Daviedra is currently a member of the Sabbatical Planning Committee and is the immediate past Senior Warden. She and her husband Woody have been members of Memorial for fifteen plus years.
The View from Bolton Street
$5.00, $1.8 billion, it’s just money.
In 2018, when Michael Bloomberg donated $1.8 billion to Johns Hopkins University, I
compiled for The Sun a list of his gifts to Hopkins.
The first was given a year after he graduated. It was for five dollars.
Now if anyone among you were to pledge $1.8 billion to Memorial Episcopal, we would be
happy to receive it. We would run to the bank with the check. But what you may not understand is that if you were to pledge five dollars, we would still be happy.
We would be happy because you’re making a pledge of financial support, in whatever amount,
would show that you see yourself as part of this community, that you share our values and
concerns, and that you want to be a part of our work going forward.
So when we invite you to consider making or renewing a pledge in support of our common work
here, we’re not trying to guilt you into contributing money. We want you to see yourself as one
of us, a partner and participant in all we do for ourselves as a congregation, and for the larger
community around us who are hungry for what we can offer them.
The View from Bolton Street
Tom Casey has worshiped at Memorial since the late 70s, when he joined the choir as a
member of the tenor section and met his wife Beth, at the time, a member of the soprano
section. They married at Memorial in 1981 and have been active and involved members of
the congregation ever since. Tom, an architect, is a Senior Associate at Hord Coplan Macht
and is Chair of Memorial’s Building and Grounds Committee. He writes this week with an
update on the church’s construction project. He can be reached at tmcdcasey@aol.com
The View from Bolton Street
The View from Bolton Street
Stacy Wells currently serves as Memorial's Junior Warden (for the 2nd time around) and manages training development at the Federal Aviation Administration. She lives in Bolton Hill with her kids, Nate (15) and Mary Anne (13.5). You might see her being dragged around the neighborhood by her two pups - Beatrice (Bea) and Bennett (Benny). Her favorite role at Memorial is singing in the alto/best section of the Choir.
The View from Bolton Street
The View from Bolton Street
Remember those times as a child when your parents forced you to do good deeds for others?
Growing up in the Berkshires in the 1960s, my grandparents lived next door to us. Mom was always volunteering us kids to get the paper and mail for Gramma and Grampa, to weed their garden, or carry in and unload their groceries. As they and we aged, the tasks grew more demanding, time-consuming and even gendered: the girls would wash the kitchen floor or dust the living room; the boys would cut the grass and whack the weeds. We weren’t allowed to complain.
Paul’s letter to Philemon helps me understand why thinking back on these forced tasks makes me smile more than cringe. An important outgrowth of being forced to volunteer my time and talent to my elders was that those early morning tasks invariably morphed into something much more pleasant: a few hours learning to sew (Gramma) or whittle wood (Grampa); a chance to listen to stories, ask questions, and lean into the deep love that flowed so freely from them to us. This love that grew between our grandparents and my siblings and me was immense. To paraphrase Paul, helping and being with our grandparents refreshed our hearts, due to the joy and encouragement of our Gramma and Grampa’s love.
It’s funny - when you volunteer, forced or not, you start out thinking you’ve got work to do. Before you know it, benefits you never expected come flowing back.
Memorial Church runs on this engine!
Did you admire the flower arrangements on Sunday’s altar? A volunteer designed and arranged them. Want to help? Let Alice know! Did you read the e-news reflections last week and the week before? Volunteers John and Kathleen wrote them! Would YOU like to write a weekly reflection before Grey returns from sabbatical? It’s easy: just volunteer!
Memorial’s Sabbatical Committee is working hard to create a memorable Homecoming Sunday on September 11. Want to help ensure the day’s success? Welcome visitors at the door! Offer to bring a side dish to share after church! Step up for a stint cooking hotdogs! Lend your grill to us!
In 1960s rural Massachusetts, my mom understood that time and attention offered by her kids to their elders helped sustain the health and grow the happiness of Gramma and Grampa as well as the big hearts of my siblings and me.
So it is with Memorial Church in 2022 - with just one full-time and a few part-time employees, we depend on our members’ generosity of time and talent to keep our focus on justice, and Jesus at the center of our community.
As the program year begins soon, please consider refreshing your own heart by giving some of your time to Memorial Church.
The View from Bolton Street
It’s for dinner
Over the past year, we have heard a great deal about the baking of bread, the processes, the craft to master, the therapeutic and meditative benefits of baking while isolated during the pandemic. We have been encouraged to think of it as a metaphor for the work we do in this parish.
But the point of baking bread is not the satisfaction in mastering the technique or the therapeutic comfort of occupying oneself in isolation. The point of baking bread is to feed someone who is hungry. Bread is for a meal.
We know that Jesus spent a great deal of time at the dinner table, and this Sunday, you will hear him advise in Luke’s Gospel on how to throw a dinner party: “Do not invite your friends or your brothers or you relatives or rich neighbors, in case they might invite you in return, and you would be repaid. But when you give a banquet invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind. And you will be blessed because they cannot repay you.”
Baking bread is to feed the hungry, and in this parish, we know who the hungry are the hungry for food, the hungry for housing, the hungry for education, and the hungry for justice. Just as we invite people to come to the altar to be fed at the Eucharist, the preview of the banquet to come, we are called to go out where the hungry are, to offer them what they crave, what they so badly need.
On Homecoming Sunday, September 11, we will come together after more than two years of isolation, to greet, celebrate, and to be fed again. And to be reminded why we came here and what we are here for.
We do not bake those loaves just for ourselves.
The View from Bolton Street
In Praise of “Extra”
On more than one occasion, I have been called “extra.” I know people murmur this observation about me when they think I am not listening. But I can’t help it. When planning anything especially important to me, my first inclination is to strive for it to be over the top. Many say I am trying too hard.
As a member of Memorial who has recently retired from a career working for Episcopal churches, I feel ready to jump back into our congregational life with both feet. Memorial is an amazing place. During years of working at six other Episcopal churches in our diocese, I have always held Memorial up as the kind of congregation everyone should want to be part of.
I am proud of our history of being inclusive before it became a buzzword, of being liturgically and musically creative when other congregations clung more tightly to tradition, and of seeking justice for people outside our own narrow circles.
So, now that our energetic, charismatic – one might say “extra”- rector is on sabbatical… well, I dream of our starting Memorial’s new program year with a bang. We can rally while Grey takes a much-needed step away for his refreshment and personal growth. But during these few months while our rector is away, can we manage more than continuing the worship and congregational life we value? That in itself is a lot.
Over the years, Memorial’s lay members have organized Gala Auctions, Quiz Nights, and weeknight family dinners. We have participated in countless neighborhood festivals and been a presence for justice and inclusion in marches and parades. We have housed and supported The Samaritan Center and hosted outreach events for local schools.
YES. We can continue to do much of this good work, but my hope is that we, as members of Memorial can also gain some perspective about who we are called to be as an urban church and what possibilities await us as we move forward after this long pandemic isolation.
In the meantime, be at Memorial at 10 a.m. on September 11, when we host the “Best Homecoming Sunday EVER!” … says my inner extra self.
The View from Bolton Street
A Sabbatical Reflection From the Deacon
Day by day, as they spent much time together in the temple, they broke bread at home and ate their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having the goodwill of all the people. And day by day the Lord added to their number those who were being saved. – Acts 2:46-47
From Rev. Grey’s View from Bolton Street, June 29, 2022: The sabbatical is called: “Grains, Trains, and Automobiles” and it uses the process of Baking Bread - Mixing, Leavening, Stretching, Resting, Baking - to help us understand the hard work of rest, and to explore the role that hospitality plays in our ability to work across differences, repair relationships, and see the face of Christ in the other.
Hospitality, particularly hospitality in community will be our mantra at Memorial, for the entirety of the sabbatical. Beginning August 21st, the following celebrants/preachers, along with myself, Ken Ironside, and Carolyn Armstrong, will be joining us in the Sanctuary and Upper Parish Hall: Carol Burnside+, Stuart Wright+, Thelma Smuellen+, Joanna White+, M. Dion Thompson+, Manoj Zacharia+, Carole Douglas+. Some of these celebrants/preachers will be familiar to us and some won’t. They come from a myriad of backgrounds, cultures, identities, and preaching styles. Guess what Memorial people, we, too, come from a myriad of backgrounds, cultures, and identities. They come to us bringing their special gifts to the table. It may not be the “way” Memorial does Eucharist, but it will be the way that Memorial will pull out all the stops and welcome those who accepted the invitation to serve at the table. We shall welcome them into our community with unbridled hospitality.
Just what is community? Community is our interdependence on the space we share—air, water, roads, cities, etc. Community is also shared physical space where we interact—socialize, laugh, cry, worship, etc. Community is both possible and necessary to our human condition. The pandemic taught us just how important community is and how we rejoiced when we could come together in community. In this community, we continue to build relationships giving us more insight into each other’s stories. The bond between these relationships within these walls is strong; yet there needs to be more.
Bolton Hill is a “walkable” community. We can greet our neighbors, watch out for kids on bikes, walk around the neighborhood, “bump” into people we know. This walkable community gives us a change to interact and connect with others making this an essential component of building a society where change in community needs to happen. There is a reason why we face outward at the end of the service before dismissal. It is to take our internal community into the “walkable” community to effect change. To share the peace that God alone can give and give that peace a fighting chance.
We have made great stride in connecting with other communities through our reparations work. We can get out there and connect with others. To really get down in the weeds, we need more boots on the ground. I’m asking Memorial parishioners to seriously consider joining one of the four action teams—environment, housing, education, and criminal justice. The contact is our Justice Missioner—Anthony Francis, justice@memorialepiscopal.org. To sum up this reflections, Mahalia Jackson sung these lyrics that are so appropriate in today’s climate:
If I can help somebody as I travel alongIf I can help somebody in a word or a songIf I can help somebody from doing wrongNo, my living shall not be in vainNo, my living shall not be in vainNo, my living shall not be in vainIf I can help somebody while I'm singing this songYou know my living shall not be in vain
In closing:
Glory to God whose power, working in us, can do infinitely more than we can ask or imagine: Glory to him from generation to generation in the Church and in Christ Jesus for ever and ever. Amen. Ephesians 3:20,21