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We are open online, though the building remains closed to the public.
Please look here for all developments and for spiritual support.
Please look here for all developments and for spiritual support.
A dialogue about
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Our Quest for the Historical John Eliot
TEASPOON #1. THE QUESTION OF OUR QUEST.
The Rev. John Eliot (1604-1690), acclaimed as the “Apostle to the Indians” in his own lifetime, was chosen as our namesake by the founders of Eliot Church in 1845. The site of Eliot’s inaugural sermon to the native people on October 28, 1646 is a half-mile away from the church building, on an unprepossessing slope facing what is now a municipal golf course, but otherwise on a rather high set of hills overlooking the Quinobequin (meaning “meandering”) River, now the Charles River. His audience that day consisted of Waban, a sub-chief of this band of the Wampanoag tribe, and kindred families of his. A stained glass pane in one of our church windows portrays Eliot in a prayerful gesture, surrounded by a half-dozen attentive, seated Indians, one of whom in chieftain garb also sits close by with bow in hand. The iconography memorializes the spiritual nature of Eliot’s relationship to the native peoples that persisted through the years of King Philip’s War (1675-78) and continued to the end of his life. For their own part, the Wampanoags had been curious, cautious, and careful to calculate their self-interest before these unpredictable English. Many observers then and scholars now doubt how deeply their spiritual interests or Eliot’s influence really ran. John Eliot himself was aware of this ambiguity. When it came to war finally, the ambiguities held tragic costs for the “praying Indians.” This region of alternating forest, fertile fields and rugged coastline was occupied by numerous interrelated tribes continuously for 10,000 years, whose populations in 1646 had been severely reduced by illness brought by Europeans over the prior 50 years. When the English settlers arrived and John Eliot set out to convert the indigenous peoples, the subsequent destruction of the entire native population was set in motion. But what precise role did Eliot have in that destruction? What shall Eliot’s legacy be, and who is John Eliot to us at Eliot Church, today? Our quest for the historical John Eliot will hopefully answer this question. Rev. Richard Chrisman 6/21/2021 |
Summer Schedule for Worship Services at Eliot
(Worship services listed as outdoors are going to be so only if weather permits)
Sunday, June 27: prerecorded, online
Sundays, July 4, 11, 18, 25, and all Sundays in August: outdoors
Worship Service
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Photo by Waldemar Brandt
Hearing the Word.
Of a multiplication of books there is no end. You’ve heard of being muscle bound--we are book bound. And we are letter fixated. Especially since Covid, we've all been forced to the letter board--the keyboard--of our computers much more than ever. We are forced to write messages we would normally speak.
As a result, we are sound starved. Oh, people do have their iPhones with all their favorite music. But they seldom hear the music coming from its original source. We hear our friend’s voice over the telephone, or on Facetime, but we don’t feel the auditory vibrations.
One good reason to be in church, physically, is to hear the Word read out loud. There is magic in the reading and the hearing. Of course, we undermine that experience by printing the text of the scripture lesson. Why do we do that? We say, so people can understand it better, so people don’t have to strain to hear. But we further weaken our listening skills and the skills of the imagination altogether.
Let’s think next Sunday about how to get scripture--the written Word--off the printed page and into the life-giving air somehow.
RevRick
Of a multiplication of books there is no end. You’ve heard of being muscle bound--we are book bound. And we are letter fixated. Especially since Covid, we've all been forced to the letter board--the keyboard--of our computers much more than ever. We are forced to write messages we would normally speak.
As a result, we are sound starved. Oh, people do have their iPhones with all their favorite music. But they seldom hear the music coming from its original source. We hear our friend’s voice over the telephone, or on Facetime, but we don’t feel the auditory vibrations.
One good reason to be in church, physically, is to hear the Word read out loud. There is magic in the reading and the hearing. Of course, we undermine that experience by printing the text of the scripture lesson. Why do we do that? We say, so people can understand it better, so people don’t have to strain to hear. But we further weaken our listening skills and the skills of the imagination altogether.
Let’s think next Sunday about how to get scripture--the written Word--off the printed page and into the life-giving air somehow.
RevRick
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Sermon
Sunday, June 14, 2021
Jesus is yours to imagine
Our theme today is imagination and the life of faith, and what this has to do with you, the Bible, Eliot Church, and the Annual Meeting. Imagination, and the life of faith.
Jesus is yours to imagine.
I.
I have served Eliot Church as your Interim for almost exactly two years, to the day today. Two years is about an average length of tenure for interims, maybe a tad longer. Covid slowed us down somewhat, so we still have a little way to go together. But there is a Search Committee on the case!
READ MORE
Jesus is yours to imagine.
I.
I have served Eliot Church as your Interim for almost exactly two years, to the day today. Two years is about an average length of tenure for interims, maybe a tad longer. Covid slowed us down somewhat, so we still have a little way to go together. But there is a Search Committee on the case!
READ MORE
One Minute Minister
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6/17/21
We are Building Community, |