From Brooklyn-In the wake of riots and a murder in Virginia related to the removal of Confederate monuments, the Episcopal church this morning removed two plaques honoring Confederate general Robert E. Lee on church property in Bay Ridge.
“I think it is the responsible thing for us to do,” Bishop Lawrence Provenzano told Newsday. “People for whom the Civil War is such a critical moment — and particularly the descendants of former slaves — shouldn’t walk past what they believe is a church building and see a monument to a Confederate general.”
The plaques commemorated a spot where, according to legend, Lee planted a tree while he was stationed at Fort Hamilton as a member of the Army Corps of Engineers during the 1840s, before he became a Confederate military leader. He was a vestryman at the congregation of St. John’s Episcopal Church, located at 9818 Fort Hamilton Parkway near the army base.
The church is known as “the Church of the Generals,” because of all the military men who have worshipped there. By curious coincidence, another Confederate general, Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson, was baptized there.
More here-
http://www.brownstoner.com/brooklyn-life/robert-e-lee-brooklyn-st-johns-church-bay-ridge-fort-hamilton/
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