A Space to Find Peace Together

Last year Harvard faced tumult, discord, and deep sadness. As we look forward to all the good things a new academic year can bring, we continue to face significant challenges, ones that still strain and pain our community. Now more than ever, we at the church remain committed to making the Memorial Church the heart of Harvard Yard: a site of spiritual solace at the University, a symbol of unity amidst diversity, and a space where we can gather to seek peace for our own lives and for the world.

I’m glad to announce two initiatives our staff has been working on for some time. First, in partnership with the Harvard University Native American Program and as part of our Noble lecture series, we will be honored to host George “Tink” Tinker (wazhazhe, Osage), Professor Emeritus at Iliff School of Theology, as a resident scholar and spiritual leader for the whole Harvard community throughout the academic year. Much of Tink’s work among us will primarily engage indigenous communities in and beyond Harvard, but we also look forward to welcoming him for some events hosted by the church that will investigate the continuing colonial legacy of European Christianity. These events will likely take place in the spring term, so please stay tuned. Second, this year we will also be inaugurating an annual lecture focused on the history and present reality of Christian antisemitism. The renowned scholar Magda Teter, Shvidler Chair in Judaic Studies and Professor of History at Fordham University, will inaugurate this lectureship. This event will also be hosted in the spring term, so please keep an eye open for further information later in the year.

Our mentorship program for students pursuing college education at the Massachusetts Correctional Institute at Shirley continues this year, and we’re still providing monthly meals to unhoused women and non-binary people at On the Rise here in Cambridge. We are always looking for volunteers and donations, so please let us know if you would like to help!

As ever, the music department will grace us with the gifts of their ministry each day at morning prayers, each Sunday at worship, each month at evensong and compline services, as well as at several special events throughout the term. On Sunday, Oct. 27, the Harvard University Choir will celebrate the 150th birthday of Gustav Holst with a performance of his music and the music of his daughter, Imogen Holst. The University Choir, the Harvard Baroque Chamber Orchestra, and the Harvard -Radcliffe Collegium Musicum will perform a concert in celebration of the three hundredth anniversary of the 1724 Chorale-Cantata Cycle that Johann Sebastian Bach penned as part of his duties as Leipzig’s Thomaskantor. And of course, the 115th annual Carols services will be held on Dec. 8 and 10.

Despite the challenges we face as a community, I’ve never been more grateful to serve as a minister in this, your Memorial Church. Each day each one of us here at the church encounters the chance to impact the lives of other people and to make our broken world a meaningfully better place, even in modest ways. It is humbling grace and holy privilege to serve as priest, pastor, and professor among you. Thank you, as ever, for joining me in this good and crucial work.

With deep thanks and every blessing,

Matt

The Rev. Matthew Ichihashi Potts, Ph.D. '13
Plummer Professor of Christian Morals in the Faculty of Divinity
Pusey Minister in the Memorial Church

Download the Fall 2024 Calendar