Emmanuel Church in the City of Boston

05/12/2026

With glorious music and another of our rector's stunning sermons, we celebrated the end of our spring cantata season on the 6th Sunday of Easter (aka Mother's Day).

05/09/2026

Thanks to parishioner Carol Reiman for finding this recent post about Sara Peattie's puppet library: The Puppeteers Cooperative.
For more about Sara's artistic additions to our community, please see: https://www.emmanuelboston.org/community/puppets/

Catching up with a whimsical cellar collection of papier-mâché characters that endures under a rapidly changing downtown

05/02/2026

Join us tomorrow at 10am and on Mother's Day for this season's last two Bach cantatas, which have been funded for more than 50 years by Priscilla Rawson Young and others. Thanks to Ayusha Penha and Emmanuel Music for recording another season of cantatas, motets, and other inspiring music offered in our sanctuary. To learn about how they "make the sausage" of our livestream, which extends our services to those who can't make it to 15 Newbury St., see their recent video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hfYZGNBhZTU .

Behind the Scenes: Livestream

04/21/2026

Congratulations to John Korir, Sharon Lokedi, and more than 28,500 runners who finished the Boston Marathon today. We're grateful for another safe celebration of our nation's founding. Our rector The Very Rev. Pamela Werntz blessed our runners on Good Shepherd Sunday before the race. Listen to the service with Bach Cantata 85: "I am the Good Shepherd" @ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gP7jXfNaJCw .

03/30/2026

Thanks to Emmanuel Music we have this recording of yesterday Bach Cantata 182. The livestream on our Youtube channel failed, alas. Here's the link:

New to cantatas? Learn more about the cantata experience https://shorturl.at/UF2rNBach Cantata BWV 182 was one of the earliest works written in Weimar and is...

03/14/2026

The Rt. Rev. Julia Whitworth and the Rev. Canon Melissa Rohrbach honored us with a visit last Sunday. Bishop Whitworth preached, presided, and dedicated a fourth pulpit statue sculpted by our resident woodworker Ted Southwick. Emmanuel Music offered Bach's longest cantata (BWV 21) and sang motets by Adolphus Hailstork, Anton Bruckner, and G.P. da Palestrina. You could listen to the great service @ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l8d79cVf780&t=7695s .

03/03/2026

If available we’d be honored by your presence on Sunday

03/03/2026

Standing side by side in our sanctuary’s clerestory, these biblical figures are subjects in the Common Lectionary’s Gospel readings for this season of Lent. Last Sunday we heard John the Evangelist’s story about the rabbi Nicodemus’ clandestine visit to check out Jesus. Hear our rector The Rev. Pamela Werntz’ sermon about their probable connection as Pharisees @ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kZoQXyyuKps. This Sunday those who leap forward to Daylight Savings Time may hear our diocesan bishop, The Rt. Rev. Julia E. Whitworth, preach from our pulpit about the Samaritan Woman. Sleepyheads and others may attend the recorded service @ https://www.youtube.com/EmmanuelChurchBoston .

02/25/2026

Thanks to our organist John Dilworth for alerting us to the BBC's feature of Amy Beach as composer of the week on its Sounds program: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m002rf44. "Donald Macleod explores how Amy Beach railed against the sexism of her time to journey from a child piano prodigy to a respected composer." For more about her, please see https://www.emmanuelboston.org/.../amy-beach-at-emmanuel.../

Composer Amy Beach (1867-1944) and her husband, Dr. Henry Harris Aubrey Beach (1813-1910), a surgeon at Mass. General Hospital, were married by Phillips Brooks in 1885. They lived directly behind Emmanuel at 28 Commonwealth Avenue. This bronze plaque by its … Continue reading →

02/24/2026

Save the date and register to attend this moving program we're co-sponsoring with Central Reform Temple (link in first comment below). Please share this information far and wide!

Who Will Remain
Sunday, April 12, 2026, at 3:00pm
15 Newbury Street
Boston, MA 02116

On Yom HaSho’ah, the Jewish date for commemorating the Holocaust, attendees are invited to grapple with the terrible destruction of the Sho’ah, and build understanding and empathy through a tender, accessible, artistic program co-created by Amy Lieberman and Angelynne Hinson.

This one-hour program beautifully interweaves a survivor’s personal narrative, music, and poetry from the Sho’ah (the Holocaust) with other poetry of loss, hope, and faith.

This program is free and open to all. Registration is required.

This event is sponsored by the Emmanuel Center and the Massachusetts Cultural Council.

Angelynne Hinson, soprano, Amy Lieberman, mezzo-soprano, David Joseph, speaker, Sam Bergman, viola, Eliko Akahori, piano