And what a Christmas it is!  I offer this video greeting to all of you in this Diocese and beyond who follow.  I also offer three wonderful offerings sent to me by various people in my life that I think are worth sharing at this strange time we live through.  First is a video filmed on a rooftop near the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, with singers singing Drummer Boy in English, Arabic, and Italian.   Beautiful, and for those who have traveled there, with me and others, it is a good memory.   I am really missing the usual impending trip this year. 

Next is a little sermon from a Franciscan Friar, who talks some good sense on how to "use" this unique Advent and Christmas we are living through. 

And then, number three, from St. James' Kent, and the Rev. Dr. Joyce Parry-Moore, this video of the Nativity St. James' style, replete with faces of the newborn babies of 2020 from their congregation. 

And finally, my Merry Christmas wish for all of you.   Blessings to all of you.  Stay healthy, nothing can stop Christ coming into our world, into our lives, into our hearts. 

Dear People of the Diocese of Olympia and beyond,

At our most recent Diocesan Convention you overwhelmingly passed a resolution supporting the Anti-Racism Covenant put forth initially by the Rt. Rev. Deon Johnson, Bishop of Missouri, and co-sponsored by many other bishops.   My name has been on this covenant since just after its posting, however, I have now, on your behalf, added not just my name and office but the entire Diocese of Olympia.   I provide a link below which will take you to the official website for the Covenant where you can view those who have signed, and sign yourself.  More importantly, is to read it regularly, to use it as a rule of life right now, to study it in your congregations, and to hold it up as the ideal we are striving for.   My plan is to post this quarterly on this blog, and our diocesan website, to remind us as a community to continue to use it.  As I said at our convention, signing such documents, passing such resolutions, really is the easy part.   The difficult part, the part that will change this Church, this country, this world, is our following it, acting on it, living into it.  I offer it here as I vow to do just that personally.  

Blessings,

+Greg

You can read more about this Covenant, see the list of signers, and sign yourself here
https://antiracismcovenant.org/

Those who say, “I love God,” and hate their brothers or sisters are liars; for those who do not love a brother or sister whom they have seen, cannot love God whom they have not seen.”
1 John 4:20


The sin of racism disrupts the harmony and oneness that God intends for humanity. Racism is dangerous, divisive, and damaging. Racism purports that some are deserving of dignity over others and disregards the image and likeness of God found in every human being. We are created in the image of God; therefore, to engage in racism of any form is to refuse to acknowledge the image of God in the other and the stranger. The fact that we were created in the image of God should remind us that each person is a living expression of God that must be respected, preserved, and never dishonored.

Throughout our history, courageous people of God have taken the risk of standing up and speaking out for the least and the lowest. God now challenges us to become courageous people who seek to create sacred communities of hope by dismantling the sin of racism. This work involves risking ourselves for the sake of God’s love, moving beyond ourselves in order to seek and serve Christ and one another.

We invite you to add your name to this covenant and join us as we work to root out racism. Individuals, parishes, groups, dioceses as well as community leaders and businesses are all welcome to be a part of this project. 

We lament…As people of faith, we acknowledge our sins and our failure to respect the dignity of every human being. We have, individually and corporately, fallen short of the glory of God, and now call to mind and name the aspects of our lament.

• We lament the Church’s role in the subjugation, enslavement and genocide of societies of indigenous peoples, including Native Americans and Pacific Islanders.
• We lament the Church’s role in profiting from the selling, trading and genocide of people of African descent and the lasting effects of the peculiar trade present with us today.
• We lament the Church’s complicity-by-silence in the commoditization, dehumanization and belittling of peoples brought to this country to toil in brutal labor, including Latinx people, Asians, Pacific Islanders and other immigrant and undocumented populations.
• We lament the church’s complicity in failing to honor the language, culture and civil rights of Latinx people, both American citizens and those from other countries.
• We lament the places in which we have been spectators and participants in the public and private lynching of people of African descent.
• We lament the Church’s lack of moral courage to stand with and on the side of the poor, the marginalized and the oppressed.
• We lament the systems of white supremacy, white exceptionalism and white privilege present in the Church that have condoned people – particularly people of African descent – being viewed as less, inferior or unworthy rather than as beloved children of God, made in the image of the Divine.
• We lament the ways in which the stories of People of Color have been diminished or erased from the histories of our churches, institutions and communities of faith.
• We lament the collusion of the Church with systems that directly and indirectly promote racism, oppression, segregation and disenfranchisement.
• We lament the willful blindness of Christian leadership in promoting and advocating for systems of over-policing, the militarization of the police, mass incarceration, school-to-prison pipelines, poverty and violence.
• We lament the resounding silence and the crippling fear that often infects the Church in matters of racial reconciliation and social justice.
• We lament…  (additional context and specific acts may be added).

We covenant…As people of faith, we are called to “love the Lord our God with all our heart, and with all our soul and with all our mind and to love our neighbors as ourselves.” Recognizing the places in which the church and people of faith have fallen short of God’s love, particularly in the legacy of racism and white supremacy, we seek to amend our lives to more fully reflect God’s dream of Beloved Community.

• We covenant to re-examine the history of our communities of faith and institutions to, in tangible ways, acknowledge racist legacies and to recognize, remember and retell the stories of Native American, enslaved persons and other People of Color, whose labor contributed to white privilege.
• We covenant to engage our communities of faith, staffs, colleagues and experts in critical discourse that propels us forward.
• We covenant to devise and implement standards, policies and programs that make our commitment to diversity and inclusion a visible reality.
• We covenant to invest in local businesses that are owned and operated by People of Color and underrepresented populations.
• We covenant to listen to and to validate the stories, experiences and feelings of People of Color as companions along the journey, valuing those experiences as being sacred.
• We covenant to adopt an intersectional approach in all aspects of our common life, remembering that all forms of oppression are connected.
• We covenant to financially support the important work of Historically Black Colleges and Universities.
• We covenant to work towards the dismantling of the school-to-prison pipeline and other systems of institutional oppression.
• We covenant to stand up and speak out against everyday micro and macro acts of oppression or aggression.
• We covenant to struggle and speak out against denial of civil liberties and voter suppression.
• We covenant to educate ourselves, and share with others, the many places where our privilege blinds us from being compassionate to others.
• We covenant to call out bigotry and hate speech in all aspects of our common life.
• We covenant to gather with others, including faith leaders and decision makers, at all levels of the church to ask the hard questions:
  • Does the leadership of our institution reflect the diversity of those we serve?
  • Are the many faces of the diverse body of Christ represented in decision-making processes?
  • How are we inviting and forming leaders?
  • Who is missing around the table?
  • Whose untold story do we need to hear?
• We covenant that in our corporate worship and other activities of our communities, to intentionally cultivate welcome, hospitality and participation for people of all cultures, ethnicities and backgrounds, and to include their rich musical and liturgical offerings in worship.
• We covenant to invite all members of our faith communities to reflect about and seek a better understanding of racism and privilege.
• We covenant to preach about and pray together for an end to racism and white supremacy, not to bring down people of European descent, but to lift all others up.
• We covenant to join with local community organizations in working for racial justice.
• We covenant to… (additional context and specific acts may be added).

​

Dear Ones,
I give thanks to the Rev. Sally Carlson for reminding me of the prayer above.  We are just a few hours away from one of the most important elections in our countries' history.  More than that, perhaps also one of the most contentious and divided we have ever had.    I will not belabor this.  You all have heard, as we all have, far too many words, and so many of them not really that edifying or helpful.  Whatever the outcome on Tuesday, I pray that we, our collective, our Body, will be who we are called to be, compelled to be, by the Gospel and Way of the One we follow, Jesus Christ.   Let our responses, our reactions, our behaviors, our words, reflect that One.  Beyond the ideas, the ideologies, the strongly held philosophies and opinions, may we be reminded of the importance of our care for one another, and that we, our bond together as humans, is far more important and must be our prime priority in the days ahead.

Here you can find the text of the Presiding Bishop's Sermon from the Holding on to Hope: A National Service for Healing and Wholeness.  The sermon is entitled, "Our Values Matter"   You can watch it by video here.

Blessings,

+Greg

“We welcome our white brothers and sisters in this struggle. In fact, we need them. But I must ask them to remain humbly attuned to the opportunity of this moment — and to reflect on whether any actions they take will truly help establish justice, or whether they are simply for show”. (E.D. Mondainé, President of the Portland, Ore., branch of the NAACP)

“Our fight is our fight. Their privilege can amplify the message, but they can never speak for us,” .........“There have been moments where some (white people) have wanted to be in the front. I’ve told them to go to the back.” (Anthony Beckford, president of Black Lives Matter Brooklyn)

I am a white person. To be exact, I am a white, heterosexual, cisgender, male from the South. I am writing this to and for white people. I believe I am a recovering racist, although it took me a long time to get to that belief about myself. I now believe I have benefited from my whiteness through white privilege, which I do believe is a real thing, and I have worked hard to lay down my earlier white fragility, which I also believe in, and realize just how “fragile” I was long before I even knew this term.   As in any recovery, I still have bouts of fragility, and I still stray toward racist thoughts. I am a work in progress on this and always will be.   I believe I have a lot of blind spots, and more to still learn than what I know now. I have been asked, throughout the years, to share a bit about my journey with all of this and when I do I always make it clear, that these are my beliefs and thoughts. You, will have to find your own. I have ideas how you might get closer to it, but I have come to know it will happen, if at all, in many and varied ways depending on your history, your experience, and probably your personality and even the moment.  And it also depends on whether you believe you have work to do yourself: in short, if you believe you are part of the problem, and not just a witness to it.  Many things have to come together, at the right time, to have some of our blindness cleared.  For me, it happened at the hands and care of the Rev. CT Vivian, now and always a hero of mine. And this hero of mine died on the exact same day another hero died, John Lewis. It is remarkable really. They marched together, were arrested together, worked together with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr and then died together, on the same day.

Vivian spent one day with me, some 25 years ago, that changed my life forever. I would like to say it made it easier, but actually it made it all more difficult. His approach was a very combative one, a bullying one really, an approach that would not work for everyone, but it did for me. I believe many things have to come together for this conversion to occur, and it requires a lot of individual work for each of us for that to happen.
And so, I write, to my fellow white people, with a real concern. I am concerned about how we, often meaning well, and often unconsciously, sabotage any movement toward racial justice and equality, or at least slow it down, by creatively making it somehow, eventually about ourselves. I call it the “who is the best white person contest”.  It has many different manifestations but the usual symptoms are a distracting focus and attention on which message is the best, or which method to “awaken” white people is the best, and even attacks on others who are not as enlightened as the one writing. In short, arguing amongst ourselves about who is most “woke” even when half those speaking don’t even know what “woke” means. This all concerns me because it takes away our energy from listening to the voices we need to be listening to in this moment, the people of color, people who have lived the expense and cost of white privilege, white supremacy, and white fragility, who know its full power and import and damage.  Don't get me wrong, it is OUR problem.  Racism is a white problem, that people of color suffer at the hands of.  We can't expect people of color to solve our problem.  But, we also have to know, and even more believe, there is a problem, and that we are part of it, if WE are going to be able to remedy it. 

I think one reason this happens is that we white people are so quick to start rationalizing that “I am not a bad one, I am a good person”. It seems more important to defend ourselves than it is to just listen, absorb, acknowledge, contemplate, accept.  In a sense, we should make it about ourselves, but only in the sense of owning our part in it, and then listening and learning from those who suffer from it.

I am trying hard to listen, especially in this moment. I inhabit an office that calls on me to speak out but I am trying to be very careful with that right now, which I can be equally criticized for, but this time, I’ll take it.  I am going to speak out, and I have it in me to do so, as most of you are aware. But, I am trying to listen far more, and talk far less.

If you spend some time with this you can find my concern in some of those BIPOC leaders of the movement. I found such a voice in the President of the Portland NAACP, quoted above,  who wrote in the Washington Post about his lament that white people seem to have an ability to take just about any justice movement and make it about ourselves, or at least globalize it, as with the dreaded “All Lives Matter” reply.  “All Lives Matter” is a quick, mostly white way, to try to stop the discussion. I very much believe, in the Kingdom of God, and/or in the peaceful and equal world many of us dream of, that “All Lives Matter”. That is the truth of God’s realm, of the world Jesus spoke of and dreamt of, BUT, “Black Lives Matter” are three pointed words stating that this ideal is not true, and does not exist here.  Yes, it should be our goal, but we are never going to be able to simply jump over the needed difficult and challenging conversations by simply stating what should be true, but isn’t.  Instead I am urging you to acknowledge that we are not there and then to do the hard work of listening to the real time experiences of BIPOC that reveal the reality that we are nowhere close to this being the lived truth in our society, and in our Church.

White people, I believe we can get there, but I don’t believe we can do that without doing some real work, individually and corporately, all of us. One first step is to end this form of denial and minimization, this form of sabotage, that being, spending so much of our energy trying to figure out which one of us is the best, and more on bringing others along. This is an individual challenge for each of us, and a communal one for all of us.

What is the value of the life of a black man in this country?

George Floyd went to Cup Foods on Chicago street in Minneapolis on Memorial Day to purchase a pack of Menthol cigarettes. He paid for the cigarettes with a $20 bill which, after he left, was discovered to be counterfeit. Of course, no one knows if Floyd even knew it was counterfeit. Police were called by the young clerk. In a matter of minutes George Floyd was dead.

The standard cost of a pack of cigarettes with tax in MN is $ 8.10. So one might say that the answer to the question of what is the value of the life of a black man: $ 8.10.

And now, you can add yet another name, another face, another tragedy to the ever growing list of victims of police brutality and violence, most especially people of color, and most especially black men. George Floyd was from the predominantly African-American Third Ward of Houston. He was known as “Big Floyd”, a gentle giant, and a man of faith. He was considered an elder statesman and a community leader in the Third Ward. More than all of that, he was a human being, and a child of God.

He had moved to Minnesota in 2018, and I can tell you that is not easy for anyone from Texas to do, especially when one is a loved as he was by that community. Floyd went however, to be part of a Christian work program. And when this latest video went viral, as with so many other times this has happened, we began to hear of others, most likely where the local authorities had success in keeping the brutality out of the press. Breonna Taylor is such a name. An emergency room technician in Louisville who was simply sleeping with her fiancé in her home when police batter rammed her house, and shot her at least 8 times. The police were allowed to enter on what is known as a “no knock” warrant which had been issued by a judge. The police in this case were casing a house where they believed drugs were being sold. They decided to add the address of Taylor because they believed one of the men they were after had used that address at one time. That one suspicion, that one “notion” turned deadly for her.

Rightfully, many of our fellow citizens took to the streets to protest, and the vast majority intended, and did in fact, protest peacefully. Sadly, today, in our Seattle streets, but also in streets all over our country, the protests have turned violent. In Minnesota, the mayors of both St. Paul, and Minneapolis, have publicly stated all those arrested last night in their cities were from other states, using this event to seek their own gain, capitalizing on this tragedy to make peaceful protesters the culprits. I hope you don’t fall for it.

All of that is sad, but ultimately it also misses the point. We, together, must work to change the ease at which George Floyd and Breonna Taylor and the ever growing list we do know and the so many we will never know, can be so easily and so senselessly murdered by those trained and paid to protect us all.

Today, our Presiding Bishop said this:

Perhaps the deeper pain is the fact that this was not an isolated incident. It happened to Breonna Taylor on March 13 in Kentucky. It happened to Ahmaud Arbery on February 23 in Georgia. Racial terror in this form occurred when I was a teenager growing up black in Buffalo, New York. It extends back to the lynching of Emmett Till in 1955 and well before that. It’s not just our present or our history. It is part of the fabric of American life.

He goes on to say, when all the TV cameras are gone, we have to stay fixed on these issues. And how many times have we all said that?

Thoughts and Prayers are good, but they do not change us. Peaceful protests are good, but they do not change us.

Finally, I want to say, the people that most HAVE to work on this, is my tribe, white people. We are the ones that have to consciously, intentionally, purposefully decide to be present, long after the cameras are gone, long after George Floyd and Brionna and Ahmaud are yesterday’s news. Their senseless deaths have to stay fresh for us.   Then, we need to work on ourselves. We have to go to the difficult places inside ourselves, and find the racism and prejudice that reside in us.  We have to learn more about that, so we can change ourselves. If we keep lulling ourselves into believing we are not part of the problem, it is going to be difficult to be part of the solution. Our privilege, our comfort, our unequal protection by the authorities is part of the problem. We need to use the privilege to change the balance.

Several years ago we put a lot of effort, in this diocese, to begin administering the Intercultural Development Inventory. Although, because this is certainly not a quick fix, and because this requires ongoing work, we have had some push back, and criticism. That usually comes because we all want the quick fix. By now we ought to know those are hard to come by. A couple hours in a class is not going to change this. Knowing the right words to use will not change this. This is very long term work. This is work for you to do on.....YOU, and the point of the work is to “develop” to evolve, to learn and grow.

My Anglo siblings, WE, most especially, need to do this work. I can tell you, my own work with this inventory has been transforming. Because of it, I can also tell you I have a long way to go. But I am working on it. Join me. We have to change this for the generations to come.
I end with our Presiding Bishop’s wise words,

Opening and changing hearts does not happen overnight. The Christian race is not a sprint; it is a marathon. Our prayers and our work for justice, healing and truth-telling must be unceasing. Let us recommit ourselves to following in the footsteps of Jesus, the way that leads to healing, justice and love.

I also want to pass along the invitation from the Union of Black Episcopalians, a group in which I am a life member, and a group that has taught me so much on this issue, and a prayer vigil via Zoom in which they are inviting all to attend.

You can read the entire post by the Most Rev. Michael Curry, Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church here.

What is the value of the life of a black man in this country?

George Floyd went to Cup Foods on Chicago street in Minneapolis on Memorial Day to purchase a pack of Menthol cigarettes. He paid for the cigarettes with a $20 bill which, after he left, was discovered to be counterfeit. Of course, no one knows if Floyd even knew it was counterfeit. Police were called by the young clerk. In a matter of minutes George Floyd was dead.

The standard cost of a pack of cigarettes with tax in MN is $ 8.10. So one might say that the answer to the question of what is the value of the life of a black man: $ 8.10.

And now, you can add yet another name, another face, another tragedy to the ever growing list of victims of police brutality and violence, most especially people of color, and most especially black men. George Floyd was from the predominantly African-American Third Ward of Houston. He was known as “Big Floyd”, a gentle giant, and a man of faith. He was considered an elder statesman and a community leader in the Third Ward. More than all of that, he was a human being, and a child of God.

He had moved to Minnesota in 2018, and I can tell you that is not easy for anyone from Texas to do, especially when one is a loved as he was by that community. Floyd went however, to be part of a Christian work program. And when this latest video went viral, as with so many other times this has happened, we began to hear of others, most likely where the local authorities had success in keeping the brutality out of the press. Breonna Taylor is such a name. An emergency room technician in Louisville who was simply sleeping with her fiancé in her home when police batter rammed her house, and shot her at least 8 times. The police were allowed to enter on what is known as a “no knock” warrant which had been issued by a judge. The police in this case were casing a house where they believed drugs were being sold. They decided to add the address of Taylor because they believed one of the men they were after had used that address at one time. That one suspicion, that one “notion” turned deadly for her.

Rightfully, many of our fellow citizens took to the streets to protest, and the vast majority intended, and did in fact, protest peacefully. Sadly, today, in our Seattle streets, but also in streets all over our country, the protests have turned violent. In Minnesota, the mayors of both St. Paul, and Minneapolis, have publicly stated all those arrested last night in their cities were from other states, using this event to seek their own gain, capitalizing on this tragedy to make peaceful protesters the culprits. I hope you don’t fall for it.

All of that is sad, but ultimately it also misses the point. We, together, must work to change the ease at which George Floyd and Breonna Taylor and the ever growing list we do know and the so many we will never know, can be so easily and so senselessly murdered by those trained and paid to protect us all.

Today, our Presiding Bishop said this:

Perhaps the deeper pain is the fact that this was not an isolated incident. It happened to Breonna Taylor on March 13 in Kentucky. It happened to Ahmaud Arbery on February 23 in Georgia. Racial terror in this form occurred when I was a teenager growing up black in Buffalo, New York. It extends back to the lynching of Emmett Till in 1955 and well before that. It’s not just our present or our history. It is part of the fabric of American life.

He goes on to say, when all the TV cameras are gone, we have to stay fixed on these issues. And how many times have we all said that?

Thoughts and Prayers are good, but they do not change us. Peaceful protests are good, but they do not change us.

Finally, I want to say, the people that most HAVE to work on this, is my tribe, white people. We are the ones that have to consciously, intentionally, purposefully decide to be present, long after the cameras are gone, long after George Floyd and Brionna and Ahmaud are yesterday’s news. Their senseless deaths have to stay fresh for us.   Then, we need to work on ourselves. We have to go to the difficult places inside ourselves, and find the racism and prejudice that reside in us.  We have to learn more about that, so we can change ourselves. If we keep lulling ourselves into believing we are not part of the problem, it is going to be difficult to be part of the solution. Our privilege, our comfort, our unequal protection by the authorities is part of the problem. We need to use the privilege to change the balance.

Several years ago we put a lot of effort, in this diocese, to begin administering the Intercultural Development Inventory. Although, because this is certainly not a quick fix, and because this requires ongoing work, we have had some push back, and criticism. That usually comes because we all want the quick fix. By now we ought to know those are hard to come by. A couple hours in a class is not going to change this. Knowing the right words to use will not change this. This is very long term work. This is work for you to do on.....YOU, and the point of the work is to “develop” to evolve, to learn and grow.

My Anglo siblings, WE, most especially, need to do this work. I can tell you, my own work with this inventory has been transforming. Because of it, I can also tell you I have a long way to go. But I am working on it. Join me. We have to change this for the generations to come.
I end with our Presiding Bishop’s wise words,

Opening and changing hearts does not happen overnight. The Christian race is not a sprint; it is a marathon. Our prayers and our work for justice, healing and truth-telling must be unceasing. Let us recommit ourselves to following in the footsteps of Jesus, the way that leads to healing, justice and love.

I also want to pass along the invitation from the Union of Black Episcopalians, a group in which I am a life member, and a group that has taught me so much on this issue, and a prayer vigil via Zoom in which they are inviting all to attend.

You can read the entire post by the Most Rev. Michael Curry, Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church here.

What: Prayer Vigil for Racial Justice and the Healing of our Nation

When: Sunday, May 31, 2020

4:00 PM to 5:00 PM Eastern Time (US and Canada)
How to Join Zoom Meeting:

https://zoom.us/j/92143196842?pwd=QmxmaXZaakNFSUpnQm1jT1I3T1ZOZz09

Meeting ID: 921 4319 6842
Password: 476808
One tap mobile
+16468769923,,92143196842#,,1#,476808# US (New York)
+13017158592,,92143196842#,,1#,476808# US (Germantown)


Dial by your location
+1 646 876 9923 US (New York)
+1 301 715 8592 US (Germantown)
+1 312 626 6799 US (Chicago)
+1 669 900 6833 US (San Jose)
+1 253 215 8782 US (Tacoma)
+1 346 248 7799 US (Houston)
877 853 5257 US Toll-free
888 475 4499 US Toll-free
Meeting ID: 921 4319 6842
Password: 476808
Find your local number: https://zoom.