Jun 4, 2024 | #Stories, #Uncategorized
Article and icon by Communications Associate Elizabeth (Ellie) Simpson-Falck
This week, I spent time reflecting on Corpus Christi, a celebration that did not exist in my Evangelical upbringing. My church, Church of the Ascension in Chicago, observed the feast on Sunday, June 2, which we moved from May 30 so more folks could participate. Within the overlap of celebrating Corpus Christi and the month of Pride, I found myself overwhelmed with absolute wonder and love, knowing that I, as a queer person, was welcomed by Christ to the table.
My queerness, my spouse’s, and many of my friends would have been reason enough in many traditions (including the one I grew up in) to be excluded from the table. I would have been told to give up my queerness or repent of it, lest I drink damnation on myself. Or I would have been refused the bread and the cup altogether.
Yet, that is not what I hear in the words of Christ we read together on Sunday from John 6. I heard a call to believe, a call to eat the bread, Christ’s flesh. But no condemnation for being who we are.
Nor did I hear condemnation on the lips of the preacher, Mtr. Megan Murphy-Gill, who spoke on the unity that the sacrament draws us into. She said it much more beautifully than I: “All bodies are called to this table. Nobody is too young, too old, too fat, too thin, too black, too white, too brown. Nobody is too sick or too ill, too well, too gay, too straight, too trans, too binary, too feminine, too masculine. All bodies, ALL bodies, beloved and blessed by God’s body, the body of Christ, Corpus Christi. All bodies are called to receive and experience the unity of this most holy sacrament of the altar.”
To be in a tradition that not just welcomes, but calls all of us to take this bread and this cup every Sunday is deeply spiritually moving. To feel the call of Christ and know I can follow, more than that, that I am welcomed to follow Christ in this place. As Mtr. Murphy-Gill so aptly said, “Because, when you eat this bread and drink this cup, you let this holy sacrament shine its brilliant light not just on you, but IN you. You become a sign of that sacred unity of Christ’s body to everyone. Your body becomes a beacon of the light of Christ. Your life shines Christ’s light in all of the places and on all of the powers that would like to have their say as to whose body belongs and whose body doesn’t.”
As I reflected on the mystery of Christ in the blessed Bread and Wine we consume together, on the welcoming of each of us to take, eat, remember, and believe, I was struck with awe. Christ in the bread, Christ in the wine. A holy mystery. A life-transforming mystery.
I found the image of an icon in my mind, something I felt compelled to make. Something that drew together the lines of Christ’s welcoming countenance upon all who partake in these Holy Sacraments. An icon that would be a reminder that all bodies are welcome and belong at the table.
It was to be made in the style of a stained-glass window, an art form that adorns many of our churches. It was to recognize the mystery of Christ in the elements and show through bright and recognizable colors that all are indeed welcome to partake and be reminded of these holy, life-transformative mysteries: Christ has died, Christ has risen, and Christ will come again!
May 29, 2024 | #Stories, #Uncategorized
Story by Canon Debbie Low-Skinner
Canon Debbie attended the 129th Commencement ceremonies at Church Divinity School of the Pacific (CDSP) in Berkeley on Saturday, May 18th. This graduating class is the last of those attending only residential/in-person classes on campus. Starting this fall, all classes will be hybrid.
The ceremonies were presided over by Dr. Stephen Fowl, the new Dean and President (who will be officially installed on June 11th).
Of the eighteen Masters of Divinity degrees awarded, the following were given to DioCal persons in the ordination process: The Rev. Calvin Payne-Taylor, The Rev. Erin Wiens St. John, and John McLean Wolff.
The Rev. Dr. Fran Toy Prize for Multicultural Ministry at a Field Education Site was awarded to MDiv Graduate Margaret Stivers. She did her field ed at St. Michael’s Church in Riverside, CA, whose outreach center ministers to Indigenous and Spanish-speaking persons who are food and housing insecure.
In addition, CDSP awarded three honorary Doctor of Divinity degrees to the following:
- The Rev. Becca Stevens, who is a priest, Vanderbilt University chaplain, non-profit entrepreneur, and founder of Thistle Farms, which helps women survivors overcome and heal from systems of prostitution and exploitation.
- The Very Rev. Dr. W. Mark Richardson, who is the former Dean & President of CDSP and who helped facilitate the acquisition of the seminary by Trinity-Wall Street and helped establish the non-residential MDiv program.
- The Rt. Rev. Elizabeth (Betsy) Lockwood Hawley Monnot, who is the first woman Bishop of the Diocese of Iowa.
Here are highlights of the Commencement Address by the Rt. Rev. Elizabeth Lockwood Hawley Monnot (based on Matthew 14:22-33):
We are called to get out of the boat and come to Jesus. To risk without knowing where we will be going in 2, 4, or more years from now. It is not uncommon to be hurt by the Church and to experience fear, despair, doubts, and anger. We worry at times that the boat we’re in will capsize. And, somehow in our panic, Jesus doesn’t look the same as he used to. But, when we fear we are sinking, Jesus will reach out his arm to save us as he saved Peter. We are all disciples in that boat (that is, graduates, family, laity, clergy, everyone) who are called to do something we have never done before. Even to leave the boat and walk on the water. And Jesus Christ will be ever with us.
May 28, 2024 | #Stories
“I have been enslaved, yet my spirit is unbound.
I have been cast aside, but I sparkle in the darkness
I have been slain, but live on in the river of history.”
Pauli Murray
Most Americans know that the Juneteenth federal holiday commemorates June 19,1865 when the 250,000 slaves in Galveston, Texas finally learned they were free. General Order No. 3 stated:
The people of Texas are informed that, in accordance with a proclamation from the Executive of the United States, all slaves are free. This involves an absolute equality of personal rights and rights of property between former masters and slaves . . [1]
General Order 3 enacted the provisions of the Emancipation Proclamation signed by President Lincoln on January 1, 1863, two and a half years earlier and stated:
That on the first day of January, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, all persons held as slaves within any State or designated part of a State, the people whereof shall then be in rebellion against the United States, shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free; and the Executive Government of the United States, including the military and naval authority thereof, will recognize and maintain the freedom of such persons, and will do no act or acts to repress such persons, or any of them, in any efforts they may make for their actual freedom[2]
President Lincoln felt that the Emancipation Proclamation was an act of Justice and concluded the Proclamation with the following:
And upon this act, sincerely believed to be an act of justice, warranted by the Constitution, upon military necessity, I invoke the considerate judgment of mankind, and the gracious favor of Almighty God.[3]
Although Congress officially abolished the institution of slavery with the passage of the 13thAmendment in December 1865, enslavement of African American in a new form continued, particularly in the South, when former slave owners refused to pay slaves wages and forced former slaves off their land leaving them without food, shelter or wages or forced them into sharecropping or other forms of servitude. Erin Stewart Mauldin, a professor of history at the University of South Florida, St. Petersburg observes that “though slavery ends, the conditions for many changed very little initially.”[4]
In 1866, many formerly enslaved African American started to celebrate June 19th as Jubilee Day in Texas, California and many southern states. As the harsh realities and disillusionment of a post-slavery era of Jim Crow and Reconstruction made clear that freedom still had been obtained, the Juneteenth celebration started to wane. Noted historian John Hope Franklin stated in an article about Emancipation Proclamation – An Act of Justice that “It was also clear that neither the Reconstruction amendments nor the legislation and Executive orders of subsequent years had propelled African Americans much closer to real freedom and true equality. The physical violence, the wholesale disfranchisement, and the widespread degradation of blacks in every conceivable form merely demonstrated the resourcefulness and creativity of those white Americans who were determined to deny basic constitutional rights to their black brothers.”[5]
During the Civil Rights movement in the 1960s, there was a revival of the Juneteenth Celebrations as work to achieve true freedom, equality and inclusion progressed. In 1963 then Vice President Lydon B Johnson spoke about the need for progress when he said “Until justice is blind, until education is unaware of race, until opportunity is unconcerned with the color of men’s skins, emancipation will be a proclamation but not a fact.” [6] This sentiment was also echoed by John Hope Franklin when he stated that “the law itself is no longer an obstruction to justice and equality, but it is the people who live under the law who are themselves an obvious obstruction to justice. One can only hope that sooner rather than later we can all find the courage to live under the spirit of the Emancipation Proclamation and under the laws that flowed from its inspiration.”[7]
Why A Juneteenth Federal Holiday
I think Juneteenth tells a wonderful story. It’s a story of freedom. It happened two years after the Emancipation Proclamation, but it still set a pathway of freedom. Who are we as a nation, if you’re frightened about freedom and liberation and joy?
U.S. Representative Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Texas)
Many may wonder why we need a federal holiday to celebrate and reflect on the abolishment of slavery and African Americans being freed when the concept of enslaving a human being in the United States seems so foreign and a long-prohibited practices. Many people think of slavery as a horrific part of history that ended in the nineteenth century.
However, not as many people know that slavery, especially against African American and people of color, has continued under many different forms after the 13th amendment was enacted and remnants of slavery persist in society today. There is also a misconception that everyone in America enjoys freedom.
In 2012 the U.S. Department of State leveraged the Juneteenth holiday to release its Trafficking in Persons Report. Then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton noted “Today we are celebrating what’s called ‘Juneteenth’ … But the end of legal slavery in the United States, and in other countries around the world, has not, unfortunately, meant the end of slavery. It is estimated as many as 27 million people around the world are victims of modern slavery.”[8]
In 2019 it was estimated that in the US “more than 400,000 people could be living in ‘modern slavery’, a condition of servitude broadly defined in a new study as forced and state-imposed labor, sexual servitude and forced marriage.” [9] The majority of those who live in “modern slavery” today are people of color, predominately Black and Brown folks.[i][10]
The Importance of A Juneteenth Feast Day For Us,
As Christians and Episcopalians
There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free,
there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus.”
Galatians 3:28
In 2020 Diocesan Convention of California adopted a resolution instituting Juneteenth as a Diocesan Feast Day[11] and as a time of reflection, learning, self-assessment, and healing. As part of the background for the resolution , it stated that “Juneteenth celebrations have become a time when “peoples of all races, nationalities and religions are joining hands to truthfully acknowledge a period of our history that shaped and continues to influence our society today””.[12]
The resolution was recognition that the celebration of Juneteenth has deep and lasting meaning for the Black community but also all people of color as we continue to fight for justice and freedom in America. Juneteenth is an opportunity not only to celebrate this but also to speak out on the issue of freedom and justice for all.[13]
Additionally, the celebration of Juneteenth acknowledges the rise in racist and oppressive actions and behaviors that directly conflict with our beliefs and values as Christians. The Diocesan Feast Day brings attention to this issue. It also brings greater awareness to the precious meaning of freedom for all people and provides us, as Christians, an opportunity to show our support of freedom and work for change.
This year on Saturday, June 15th at 11:00 am, the Diocese of California will celebrate its third Juneteenth Feast Day at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Oakland. The Rt. Rev. Dr. Marc Andrus, Bishop, will be the Celebrant and The Rt. Rev. Austin Rios, Bishop Co-adjutor, will be the Preacher. The service is sponsored by the Afro-Anglican Commission of the Diocese and the Northern California Vivian Traylor Chapter of the Union of Black Episcopalians. All are welcomed to attend and a reception will follow.
A Juneteenth Feast Day is also now a part of the National Church calendar. At the General Convention of the Episcopal Church in 2022, the convention adopted resolution C-057A Resolution Regarding Inclusion of Juneteenth in Lesser Feasts & Fasts Calendar. As part of the information submitted to support the resolution the following statement was included: Slavery is rightly called “the Original Sin of the United States of America.” Though slavery was ended throughout all of the United States on December 6, 1865 with the ratification of the 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, the ongoing sin of systemic racism continues to this day. White people and white power structures, including The Episcopal Church, have benefitted from the institution of slavery. Black people continue to experience injustice in numerous ways. Slavery gave way to Jim Crow segregation, lynchings, redlining, mass incarceration, and police brutality, among many other forms of oppression. Though the Civil Rights movement of the 1960s brought about legislative reforms for Black citizens, inequity, injustice, and systemic racism continue. These are in stark contrast to the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It is incumbent on the Church and each Christian fully to realize and to embody our baptismal vow to “strive for justice and peace, respecting the dignity of every human being,” committing to the work of bringing about the Beloved Community for which God created us.[14]
Celebrating Juneteenth Feast Days is just another step in our journey to becoming Beloved Community and to truly live into our baptism covenant of seeking and serving Christ in all persons, respecting and loving our neighbors as ourselves.
“If the cruelties of slavery could not stop us, the opposition we now face will surely fail. Because the goal of America is freedom, abused and scorned tho’ we may be, our destiny is tied up with America’s destiny.”
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
[1] https://capitolhistory.org/capitol-history-blog/the-long-history-of-our-new-federal-holiday-juneteenth/
[2] https://www.archives.gov/exhibits/featured-documents/emancipation-proclamation/transcript.html
[3] Ditto
[4] https://capitolhistory.org/capitol-history-blog/the-long-history-of-our-new-federal-holiday-juneteenth
[5] https://www.archives.gov/publications/prologue/1993/summer/emancipation-proclamation.html
[6] Ditto
[7] Ditto
[8] What is Juneteenth by Henry Louis Gates, The Root, January 16, 2013
[9] Helmore, E. 2019 The Guardian: Over 400,000 people living in ‘modern slavery’ in US, report finds, viewed 8 August 2020, <https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/jul/19/us-modern-slavery-report-global-slavery-index
[10] Walk Free, Global Slavery Index, 2018 United States Report, viewed 8 August 2020, pp.2, 5 https://www.globalslaveryindex.org/2018/findings/country-studies/united-states/
[11]https://www.diocalconvention.org/wpcontent/uploads/2023/03/171st_Certified_Resolutions_Actions_Elections_2020.pdf pp 6
[12] Juneteenth.com organization, Have a Happy Juneteenth, viewed 8 August 2020, <https://www.juneteenth.com/
[13] Juneteenth.com organization, Have a Happy Juneteenth, viewed 8 August 2020, <https://www.juneteenth.com/
[14] https://2022.vbinder.net/resolutions/228/finalization?house=HD&lang=en
Jeanette Dinwiddie-Moore, Co- chair of the Northern California Vivan Traylor Chapter of UBE and member of the Afo Anglican Commission
Rev. Alberta Buller, Deacon and member of the Northern California Vivan Traylor Chapter of UBE
May 8, 2024 | #Stories
Story by the Rev. Canon Debbie Low-Skinner
Photos by Cn. Stephanie Martin Taylor and Cn. Debbie Low-Skinner
On Sunday, in the second of the two bishop double-header of visitations, our newly consecrated Bishop Coadjutor Austin Rios and our beloved Diocesan Bishop Marc Andrus made their official visit (which turned out to be a fiesta of all fiestas) on the Fifth Sunday in Easter/Cinco de Mayo in a bilingual Holy Eucharist at El Buen Pastor at St. Peter’s Episcopal Church in Redwood City.
Despite Saturday’s rains, it was a beautiful sunny Sunday afternoon, as the multi-generational members of both congregations gathered with the Rev Dr. Pamela Stevens, a Transitional Deacon, to welcome our bishops. Also in attendance were Bishop Austin’s spouse, Maleah Rios, and her parents from North Carolina; assisting clergy Archdeacon Nina Pickerrell and the Chaplain to Bishop Austin, the Rev. Will Bryant (from the Cathedral in the Diocese of Western North Carolina); Grace Cathedral Verger Tim Gee; the Rev. Monique Ortiz, Pastor of Santa Maria y Santa Marta Lutheran Church-San Francisco and the SF Night Ministry; retired El Buen Pastor Vicar, the Rev. Anna Lange-Soto; Canon for Diocesan Communications, Canon Stephanie Martin Taylor; Canon for Racial, Social, and Environmental Justice, the Very Rev. Canon Eric Metoyer; Canon to the Ordinary, the Rev. Cn. Debbie Low-Skinner; and Diocesan Communications Associate Ellie Simpson.
In addition, the sanctuary was filled with laity and clergy well-wishers from throughout DioCal. Congregations represented included Santiago/St. James, Oakland; St. Paul’s, Burlingame; Good Shepherd, Belmont; St. Edmund’s, Pacifica; St. Ambrose, Foster City; Epiphany, San Carlos; Holy Trinity, Menlo Park; St. Bede’s, Menlo Park; All Saints, San Leandro, St. Anne’s, Fremont; St. John the Evangelist, San Francisco; St. Luke’s, San Francisco; and St. Mary the Virgin, San Francisco.
Bishop Austin presided and offered the homily in Spanish. During the announcements, a series of blessings were offered: For Nancy Grandfield, who was celebrating her one-hundredth birthday and has long been cherished as an active participant at Epiphany, San Carlos, and in DioCal; For Deacon Pamela, an El Buen Pastor member, along with Manuel Morales, a new postulant; For two El Buen Pastor young women graduating from college and pursuing careers, respectively, in psychology and public health; For Deacon Pamela and a group from El Buen Pastor; who will be making a pilgrimage to a rural Indigenous community in Kaui; And for DioCal Communications Associate Ellie Simpson and Brother Angel Roque BSG, who were both traveling home, respectively, to Chicago and Austin, Texas, after working so hard in support of Bishop Austin’s bilingual consecration service.
After worship, the congregation was treated to a bountiful buffet of delicious Mexican food, a big chocolate cake, and lots of desserts. It was a fitting and festive celebration of our bishops, of many honored guests, and the calling of Deacon Pamela as Clergy-in-Charge of both St. Peter’s and El Buen Pastor.
May 8, 2024 | #Stories
Story by the Rev. Canon Debbie-Low Skinner, Canon to the Ordinary
Photos: Cn. Debbie and Cn. Stephanie Martin Taylor, Canon for Communications
Sunday, May 5 was a two Bishop double-header of visitations. In the morning, our newly consecrated Bishop Coadjutor, the Rt. Rev Austin Rios, and our beloved Diocesan Bishop, the Rt. Rev. Dr. Marc Andrus, made their official visit to Christ Church Sei Ko Kai in San Francisco, the church where I served as Vicar from 2016 to 2021 before becoming Canon to the Ordinary.
Despite Saturday’s rains, it was a beautiful sunny Sunday, as many Sei Ko Kai members—along with their adult children and grandchildren—enjoyed gathering in person (instead of their usual Zoom service) to worship and greet our two bishops as well as their long-term supply priest, my friend and seminary classmate, the Rev. Michael Dresbach. Also in attendance were spouses Maleah Rios and Mona Dresbach; assisting clergy Archdeacon Gary Wm England and Chaplain to Bishop Austin, the Rev. Will Bryant (from Diocese of Western North Carolina); and Canon for DiocesanCommunications, Canon Stephanie Martin Taylor.
Bishop Marc’s homily highlighted the spiritual gift of abiding. Abiding in faith and hope and constancy of presence as was shown by Jesus Christ’s disciples through the millennia and shown over the past 130 years by beloved members of Sei Ko Kai. (Fun fact: this was the home church of the Rev. David Ota, former rector of St. Ambrose, Foster City, and it was the former field ed site for now-Bishop Diana Akiyama of the Diocese of Oregon.)
During the announcements, I (as Chair of the DioCal Asian/Pacific Islander Commission) and parishioner Dr. Gayle Kawahara (Secretary of the Episcopal Asiamerican Ministry’s Executive Council) presented Bishop Marc with APIC’s farewell gift of $13,000 in donations towards the Andrus Youth Camp Scholarship Fund for the Bishop’s Ranch and St. Dorothy’s Rest, DioCal’s two camp and conference centers located in Sonoma County. The APIC is comprised of our four AAPI congregations: Sei Ko Kai, San Francisco: True Sunshine, San Francisco; Our Saviour, Oakland; and Sa Paula Tonga, Burlingame. It also includes AAPI clergy and laity throughout the diocese.
After worship, there was a group photo of the Bishops and the Bishop’s Committee. Then it was onwards to a sumptuous sushi and dim sum reception offered in the Social Hall. It was a beautiful celebration of abiding in fellowship and food and the warm welcome of our bishops and other honored guests. (Fun fact: a KQED reporter came during the reception to interview Bishop Austin. Click here to hear the story that aired in their newscasts Sunday evening and Monday morning.
A DioCal mission since the 1910s, Sei Ko Kai was founded in 1895 as a mission of Nippon Sei Ko Kai (i.e., the Anglican Church in Japan) to minister to Japanese immigrants who sought work in San Francisco during the Chinese Exclusion Act. Since then, the congregation has grown and flourished and been the spiritual home to generations of Japanese Americans and other ethnicities (though attendance was interrupted during WWII because many members were imprisoned in Topaz UT and other internment camps).
Apr 30, 2024 | #Stories
Story and photo by Cn. Debbie Low-Skinner
Canon Debbie had a delightful time preaching and presiding at the 8 a.m. and 10 a.m. Holy Eucharists at St. Stephen’s in Belvedere (my being there allowed the Rector, the Rev. Kyle Dice Seage, to attend the farewell celebrations that weekend for her husband, the Rt. Rev. Brian Seage, who is retiring as the Tenth Diocesan Bishop of Mississippi).
My homily explored what love—and ultimately the love of God—can cause us to do. I included lines from the song from “A Chorus Line”: where we “can’t forget, won’t regret, what (we) did for love.” Also, how (as in Freddy Mercury’s song “A Crazy Little Thing Called Love”) we can do crazy little things and big things that push us out of our comfort zones to accomplish some pretty amazing feats.
I gave as an example the life of an Anglican priest, the Rev. John Wesley, who had been depressed for some time by his failures in ministry. I described the pivotal moment in his life when he had an evangelical conversion experience during a Moravian prayer meeting on 24 May 1738. It was then, for the first time in his life, he fully felt the overwhelming love and salvation of Jesus Christ.
Thereafter, he went far and wide preaching the Good News inside and outside of church to people in public squares, the countryside, at their workplaces. In his zeal, he founded the Methodist movement within the Church of England. We see today, 200 years later, the lasting effects of what Wesley did for love of God. According to 2022 statistics, there are 5.4 million Methodists of various types in 30,000 churches, constituting 4% of the US population. (Compare this to 1.7 million Episcopalians constituting 1.2% of the US population.) Globally, there are 75 million Methodists in 130 countries (per Wikipedia).
So how can we do our crazy little bit to be the branches of love extending from the vine (i.e., the source of divine love) in Jesus Christ? I suggest we lovingly do for others as John Wesley exhorted:
“Do all the good you can, by all the means you can, in all the ways you can, in all the places you can, at all the times you can, to all the people you can, as long as you ever can.”
