Welcome to Spring Term 2023!

The Rev. Dr. Matthew PottsThe Rev. Matthew Ichihashi Potts, Ph.D, Pusey Minister in the Memorial Church, Plummmer Professor of Christian Morals, Faculty of Divinity. Photo by Stephaine Mitchell, Harvard Gazette.

Dear friends of the Memorial Church,

Though the bustle of the fall term has barely subsided, we at the Memorial Church are already eager to welcome you back for the spring term with a full slate of exciting plans and programming.

 

We saw a wonderful increase in participation at our Sparks House Afterschool Snack last fall. My daughter Cami and I are excited once again to don our barista aprons and, along with the rest of my family, to welcome students back into our home each week. Other flourishing student programming will continue, such as the weekly Queer Affirming and Feminist Bible study hosted by Anna Burnham. We’re also developing a new student deacons program we’re confident will take off in the new term, and will share more news as it does.

 

Our programming theme centered on the climate crisis also continues. In the fall we gathered fourteen Iceland pilgrims, and in the spring, during spring break, we will travel to the ancient holy site of Skálholt in southwestern Iceland for a walking retreat and glacier visit. This fall’s Noble lectures, centered around the theme of climate crisis, were great successes and we will have two more lectures in the spring.

 

Dekila Chungyalpa, a climate organizer and activist at the University of Wisconsin who specializes in indigenous responses to climate crisis, will speak March 22. The fourth and final lecture in the series will be given in April by Emmanuel Katongole, a Roman Catholic priest from Uganda and professor at the University of Notre Dame, who integrates environmental work with peacebuilding. Professor Katongole will also be our preacher the Sunday after his visit. Kelly Mason of Arlington Street Church and the Harvard Human Flourishing Project will guest preach in March. And Mark Unno, a professor of Buddhism and ordained Shin Buddhist priest, will visit our pulpit after Easter.

 

Spring term does of course promise the holy seasons of Lent and Easter. In addition to all our usual ritual observations, this Lent we will also host a weekly midday Wednesday communion service in Appleton Chapel. If you are on campus on Wednesdays, we hope you incorporate this noontime service into your Lenten observances this year. And on Easter Sunday, our 9 a.m. service will be specially tailored toward families with young children, to be followed by our Easter Egg Hunt on the Yard. The 11 a.m. liturgy will be a service of festive, choral holy communion.

 

The music program will present several exciting offerings in the spring. Notable among them will be a performance of Alfred Fedak’s oratorio “The Web of Life: Litanies for the Earth” on Sunday, March 5. This oratorio employs religious and other texts to explore our relationship to the earth, in accordance with our climate crisis theme. Then, on Friday, April 28, our own Carson Cooman’s oratorio “The Revelations of Divine Love,” based on the writings of Julian of Norwich, will be presented as part of the Arts First Festival.

 

Last, in cooperation with Professor Tyler Vanderweele of the T. H. Chan School, the Memorial Church will be hosting a large, international, interdisciplinary conference on the topic of forgiveness in late April. This event promises to be an exciting and illuminating meeting, and will be open to the public. Details will follow in the spring term.

 

We at the Memorial Church are so grateful for your support of, and participation in, this vibrant community. Whether you visit the church in person each day, or only occasionally by radio, you are an important part of our common life. Thank you. It is my privilege, and the privilege of the whole staff, to serve you.

 

In faithfulness and gratitude,

Matt

 

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

 

 

Download the Spring 2023 Calendar

 

Spring 2023