Dear friends,
This week, in my (long-ish) letter to you there are many joyful things on the horizon in our community, and I want to both give thanks and bring a few things to your attention!
First, as we move into the Easter season, we find ourselves at a most beautiful time of year, as spring enters in, and we celebrate the resurrection of Christ from the tomb.
Main lobby of Cathedral Church of St. Paul. (Photo by Yuhan Zhang)
Into the season, then, we also find one of the most celebratory periods of our program year. This Sunday, fifteen of our beloveds will be confirmed or received into the Episcopal Church at The Cathedral Church of St. Paul in Boston at 4:30 p.m. On Sunday, May 18, we will have our annual parish clean up following our 10 a.m. Eucharist. Then, we will celebrate Rogation Sunday on May 25, where our 10 a.m. Eucharist will feature outdoor worship in our newly renovated Labyrinth space! Then, our annual Summerfest extravaganza (I’ve been trying to use that word all week …) will be taking place on Pentecost, the feast of the birthday of the Church, on Sunday, June 8. On this day, there will be a Eucharist with Baptisms indoors at 9am, and then we will hold our outdoor Eucharist at 4 p.m. in the Memorial Garden followed by the extravaganza … (yay, two times!).
Finally, another great joy has been our invitation by Bishop Julia to participate in her new Strategic Curacy initiative, which will enable our parish to call a curate this summer. As we have begun to work in earnest on this, there is one request I would like to make to our congregation. Since a curacy was not originally on the horizon for us this year, we found tenants to occupy the entirety of our Water Street House until Jan. 31, 2026. Therefore, our curate will need to find housing for at least the first eight to nine months of their tenure. While our new clergy would be perfectly capable of securing housing of their own accord, the Vestry and I are helping to look for options to support them so to make their transition to Hingham as comfortable as possible. If members of our parish know of anyone who may assist in helping to find housing within reasonable distance of our parish church, then please reach out to me directly. I would love to hear from you!
Thank you again for our shared joy in celebrating this new season and indeed this ongoing new chapter in our parish’s life. I cannot begin to say how grateful I am for all of you!
The Rev. Edward Thornley
Rector of The Episcopal Parish of St. John the Evangelist