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The Rector's Corner

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  • February 08, 2023 9:07 AM | Barbara MacDonald (Administrator)

    Dear Friends of the Redeemer,

    What an update I have for you all this morning! As of today, A Time to Build... has received over $467,000.00 in pledges! Amazing! What a joy and answer to prayer.

    We also learned last week that the Norfolk Street Project of Habitat for Humanity Greater Boston (our particular project if you will) goes before the Zoning Board for final approval this week! Please keep the HHGB team in your prayers. After zoning approval comes the Building Permit phase which could take up to twelve weeks, but after zoning approval, the runway is clear!

    Habitat has also helped us look ahead for build dates a little farther into the future. We now have four dates for the next four months: Friday, February 24th, Saturday, March 4th, Friday, April 21st, and Saturday, May 13th.  Signups are available now for February 24th and March 4th!

    As I will be on a family trip to see my mother on February 24th, I am hoping to find a team point person for that day. Not a lot of heavy lifting save giving the team a gathering point at the Church and coordinating rides. Easy peasy leadership opportunity!

    Once again, thank you for making this amazing project a possibility. There is a lot more to come on including children in this work. Also, we will have more information soon on Epiphany-Redeemer projects in particular. Below you will find the sign up information for theFeb 24th and March 4th dates. So excited and blessed!

    In, Christ,

    Mike


    We've reserved the following dates for you all - February 24, March 4, April 21, and May 13. Your February and March dates are available for sign-up on Volunteer Hub. Below are the Build Day details. We are excited to continue this partnership and have you all on build site again soon!

    We still utilize Volunteer Hub to register all volunteers onsite, the link includes all necessary information including site location, construction staff contact info, waivers, etc. Your Volunteer Hub link is listed below and should be distributed to your organization for anyone who wants to participate in the build. Registration closes 48 hours before a build day. All volunteers must register on Volunteer Hub no later than 48 hours before your Build Day, we are unable to extend the registration period. Anyone not registered on Volunteer Hub cannot participate in the Build Day.

    Date: February 24 & March 4

    Time: 8:30 am-3:00 pm with a lunch break at 12pm. Clean-up begins at 2:30 pm.

    Site Locations: 725 Parker Street Boston MA 02120

    Online Volunteer Sign-Uphttp://vhub.at/churchredeemerbuild

    Online Volunteer Sign-Up Deadline 1st Build Day: February 22 

    Online Volunteer Sign-Up Deadline 2nd Build Day: March 2

    Day-of Contact: Cathy Kurczak, Construction Site Supervisor (617) 515-2883

    ITEMS TO BRING:

    • Dress in clothing that can get dirty and wear sneakers or work boots.
    • Food and drink for the day, including lunch, snacks, and plenty of your beverage of choice. Water will be offered. No fridge is available. Lunch is not provided.

    • Wearing a mask is encouraged by all volunteers.

    • Printed waiver only for 16/17-year-old participants via Volunteer Hub. All volunteers must be at least 16 years old to participate in a Build Day.

    Every volunteer arriving at the build site must be registered on our online volunteer platform (VolunteerHub). I also encourage you to read Frequently Asked Questions on our website.

    Please feel free to contact me via email at esterfarah@habitatboston.org with any additional questions related to your BuildDay(s).In the case of inclement weather, please contact the Day-of Contact, Cathy (contact info above), before arriving on site. We look forward to seeing you on site!


  • May 23, 2022 12:37 PM | Barbara MacDonald (Administrator)

    From Rev. Mike Dangelo--

    Dear Friends of the Redeemer,

    I write to you this afternoon from a crossroad within my soul. On Saturday night as I was putting the final touches on my Sunday morning sermon, my phone (like yours) alerted me of the murder of ten black Americans at the hands of an angry and young white supremacist. Those murdered people just like us going about their daily routines providing for themselves and their children. Celestine Cheney, grandmother of six, was grocery shopping with her sister. Andre Mackniel was shopping for a birthday cake for his three-year-old son. Hayward Patterson was just waiting in his taxicab to pick up a shopper when he was murdered. This violence was horrific and numbingly predictable. It was that story we continue to hear about a mentally unstable young white man hatefully fueled to violence by racially charged lies and sentiments. And like all of these terrible stories, these murders were preventable. Had this young man's parents, his friends, his relatives, or his systems of education and justice acted in concert on the information they all had, these innocents would have been saved. I could not gather my soul in a way to address it, and I am still at a loss on how we might confront the sick sin of white supremacy that cancerously infects our national soul. What strikes me today is how American Payton Gendron is. Gendron hailed from Conklin, New York, a rural town on the border of New York and Pennsylvania. With a population of just over 5,000 people, Conklin's citizenry represents the kind of majority white small town America that is worlds away from the cosmopolitan and diverse worldviews of our East and West Coast realities. Relegated to the limited and narrowing economic horizons of much of America's hinterland, the positivity and possibility of upward mobility is being dragged down by factors far beyond our control. And, when the optimistic stories of America no longer move someone to hope and possibility, other narratives filled with lies and hateful sentiments begin their pernicious work of radicalizing the young and impressionable. There is no excuse for the murders committed by Payton Gendron, but the seeds of his hate were sown in the soil of isolation, watered by hopelessness, and fertilized with anger, cruelty and hate. These too were all preventable.

    What then can an Episcopal Church and its community of Christians do in light of this great field of thorns growing in our midst? Every piece of our life as the Church stands against the forces that created Payton Gendron. We are a community. Isolation is inimical to us. We are called to gather from across the panoply of the human experience breaking the divisive barriers of economics, ethnicity, education, gender, sexuality, and all of the dividing walls that keep human beings apart. We are agents of the Gospel and its message of hope. We believe that in raising Christ from the dead, God has broken the power of sin and death that drag people into hopelessness. Ours is the most hopeful story that can be told. And, we are called to love. Love is not just avoiding behaviors that are wrong, it is actively seeking out those that are alone and estranged so that they might experience God's abiding love with and through us. Through God's own Gospel story and God's own Gospel love, we can and will starve the seeds of hate planted all around us.


    From the Bishops of the Episcopal Diocese of Massachusetts

    “Christ has broken down the dividing wall, that is, the hostility between us.” ~ Ephesians 2:14

    Last Sunday’s reading from Acts explored ways in which Jesus’ followers came to understand that – in his teachings and in his salvific death and resurrection – Jesus was breaking down dividing walls of hostility and alienation. We do not need to tell you that this mission is not completed, that dividing walls endure, that distinctions are still bitter and deadly. We remain in the midst of our deep national reckoning with the dividing wall of racism, which is stubborn, systemic, and sinful. The weekend massacre in Buffalo displays yet again that toxic intersection of simmering racism, online indoctrination into white supremacist philosophies, and appallingly simple access to lethal weapons. 

    “The loss of any human life is tragic, but there was deep racial hatred driving this shooting, and we have got to turn from the deadly path our nation has walked for much too long,” said our Presiding Bishop Michael Curry, in his May 16 pastoral statement. He called on us “to uphold and protect the dignity of every human child of God, and to actively uproot the white supremacy and racism deep in the heart of our shared life.” Likewise, Bishop Sean Rowe of the Diocese of Western New York – which includes Buffalo – urged prayer, “not as a substitute for taking action, but to prepare to do so. In the coming weeks, we will need to gather our resolve and raise our voices again against racism and hatred, and commit ourselves to freeing our nation from this epidemic of gun violence.” (Read Bishop Rowe's statements here and here.)

    All around us old dividing walls are being shored up and new dividing walls constructed with bigotry, vitriol, and a righteous furor. May God grant us courage and strength to resist, refuse, and combat these sinful separations.

    The Rt. Rev. Alan M. Gates
    The Rt. Rev. Gayle E. Harris

    From the Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church

    My heart is heavy with the news that a white supremacist gunman took the lives of 10 children of God in Buffalo on Saturday. I grew up walking distance from the scene of this hateful crime, and my friends and I used to ride our bikes around the neighborhood.  Buffalo’s Black community raised and formed me. I grieve with the city and people I love.

    The loss of any human life is tragic, but there was deep racial hatred driving this shooting, and we have got to turn from the deadly path our nation has walked for much too long. Bigotry-based violence—any bigotry at all—against our siblings who are people of color, Jewish, Sikh, Asian, trans, or any other group, is fundamentally wrong. As baptized followers of Jesus of Nazareth, we are called to uphold and protect the dignity of every human child of God, and to actively uproot the white supremacy and racism deep in the heart of our shared life.

    Please join me in prayer for the shattered families in Buffalo. Please also join me in expressing profound gratitude for the intervention by Buffalo police that likely saved many other lives. Even amid tragedy, even when manifestations of evil threaten to overwhelm, let us hold fast to the good.  It is the only way that leads to life.

    The Most Reverend Michael B. Curry


  • February 24, 2022 2:15 PM | Barbara MacDonald (Administrator)

    Here is a video of Rev. Mike's 2021 Annual Report to the Parish, click here. 

    Click here for the 2021 Annual Report. 


  • May 21, 2021 3:32 PM | Barbara MacDonald (Administrator)

    Dear Friends of the Redeemer:

    Spring has arrived! And with this new season of sun and flowers, the pandemic appears to be on the wane. Thanks be to God! For the last 18 months we have lived under a shadow that now seems to be passing over, and our little corner of the world turns to new life and new possibilities.

    Yesterday, our bishops offered a letter to the diocese lifting most of the restrictions of the “Four Stages” document promulgated in March of 2020. Declining cases, fewer deaths and diminishing positivity rates are great news. Rising numbers of vaccinations and the governor’s lifting of restrictions mean that things at the Redeemer are set to change in earnest. Below you will find a comprehensive list of changes and dates for their implementation. Unless a date is stated specifically, the listed change will begin immediately. If you have any questions about this list or matters contained within it, please give me a call or drop me an email. I am thrilled for these welcome changes.

    In Christ,

    Mike+

    Worship

    •           Reservations will no longer be required for attendance. Beginning immediately.
    •           Restroom access will return to pre-COVID practice.
    •           Attendance will be limited to 60% of total capacity.
    •           Masks will be worn indoors for all worshippers, choir and clergy. Outdoor mask wearing is optional.
    •           The choir will be seated within the choir stalls.
    •           Congregational singing is permitted.
    •           Streaming of services will continue indefinitely.
    •          Social distancing between households should be observed when possible.
    •           The offering plates will be available at the baptismal font before and after services. We will not pass the offering plates for the time being.
    •           Physical contact at the Peace is still discouraged.
    •           Reception of communion will take place from the broadstep. Worshippers will be dismissed by rows keeping physical distance as much as possible. The cup will continue to be withheld for the time being. We are investigating other options for the consumption of the wine at communion.
    •           Service Assistant scheduling will resume for Sundays beginning Sunday, September 12, 2021.
    •          All parishioners, volunteers and staff are encouraged to be vaccinated.

    Coffee Hour

    •           Outdoor Coffee Hour consisting of lemonade and cookies will return to the Rectory Garden on Sunday, June 13, 2021.
    •           Indoor Coffee Hour will return to the Parish Hall on Sunday, September 12, 2021.

    Children, Teens and Family Ministries

    •           Outdoor Sunday School for children will be held beginning on June 27th at 9:45am continuing throughout the entire summer.
    •          Two Family Picnic Eucharists and Activity Days will take place at Lars Anderson Park on Sunday, July 25th and Sunday, August 29th from noon until 2pm.
    •           Homecoming Sunday for Children, Teens and Family programming registration will take place on Sunday, September 19th.
    •           Indoor Sunday School will return on Sunday, September 26th. An outdoor and streaming Sunday School option are being considered for the fall.
    •           Nursery care will return on Sunday, September 12th.

    Parish Offices

    •           Beginning on Monday, May 24th the offices will be open for normal business hours (8:30am – 4:30pm).
    •           On June 21st the offices will be open for summer hours (M-Th 9am– 3pm and closed on Fridays.)

    A regular in-person calendar of events, classes, fellowship opportunities and outreach activities will begin on September 12, 2021.


  • February 08, 2021 11:06 AM | Barbara MacDonald (Administrator)

    Dear Redeemer Faithful:

    Historically, our annual meeting has been a wonderful opportunity to gather in faithful fellowship to celebrate a year of ministry gone by. This year, thanks to the pandemic, we altered our plans for this wonderful annual celebration. To comply with both our legal obligations and canonical ones, here's how things  looked:

    1. Annual Meeting was held on Sunday, February 7th beginning at 11:30am. There was be no outdoor service that day.

    2. The Annual Meeting was held online via Zoom, creating a more manageable online environment with which to hold this important event. 

    3. In Person attendance was limited to myself and the officers of the vestry only.

    4. This year we voted by our first ever annual meeting proxy.  WE NEEDED AT LEAST 25 PROXIES TO HAVE QUORUM FOR THE MEETING.

    5. Reports were made available before the meeting. In addition, video reports were also made available by committees willing and ready to create them!

    Thank you wonderful Redeemerites for being so adaptable to these strange and difficult times.

    Fondly and Faithfully,

    Mike+



  • November 16, 2020 3:25 PM | Barbara MacDonald (Administrator)

    Dear Friends of the Redeemer,

    Ministry takes as many forms as there are baptized members of the Church. Each set of gifts, given by God, serves to fortify the Body of Christ in particular and life-giving ways. Over the last nineteen years, Michael Murray's gifts (many and varied) have blessed and fortified the Redeemer and her people of all ages and walks of life. He has been a minister in so many ways.

    To honor ministry in the midst of a local parish community upon a ministers' departure, a purse is collected of freewill offerings from parishioners to honor and thank the departing minister. To that end, the Vestry has approved the collection of a purse for Michael Murray. These funds will be gathered and given to Michael before his final day with us on December 24, 2020. 

    Gifts to a purse are not tax-deductible gifts given to the church. Instead the church acts as a conduit of these gifts. Checks should be made payable to Church of the Redeemer with "Murray Purse" noted in the memo line. Online gifts through our Text-To-Give system may also be made by texting 73256 on your mobile phone. Enter REDEEMERCH in the message field and follow the link to our online giving portal. Scroll down to "Murray Purse" in the drop-down menu. As mentioned above, these funds will be released to Michael at the end of his tenure. I hope you will offer a token of your thanks and gratitude to Michael for all he has done in Christ's name for the Redeemer.

    In Christ,


    Mike+


  • October 02, 2020 11:57 AM | Barbara MacDonald (Administrator)

    We were scheduled to regather for our first indoor worship service of Covidtide (the unofficial liturgical designation of the pandemic period) on Sunday, October 11th, but alas... So we shall do what we have all had to do for the last seven months! Adapt! On Sunday the 11th, weather permitting, we will continue to worship outdoors joined in prayer and fellowship or you can worship at 10am online and remain comfy-cozy. We will be together. We will pray and praise together. Despite it all, we are undiminished. 

    And therein lies the good news of Christ's Church. Our faith resides in a hope deeper and wider than either vaccines or political vacuity. Our hope lies in the God who made heaven and earth. Our faith resides in that God's extraordinary love for the world made manifest in Jesus Christ. Our faith resides in the life-giving Holy Spirit who resides in us and compels us fearlessly and hopefully into the world with grace, charity and peace. If you are looking for unprecedented, ain't no virus better than that!

    And the Holy Spirit is already taking us into places we wouldn't have dreamed a year ago. Our relationship with St. Stephen's Youth Programs grows by leaps and bounds in a deeper partnership to serve the children of the South End and Greater Boston. FUEL sends along hundreds of bags of food every week for school children near and far keeping food insecurity ever before us. Our Children, Teens and Family ministries continue to discover new ways to reach out and build up the faith of our youngest members. Redeemer is about unprecedented ministry in these unprecedented times.

    Be of good cheer, sisters and brothers. COVID has not diminished and cannot diminish the good work of Christ in our midst. 

    Thanks be to God!

    Mike+


  • August 25, 2020 8:49 AM | Barbara MacDonald (Administrator)

    Dear Friends of the Redeemer,

    Today, I write to you in absolute joy! God willing and the bishop approving the Redeemer will regather on Sunday, September 6th for our first outdoor in-person worship service. It will be the first time we have gathered physically for worship in twenty-five weeks. Extraordinary!

    Over the last months, the Ministry Team has been working hard to ensure we stay connected through on-line worship, fellowship and educational opportunities. At the same time, many have been at work preparing the necessary protocols and procedures for regathering as safely as possible.

    As excited as I am, I need to warn you. In-person worship will be quite different from our pre-COVID-19 days. Some of us are eager to return to worship while others feel the need to be more cautious. To satisfy those in either category, our 10:00am on-line service will continue indefinitely. These on-line services have proven beautiful, edifying and spiritually nourishing for hundreds upon hundreds of souls near and far. In-person outdoor worship will begin on Sunday, September 6th at 11:15am. Below I am providing a list of expectations and considerations that will help you make the best decision possible for you and those in your household. I can’t wait to see you all!

    - If you are 65 years or older or suffer (at any age) from diabetes, asthma, high blood pressure, a weakened immune system, prolonged use of corticosteroids, damaged or scarred lung tissue, or maintain a BMI of over 30, the CDC warns that you are at risk of severe illness from COVID-19. Please consider thoughtfully and carefully about worshipping on-line instead of in-person for the time being.

    - Children and families are warmly invited to join us for in-person worship. However, please note that any child over the age of five will be required to wear a mask for the entire service. Please know that parents or caregivers will need to ensure that children remain in their chosen seating area for the entire service which will last up to an hour. If either masks or delimited seating present significant difficulties for you and your family, please consider worshipping online instead of in-person for the time being. Please remember that children are not immune to COVID-19 and some children have contracted MIS-C (Multisystem Inflammatory Syndrome in Children) from COVID-19. We support our parents in whatever decision is best for their families.

    - Outdoor seating will be in the parking lot accessible from Suffolk Road.

    - Reservations for attendance are required through Sign-Up Genius. Seating capacity is capped at thirty households. Subsequent services will see occupancy capacity raised.

    - Those without reservations will be asked to wait in a queue until it becomes clear that space for those with reservations is available.

    - Parishioners should arrive at least fifteen minutes early, queuing at the welcome tables.

    - Parishioners should park along Suffolk Road, or on Reservoir Avenue. The circular driveway will have limited parking for those in need of handicapped parking. The rest of the driveway will be closed from through traffic for congregational seating.

    - Tables for confirming reservations, sanitizing hands, face masks and contact tracing information will be located at the circular driveway and on the driveway of the Suffolk Road parking area.

    - Services will be weather dependent. Notice will go out on Saturday at 5pm if services for 11:15am Sunday are cancelled.

    - Restrooms will be available before and after the service accessed through the Weld House doors only.

    - Collection plates will be provided at each registration table.

    - Seats will be available in pods of 2, 3, or 4 chairs per pod. If you need more chairs, please see the ushers.

    - The congregation will be dismissed from the back pews to the front pews by ushers. Please remain seated until you are dismissed.

    - Please maintain social distance of at least 6’.

    - Should you perceive any safety issue, please notify the Rector immediately.

    - Should a member of the congregation report a positive diagnosis for COVID-19 to the church, services will be postponed for two weeks.

    I know that’s a lot of changes; however, I feel confident that we have created the safest space possible to regather as a parish community. I look forward to seeing you soon!

    Excitedly,

    Mike+


  • June 12, 2020 9:39 AM | Barbara MacDonald (Administrator)

    If we are being truly honest with ourselves, I am not sure there’d be a single American that could say their relationship with race is simple. My relationship with race and racism are extremely complicated and that’s because I’m an American. I spent the first years of my life living in the city of Norwood, Ohio a small, poor and predominantly white city contiguous to Greater Cincinnati. And right across the literal tracks was Evanston, Ohio; Norwood’s mirror image but majority African-American. Poor whites and poor blacks competed for skilled and unskilled jobs coupled with a kind of racism that was antagonistic and often violent. White property values never rose and African-American property values always fell. Both school systems declined, and if you could get out, you got out. And so about the seventh grade, my father moved our family to the white suburbs east of Cincinnati for better schools and a safer neighborhood. Some would call it “white flight.” Some would call it “the American Dream.” Maybe it was both.

    There’s more to tell, but that’s enough to make the point: each of us has a story of race. And, just to be clear, the web of stories of race that make up our nation’s story are stories that run from lifegiving to horrific. Each of us lives a life formed in some way by race by virtue of being Americans. Each of us has a story to tell, and that means we each have the responsibility to listen. I don’t mean listening in that nice way that’s just waiting for a turn to speak. I mean listening in that way that takes seriously the story of the person standing right in front of us. I mean a kind of humble listening that doesn’t judge, doesn’t fix, doesn’t interrupt, and doesn’t get angry. I mean a listening that understands the story being told to us is true because that’s how the person telling us their story wants us to understand it. We are our stories, and race is an essential part of the story that must be heard.

    The murder of George Floyd has turned the ear of America to listen in a way hitherto unknown. The callous violence of George Floyd’s death at the hands of those trusted to serve and protect him has finally woken many from their silent indifference. Last night, the wardens and I met with a thoughtful, prayerful and eager group of Redeemer parishioners desirous of taking good steps in understanding the problems of race in ourselves, our parish, our city and our nation. This will be a long work that will ask much of us as a parish, but the gospel message is clear that Christians are agents of God’s reconciling love to all people. Racism stands in the way of Christ’s Great Commission, and we must address it in a prayerful spirit of hope, honesty, repentance, charity, and reconciliation.

    This group will begin its work by creating a parish statement on race and racism. This statement will be the subject of prayer and conversation for the next several weeks. The statement will be sent along to the Vestry for their consideration and adoption as a theological and philosophical outline of our work as a parish. Contemporaneously, a parish-wide book group reading Waking up White by Debby Irving will begin in the coming days. This will serve as a jumping off point for those desirous of “putting their toe in the water” and those ready to “jump in with both feet” on these important matters. From there we will look at implementing the “Becoming Beloved Community” curriculum of the Episcopal Church to give us an opportunity to dive deeper into these troubled waters. In addition to these, we will look to creating real and honest relationships with our three local partner ministries commoncathedral, St. Stephen’s Youth Programs and the Epiphany School looking to joint fellowship and worship opportunities to deepen our understanding and our empathy for the broken world in which we reside. We need to hear the stories of race from our black and brown brothers and sisters in Christ.

    The Gospel of Jesus Christ calls us to proclaim the reconciling love of God demonstrated in Jesus’ death, resurrection and ascension. We bear the light of Christ into a world desperate for God’s light and life. This requires of us a spirit of contrition, confession, absolution, and dedication to proclaiming Christ’ Gospel in word and deed to those far off and those near. I ask you to consider joining us in this work and journey. It will be painful at times, but it is a journey of promise in Christ’s name.

    Mike +

  • May 29, 2020 10:35 AM | Barbara MacDonald (Administrator)

    I've started a small but helpful spiritual discipline over the last weeks that goes something like this: when I go out of the house to the pharmacy, the grocery store, Dumpling House (for the absolutely necessary weekly soup dumpling take-out) or wherever, I try a new exercise of prayer. As I drive I pray for the masked drivers in the other lanes. I pray for the people pushing shopping carts across the socially distanced parking lot. And, I pray for the cashiers and workers as I zip through the aisles.

    What I noticed in my prayer this week was an idea: work is essential for a hopeful soul. What I saw at Home Depot this week were innumerable people, previously sequestered at home, strolling the outdoor aisles of vegetable seedlings and flowering annuals. Their carts were loaded up with new hoses, sprinklers, grass seed and all the other normal implements of spring. But this time there was an intangible something about hitherto banal spring project shopping.

    It was the same inside in the paint aisle and in the lumber section. Little projects of home and garden pushing people out into the world. And as I prayed, I didn't sense burden or obligation. I sensed hopefulness. One doesn't undertake even the simplest of home repairs or projects when one feels hopeless. The very act of repairing something, building something, or even having a gallon of paint mixed carries a certain hopefulness with it; a possible future written in the act. Yes, the work will solve a practical problem, but it will also mean a perfect tomato on a sultry August afternoon, a new baby in that repainted room that's now the nursery, or a cool living room thanks to that new window AC unit that your wife asked you to buy four years ago. Work, in so many forms, is an act of hopefulness especially in this moment of COVID-19.

    Mike +


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379 Hammond Street
Chestnut Hill, MA 02467
PHONE:  617-566-7679
FAX:  617-566-6678
OFFICE: 8:30-4:30 pm M-F | SUMMER:  9:00-3:00 pm M-Th
office@redeemerchestnuthill.org

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