Christ Church, Cambridge
Christ Church, Cambridge Parish Profile, Drafted Fall 2020, Published February 2021Christ Church, CambridgeA Parish ProfileFebruary 2021i
WelcomeFounded in 1759, Christ Church,Cambridge is the spiritual home for acommunity living throughout Cambridgeand the Greater Boston area. In 2020, theparish embarked on the search for its 17thrector to lead our community as we find ourway to know and serve God.Christ Church, Cambridge Parish Profile, Drafted Fall 2020, Published February 2021Mission StatementChrist Church, Cambridge is the EpiscopalChurch in Harvard Square— a communityof God’s people who are varied in giftsand united in mission. Our church is aplace of affirming sanctuary to the diversecommunity around us. We welcomeand affirm old and young, all races andethnicities, rich and poor, the LGBTQcommunity, those who are single, married,and families in their many forms. ChristChurch seeks to be a place of hospitality,hope, redemption and peace for those inCambridge and beyond. Worship here isalways about thanksgiving and overflowswith themes of God’s grace, God’s callto justice, and our responsibility toone another as God’s beloved children.Wherever you are on your journey withGod or toward God, you are welcome here.ii
Table of ContentsWelcome and Mission Statement .ii.Table of Contents .iii.Introduction .1How Our Past Shapes Our Present .2Who We Are by Ministry .9Worship and Music .11Christ Church, Cambridge Parish Profile, Drafted Fall 2020, Published February 2021Parish Life and Christian Formation.14Pastoral Care .17Mission .19Resources .21Where We Are: Our Diocese and Community .24The Diocese of MassachusettsHarvard Square ChurchesHarvard Episcopal ChaplaincyCity of CambridgeHow We Look Ahead: Hopes Dreams .29Conclusion .31Appendices .32Discernment Committee .33iii
IntroductionChrist Church, Cambridge Parish Profile, Drafted Fall 2020, Published February 2021To create this profile of Christ Church,Cambridge in 2020, the DiscernmentCommittee sought out the parish’s inputthrough multiple surveys, individualinterviews, all-parish and small-groupZoom conversations, and publishedhistories of the parish. The communityresponded with a diversity of thoughtful,passionate responses. The Committeereceived stories about individualexperiences at Christ Church, reflections onthis community as a whole in the past andpresent, and hopes for how we will grow as abody of Christ.The following pages will introduce youto our parish through our historicalpresence in Cambridge, our relationshipswith clergy and lay leaders who have shapedthis community through the years, and ourministries. As you read, we invite you toenvision yourself among us as a discerner, aswe are, wrestling with important questionsand helping us to bring our many differentperspectives, passions, and gifts together forthe good of this faith community.Our community embraced technology to connectvirtually throughout our self-study phase througha series of online forums during the spring andsummer of 2020.1
Christ Church, Cambridge Parish Profile, Drafted Fall 2020, Published February 2021Center and right: A dedicated commitee celebrates the installation of a timeline displaying our church’s history.How Our Past Shapes Our PresentA Brief HistoryDuring our self-study phase,parishioners frequently cited ourhistory as a key feature of our identity andan attractor for membership. Foundedas a mission of the Church of England in1759, our origin story parallels that of thenation itself, not always in ways that arecomfortable to look at through the lensof our present historical moment. Mostrecently, events such as the pandemic andthe Black Lives Matter protests have throwna sharper light on the unequal distributionof resources and the unequal results ofjustice in our society based on race andethnicity. As one parishioner wrote:We could do more to contemplate ourlong-term history as a parish and ourpersonal roles in issues of inclusion andequity We have celebrated the [presence]of George Washington and MLK [at] ourparish, but have we looked at who theywere speaking to? What did our parishlook like?Colonial and Revolutionary BeginningsAs a mission of the Church of England,Christ Church was a part of the colonialsystem, and the wealthy and powerfulAnglicans of Cambridge would have seenthemselves unapologetically as “the greatand good,” representing the top tier of thatsociety. Many of our founding parishionerslived in mansions on “Tory Row,” amongthem wealthy merchants, officers in theBritish Army, judges, and colonial officials;among them were slaveholders and personsinvolved in the slave trade. Letters of thetime mention the “English Church” amongthe “grand doings” of Tory families in thesame breath as “their slaves, their chariotsof four black horses, their silver plate and2
stiff brocades.” Our first rector, the Rev.East Apthorp, was the colonial governor’sbrother-in-law and built a mansion—known, perhaps derisively, as the “Bishop’sPalace”—as a symbol of his prestige andstation in society. For these families, exaltedsocial status and its privileges were things tobe celebrated, not questioned.Christ Church, Cambridge Parish Profile, Drafted Fall 2020, Published February 2021But almost from the start this made the“Tory church” a target for anti-colonialresentments, seen as a monarchicalintrusion on behalf of “gentlemen offigure [with] an income large enough tomaintain a domestic chaplain.” Attackedby Congregationalist pamphleteers, itsright to hold Anglican services challenged,Christ Church, Cambridge faced a risingtide of hostility. Matters became so heatedthat Apthorp retreated home to England,never to return. In the summer of 1774, asriots became more frequent, most of thecongregation and the rector fled to Boston,Canada, or England, and the church wasboarded up. In 1775, it was conscripted toserve as a barracks for colonial soldiers,who melted down the organ pipes to makebullets.The building itself still bears physicalevidence of that turmoil: the RevolutionaryWar bullet hole near our front entrance; anEnglish prisoner of war buried in our crypt;and the plaque memorializing George andMartha Washington’s having worshippedhere—a service that occurred during thebuilding’s appropriation by the ContinentalArmy, in which prayers were raised that theKing might be “enlightened” to agree to therevolutionaries’ demands.Revival under the Rev. Nicholas HoppinThere followed some five decades of penuryduring which a small congregation managedto struggle on, its pre-Revolutionarysplendor lost. The congregants were poor;pew rents yielded only modest revenues;and the church had to turn several timesto Harvard College for financial support. Itlacked a permanent rector and could affordto hold services only at Christmas, if at all.Morning Prayer was held regularly as wayThe Vassalls and the Royalls were prominent Toryfamilies who helped found Christ Church. Like someother wealthy families of this period, they ownedslaves and drew income from sugar plantations. TheVassalls built the family tomb, pictured above, in thechurch's crypt. Darby Vassall, son of their formerslave Anthony Vassall, worshipped at Christ Churchand was laid to rest here in 1861. Pictured below isDarby's signature on an 1812 petition to establish aschool for Black children, document courtesy of theMassachusetts Archives.3
to provide spiritually for the congregation,relying on Harvard students and tutors tolead. But if the plummet from the heightof power and prestige might be seen as arebuke, it ultimately led to a rebirth in theappointment of the Rev. Nicholas Hoppin asRector in 1839.[T]he very fact that Divine Providencehad kept it alive through so many years ofdiscouragement, was rather an evidencethat it was intended to do good service yetfor the Redeemer. —the Rev. HoppinChrist Church, Cambridge Parish Profile, Drafted Fall 2020, Published February 2021Under his tenure, the church expandedrapidly, serving two growing populations:Episcopalian students at Harvard College,and Protestant Irishimmigrants. By allaccounts Hoppinhad enormous giftsin pastoral care andparish-growing, a“readiness to ministerto all needs.” It wassaid that his guidancewas “cherished, notleast by the poorermembers of his flock”who would “turnto him in times ofdistress and sorrow,”even after he had retired. By 1857 theparish had so flourished that the sanctuaryspace had to be lengthened by two bays toaccommodate its numbers. Though otherchallenges were to come, his tenure through1874 illustrates that a spirit of enduranceand renewal is also a part of our legacy.Post-World War IIUnder the three rectorships from 1941-2004,Christ Church engaged in the movements toadvance civil rights and social justice.In the 1800s, the sanctuary nave was lengthened toaccommodate growth in the congregation. An earlyengraving of Christ Church shows the building priorto this expansion.Within the period of living memory,beginning with the tenure of the Rev.Gardiner Day, the history of Christ Churchagain shares a trajectory with that of thenation, particularly with respect to themovements for civil rights and social justicethat were emerging at that time. This periodleading to the present is worth particularattention because of how it informs ourLeft: Portrait of the Rev. Nicholas Hoppin,rector 1839-1874.Below: Quotations and stories from twovolumes titled “The Biography of a Church”contributed to the writing of this profileand describe an animated history of ChristChurch, Cambridge. “Volume II: Voices fromthe Pews” was completed as part of our 250thAnniversary celebration.current character as a parish and the presentdiscernment process.The Rev. Day, rector from 1941-1966,was a civil rights activist and a friendof Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. In 1960,Christ Church parishioners picketedthe Woolworth’s store in HarvardSquare protesting the parent company’smaintenance of segregated lunch countersin the South, and Day successfullyadvocated for Yale University, his almamater, to award an honorary degree to Dr.King in 1964. That same year, Christ Churchparishioners went to Mississippi to help4
Christ Church, Cambridge Parish Profile, Drafted Fall 2020, Published February 2021Black people register to vote. It was also atime of expansion in women’s involvementin lay leadership (in 1955, Sarah Parkerwas the first woman elected to the ChristChurch vestry), and in developing programssuch as the Thrift Shop, which continuesto play an active role in assisting those inneed. Day devoted considerable energy tointernational and ecumenical initiatives aswell as civil rights. During his time ChristChurch came to support many internationalsocial programs; provided assistance forrefugees and displaced persons, hospitals,and orphanages; aided Anglican churchesin South Asia, Africa, and Latin America;worked to address world hunger; anddemonstrated for nuclear disarmament.Day’s ministry introduced a spirit ofactivism that has had a strong influenceover the direction of Christ Churchunder succeeding rectors. His immediatesuccessor, the Rev. Murray Kenney (19661986), was also active in the civil rights andanti-Vietnam war movements, and wasan advocate for the ordination of womenin the Episcopal Church. One of his mostcontroversial acts came in 1967, whenthe Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King came toCambridge to make an anti-Vietnam Warspeech and was denied a venue. Thoughthe wardens, who were out of town andunreachable at the time, later said theywould have refused the use of churchproperty for the event, Kenney offered theParish House:The basis for my decision was: here’s a“When I am in Christ Church’s sanctuary I feel thehistory of the people and the space around me.”national leader; here’s a Baptist minister;here’s a leading Christian in the world. Ifwe don’t give him space and a platform, wewould set back race relationships in thisplace maybe fifty years, and we'd had afairly good record as a Parish.Other civil rights actions continued. Theparish raised a fund of 100,000 that wasdispensed by a committee of the church’sBlack members to organizations andprograms working for racial justice and toimprove conditions in communities of color(the group also donated the copies of LiftEvery Voice and Sing found in our pews, asacknowledged in each volume’s bookplate).When an “irregular” ordination of womenwas held in Philadelphia in 1974, ChristChurch warden Charles Willie (who hadresigned from the National Church’s Houseof Deputies over the issue) preached, andKenney participated in the laying on ofhands for the women being ordained.The Rev. Dr.King withlongtimeparishionerEdward Chase,right; andbelow, King atYale with theRev. Day.The current of activism continued to flowunder the Rev. Bob Tobin (1987-2004),who “saw the church’s mission in terms ofthe politics of compassion.” During thistime a plaque commemorating that 1967speech by Dr. King was placed at the church5
Christ Church, Cambridge Parish Profile, Drafted Fall 2020, Published February 2021and dedicated, and three Sundays were setaside around his birthday for programsto celebrate his work and learn from histeaching. Tobin established an AIDSConcerns Committee to provide educationdemystifying the disease, and enlistparishioners to provide support and pastoralcare to people living with the disease. Heappointed an Anti-Racism Committee,active from 1995 to 2004, sponsoring antiracism training and education programs.Mission trips to Honduras to help withhurricane relief drew participation fromparish families, adults, and clergy. Tobinwas particularly concerned with affordablehousing, serving with the Cambridge Clergyfor Affordable Housing and overseeingHabitat for Humanity-style projects inCambridge after rent control was repealedin the 1990s. Parishioners were active inprojects to renovate houses in Cambridgefor low-income buyers, and the vestry votedto make a 500,000 loan to the NehemiahProgram of the Greater Boston InterfaithOrganization to build affordable housing inBoston. Toward the end of his tenure, Tobinled the community in study and engagementwith the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and thestruggle over Palestinian rights.Not all of these efforts were without risk andstress within the congregation. The NehemiaProgram loan ran up against strongly heldconcerns about the fiscal responsibilityof such a large outlay, and engaging thePalestinian cause was alienating to someparishioners. A substantial number in theparish felt that our next rector should turnin a more pastoral direction.During the Rev. Joe Robinson’s tenure(2005-2019), laity were empowered tolead the parish’s initiatives to help heala broken world in practical ways. ChristChurch maintained its support of programsincluding the Harvard Square ChurchesMeals Program and the Episcopal CityMission, and participated in diocesandriven activities in the city like B-SAFE. Inthe early 2000s, mission trips to Hondurascontinued. Meanwhile, several missiontrips to Cuba were also undertaken tobuild relationships with parishes and thecathedral in Havana. The 2013 campaignto establish a community toilet in HarvardSquare addressed an unglamorous butcritical need for the homeless population inour immediate environs. Robinson also tookon leadership roles at the diocesan level,including co-chairing the Diocesan MissionStrategy team.Above: Former Senior Warden Charles Willie (right)shares a moment in the sanctuary with his family.Right: Recent clergy pictured at our 250thAnniversary celebration, from left: the ReverendsJoe Robinson, the Rt. Rev. Arthur Walmsley, MarkBozzuti-Jones, Bob Tobin, Karen Montagno, andPeggy Gunness.Above: Parishioners shared inhands-on construction work duringmission trips for hurricane relief inHonduras between 1999-2008.6
Christ Church, Cambridge Parish Profile, Drafted Fall 2020, Published February 2021But overall, this period was characterizedby a focus on inward-facing concerns:strengthening and building the parishcommunity by grounding the congregationin a more robust and aesthetic liturgy, andmaintaining and improving our physicalfacilities to better carry out mission-drivenprojects and make our space more flexibleand accessible. Several major capital projectstook place (described later in ResourcesMinistry) to resolve overdue maintenanceissues, modernize building systems, andto renovate spaces. Beyond these physicalchanges, there weremajor organizationaltransformations. Wesometimes describeourselves as aPastoral-size churchwith Program-sizeaspirations. To betterbalance our eagernessfor mission andengagement with ourhuman and financialRight: During the last decade, the Choir hastraveled to sing at venues including the Cathedralof St. John the Divine in New York City (picturedright, 2009), St. Paul’s and Westminster Abbey inLondon, and Notre Dame in Paris.resources, we embarked on a two-yearoverhaul of our ministry structure from2012-2014, known as the CommunityRenewal Project.One of the hallmarks of Robinson’s tenurewas a focus on creating a sense of wholenessand beauty in musicand liturgy. This wasnot a matter of mereaesthetics, but a wayof creating a senseof groundednessand unity among theworshippers, helpingto attract and retainnew parishioners andguide them towarddeeper engagementwith the communityand with God.This congruenceis perhaps bestillustrated by theinclusive rite for marriage Robinson wrote,one of the earliest such rites in the diocese.Liturgy was one of his strengths, and itflourished in the collaborative relationshipwith Director of Music and Organist Dr.Stuart Forster. This period featured anexpanded music ministry, attracting newmembers and utilizing music from thewhole canon of Christian music in regularSunday services along with sung Masseson high holidays, monthly Evensongs, andspecial services that had attendees lining updown the block.Recent EventsThe Rev. Robinson’s ministry might bring usto the end of this retrospective were it notthat in the year-plus since his departure wefind ourselves grappling with some of themost momentous historical events manyof us have faced. The pandemic eruptedonly a few weeks after our DiscernmentCommittee began its work. Like otherparishes and organizations, we turned toonline platforms like Zoom to carry on.7
Christ Church, Cambridge Parish Profile, Drafted Fall 2020, Published February 2021This has challenged us to adapt to remainconnected, and to resolve disagreementswithout the benefit of face-to-face dialogue.The death of George Floyd and thefollowing civil unrest and protests deeplyaffected Christ Church parishioners and thecommunity. In order to better understandparishioners’ perspectives on social justiceissues in the wake of these events, theDiscernment Committee sent the parish twosupplemental survey questions in July 2020.These asked parishioners to assess ChristChurch’s past, present, and future ap
Christ Church, Cambridge Parish Profile, Drafted Fall 2020, Published February 2021 3 stiff brocades.” Our first rector, the Rev. East Apthorp, was the colonial governor’s brother-in-law and built a mansion— known, perhaps derisively, as the “Bishop’s Palace”—as a symbol of his
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