The midday congregation at the Cathedral Church of St. Paul sat in deep silence at the heart of a mourning city on the day after bomb blasts along the Boston Marathon finish line killed three people, injured another 150 or more and sent far-reaching shockwaves that have yet to subside.
Flanked by the bishop suffragan, dean and canon pastor, the Rev. Cristina Rathbone, Associate Priest, stood before the diverse and somber congregation and gave a simple sermon:
“I want to say on a day like today just three things:
“The first is that the hatred and the blood and the death and the pain and the anger are real.
The Rev. Cristina Rathbone (left) and ministers offer Holy Communion at the Cathedral Church of St. Paul the day after the bombings.
They are real. They are real and they are present with us today in ways that none of us would wish.
“The second of course is that we are taught that they are not the only reality. As real as the pain and the death and the suffering and the blood and the fear and the rage are the hope and the vulnerability and the reaching out to one another and the coming together as is witnessed right here in this room today.
“And the third is this: That our teacher and lord tells us that to delve deeply into that second reality, the one of hope and love and forgiveness and joy, we must first turn to the other. We must turn to the reality of the other and embrace it with love, as he did on the cross. We must open ourselves to pain and violence and the hatred and the anger, and having entered it, we must struggle to say, Father, forgive them, forgive us, for they know not what they do, we know not what we do. Only then does the cycle of violence begetting violence, death begetting death, hatred begetting hatred, begin to end, and that is our job today, and tomorrow and the next day. And because we must each find our way through this terrible time, I invite you to sit now together as one people in silence, the language that comes before all spoken language, the language that comes from God to our heart.”
Just beyond the cathedral church’s doors, the streets and sidewalks along Boston Common
Patricia Hurley
Trinity Church in Boston's Copley Square, still in lockdown on April 17 as bombing investigations continued.
bustled and flowed as they do on any weekday; except for the occasional helicopters overhead, though, there was an unusual quietness in the city. Boston was open, as Governor Deval Patrick said at a Monday news conference, but it was not business as usual.
“I think people are in shock,” Bishop Suffragan Gayle E. Harris said in an NPR interview. “The question I hear over and over again is, why?” Without answers at hand, she said, the task for faith leaders and communities at a time like this is to help people to “a place of understanding that God is with us even in the midst of this terrible, terrible tragedy, and that we can live with confidence even if we don’t completely understand why.”
In the wake of the tragedy, Episcopal churches across eastern Massachusetts have opened their doors to people in need of sanctuary for prayer and reflection, offering special prayer services and vigils.
The Rev. Stephen Ayres, Vicar of Old North Church in Boston, which as a national historical site receives hundreds of thousands of visitors a year, said the church is open all week to those needing a place for prayer and noted by e-mail: “We have been doing as much pastoral care as we have been giving tours all day.”
Tentative plans for a Friday prayer service at Trinity Church in Boston’s Copley Square, located just hundreds of yards from the site of the explosions, have been postponed due to continued restricted access to the area and President Obama’s just-announced Thursday visit to Boston. Bishop M. Thomas Shaw, SSJE will represent the diocese at that service, to be held at Holy Cross Cathedral of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston.
“What can we do? We can pray, most immediately for caregivers and responders, for those who are wounded or grieving, for all who are fearful or angry,” Bishop Shaw said in a message to the diocese, posted here. “God will show us how we can best bring Christ's peace and healing to this difficult time if we continue to pray about what has happened, if we talk to one another, if we make every effort to include these murders and assaults with every act of violence witnessed in the last year. How are we being called actively to bring peace to our cities and beyond? Good can triumph over evil, but it's going to take some work,” he said.
He encouraged Massachusetts Episcopalians to get involved in the diocese’s antiviolence work and B-PEACE for Jorge campaign, including the upcoming Mother’s Day Walk for Peace, benefiting the Louis D. Brown Peace Institute in Boston. “It is important to bring our presence to events that support a vision of peace and healing,” he said.
--Tracy J. Sukraw
To register for the Mother’s Day Walk for Peace, visit the walk site here, click “Register” and then use the drop-down menu to register as a “B-PEACE for Jorge” team member. The Episcopal Church contingent will celebrate Holy Eucharist together after the walk.