This month, The Crossing returns to its weekly Thursday evening worship at the Cathedral Church of St. Paul in Boston. The Crossing is an emergent community that blends the traditions of the Episcopal Church with member-led ministry, creative prayer and meditation and a rich sense of community. The worship service is held in the round, and participants sit wherever they feel comfortable: on the floor, on pillows or on chairs. The sanctuary is softly lit, with candles and lamps in place of overhead lights. Melding modern elements with ancient traditions, The Crossing's worship style invites and encourages the participation of everyone present.
The Crossing is now in its seventh year and moving into a period that its minister of liturgical arts, Isaac Everett, calls its adolescence. The 35-member worship community has spent the past year establishing its organizational structure and determining what they want The Crossing to be, now and in the future.
The Crossing gathers for worship at St. Paul's Cathedral
From organizational projects, like a new charter, to a period of study and discernment about what the community wants to be and who it serves, The Crossing is coming out of a period of transition and entering a new program year with a more defined sense of purpose and responsibility than ever before.
“We’re learning what it takes to sustain a community, and that that shared vision and passion alone aren’t enough. There also needs to be shared responsibility,” said Everett.
From its inception, The Crossing has been a “vibrant community passionate about discipleship and keeping the fire of the church alive,” said Everett. But when its founding priest left last year to take a new job in another diocese, it was time to examine the habits, patterns and infrastructure of the community.
“It was time to mature, to grow into a worshiping community with bylaws and power and accountability of our own,” said Everett. This maturing process involved looking at vestry models in parishes, and arriving at a point where the laity was prepared to take ownership of the church. In keeping with the ethos of The Crossing, the new charter establishes a structure that has accountability and transparency with a minimum of hierarchy.
“We’re all ministers. The church equips us to be better ministers, not passive recipients,” said Everett. At The Crossing, worship and preaching are led by members of the community rather than a priest. A priest (currently an interim rector, the Rev. Tricia De Beer) is present, and takes a leadership role for Communion, but the service is almost entirely directed by the community.
The community of The Crossing spent time this year researching who The Crossing is serving well, and who it could be serving better. Its conclusion, though, was that The Crossing doesn’t need to be everything to everyone. Instead, its mission is welcoming anyone who has not quite found a niche in a traditional church, or who is simply searching for a different way to worship. Frequently, this means young people—a calling that The Crossing embraces.
“It can be a lonely experience, going to church as a young single person,” Everett said. “We started asking whether maybe that ministry to young adults was what we were called to do.”
Part of answering this call was creating a ministry that made sense in the lives of young adults now, including new rituals for the transitions that fall outside the traditional rites of the church. These include rites for coming out about one's sexuality, for saying goodbye, for reconciliation and grief or for vocational transitions. “We looked at many rites of passage, all the ways a community holds a person throughout their life, and I think we ended up with a really beautiful set of liturgies to use in our community,” Everett said.
The Crossing at Boston Pride 2013 .
With this newly strengthened sense of purpose and organization, The Crossing is looking forward to a new year that will bring the arrival of a new priest and a renewed focus on evangelism. A major goal for the year will be raising The Crossing’s profile and extending its message of welcome out into the wider community. Through social media, press and creative, interactive forms of outreach, The Crossing is setting out to ensure that its message is heard. “We are being intentional about reminding the world we’re here and that we’re doing work that matters," Everett said.
The Crossing meets at 6 p.m. on Thursday nights, at the Cathedral Church of St. Paul at 138 Tremont Street in downtown Boston. Its first worship service of the season will be held on Thursday, Sept. 12.
--Ellen Stuart