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It’s been almost 8 months since Richard passed from this world and I finally feel ready to start reviewing the images and video I shot with him over the years. This is a clip I watched yesterday morning. It was a wonderful to sit quietly, see Richard’s face and hear his voice. Instead of waiting until I’ve edited, corrected and adjusted the quality of everything I have, I’ve decided to start sharing some of what I have with others.
Thomas Sherman. Friday August 22, 2025
Tuesday, August 12, 2025
This morning I was thinking of Richard, and as I often do, about the conversations and themes of our dialogs over the years. For the first time since his passing I feel ready to sit down and beging the process of writing about those conversations, ideas, our friendship and The Church. While thinking all this I received a few texts from Bing; a picture of he and Richard, a short looping clip of Richard sitting in The Church, and a short video that shows Richard taking in the sanctuary space on the second floor.
It didn’t surprise me to get texts about Richard while I was thinking about him. He and I would joke—and truly believed—that we had a long distance cosmic connection. Often I would be thinking about him and the phone would ring and I’d see his name on my phone’s screen. Or I would call Richard and he’d answer, laughing, knowing it was me calling. It wasn’t an occasional occurance. It happended all time.
That text from Bing was just the start of a day filled with Richards presence. Later that morning I was driving on the highway, listening to music, and I got what I thought was an in comming call. It was Richard’s name and number that appeared on the dashboard’s LED screen. At first I thought that someone was calling using the phone in Richard’s office. Then I realized the call was outbound. My phone, which was sitting on the passanger car seat, had somehow inititated the call. Particularly strange because I never make calls from my car. Before I could stop myself I reached out and hit “cancel” on the dash screen. I wish I hadn’t.
An hour later, I was back at home and I get a text from Stephen. I was a picture of Richard. Stephen was at his dentist’s office. The dentist had pulled up a picture of Richard from the last time he was in for a visit.
Later that afternnon I received an email from someone named Natalie, an old friend of Richard that had visited The Church website and, learning of his passing, wanted to pass on her condolances and ask if anyone was keeping The Church open. She was going to be in Gloucester next month and would like to stop in for a visit.
In the evening I was recounting these occurences to my wife and she told that the Perseid meteor shower was happening this very day and that the earth was passing through the debris from the Swift-Tuttle Comet. I can picture Richard, riding the comet through our solar system and tossing out handfuls of cosmic confetti.
Thomas Sherman
By Sean Bergin
By Sean Bergin
Reverend Richard Emmanuel
And The Church on East Main Street
— Bing McGilvary
Originally published March 5, 2025 on CapeAnnCosmos.com
In 1968, at age 20, when Richard Emmanuel first opened the doors to The Church, his center for the exploration and discussion of all things theological, diagonally across E. Main sat poet Vincent Ferrini in his famed Frame Shop, a scene for all sorts of philosophical intercourse, literally and literary. These two vibrant portals of alternative religion and avant-garde art became inextricably intertwined in the decades to follow and continue to this day…