Instead, the Rainbow Ministry sponsored last night’s open-air prayer service, also themed “All Are Welcome.’’
Members of the congregation led readings, hymns, and prayers from a podium set up on the sidewalk across the street from the church on Belvidere Street near the Berklee College of Music. As the evening sun flooded the block with warm light, some parishioners listened to the service gathered in a semicircle around the speakers, while others filled the shaded church steps.
One young woman could be seen listening from the third floor of a red-brick building next door, her head stuck out the window looking down on the scene. Police blocked off part of the street for the service.
“Remind us that what unites us is greater than what divides us,’’ parish council member Susan Donnelly said during the opening prayer.
“Amen!’’ someone in the crowd murmured.
St. Cecilia’s congregation has a large gay and lesbian population, many of whom arrived after the South End’s predominantly gay Jesuit Urban Center closed in 2007, parishioners said. Almost 200 members of St. Cecilia’s are active in its Rainbow Ministry, which hosts events for members and supporters of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender community.
Later in the half-hour service, in lieu of a homily, Richard Iandoli, vice chairman of the parish council, defended St. Cecilia’s acceptance of its gay congregation members, sometimes choking back tears as he looked across the makeshift lectern.
“To single out a group for pastoral care is neither unusual not unorthodox,’’ Iandoli said, citing special services planned for inmates, invalids, and college students. “We do not want to homogenize or hide our differences.’’
Iandoli also defended gay and lesbian churchgoers against the controversy that the canceled Mass has sparked.
