, we do know the core Gospel values that will see us through--love, compassion, mercy, service to others, especially the most vulnerable among us. God is with us in all the times of our lives, ordinary and extraordinary.”
--The Rev. Ted Cole, Rector, St. John’s Church, Jamaica Plain, March 14
“These are, unfortunately, some scary days--especially with everything closing around us. As I said in the sermon on Sunday ‘Things have been canceled, yes. But you know what, not everything is canceled. Conversations have not been canceled. Relationships have not been canceled. Songs have not been canceled. Reading has not been canceled. Self-care has not been canceled. (It’s actually being ordered in extra supply!) But more important--love will not be canceled and hope will not be canceled.’”
--The Rev. David Prentice, Priest-in-Charge, Trinity Church, Woburn, March 16
“It’s very unsettling when things we thought were stable, or things we thought were guaranteed, are suddenly no longer available to us in the same way. I know we all desperately want things to go back to normal. However, as counterintuitive as it seems, however destructive it feels, our social distancing is the best way to love our neighbor right now. …Christians throughout history have been called by God to do difficult things in order to love God and neighbor. Right now, this is our moment. I pray that we are able to respond in faith and love.”
--The Rev. Christen Mills, Rector, Epiphany Parish, Walpole, March 17
“Every day we are getting directives and mandates to distance ourselves in body more and more, to care for one another by not being together. And so much of it is scary. I cannot minimize the fear that is accumulating. There is truth in that fear. …We can hold our fear with one another, and create something beautiful. When the church was being created, it was chaotic, fearful, awful and awesome; it was creative, compassionate and holy. We have an opportunity to create once again out of chaos.”
--The Rev. Tamra Tucker, Pastor, The Crossing, Cathedral Church of St. Paul, Boston, March 17
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The Rt. Rev. Barbara C. Harris:
Remembering an irrepressible "first" and a tireless advocate for justice
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The Rt. Rev. Barbara C. Harris, at her historic consecration service on Feb. 11, 1989.
Episcopal Diocese of Massachusetts Photo: David Zadig
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It has been said that God's time and ours met on Feb. 11, 1989, when Barbara C. Harris became the first woman to be ordained a bishop in the worldwide Anglican Communion. On that day, while the world watched, a woman donned the symbolic regalia of the church's highest order for the first time—an African-American woman and one who had not followed the traditional path to the episcopacy.
As the first, Harris belonged, in a sense, to the whole church. With great grace, she honored her symbolic role while tirelessly serving the people of the Episcopal Diocese of Massachusetts as their suffragan (assisting) bishop for 13 years, until her retirement in 2002—all the while striving to be faithful to her calling, her church and her God.
Her years of episcopal leadership were filled with traveling and witnessing, preaching and teaching and administering the sacraments. A gifted storyteller known for her quick wit and raspy-voiced delivery, she was also a spirited and sought-after preacher of hymn-laced, Gospel-grounded sermons, and an outspoken advocate for, in her words, "the least, the lost and the left out."
In 2018, having reached the 30th anniversary of her consecration, she wrote a thank-you message to the people of the Diocese of Massachusetts in which she summed up her episcopacy by paraphrasing the words of the apostle Paul: “God chooses the foolish things of the world to confound the wise.”
Harris died on March 13, 2020, at Care Dimensions Hospice House in Lincoln following a hospitalization in Boston, faithfully attended throughout by close friends and upheld by the prayers of many. She was 89.
"Our hearts are truly heavy at the loss of one who has been a faithful and altogether irrepressible companion, pastor and inspiration to us in the Diocese of Massachusetts for 31 years. At the same time our hearts are truly buoyed by the hope which she preached and the conviction she embodied for us throughout all these years," the Rt. Rev. Alan M. Gates, Bishop of the Diocese of Massachusetts, said in an announcement to the diocesan community.
"Barbara once wrote, 'If we can believe that Jesus, who died, rose again from the dead,...then we can, in peace, give over those who have died—known and unknown—to a loving, compassionate and ever-merciful God who has prepared for us a better home than this Good Friday world.'
“With regret but with confidence, we entrust our beloved sister Barbara to that merciful and compassionate God, just as she invited us to do," Gates said.
The Most Rev. Michael B. Curry, Presiding Bishop and Primate of the Episcopal Church, said by e-mail, "Bishop Harris was not large of physical stature. In fact, the opposite. But she was larger than life. She was larger than life because she lived it fully with her God and with us. She did it by actually living the love of God that Jesus taught us about. She did it walking the lonesome valley of leadership, paving a way for so many of us whose way had been blocked. She did it lifting her voice for those who had no voice. She did it with a joke, a whispered word, a secret joy in spite of anything that got in her way, including death. No wonder she titled her memoir, 'Hallelujah, Anyhow!'"
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Find messages of remembrance and share your own,
here
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Cathedral Lenten preaching series continues online: How are people of faith called to respond to, resist and reverse the scourge of violence in our times? What does Christ call his followers to do and be, individually and together as the church? The annual preaching series at the
Cathedral Church of St. Paul in Boston will continue to feature pastors, clinicians and scholars who are prayerfully engaging these questions, but now online: Find
livestreaming of the series
via Facebook
at 12 p.m. for the remaining three Thursdays of the series:
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March 19: The Rev. Mark V. Scott, Director of the Trauma Response and Recovery Program, Boston Public Health;
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March 26: Bishop Alan M. Gates; and
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April 2: The Rev. Jacqueline Clark, Associate Rector, Parish of St. John the Evangelist, Hingham.
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New initiatives support congregations in mission strategy’s embrace of brave change: “Wicked Good Idea” Microgrants are a new initiative encouraging congregations, networks and organizations in the diocese to try something new in their ministry context in support of the diocesan
mission strategy. The grants are a way to put some seed-money support behind ideas for how to do the work of Christ in new and creative ways, recognizing that budgets often don’t have room for trying things that may or may not work.
A total of $20,000 is available for grants in 2020. Applications will be received on a rolling basis for individual grants of $500 to $2,000. Find more information and the online application
here. Questions may be directed to the Mission Strategy Committee at
[email protected].
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Online book groups continue to foster mission conversation: The series of one-hour online book groups that is underway will next take up
Climate Church, Climate World by Jim Antal. The Rev. Lise Hildebrandt, the co-convener of the Creation Care Justice Network in the diocese, will lead the discussion on Wednesday, March 25, from 7 to 8 p.m. (
join here). Read more about it
here.
Everyone is invited to join one or both of these discussion groups, inspired by diocesan
mission strategy themes of reimagining congregations, building relationships and engaging the world.
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New priests ordained: The diocesan community's prayers and congratulations go with the latest cohort of newly ordained priests, pictured here with Bishop Alan M. Gates, colleagues, family members and friends, from left: The Rev. Sarah Brock, ordained on Dec. 7, at
St. John's Church in Beverly Farms; (top) The Rev. Paul Shoaf Kozak, on Dec. 14, at
Grace Church in Medford; The Rev. Isaac Martinez, on Jan. 6 at
St. Paul's Church in Brookline; The Rev. Mia Kano, on Jan. 11 at
St. Andrew's Church in Wellesley; (bottom) The Rev. Mary Beth Mills-Curran, with Bishop Lawrence Provenzano of the Diocese of Long Island, on Dec. 21 at
St. John's Church in Cold Spring Harbor, N.Y.; The Rev. Eric Fialho, with Gates and Bishop Ian T. Douglas of the Episcopal Church in Connecticut, on Jan. 29 at
St. Paul's Church in Riverside, Conn.; and The Rev. Olivia Hamilton, on Feb. 21 at
St. James's Church in Cambridge. View on the diocesan website
here.
Courtesy photos
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Extraordinary ordination, extraordinary journey: The Rev. Gayle Pershouse’s ordination to the transitional diaconate this past November was an occasion for inspiration and redemption for many in the diocesan community and beyond, given the circumstances of her decades-long journey toward ordination. (
Read the Dec. 18 story here.)
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Bishop Alan M. Gates with the Rev. Gayle Pershouse following her Feb. 2 ordination to the priesthood at Lahey Hospital in Burlington.
Courtesy photo
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For more than two years, she has been living with the diagnosis and treatment of cancer. It has progressed significantly in recent weeks. When Pershouse was hospitalized in early February, the May 23 date projected for her ordination to the priesthood became markedly uncertain.
Accordingly, Bishop Alan M. Gates proceeded to ordain her a priest on Sunday, Feb. 2 at the Lahey Hospital and Medical Center in Burlington. Also present were her family; the Rev. Miriam Gelfer and the Rev. Sarah Conner, her pastors at the
Parish of the Epiphany in Winchester; the Rev. Canon Edie Dolnikowski, on behalf of the diocesan community; and Diocese of Maine Bishop Thomas Brown, her pastor for the past decade.
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“We are aware that there are many others who would have wished to be present had circumstances made that possible; nonetheless, please know that the prayers and love of so many of you were evident. The service was extraordinary. We were blessed to have Gayle celebrate her first service of Holy Eucharist at that time,” Gates said in a Feb. 6 e-mail announcement to diocesan clergy and leadership groups.
Pershouse is now receiving care at a hospice facility. “Please continue to pray for Gayle, her husband, Frank Vaughan, and their family during this tender time,” Gates said. Cards and notes are most welcome and may be sent to her in care of the Parish of the Epiphany, 70 Church Street, Winchester MA 01890.
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Screenshot from the first video in the series, streamed on March 3.
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Together, the clergy are livestreaming a conversation every week and inviting parishioners to comment and participate online.
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The Rev. C. Clyde Elledge, the rector of St. Andrew's, explained in the
first video on March 3 that the Way of Love message and teachings are relevant for all.
"I think this is a really exciting thing, I mean, it might come from the presiding bishop in the Episcopal Church, but the thing that's really compelling for me is that it does involve every aspect of who we are," Elledge said. "This is a way of just trying to carve out some language and some ideas that help us to grasp the context of living into our spirituality, living into our faith. So for me, when I talk about these things, it's not denominationally bound or even faith tradition bound."
The assistant rector, the Rev. Cara Rockhill, came up with the idea as an online Lenten discipline to involve more people who may not be able to get to a church service in person.
"Community is important in all kinds of ways and that's part of why we're trying this video, is to allow a larger community to be part of these conversations," Rockhill said in the first video on March 3.
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Lenten Altar Frontals:
Prior to the current restriction on gathering in-person at church, several congregations were creating special altar frontals, including: A frontal sewn by parishioners at
St. Paul's Church
in Natick (above left); and a project in which parishioners at
Grace Church
in Newton wrote, on a strip of purple or gray fabric, what offering they would give this Lent. The strips would then be sewn together as a frontal. Courtesy photos
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Lent rocks: At the
Church of the Good Shepherd in Wareham, there is a pile of rocks before the altar, with small pieces of purple paper stuck in between.
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The, "Lenten rock pile" at the Church of the Good Shepherd in Wareham.
Courtesy photo
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This is a Lenten tradition of the congregation, where members are invited to write their life’s burdens, anxieties or fears on purple pieces of paper found at the entrances to the church, and place the folded paper onto or in between the rocks.
On Good Friday the cross is placed into the rock pile, symbolizing the transformative power of God’s love; for Easter Day and the Easter Season, the rock pile gets replaced by the baptismal font and the Easter candle, symbolic of new life in Christ.
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"This is a way of letting [anxieties, fears and burdens] go, with God's help, and putting our trust in God," said the Rev. Dan Bernier, the rector of Good Shepherd, in an e-mail. "The idea is that we want to let go, and we trust that God can help us to do this."
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Devoted to Lent: Since 2004,
St. Peter's Church in Beverly has continued its annual tradition of producing a booklet of Lenten devotionals by parishioners. Before Lent, parishioners are invited to sign up for a reading that speaks to them and write a reflection.
Ann Weeks serves as the editor for the project and said in an e-mail that the overarching purpose is to bring the parish together around scriptural reflection, as a Lenten practice.
"I think it also lets us know about each other in ways we otherwise would not," Weeks said.
"This allows the whole parish to participate in that process--to stretch themselves in different directions, spiritually and intellectually, to learn and to share."
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The Rev. Manny Faria, the rector of St. Peter's, explained in an e-mail that the devotional is a source of pride for the whole parish, and that they take pride in sharing it with visitors and friends, both churched and unchurched.
"The purpose is twofold: One is to bear witness that all the baptized have something to say in relation to the lections. You don’t need a theology degree to share how the readings strike you. The other is to offer a road map to the daily readings of Lent as a Lenten discipline for all of us at St. Peter’s," Faria said. "The devotional has not gotten old or stale. People see it as part of the way we mark Lent and therein lies its importance."
Read the devotionals in full here.
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Bishop Gayle E. Harris--along with her dog, Piccola--visited St. Peter's Church in Beverly on Sunday, March 8.
Photo: Deborah Walker
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Boston Globe:
With worship services canceled, congregations improvise: The Rev. Timothy Schenck took a seat in the small chapel at
St. John the Evangelist Church in Hingham a few minutes before 10 a.m. Sunday. He blinked at the bright, studio-style lights set up before him, and helped himself to one more jolt of caffeine from a large thermos.
“I hope you’re in your pajamas, drinking coffee, eating pancakes and practicing social distancing,” the Episcopal priest said with a smile, gazing into a laptop computer screen. “This is all new, this is uncharted and we are sort of making it up as we go along."
Like tens of thousands of churches, synagogues and mosques across the country, St. John’s used a virtual bridge this weekend to bring religious services to its congregation, hoping to help protect its parishioners from the spread of the coronavirus.
Read more here.
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Please note: Check with event organizers about events appearing on our website calendar beyond those listed below, given changing circumstances in the days to come.
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Mar 19
: CHANGE: Livestream only--"Put Down Your Sword" Lenten Preaching Series: Mark V. Scott, Cathedral Church of St. Paul, Boston, 12:00pm
Mar 19
: CHANGE: Diocesan Council Meeting, 5:30pm
Mar 20-21
: CHANGE: Pre-Confirmation Retreat, Livestream only; All are invited to join the DiocesanYouth Council-led service of Compline, Friday, March 20 at 9 p.m.,
here
Mar 21
: CANCELED: Congregational Business Practices Workshop, St. Paul's Church, Malden
Mar 22
: CANCELED: Bishop Gates visits Grace Church in Newton
Mar 22
: CANCELED: Bishop Harris visits Trinity Church in Marshfield
Mar 25
: CANCELED: "Aging and Memory Loss" Lecture, Sherrill House , Jamaica Plain
Mar 25
: CANCELED: Lent Dinner Church for Young Adults, Marsh Chapel, Boston University, Boston
Mar 25
: Mission Strategy Online Book Group:
"Climate Church, Climate World"
, 7:00pm
Mar 26
: CHANGE: Livestream only--"Put Down Your Sword" Lenten Preaching Series: Bishop Alan M. Gates, Cathedral Church of St. Paul, Boston, 12:00pm
Mar 28
: POSTPONED: Regional Wardens Day: Winchester, Parish of the Epiphany, Winchester
Mar 28
: CANCELED: Eucharistic Visitor Training, St. David's Church, South Yarmouth
Mar 28
: POSTPONED: Immigration Workshop, Church of the Good Shepherd, Acton
Mar 29
: CANCELED: Bishop Gates visits St. Luke's Church in Scituate
Mar 29
: CANCELED: Evensong for Lent, Cathedral Church of St. Paul, Boston
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Stay connected with our diocesan community:
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