Rev. Laura Everett is focused on "the work of repair" in Massachusetts
BOSTON - Reverend Laura Everett chose to attend Harvard Divinity School because of its mix of Christians, Muslims and Jews. She wanted to be formed as a Christian minister in an interfaith setting. "That's how I imagined the world to be and the space I wanted to serve," she told WBZ-TV.
Her first official day of classes at Harvard Divinity School was on 9/11.
"We had this unbelievable sense that religion mattered and that it could be a tool for incredible good-for healing, for hope, for meaning-and it could be a tool for incredible evil," she said.
The experience, she says, was the beginning of her academic and spiritual formation as a Christian minister in Boston. "It tethered me to this city."
More than two decades later, she is a Christian leader. Ordained in the United Church of Christ, Reverend Laura is the Executive Director of the Massachusetts Council of Churches, a statewide network of 18 Protestant and Orthodox member denominations.
"The work of repair"
An itinerant minister, Reverend Laura believes that her calling is the work of repair. "When I'm with a congregation, we're trying to repair our broken relationships with one another," she said. "When I'm with the City of Boston Reparations Task Force, that is a citywide effort to repair an unjust history. This is all the work of repair."
Her heart and hands are committed to that work. Reverend Laura is also a textile artist who leads mending workshops, teaching people how to repair damaged clothing. The exercise in restoration is both practical and spiritual. "What I love about mending is that we learn with our hands what we long for in our hearts," she said.
Commitment to the cycling community
The mending of broken hearts and spirits in the cycling community is especially personal work. An avid cyclist and author of the book "Holy Spokes: The Search for Urban Spirituality on Two Wheels", Reverend Laura prays with mourners at the scene of deadly bike crashes in Greater Boston. The ritual of installing a white "ghost bike" at the crash site to memorialize the victim is part of the grieving process that also affirms that the rider will not be forgotten. "When we come together, we say this life mattered," she said.
Reverend Laura acknowledges the danger of urban biking but calls riding in the city "an act of defiance." She says she has to hope that we will build a city, and a world, in which every cyclist gets home alive. "That's the prophetic vision I try to hold on to when I get angry," she explained. Whenever she learns of a cycling crash, she worries about people she loves including her wife Abbi.
"She brings her full self to ministry"
Reverend Laura and middle school Latin teacher Abbi Holt exchanged marriage vows in 2015. More than ten years after the first legal same-sex marriage in Massachusetts, Reverend Laura says their marriage was not universally accepted in the faith community. As a public religious figure, Laura felt strongly that their union was a vision of God's overwhelming love. She also knew that, for some parts of the church, same-sex marriage was a stumbling block. "The idea that my actions would be church-dividing was incredibly painful," Laura recalls. "I didn't want to do that. But it was an incredible act of faith to say, this is the person I love and we are committing our lives to one another. And if that means losing my job, I'm going to trust God anyway."
Almost nine years later, ministers we spoke with, including Reverend Art J. Gordon, applaud her decision. "The Bible tells us that we have to worship God in spirit and in truth. And a part of that is living out our own truth... That's one of the things I appreciate about her. She brings her full self to ministry," Gordon said.
Rev. Gordon serves his congregation at St. John Missionary Baptist Church in Boston. He marvels at Reverend Laura's commitment to attending a variety of churches-particularly Black churches. "Even Black seminarians embrace her... She's someone who looks out for new pastors, younger pastors, seminarians. There are quite a few seminarians here in the Boston area. So, her impact is definitely felt." He continued on a more personal note, "She's had an impact on my ministry as well as my life."
After the Black Ministerial Alliance's Seven Last Words service, Reverend Gordon greeted Laura and Abbi with warm smiles. Abbi says, after years of feeling unwelcome in the church community, she enjoys attending services with her wife. "When Laura did come out professionally, suddenly to go as her fiancée and wife was just a wild transformation for me," Abbi said.
Task Force on Reparations
If the pace of social change is often slow, Reverend Laura points to the work of the Task Force on Reparations as critically important. "The amount that has been stolen is incalculable," she said. "And to start to say as a city, as churches, as institutions, that there is grave hard that has happened... it has decades, generations-long effect is a first step in healing."
She says that she hopes Boston and the Commonwealth want to be healed. Talking about painful parts of the state's history will be part of that. "If we're so afraid to talk about things, it becomes a family secret. It's the thing we don't talk about. It's the thing we put in the corner, and it metastasizes. It grows and it oozes. It's the thing we never name and so you can't heal it," Reverend Laura said.
Just before Reverend Laura began briefing a group of Boston ministers on humanitarian efforts in the state's emergency shelters, Reverend Don Wells, the Theologian in Residence at Boston's Old South Church shared his thoughts about her leadership. "She knows the joys of ministry in our institutions, and she knows the tough places," Wells said. "Dwindling congregations. Financial issues. Tensions over a variety of issues including, now, the Middle East, reparations, and a whole host of things. She must have some tough moments inside of her at times. I would. But she is the one you want to talk to when you want to know the pulse of churches in Massachusetts."
Churches helping migrants
The state's churches could soon play an even more significant role in helping to provide resources to migrants experiencing a housing and humanitarian crisis. Churches are already collecting toiletries and accepting clothing donations. "Our new neighbors are not a problem," she reminded the group of nodding ministers. "They are made in the image and likeness of God, and they are fleeing from terrible circumstances that we would all do to protect our families."
Reverend Dr. Gregory Groover says life is getting better for people in Boston (even those who are new to the city) because of her passion and persistence. "Reverend Laura has really been the change agent in galvanizing and mobilizing churches to remember the spirit of Jesus; that we must welcome the stranger and welcome them as a sister and brother," Groover said.
Reverend Laura Everett describes her work as "deeply meaningful" in a city that is both very religious and quite skeptical of religious people. "So, when people invite me, a woman, a queer woman, a religious woman, to sit with them and to listen with them, I take that as incredible privilege. That's the most meaningful work for me."