going to the common cathedral

Last week I got a response from Mike O'Grady, a Jesuit in the Boston area, offering hospitality and encouraging us to come for a visit in early July. I had written to him because Heather and I are planning to start our walk there.

It's the location of Ecclesia Ministries, an ecumenical group that has offered church for the homeless outside on Boston Common for over twelve years now. They call it the common cathedral. Here's an excerpt from their latest newsletter:

A man shared about his first experience at common cathedral. He said he had gone to a church dressed in his street clothes, clean and neat, but casual and not wearing a white shirt and tie like all the other men he saw there. The ushers made it clear that he didn’t belong and escorted him to the door.

Hurt and angry he walked over to Boston Common and encountered a woman who said, “You look like you need a friend.” It was Debbie Little who had greeted him many years ago. He now calls common cathedral his home.

When asked how he found common cathedral, a man who always used to sleep on a bench near the fountain laughed and said, “One afternoon when I woke up I was in church.” Our altar and cross were in his bedroom.