A SERVICE OF COMMITMENT TO RACIAL HEALING, JUSTICE, AND RECONCILATION

Shield of The Episcopal Church

Saturday, January 18, 2014 at 11:00 AM  

Seeking Christ in all People: A Service of Commitment to Racial Healing, Justice, and Reconciliation

Christ Church Cathedral- 2919 St. Charles Ave, New Orleans

On Saturday January 18, our Diocese will hold an historical service at Christ Church Cathedral, New Orleans. The Presiding Bishop, The Most Rev'd Katharine Jefferts Schori will preach and witness this gathering. The purpose of the service is to mark several years of conversation surrounding the issue of racism and explore how the Episcopal Church can more fully live into the calling of Christ. This special service, entitled 'Seeking Christ in All People: A Service of Commitment to Racial Healing, Justice and Reconciliation' is both a culmination of the Year of Reconciliation and a celebration of the life and ministry of the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. All are welcome. Reception following the service.

The service was lovely and quite moving.  Below is a splendid account at The Lens, an online news service in New Orleans, of the service, along with a brief history of the Episcopal Church vis–à–vis slavery in Louisiana. Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefforts Schori presided and preached. I'm grateful I was able to be present. "What next?" is the question.

Painting by Laurie Justus Pace

Fast forward to the Christ Church sanctuary two Saturday’s ago. More than a few of us were brought to tears by Tyrone Chambers, a young, classically trained tenor, long a fixture at Trinity Episcopal Church and the Opera Creole, now pursuing his career in New York. The hymn he sang, building on a passage from the Gospel of John, was both a comfort — and a warning: There’s no evading God’s wide love. You can’t go over or under or around it.

Our history and our liturgy beg a question: What next? If the spirit really moved the 500 people who attended the service of atonement and reconciliation, what will come of it? The church was filled mostly with Episcopalians, though I saw many Catholic brothers and sisters. I also saw several unbelievers, an Episcopal deacon who had condemned the very idea of a racial-reconciliation service, and a fellow reporter who is Jewish. She mentioned to a friend that this was the first Christian service she had ever attended.

Please read the entire article.

The text of the sermon by Bishop Katharine is here.

The website of artist, Laurie Justus Pace, is here.

LONDON RIOTS NO KATRINA

 

From Matt Davis at The Lens:

After plenty of research, reporting and countless conversations on the riots in England, it is my considered opinion as a native Englishman with dual U.S. citizenship, that sometimes, weird things just happen, and that the riots in England were just that: weird.

I arrived back in Blighty on August 20 for a long-planned vacation, burdened with a question many Americans had asked me: What was with those riots, anyway? Somehow, the more people I asked, the more the question came to feel basically unanswerable.

That’s not to say there is no merit in the many theories being put forward. Some of them, anyway.

Case in point. On August 10, the British newspaper, The Independent, ran an editorial under the headline: “Britain has experienced its Katrina moment.” On the same day, a photograph of my hometown ran on page one of The Times-Picayune with the caption: “A building burns Tuesday in Croydon, South London.”

Matt is a transplant from South London, Croydon specificaly, who so far as I can ascertain, moved to the US, because his South London accent would never, ever be considered posh 'over there', but 'over here', any English accent sounds posh. (Just kidding!, and aren't we glad to 'ave 'im)

Matt continues:

I considered calling The Independent to ask why its editorial writers had chosen to diminish the experience of disaster victims in my adopted city with such a glib and ridiculous reference to Katrina. Yes, British Prime Minister David Cameron was lost in a Bush-like moment of political disengagement when the disaster struck. But what’s next? Describing a leaky dishwasher as a Katrina moment?

When Matt returned to Croydon, he walked the ruined areas with his high school friend, and they discussed the reasons for the rioting. Was it a race thing? Was it a class thing? Was it the have-nots getting back at the have-mores? In the end, he comes up short. The best he and his friend can come up with is 'weird'.

Matt tells of a conversation with 'a man in a suit' in Croydon:

“I think we’ve created an underclass,” the man said, when I asked him what he thought had happened. “There’s too many people without fathers, and there’s no structure. What bothers me is we have to spend taxpayer money to babysit these people to give them places to play, otherwise they do this.”

He was affable, perhaps a little conservative by English standards, but then his tone changed, and so did the look in his eyes.

“What we really need is a good war,” he said. “Send ’em all to the front and they’ll all get shot. The Nazis had the right idea.”

Oof! We have that kind over here, too.

I confess I'm intrigued by a South London transplant living and writing in and about my beloved city of New Orleans. I'm sure Matt has more than a few experiences of two countries divided by a common language and of misunderstandings due to cultural differences, as the wedding comparison story which he relates in his post demonstrates.

Read his entire post. I hope I have not gone beyond fair use. Sometimes I get carried away.

THE CIRCUS IS IN TOWN!

Click on the image for the larger view of the stars of the Republican circus.

Mark Mosely at The Lens has the scoop.

Before the 2011 Republican Leadership Conference opening event Thursday, a delegate began chatting with me about the conference. She explained that she was a “Mitt Romney girl.” She pointed to the photo of the former Massachusetts governor on the cover of the Liberty Today newspaper. Presidential candidate, U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn., also graced the May 2011 cover.

“Wouldn’t they make a good-looking ticket?” the delegate asked me in an eastern Pennsylvanian accent.

“Oh sure,” I agreed.

“Of course any of [the GOP nominees] would be better than the goofball we have in the White House now.” Then she leaned over and confessed: “I don’t like chocolate candy.”

The exchange took place in the morning and set the mood for Mark for the jollity that was to follow.

The afternoon session began no less awkwardly. Republican Party of Louisiana Chairman Roger Villere walked onstage in a white suit while “Fanfare for the Common Man” played. Villere asked everyone to rise for the Pledge of Allegiance, but no flag was on the stage or on the video screens. I’d brought a small flag and was about to offer it, but Villere quickly suggested that attendees could pledge allegiance to the tiny flag pin on his suit lapel.

As they say, you can't make this stuff up.

Roger Villere in his white (linen?) suit oozes Uptown New Orleans, and "common man" is not the first words that leap to mind when I think of Villere.

And no flag?!! How can this be?!! At most Republican gatherings, the stage is lined with more flags than you can count. Methinks someone or someones will pay a heavy price for the missing flags.

Read the rest of Mark's account. Imagine! He attended two circuses on one day.