Brattle Street Elegy: A Deep Reverence in My Heart

Dear friends, It has made me shed tears all over my keyboard to read these notes from so many of you with whom we’ve shared wonderful times in the Cambridge Chapel. I have the experiences in my mind and my journal, of course, but the building was like a filing cabinet in which they were stored and organized, and I fear many of them will be a lot harder to recall now that the cabinet has been gutted. 

I remember sitting on the stand in December 1989 listening to the magnificent ward choir in the Christmas program, accompanied by Jenny Atkinson. As they sang “In the Bleak Midwinter,” a spirit came into my heart that told me in the most powerful way that I wasn’t just the bishop of the University Ward but had been given the inestimable privilege of worshipping with and learning from one of the most extraordinary groups of Latter-day Saints that had ever been assembled. 

From that time to the present, I have had a deep reverence in my heart for each of you, and for all of the truth you taught me by your words and your lives. I will be forever grateful for the privilege it was to be your bishop in that sacred building. I pray that, even though the filing cabinet has been burned, you still will be able to feel my love and gratitude for you.