Yesterday started off with breakfast with a colleague at Dig Inn. I highly recommend the ‘avocado toast’. We talked shop: stewardship, staffing, HR, social media, preaching, etc.
Then the usual Tuesday three-in-a-row meetings with Old South Church staff colleagues: 10 am, 12 pm, and 1 pm to discuss, in this order: visitors, pastoral care, worship services (Holy Week, Easter and Marathon Sunday), building use, various matters of logistics, CPR training for the staff, scheduling a fire drill, our new defibrillator, live streaming Easter Sunday Festival Worship, brainstorming social media ideas during the week of the Marathon, and more. I reported that the Minister of Music Search Committee is meeting weekly - one week by conference call, the next week in person. Our first undertaking is to schedule listening sessions with our church musicians and choirs, as well as with the whole church. We have scheduled 11 opportunities in April and May to ask: What do you love most about the musical ministry of Old South Church? What personal qualities are you looking for in a new Minister of Music? What do you consider the highest priorities for that person’s professional portfolio at Old South Church?
In the afternoon two British gents from the BBC, a writer and a producer, interviewed me on a long story they are doing on the English evangelist George Whitefield. Fascinating man. While many Boston ministers, and most of the Harvard theologians, dismissed him, he preached at Old South Church on a number of occasions between 1740 and 1744. Our ministers embraced his warm, enthusiastic preaching. Old South Church member Phillis Wheatley memorialized him in a poem.
No sooner had I returned to my office than staff from Senator Elizabeth Warren’s office, accompanied by Helen McCrady, popped by to see if my study would be a suitable pre-lecture quiet room for the Senator who is speaking here in April.
I then visited the Minister of Music’s office, located in our tower, to visit with friends and colleagues of Harry Huff who are taking over his duties as executor of two musical estates: those of Calvin Hampton and Chris DeBlasio. Both American composers were dear friends of Harry. Both died of AIDS. The heavy-hearted work of sorting through Harry’s belongings continues.
At 4 pm I was interviewed by a Boston Globe reporter about our outdoor banner: LOVE THY (MUSLIM) NEIGBHOR AS THYSELF. She asked what responses it had prompted. My answer: plenty! While we received two irate messages from people who are outraged by it, we have received tons of expressions of profound gratitude, especially from Muslims. One Muslim man from South Africa wrote to tell me that his son, who attends university in Boston, happened upon our banner, had his friend take a picture of him in front of the banner, and sent it to his father in SA. The son said it made him feel safe and welcomed here. I also received a postcard with this message: “I am a Jew writing a Christian Church to thank you for standing with our Muslim neighbors.”
At 5:30 pm I met with the Board of Trustees. We opened by praying prayers deposited in our Sanctuary prayer box. We welcomed two new trustees, signed a ton of documents to transfer signatory authority from outgoing trustees to incoming, and reviewed a range of subjects: our rare book collection at the Boston Public Library, our investment portfolio and February 2017 balances, and we took a very high level look at a 20-40 year Capital Reserve Spending plan. We named trustees to the Investment and Audit Committees.
Between meetings and interviews I read and responded to emails (one asked if Old South Church is willing to be a venue on Race Amity Day in June for a speech by Governor Baker), revised the Palm Sunday and Easter Sunday worship bulletins, checked in on various news outlets to see how the world and nation were faring, and finished reading “A Colony In A Nation”, an important book by Chris Hayes who will be here this evening on book tour.
Just another day at Old South Church in Boston. What a privilege to serve here, to serve you, to minister in this city, to extend God’s peace and good will to all people.