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Priest Builds Congregation on Boston Common, 'Where the People Are'

Episcopal News Service. April 18, 1997 [97-1745]

Nan Cobbey, Features Editor for Episcopal Life, the national newspaper of the Episcopal Church

(ENS) "We are standing on holy ground," said the priest to a small group huddled on Boston Common on a chill, gray, pre-spring day, singing a hymn.

"And I know that there are angels all around."

Passers-by, tourists and pigeons shared the space beside the fountain. The MBTA rumbled by underground.

"Let us praise Jesus now. We are standing in his presence on holy ground."

Seventy people sang, some with tears in their eyes. The teary ones were mostly the suburbanites, who had come to share this open-air Eucharist with the people of Boston's streets.

Some arrived from shelters, others from day centers or veterans' homes. One came in a wheelchair, one with backpack and bedroll. He laid his burden down.

The gathering had just heard the announcements: a nurse would now be present at services; blankets, backpacks and socks were behind the bench to be picked up. Then there were pleas from the priest: "We can help with housing," and, "If you are sick, please don't go to the hospital alone. There are 40 people here who are dying to go with you." Laughter.

The priest, their priest, the Rev. Deborah Little, looking slight in her chinos, sweater and stole and far younger than her 51 years, delighted them with her breathless enthusiasm. They were responsive.

Taking part in their service

During the shared homily they had lots to say. The Gospel reading, John's story of Jesus driving the money changers from the temple, drew a reaction from the man with the backpack at his feet.

"Our bodies are temples," he said, reminding, perhaps himself, to be respectful of what is put into them.

A man in ragged sheepskin sweater, rolled jeans and backward baseball cap said, "If Jesus were here today, it wouldn't be money changers he'd run out... he'd run out racism." The man was white. The brothers smiled.

Some of the reflections shared were likely understood only by God, but the fellowship was lost on no one.

"The masks we all wear were being taken off. We were just there together, naked before God. ... I wept through the entire service," said Sara Rossiter of St. Peter's Episcopal Church in Weston, a wealthy suburb.

"It must be very similar in feeling to what the early days of the church were like -- radical, simple and exhilarating," said Sophronia Camp, a member of St. Peter's Episcopal Church in Cambridge, about the ministry Little started on a shoestring and continues with the help of contributions from suburban parishes and the diocese's two bishops. Camp and others bring communion bread and soup and sandwiches for a meal after the service.

A church 'where the people are'

Common Cathedral celebrates its first anniversary this Easter. It was one year ago that Little, once employed in corporate America, ordained priest just months earlier, concluded a Maundy Thursday foot-washing at St. Francis House, a downtown day center, and started walking across Boston Common. "I was thinking about Jesus and my next thought was, 'Wham! The church is out here! Jesus went where the people are, not where the buildings are.' It just felt so simple and so clear."

"My next thought was, 'I have to celebrate Easter on the Common.'" So she did, using a linen-covered metal cart for an altar and a wooden cross created by the building services staff at Trinity Episcopal Church, Copley Square.

She's been there every Sunday since and her congregation has grown from a handful to 70 or more.

"I really get a thrill out of seeing the growth," said a man known as Harold. "Every time I come back it's like a larger and larger group."

"She's a revolutionary, bringing the Eucharist outdoors," said Bill, a cab driver who has to work on Sundays but comes anyway, his meter off.

"I love it," said Adam, who assists with the Eucharist. "It's gonna grow big and it's gonna be powerful and I want to be part of it."

Adam comes to Common Cathedral "to get back on the side of God." He'd been thinking about that one summer Sunday walking across the Common. "I seen this nice blond lady having a little crowd around her." He stood back, listened.

"The first thing I heard from her, Wham! she was delivering the messages and people were all different colors here, sneakers on, ya know, and they were just standing listening at her. I said, 'Wow! This is what I was looking for.' I've been coming seven months straight."

The community grows

So have others and a community is building. For Little, who tries to link suburban parishes with the materially needier people of God through her Ecclesia Ministries, that's the best part.

"These are extremely isolated people, so isolated that many of them can't go indoors anywhere," she said. "They used to be terrified to walk across Boston Common. Now I hear, over and over again, that they run into someone from Common Cathedral... and they talk and they are meeting each other and beginning to have some safety."

As the service concludes, the congregation joins hands in a circle that grows wider every Sunday and sings, "We Shall Overcome." Indeed, they already have.

To learn more about Ecclesia Ministries' programs for youth and adults, leave a message for the Rev. Debbie Little at the Massachusetts Diocesan Office, 138 Tremont St., Boston, Mass. 02111, 617-482-5800.