Church Of The Cross Boston

Th And 21st Centuries

The Gothic style dictated the use of structural members in , leading to tall, buttressed buildings with interior columns of masonry and tall, narrow windows. But, by the start of the 20th century, technological developments such as the , the and the made this approach obsolete. Steel framing supplanted the non-ornamental functions of and , providing wider open interiors with fewer columns interrupting the view.

Some architects persisted in using Neo-Gothic tracery as applied ornamentation to an iron skeleton underneath, for example in ‘s 1913 skyscraper in New York and ‘s 1922 in Chicago. The in San Antonio, completed in 1929, is noted for the arrays of decorative on its upper floors. But, over the first half of the century, Neo-Gothic was supplanted by , although some modernist architects saw the Gothic tradition of architectural form entirely in terms of the “honest expression” of the technology of the day, and saw themselves as heirs to that tradition, with their use of rectangular frames and exposed iron girders.

In spite of this, the Gothic Revival continued to exert its influence, simply because many of its more massive projects were still being built well into the second half of the 20th century, such as ‘s and the . became a leading force in American Gothic, with his most ambitious project the in New York , as well as Collegiate Gothic buildings at . Cram said “the style hewn out and perfected by our ancestors become ours by uncontested inheritance”.

Rev Dave Friedrich Rector

Dave was born and raised in Canada. After studying philosophy at York University in Toronto and completing his masters degree in spiritual theology at Regent College in Vancouver, he made his way to Europe. Eventually he landed in Switzerland where he lived and worked at LAbri, a ministry of Christian hospitality and cultural engagement. There he met his wife Anna, to whom he has been joyfully married for 18 years. Besides serving at LAbri for a decade, Dave has worked at a bank, been a professional fire fighter/paramedic, a swing dance instructor, and a youth pastor. He was ordained as an Anglican priest in 2013 and was received into the Anglican Church in North America in 2018. Dave and Anna are raising their two teenage sons, Cole and Adam.

Thank You For Your Generosity

We are very grateful for the large number of people, churches, businesses, foundations, and governmental agencies who partner with us to build a strong community. Today, 60% of our annual income comes from Individuals and Church Partners, 30% from Local Businesses and Foundations, and 10% from government entities.

Over 300 individuals/families have financially partnered with us during the past two years.

Church Partners

Black Ministerial Alliance of Greater Boston Byfield Parish Church Calvary Chapel of Raynham Calvary Community Church of Dorchester Church of the Cross Boston CRU Campus Ministry Danville Baptist Church First Baptist Church of Dorchester First Baptist Church of Raynham First Parish Church of York, ME First Presbyterian Church of Newport, RI Gathering Christian Fellowship Grace Chapel Impact Center Providence Kingsley Community Church Neighborhood Church of Dorchester Rock Village Church Second Church of Dorchester

Local Businesses

912 Auto Boston Private Industry Council Codman Square Neighborhood Development Corporation Health Resources In Action Narrow Way Plumbing and Heating Stalex Pizza TLee Development

Foundation Partners

Government Partners

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Rev Pete Williamson Deacon Of Mission And Catechesis

Pete moved to Boston from New Zealand in 2011 to pursue an MDiv at Harvard Divinity School which he completed in 2014. He joined CotC in 2011 and was ordained as a Deacon in 2018. Pete serves as a Campus Minister with InterVarsity Christian Fellowship as Team Leader for Grad Ministry at Harvard. Before coming to Boston he was a High School teacher, teaching Physics and Math. He has a passion for Biblical Studies, particularly the Old Testament, but will also talk your ears off about cricket, spaceflight, or electric vehicles. At CotC he leads Catechesis, including the Foundations Group, and evangelistic initiatives. He met his wife, Kelly, in Boston, and they have three sons.

Rev Anna Friedrich Deacon

Anna Friedrich was ordained in October 2022. She is wife to Dave, Mama to Cole and Adam, and adoring pet owner to Fiona and Virginia. She loves textiles, words, and cinnamon but still hasnt found a way to bring those together meaningfully. Anna has attended CotC since 2017 and has especially loved being a part of our Easter Vigil. As a poet herself, Anna longs to see the local church become a more welcoming place for artists to be known, discipled, blessed, and released to do their craft excellently, as well as to embrace their work as essential to the kingdom of God.

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Elevation To Cathedral Status And Replacement

In 1808, when Pope Pius VII created the Diocese of Boston and Cheverus became its first bishop, the church became a cathedral. Enlarged in 1825, the building nonetheless proved too small for the citys fast-growing Catholic population. Furthermore, the area had become commercial and the dilapidated cathedral was surrounded by business blocks. The last Mass, at which Bishop Fitzpatrick was reportedly too overcome with sadness to speak, was celebrated there on September 16, 1860 as sale of the site was underway and planning began for a new cathedral demolition took place around 1862.

In 1950, an engraved tablet was placed adjacent to the St. Thomas More Oratory entrance at 49 Franklin Street. It reads: “Near this site stood THE CATHEDRAL OF THE HOLY CROSS, established 1803 by Jean Lefebvre de Cheverus, First Catholic Bishop of Boston Missionary to the Penobscot Indians Friend of President John Adams Advisor to our State Legislature One of Americas noblest priests. He stood by the bedside of Catholic and Protestant alike. This tablet placed by a group of Protestant Businessmen, 1950.”

Vernacular Adaptations And The Revival In The Antipodes

houses and small churches became common in North America and other places in the late 19th century. These structures adapted Gothic elements such as pointed arches, steep gables, and towers to traditional American . The invention of the and mass-produced wood moldings allowed a few of these structures to mimic the florid of the High Gothic. But, in most cases, Carpenter Gothic buildings were relatively unadorned, retaining only the basic elements of pointed-arch windows and steep gables. A well-known example of Carpenter Gothic is a house in , that used for the background of his painting .

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Patrick Bourckel Director Of Operations

Patrick grew up in the Baltimore area, and met his wife Jen when they attended Wheaton College together. He graduated from Gordon-Conwell Seminary in 2012, at which time the family attended Church of the Cross. After serving at a church in the Los Angeles area for 7 years, the Bourckels returned to Boston and Church of the Cross. Jen and Patrick have 4 children, and the family loves to wander in the woods, sing together, and make, eat, and talk about food.

Daniel And Megan Tavani Music Leaders

Daniel and Megan are originally from Virginia and both ended up at Rice University in Houston, studying classical cello performance. Their shared faith, musical interests, and time together worship-leading at various ministries naturally brought them together. After school , they got married in 2019 and moved to Boston, sensing Gods call to pursue other avenues of music-making. Daniel is currently in the Music Production and Engineering program at the Berklee College of Music, and Megan is releasing her own songs under her artist name, davy. They love Church of the Cross and are so blessed to be able to lead their community in worship!

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Windows And Other Arts

Trinitys magnificent stained glass collection is one of the finest in the nation, with examples from most of the major American and European stained glass studios of the 19th century.

Trinitys magnificent stained glass collection is one of the finest in the nation, with examples from most of the major American and Europ

Trinitys magnificent stained glass collection is one of the finest in the nation, with examples from most of the major American and European stained glass studios of the 19th century.

Between 1883 and 1902, John La Farge created five windows for the church, now considered among the most famous of American stained glass of the time. For his majestic tripartite masterpiece, Christ Preaching, that rises over the west end of the nave, La Farge created a dazzling three-dimensional surface of half-globes of glass in multiple tones of blues to surround the figure of Christ.

Between 1883 and 1902, John La Farge created five windows for the church, now considered among the most famous of American stained glass of the…

Between 1883 and 1902, John La Farge created five windows for the church, now considered among the most famous of American stained glass of the time. For his majestic tripartite masterpiece, Christ Preaching, that rises over the west end of the nave, La Farge created a dazzling three-dimensional surface of half-globes of glass in multiple tones of blues to surround the figure of Christ.

The Cathedral Of The Holy Cross

The Cathedral of the Holy Cross in Boston is the mother church of the Metropolitan See of Boston and the seat of His Eminence, Seán Patrick Cardinal OMalley, the Archbishop of Boston. Located in the South End neighborhood of the City of Boston, the Cathedral serves a vibrant, diverse community worshiping English, Spanish, German, Geez and Tridentine forms of the Catholic Tradition.

Designed by the nineteenth century Irish-American ecclesiastical architect Patrick Keely, the Cathedral of the Holy Cross measures 364 feet in length, 90 feet in width and 120 feet in height. In 1860, Bishop John Fitzpatrick began work on a new Cathedral realizing that the Catholic population outgrew its first cathedral on Franklin Street. After the American Civil War stalled the project, the then diocese of Boston finally broke ground on 29 April 1866. Archbishop John J. Williams, the first archbishop of Boston, presided at the rite of dedication on the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception of Mary, the Mother of God, 8 December 1875.

As the largest Church in New England, the Cathedral seats nearly 2,000 people. Its Gothic Revival style incorporates local Roxbury puddingstone and gray limestone. The Cathedral houses the largest, and arguably finest, organ built by the world-renowned Hook and Hastings Company in 1875.

Sunday Liturgies

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Housing A Bold Spirit**

It was not merely form, history, and purpose that guided Richardsons approach to the buildings design, but his spirit as well. Richardson ultimately sought to give architectural form to the spellbinding preaching of his friend Phillips Brooks, Trinity’s Rector at the time of the buildings design and construction. Richardson scrapped his first sketches, which called for a classic design typical of Gothic Revival Episcopal churches of the time, and, instead, sketched an unconventional Greek cross plan, with chancel, nave, and transepts of equal size grouped around a central square.

This approach represented a radical departure for American ecclesiastical design. It presented an inclusive, open auditorium plan closer in spirit to the emerging needs of democratic contemporary American congregational practice, than to the hierarchical, conventional Episcopal designs and worship practices of the day. The design of Trinity Church reflects the democratic American spirit evident in town halls, railroad stations, libraries, court houses, and homes across this country. Though Richardson attributed his inspiration for the building to Frances 11th-century Romanesque churches, he called Trinity a free rendering of those sources.

**Excerpted from James F. O’Gorman, “The Makers of Trinity Church in the City of Boston” .

Sara Williams Director Of Childrens Ministry

A native New Englander, Sara was born and raised in Massachusetts 45 minutes outside of Boston. She now lives in Brookline with her husband Kyle. Sara attended Gordon College for her bachelors in Early Childhood Education and Linguistics. She then completed her M.Ed in Curriculum & Instruction with a concentration in Trauma & Resilience in Educational Settings from Concordia Nebraska. Filling a variety of roles in the MA public schools, Sara has taught 2nd grade, long-term subbed, and worked as a special education teachers assistant. Sara has always had a passion for helping children learn and grow and is excited to now help children and families learn and grow in their faith as Director of Childrens Ministry. In her free time, Sara enjoys making and eating yummy gluten-free foods , crafting, going to the beach, and reading non-fiction books.

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Join Us For Worshipsundays At : 30 Am

Worship on the First Sunday of Advent, November 27, is on Zoom only, with no in-person gathering.Church of the Covenant is focused on following Jesus in our worldthrough accompaniment, compassion, peace, joy and creative beauty.We are passionate about hospitality, committed to justice,and wild about faith.We embrace an embodied spirituality that is not afraid of questions.We advocate for a just climate for our earth, liberation in our world,and equality in our neighborhoods.We are a community where ALL are welcome and celebratedas beautiful reflections of God all genders, all faiths, all orientations, all backgrounds, all abilities,all ages, all struggles, and all hopes.Come journey with us!

The Advent Is A Warm Welcoming And Supportive Community Of Faithful Christians

Holiness is a lifelong and ongoing pursuit, to which we commit ourselves in heart, mind, and deed. By fostering thoughtful faith through formation of young children and families and challenging adult education programs and pursuing dedicated service through our hospitable coffee hours and the citys longest-running free meal for the needy, everything we do flows to and from our commitment to learning and living out the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ.

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Ecclesiology And Funerary Style

In England, the was undergoing a revival of and ideology in the form of the , and it became desirable to build large numbers of new churches to cater for the growing population, and cemeteries for their hygienic burials. This found ready exponents in the universities, where the was forming. Its proponents believed that Gothic was the only style appropriate for a parish church, and favoured a particular era of Gothic architecture â the “”. The , through its journal The Ecclesiologist, was so savagely critical of new church buildings that were below its exacting standards and its pronouncements were followed so avidly that it became the epicentre of the flood of that affected most of the Anglican cathedrals and parish churches in England and Wales.

, was a new-built of 1820â24, partly built using a grant of £8,333 towards its construction with money voted by as a result of the Church Building Act of 1818. It is often said to be the first Gothic Revival church in London, and, as put it: “probably the only church of its time in which the main roof was groined throughout in stone”. Nonetheless, the parish was firmly , and the original arrangement, modified in the 1860s, was as a “preaching church” dominated by the pulpit, with a small altar and wooden galleries over the nave aisle.

Cathedral Of The Holy Cross

The Cathedral of the Holy Cross is the cathedral of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston and is the largest Roman Catholic church in New England.

When construction was finished, the cathedral rivaled both Old South Church and Trinity Church in grandeur. The cathedral is located in the city’s South End neighborhood, at 1400 Washington St. Although the South End was initially developed for Boston’s emerging Anglo-Saxon Protestant middle class, the neighborhood transitioned to new immigrants, especially Irish, as middle class owners moved to the new Back Bay neighborhood.

The cathedral functions both as a cathedral and as a parish. The Cathedral Parish consists of large English- and Spanish-speaking congregations, drawn largely from the local area, and also includes three Archdiocese-wide congregations: the Ge’ez Rite practiced by Ethiopian, Eritrean, and Egyptian Catholics the German Apostolate and the Tridentine Mass Catholic community. The first of these congregations moved to the cathedral from the nearby Holy Trinity Catholic Church in 1994, the other two in 2008.

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Ruskin And Venetian Gothic

supplemented Pugin’s ideas in his two influential theoretical works, and . Finding his architectural ideal in , Ruskin proposed that Gothic buildings excelled above all other architecture because of the “sacrifice” of the stone-carvers in intricately decorating every stone. In this, he drew a contrast between the physical and spiritual satisfaction which a medieval craftsman derived from his work, and the lack of these satisfactions afforded to modern, labour.

By declaring the to be “the central building of the world”, Ruskin argued the case for Gothic government buildings as Pugin had done for churches, though mostly only in theory. When his ideas were put into practice, Ruskin often disliked the result, although he supported many architects, such as and , and was reputed to have designed some of the decorations for that pair’s . A major clash between the Gothic and Classical styles in relation to governmental offices occurred less than a decade after the publication of The Stones of Venice. A public competition for the construction of a new in saw the decision to award first place to a Gothic design by overturned by the Prime Minister, , who successfully demanded a building in the style.