The service at the Cathedral Church of Saint John the Divine was deeply moving and inspirational. “Let My People Go: A Service of Liberation” was organized by the Dioceses of Long Island, Newark, New Jersey, New York, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, and the Riverside Church. The first two and a half hours was filled with hymns, spirituals, dance, drumming, readings of both a dramatic and spiritual nature. Every performance was focused on the reason we all gathered: to mark the 200th anniversary of the abolition of the slave trade in the United States and what the Episcopal Church is doing to address its own role in slavery and the discrimination which has followed.
Sometime soon, I was told, the Diocese of New York will post on its website the incredible closing reading by the Right Reverend Catherine S. Roskam. Her words encapsulate the issues we face in the brokeness of relationships between black and white Americans as well as any statement I’ve ever encountered. I’ll do my best to remember to post it here, but you would be well served to check in the their website from time to time to find it yourself. You will be well-rewarded. (And whoever notices it before I do and e-mails me to remind me to post it here will get extra brownie-points; thanks).
It’s off to Bristol, Rhode Island in the morning…