The Transformation Of Bishop Charles Jenkins

From the Times-Picayune:

They are an unlikely pair, chatting up people on porch stoops in the poorer neighborhoods of New Orleans: Bishop Charles Jenkins, 57, the son of white, rural north Louisiana and pastor to 18,000 south Louisiana Episcopalians, and Jerome Smith, 69, black and rumpled, son of Treme, a former Freedom Rider from the civil rights movement.

Before Hurricane Katrina, in the days when Jenkins says he was focused more on the well-being of his predominantly white church than his predominantly black city, they might never have crossed paths.

But since Katrina, they have forged a relationship in which Jenkins, now deep into a profound personal and spiritual transformation, said he has come to love and rely on Smith.

Smith, a sometimes fiery activist in whom Jenkins sees a gentle soul, has become one of the bishop's principal guides into New Orleans' poor African-American culture, a landscape Jenkins said he previously glimpsed but did not understand.

"He's my mentor, you know," Jenkins said recently. "It is a good day whenever Jerome Smith comes by."

For days, I've been wanting to write about this story, but life intervened, along with the inauguration of a new president and vice-president. (Oh happy day!)

Through his own trauma and suffering and from viewing suffering and trauma all around him, Bishop Jenkins life was transformed. How often it is that through the most difficult times of our lives, the greatest changes take place, for good or for ill.

"I don't know if I'm on the right road, but I think I am," he said recently. "I know that God is with me on that road. And I hope than in trying to please him, I do. I'm searching for God. And also searching for myself."

I think of Thomas Merton's prayer:

The Living Spirit

My Lord God, I have no idea where I am going. I do not see the road ahead of me. I cannot know for certain where it will end.
Nor do I really know myself, and the fact that I think that I am following your will does not mean that I am actually doing so.
But I believe that the desire to please you does in fact please you.
And I hope that I have that desire in all that I am doing.
I hope that I will never do anything apart from that desire.
And I know that if I do this you will lead me by the right road though I may know nothing about it.
Therefore will I trust you always though I may seem to be lost and in the shadow of death.
I will not fear, for you are ever with me, and will never leave me to face my perils alone.

Most times, that's the best we can do.

Before the storm, "I thought Christianity and priesthood were primarily about the cult," Jenkins said. "And doing the actions correctly -- holding my fingers correctly at Mass, not wearing brown shoes when celebrating the Mass. That it was getting all those right.

"And I was missing the larger picture of the dignity of humanity and the world for whom Christ died."
....

Jenkins' transformation began two or three days after the storm as New Orleans filled with water and the plight of tens of thousands of stranded residents horrified the world.

Having evacuated from New Orleans, he was alone at a friend's house in Baton Rouge when the televised images of exhausted evacuees begging for help at the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center torched his soul, driving him to his knees in prayer.

What he saw, he says now, was not merely suffering blooming from decades of social and economic inequality. He saw sin itself: malignant, writhing evil, freshly troweled up from the soil of his very city; social sin, which, for all of his theological sensitivity, he had only dimly sensed.

It nearly broke him.

In the language of the Christian mystic St. John of the Cross, he entered his "dark night of the soul."

"I was overwhelmed. Absolutely. I knew that I did not have the mind or heart or spiritual depth to make an adequate response to what I saw happening to us," he said recently. "I began to weep. I moved toward despair."

After that trauma, Jenkins set out on what he and those close to him describe as a spiritual journey. As many do, it began with personal contrition.

Please, read the entire article. It's beautifully written and quite moving. I've probably gone beyond fair use, but I pray the Times-Picayune will indulge me. I make no profit from this blog, and my intention is to highlight Bishop Jenkins' transformation, Nolan's fine reporting, and the willingness of his newspaper to devote space to the story. Time after time, Bruce Nolan demonstrates what an excellent religion reporter can do. He does his homework in researching the background of the stories he reports, with the result that his reporting, especially in an in-depth article such as this, is as close to the truth as a reporter is likely to get.

UPDATE: I'm bumping this article up, because it's important to me, and I don't want it to be totally eclipsed by the inauguration celebrations.

Prayer Service At The National Cathedral

Here's the link to the National Prayer Service at Washington National Cathedral in DC, from the Episcopal Café.

Jim Naughton says:

Hi folks,

Just back from the National Prayer Service. The Rev. Dr. Sharon E. Watkins preached a heck of a sermon, but for me the high points of the morning were musical: the gently rocking harmonies of the Washington Performing Arts Society’s Children of the Gospel Choir (Annisse Murillo, soloist) singing He’s Got the Whole World in his Hands; the impassioned majesty of Amazing Grace as sung by Dr. Wintley Phipps, President of U. S. Dream Academy; and the sweet, serene tones of The Cathedral Choir whose version of America the Beautiful makes plain the profoundly prayerful essence of that song.

"My Country Tis Of Thee" - Aretha Franklin

I stole the idea of posting this version of the video from Mark Harris at Preludium for the same reason that he did, because of its sound quality. I love what Mark said about this still picture of president Obama during the performance:

About half way through there is this still picture that made me know why I believe President Obama is good for the country. He listens with his heart.

"Air And Simple Gifts"

Yo-Yo Ma, Itzhak Perlman, Anthony McGill and Gabriela Montero perform "Air and Simple Gifts" by John Williams at the inauguration ceremony.

A lovely moment.

Thanks to Ann.

Old Age

 

Thanks to Ann.

The Reverend Joseph Lowery - Benediction At The Inauguration Of President Obama

God of our weary years, God of our silent tears, thou, who has brought us thus far along the way, thou, who has by thy might led us into the light, keep us forever in the path we pray, lest our feet stray from the places, our God, where we met thee, lest our hearts drunk with the wine of the world, we forget thee.

Shadowed beneath thy hand, may we forever stand true to thee, oh God, and true to our native land.

We truly give thanks for the glorious experience we've shared this day.

We pray now, oh Lord, for your blessing upon thy servant Barack Obama, the 44th president of these United States, his family and his administration.

He has come to this high office at a low moment in the national, and indeed the global, fiscal climate. But because we know you got the whole world in your hands, we pray for not only our nation, but for the community of nations.

Our faith does not shrink though pressed by the flood of mortal ills.

For we know that, Lord, you are able and you're willing to work through faithful leadership to restore stability, mend our brokenness, heal our wounds, and deliver us from the exploitation of the poor, of the least of these, and from favoritism toward the rich, the elite of these.

We thank you for the empowering of thy servant, our 44th president, to inspire our nation to believe that yes we can work together to achieve a more perfect union.

And while we have sown the seeds of greed — the wind of greed and corruption, and even as we reap the whirlwind of social and economic disruption, we seek forgiveness and we come in a spirit of unity and solidarity to commit our support to our president by our willingness to make sacrifices, to respect your creation, to turn to each other and not on each other.

And now, Lord, in the complex arena of human relations, help us to make choices on the side of love, not hate; on the side of inclusion, not exclusion; tolerance, not intolerance.

And as we leave this mountain top, help us to hold on to the spirit of fellowship and the oneness of our family. Let us take that power back to our homes, our workplaces, our churches, our temples, our mosques, or wherever we seek your will.

Bless President Barack, First Lady Michelle. Look over our little angelic Sasha and Malia.

We go now to walk together as children, pledging that we won't get weary in the difficult days ahead. We know you will not leave us alone.

With your hands of power and your heart of love, help us then, now, Lord, to work for that day when nations shall not lift up sword against nation, when tanks will be beaten into tractors, when every man and every woman shall sit under his or her own vine and fig tree and none shall be afraid, when justice will roll down like waters and righteousness as a mighty stream.

Lord, in the memory of all the saints who from their labors rest, and in the joy of a new beginning, we ask you to help us work for that day when black will not be asked to get in back, when brown can stick around ... when yellow will be mellow ... when the red man can get ahead, man; and when white will embrace what is right. That all those who do justice and love mercy say Amen.

I loved the prayer when I heard it today, and I'm pleased to have the text.

Thanks to Tim at Tale Spin

Prayer For President Barack Obama

For the President of the United States and all in Civil Authority

O Lord our Governor, whose glory is in all the world: We commend this nation to thy merciful care, that, being guided by thy Providence, we may dwell secure in thy peace. Grant to the President of the United States and to all in authority, wisdom and strength to know and to do thy will. Fill them with the love of truth and righteousness, and make them ever mindful of their calling to serve this people in thy fear; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, world without end.

Amen.

(Book of Common Prayer, p. 820)

UPDATE: Photo from the new website.

It's Real! It Happened! It's A New Day!

For the first time in a long time, I felt strong stirrings of patriotism. For the first time in a long time, I felt pride in the leadership of my country. I cried during the singing of "My Country Tis Of Thee". I stood proudly and sang the national anthem.

And when this happens, when we allow freedom ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual:

"Free at last! Free at last!

Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!"

Martin Luther King - "I Have A Dream"

Hello, President Barack Obama!

Good-bye, Bush and gang.


Less than two hours left! Last night, Grandpère and I talked about what I post on my blog, and he became alarmed when he found out about some of what I've said. He said, "You know, what you say goes out to the world! The FBI will investigate you, and I could be in trouble, too." You know, guilt by association. I told him, "Hey! Tomorrow, I'm out of the woods. Bush missed his chance, and Obama won't begin his presidency by investigating an old lady."

A "Simple Mistake"

From Marc Amber at The Atlaantic:

Barack Obama's inaugural committee is taking for the blame for a scheduling miscue that left gay Episcopal Bishop Gene Robinson's prayer out of HBO's live broadcast of yesterday's inaugural megaconcert.
....

An inaugural committee aide calls it a "simple mistake."
....

Tomorrow, before an audience of 2 million people on the Mall, the inaugural committee will broadcast an edited version of the program on Jumboscreens that includes his prayer.

It was, the aide says, "[a]n honest, unfortunate mistake in executing the program that for which we take responsibility."

The team has apologized to Robinson.

All right, then. The outcry must have been great.

Is there a lesson here on pushback, once Obama takes office? We'll also need to let the Congress know that, although Obama is popular, the Congress is held in low esteem, and they'd best not put up roadblocks to change.

Thanks to Dennis for sending the link.

UPDATE: It's refreshing to see the inaugural committee take responsibility. A new day has dawned, indeed.

UPDATE 2: Go read Bishop Gene's account at his blog of his amazing Monday.