Greetings, Friends!
I have a short deadline this week so this will be brief but I didn’t want to lose the chance to share a video I saw the other day that adds another facet to last week’s story of Jonathan Daniels heroic act of selflessness. The Episcopal News Service ran the story of Ruby Sales traveling to Keene, N.H., to preach last Sunday in Jonathan Daniels’ home church, St James Episcopal Church. You will recall from last week’s blog that Ruby Sales is the woman whose life Daniels saved 50 years ago when he pushed her out of the way of the shotgun blast that took his life.
Sales, who has continued in her work for racial, social and economic justice questioned: “I wonder what Jonathan would make of a world where intimacy has been reduced to a virtual experience….The world that Jonathan imagined was a world of intimacy; it created a new intimacy, a stronger intimacy, a new union, a new marriage, between people who never would have met or sat down with each other.” Her sermon called on others, especially those in his congregation, to live out Daniels’ commitment for civil rights and connections between people.
You can watch the video of her visit here where you will also find the full text of the ENS article – http://episcopaldigitalnetwork.com/ens/2015/08/23/ruby-sales-preaches-in-jonathan-daniels-home-parish/
Here is the link to the agency with which Ruby Sales works, The SpiritHouse Project – http://www.spirithouseproject.org/
Joining Ms. Sales in Keene was also one of the seminarians who had traveled with Daniels in the spring of 1965, the Rev’d Judith Upham, who presented St James Church the Martyrs of the Movement Award. This award had been originally given in Daniels memory to St Paul’s Episcopal Church in Selma, Ala., but Rev’d Upham thought the award rightfully belonged in his home parish.
According to Ms. Sales, we have an “opportunity to play a critical role at a critical moment in America’s history.” Together, let’s take up that call!
Let us pray…
God and Father of all,
in your love
you made all the nations of the world
to be a family,
and your Son taught us to love one another.
Yet our world is riven apart
with prejudice, arrogance, and pride.
Help the different races
to love and understand one another better.
Increase among us sympathy,
tolerance, and goodwill,
that we may learn to appreciate the gifts
that other races bring to us,
and to see in all people
our brothers and sisters for whom Christ died.
Save us from jealousy, hatred, and fear,
and help us to live together
as members of one family at home in the world,
sons and daughters of one Father
who live in the liberty of the children of God;
through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Book of Common Order of the Church of Scotland
~ Judith Schellhammer, chair, Resolution Review Committee, Diocesan Council
