Soon after the Rev. Dr. Elwood Worcester became our fourth rector, he agreed to provide space for weekly health-promotion classes for Dr. Joseph Pratt’s tuberculosis patients.
Seeing the success of these classes, Worcester, who had a PhD. in psychology, contacted neurologists at Mass. General Hospital about establishing support groups for people suffering from mental distress. They launched their Weekly Health Conferences in 1906 with a series of four lectures by Worcester, McComb, and two physicians. It ended with an invitation to sessions of treatment, healing prayer, and fellowship. When over 200 people showed up the next day, the ministry that was eventually called the Emmanuel Movement was born.
Worcester was fortunate to have as assistant rector the Rev. Dr. Samuel McComb, who became the movement’s publicist. Worcester, Dr. Isador Coriat, and he published Religion and Medicine in 1908, which led to more cooperation between clergy and medical professionals. Articles in the Ladies Home Journal and Good Housekeeping popularized the movement beyond Boston. About that time parishioner Ernest Jacoby started a support group for alcoholic men, which emphasized fellowship as a path to recovery. It met in our basement until 1913, when it moved down Newbury St. to become the Jacoby Club. Paddy Keegan held the first Alcoholics Anonymous meeting in Boston at the Club in 1940.
Having been helped by Worcester to quit drinking, Courtenay Baylor had joined the Emmanuel staff in 1912. After serving as lay therapist under Worcester’s supervision for over two decades, he estimated that their methods had been successful with about two-thirds of almost a thousand alcoholics. Through his writings and patients Rowland Hazard and Richard R. Peabody, he influenced William Wilson, a founder of Alcoholics Anonymous. Emmanuel is proud to continue this ministry by hosting many 12-step groups.
