How One Deep South Church Left Segregation Behind

From Mississippi-


Elbert McGowan grew up five minutes from Trinity Presbyterian Church on the north side of Jackson, Mississippi. He passed by it daily. Never once did it cross his mind that one day he’d end up the pastor in that building. In fact, he never even considered entering the door.

That’s because the church was exclusively white, and McGowan is black.

Trinity was born in 1950, one year before 13 parents in Topeka filed what would become Brown v. Board of Education and five years before Rosa Parks would refuse to give up her bus seat. Many leaders of what would become the Presbyterian Church in America (PCA) barred blacks from membership, defended white supremacist organizations, and taught that the Bible opposed interracial marriage and supported segregation.
The past is ugly, so much so that the PCA confessed and apologized for the actions of its leaders even though the denomination wasn’t formed until nine years after the 1964 Civil Rights Act.


More here-

https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/how-one-deep-south-church-left-segregation-behind

Organized religion does a lot of good for the needy

From Mississippi-

I sometimes hear folks argue that organized religion does no good. Religion has started wars they say, and witch-hunts, The Inquisition, all in the name of God.

Some of that’s true, but religion has also started hospitals, schools and homeless shelters. Believing that organized religion still does much good, I recently embarked on a three state speaking itinerary in search of that good.

snip

The next day, Chaplain Tom Baker of Baxter Regional Medical Center had me speak to a packed hospital auditorium. After delivering a speech about battlefield trauma ministry, I toured the hospital floors where Baker provides pastoral care to nearly 220 patients (a population served by five chaplains at my hospital).

This middle-aged Episcopal priest also DJ’s at a pizza party every Friday night for 200 teens come to dance and hang out – even with retired adults. Baker says it’s “a safe place where ‘church’ isn’t all about recruitment. It’s about love.”

http://www.hattiesburgamerican.com/story/life/faith/2014/09/17/norris-burkes-september/15797157/

State of Racism in America: Much progress, much work remains

From ENS-

Racism is ingrained in U.S. culture and, despite substantial progress, Americans must remain vigilant about their tendencies to exclude those they define as “the other,” agreed participants in the Nov. 15 opening session of “Fifty Years Later: The State of Racism in America,” a two-day gathering sponsored by the Episcopal Church and the Diocese of Mississippi.

Human history has seen a “lurching expansion” of the categories that previous generations used to define and then exclude, Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori said in her keynote address.
“There is good news in the increased crossing of old boundaries; there is hope in the shrinking ability of younger generations to recognize those boundaries,” she said. “Yet continued vigilance is required, beginning with our own interior lives.”

How, she asked, does one encounter a stranger and make assumptions that influence how one decides to interact with the person?

More here-

http://episcopaldigitalnetwork.com/ens/2013/11/15/state-of-racism-in-america-much-progress-much-work-remains/

The night in 1962 that shook the state and nation

From Mississippi-

The Rt. Rev. Duncan Gray Jr., retired Episcopal bishop of Mississippi and then-rector of St. Peter's Episcopal Church, was one of the only white clergymen in Oxford to openly support integration. He had gone to a friend's house to watch President Kennedy on TV.

"Just as soon as his speech was over, the network announced that a riot had broken out at the University of Mississippi and that two people had been killed," Gray recalled. "We got real concerned that Jim Silver (Ole Miss history professor and author of "Mississippi: The Closed Society") was one of them, knowing that he was out there."

Gray and two faculty friends went to campus and found the riot fully involved. They urged students to leave. Gray saw Gen. Edwin Walker, who had led the troops enforcing integration in Little Rock and who had retired to oppose integration, leading one portion of the mob near Ventress Hall. Gray climbed up on the Confederate statue to get his attention.

"I pled with him, 'Please, General Walker, ask them to stop all this,'" Gray said. "He turned and said, 'You make me ashamed to be an Episcopalian.'" Several people pulled Gray off the statue, but others rescued him as the mob headed into the Circle.

More here-

http://djournal.com/view/full_story/20319208/article-The-night-in-1962-that-shook-the-state-and-nation?instance=popular

Casual Churches: The Rise Of Informal Worship Places

From Huffington ans RNS-

Ron Williams is the pastor of Church at the GYM in Sanford, Fla. As the Baptist church's name implies, Williams' congregation meets, well, in a gym.

Williams said the goal is to remove the "stained-glass barriers" for people who might not be comfortable in traditional church settings.

"I think all the trappings of traditional religion can make it difficult for people to start coming," he said. "You can invite someone, and they will say, 'I don't have any clothes to wear to church.'"

To make people feel more comfortable, Williams wears jeans. In the warm Florida climate, some members wear shorts. Other clothing types, from urban wear to biker gear, also are welcome.

Sanford native Sandy Adcox, 38, had not been to church in 18 years before she attended Church at the GYM last March. She hasn't missed a service since.

"I've never in my life felt more comfortable in a church," she said. "It's so warm and welcoming."

More here-

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/02/14/casual-churches-informal-worship-places_n_1274567.html

Rev. John Crocker Jr., 88; activist, college chaplain

From Boston-

Joining 14 other Episcopal clergy, both black and white, the Rev. John Crocker Jr. stepped into the segregated restaurant of a Jackson, Miss., bus station in September 1961. Traveling by bus on a civil rights prayer pilgrimage, the group’s journey quickly detoured into a Jackson jail for several nights.

“We were these little conservative Episcopal clergymen with round collars on, and we were the least revolutionary people you could imagine,’’ Rev. Crocker recalled in an interview for Eric Etheridge’s book, “Breach of Peace: Portraits of the 1961 Freedom Riders.’’

Local police thought otherwise and had been arresting Freedom Riders who tested the resolve of the segregated South by trying to integrate public places. Refusing orders to leave the restaurant, the clergymen were arrested on breach of peace charges.

“Jackson officials and police asked us: ‘Why did you come down here to mess us up? You’re New Englanders,’ ’’ Rev. Crocker said in the book interview. “ ‘Well, I’m sorry,’ I said. ‘I thought I was an American first.’ ’’

More here-

http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2012/01/06/rev_john_crocker_jr_88_social_justice_activist_while_a_chaplain_at_brown_and_mit/

Church should be a safe place for kids

From Mississippi-

Rachel Misener's church ran a background check on her when she became a vacation Bible school leader.

Offended? Nope.

She appreciated that St. Andrew's Episcopal Cathedral had policies in place to safeguard children against potential predators - an approach she believes all places of worship should take.

"At St. Andrews, they have so many different things in place that help protect the children," said Misener, the mother of Jude, 4, and Hazel, 1. "We feel very safe to allow our children to go to events at church where we might not be the parents supervising.

"There's even background checks done on people who help volunteer with the youth. I feel like our church covers all the bases."

More here-

http://www.clarionledger.com/article/20110917/FEAT04/109170315/Church-should-safe-place-kids?odyssey=mod%7Cnewswell%7Ctext%7CHome%7Cp

'And One Was a Priest: The Life and Times of Duncan M. Gray Jr.'

From ENS-

Gray is best known as the man who stood up to racists in Mississippi in the 1950s and '60s, and he well deserves that renown. I first got to know Gray when he was my rector at St. Peter's Episcopal Church in Oxford, where we lived until my family moved to Vicksburg when I was in my teens.

I was 13 when James Meredith became the first African-American student admitted to "Ole Miss" and the riot occurred. Years later, when my youngest daughter was looking at colleges, Gray was serving as the chaplain at the University of the South when we visited. I told him that if she decided to attend Sewanee, I wanted to return to talk to him about the riot at Ole Miss. My daughter chose the school, and it was during her freshman year and one of my talks with Gray that together we decided I would write his biography.

Gray began his efforts for racial justice when he was a senior in the School of Theology at University of the South in 1952-53. An African-American student had applied to the seminary, and the result was what came to be known as "the integration crisis" at Sewanee. The seminary faculty supported the young man's admission, while the head of the university -- who was Gray's uncle -- and the seminary's Board of Regents fought it. Gray was president of his seminary class and he and most other seminary students supported their faculty and the young man's admission.

When Gray graduated from seminary in 1953, his first churches were in Bolivar County, Mississippi, the county immediately north of the one in which the White Citizens Council had its origins. It was, of course, the Brown v. the Board of Education decision in 1954 that sparked the founding of the council, and again Gray spoke and wrote in opposition to the council's aims despite the protests of some of his parishioners and his neighbors.

More here-

http://www.episcopalchurch.org/80050_128501_ENG_HTM.htm

Duncan Gray was committed to human rights

From Mississippi-

The slightly-built Episcopal priest in clerical collar pleaded with Army Gen. Edwin Walker at the Confederate monument in Ole Miss’ Grove to urge students — and non-students — to stop the raging riot after federal marshals escorted James Meredith to the campus Sept.30 1962.

Not only did Walker (who weeks before had urged people to protest Meredith’s admission) refuse, but he demanded that the clergyman identify himself. “I’m Duncan Gray, a local Episcopal minister,” said priest. The tall Texan snapped: “You are the kind of Episcopal minister that makes me ashamed of being an Episcopalian.”

This was around 9 p.m. Later in the evening as rioting worsened and Walker egged on the crowd, Gray once again pleaded with the general to help bring peace. Hostile rioters roughed up the minister until a deputy sheriff and several students rescued him.

Gray’s confrontation with General Walker during what would become an insurrection over admitting one African-American student to the prestigious all-white university would become his first hands-on involvement in the struggle of Mississippi’s black citizens for civil rights. Over the next 40 years this son of an Episcopal bishop, who would himself become a bishop, would in his quiet way become a spokesman for racial equality.

More here-

http://www.desototimes.com/articles/2011/04/01/opinion/editorials/doc4d9628c88b9f6949582252.txt

Tennessee Williams’s 100th Birthday, Marked in Columbus, Miss.

From Mississippi-

“DO you know what Spring Pilgrimage is?” asked Brenda Caradine, the chairwoman of the Tennessee Williams Birthday Celebration in Columbus, Miss. “It’s when you Yankees come down South to see our antebellum homes and we take back your money.”

By turns coquettish and tender, Ms. Caradine, who also runs the Amzi Love Home, a restored 1848 home that now functions as a B&B, is just one of many personalities in the playwright’s hometown who might as well have been created by Williams himself.

Williams would have turned 100 this month, and towns and cities around the country are hosting fetes in his honor, but none more fittingly than Columbus, the playwright’s birthplace and his home until age 7. This year, the birthday celebration (March 24 to 27) coincides in part with the town’s Spring Pilgrimage (March 28 to April 9), the event that Ms. Caradine referred to, which is traditionally held during the azalea bloom.

Williams-themed festivities will include an exhibition of playbill and movie paraphernalia related to his stage and screen work at the Columbus-Lowndes Library (317 Seventh Street North); tours of St. Paul’s Episcopal (318 College Street), where his grandfather preached (don’t miss the stained-glass windows mentioned in “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof”); and performances of one of his more obscure plays, “Strangest Kind of Romance,” at the Rosensweig Arts Center (501 Main Street).

More here-

http://travel.nytimes.com/2011/03/13/travel/13headsup-williams.html

Episcopal meeting to draw thousands

From Mississippi-

More than 4,000 people are expected to attend the 184th annual Council of the Episcopal Diocese of Mississippi meeting this weekend at the Jackson Convention Complex.

Some have deemed it the largest gathering of Mississippi Episcopalians in recent history.

"It will be a large gathering for a particularly small denomination," said the Rt. Rev. Duncan M. Gray III, bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Mississippi.

The event theme is "The Spirit of Mission."

This is the first time the council meeting has been held in Jackson since Gray was elected bishop 11 years ago. It moved around the state through Natchez, Vicksburg, Tupelo and Southaven.

"We have been waiting for a facility that could hold us," he said.

This year, Gray will ask clergy to reflect on the state's upcoming civil rights movement anniversaries, beginning with Mississippi's 50th anniversary Freedom Riders event set for May.

Other upcoming anniversaries include James Meredith's tumultuous enrollment at the University of Mississippi in 1962; Medgar Evers assassination in 1963; and Freedom Summer - a campaign launched in 1964 to register African-American voters in Mississippi.

More here-

http://www.clarionledger.com/article/20110128/NEWS/101280333/Episcopal-meeting-to-draw-thousands

Christ Episcopal plans grand opening

From Mississippi-

Christ Episcopal Church in Bay St. Louis will host a community grand opening at 4 p.m. Sunday for the new church and parish hall, rebuilt after Hurricane Katrina destroyed the previous structures. Christ Church is at 912 S. Beach Blvd.

Established in 1889, the church has been destroyed by fire and two hurricanes and is rebuilt back on the beach where it was.

This time, however, said the Rev. Patrick Skutch, rector, “it’s deliberately turned in a different direction so that as you drive along the beach, you see the profile of the church, and it was very important to the congregation that the church be inviting. It says very strongly, ‘We are here, and we are open and we would like to see you.’

“The old church was set back a little bit further on the landscape, and you did not see as much of it when you went by.”

The sanctuary and the parish hall next door to it were consecrated in May for parish use and worship.

“This opening is geared toward an intentional welcome and open house for the community itself,” Skutch said.

Read more:

http://www.sunherald.com/2010/10/08/2541398/christ-episcopal-plans-grand-opening.html#ixzz11rXIehuz

Million Dollar Avenue, Episcopal Church in Albertville Damaged

From Mississippi-

The storm did not discriminate - homes of all sizes, shapes and ages were damaged by Saturday night's tornado.

East Main Street, also known as Million Dollar Avenue, in downtown Albertville is the city's historic district. The damage there from Saturday's tornado was just as extensive as anywhere in town. Landmark structures on the street will need considerable repair to look anything like their former selves.

Susan Jones lives in Albertville and luckily didn't have storm damage at her home. But she says she had to help those who were in the middle of the tornado. "Once I got out and saw what kind of damage was in the area and after I cried for about an hour" Jones told WAAY 31 on Sunday. "After seeing so much damage and people's homes destroyed, I went to my church, Albertville first Baptist, and asked then what I could do."

Jones got in touch with a disaster relief crew and spent Sunday helping friends and neighbors. Among them was a grateful Billie Green. A pine tree landed on her home and on her van. She says she's lucky to be alive. "Oh it's awful to think about. This church up the street here (Christ Episcopal) was 100 years old and took the roof off of it." Green said. "And then all these houses are in the historical district and most all got damage."

Father David Kendrick from the Christ Episcopal Church calls this a sad day. A lot of the building's roof is gone and the sanctuary is badly damaged. "I see a lot of memories that people are going to be carrying with them throughout the years as they remember this church." But still, he feels blessed. "I am very grateful for all of Albertville that we have been able to weather this with no death. And so there is sadness, but there is always blessing and there is always new life. I truly believe that with all my heart."

http://www.waaytv.com/Global/story.asp?S=12375847

Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal, Tupelo, Miss., Hearers Of The Word column: Religious diversity shapes a week in Tupelo

From Mississippi-

Once in a while, amid the random assignments I follow each week, a pattern emerges. During a five day stretch I might interview a rodeo cowboy, a priest and city official. It almost sounds like the beginning of a joke, doesn't it? But, sometimes, the narrative thread emerges in bright brilliance, like the Aurora Borealis.

I started last week by opening a conversation with Tupelo's first formal gathering of Muslims.

I'd known for two months that they were here, and I'd been looking for a chance to get out and meet them. As this week's feature indicates, they received me with open arms and even invited me to pray alongside them.

A few days later I was invited behind the scenes at the 183rd Annual Council of the Episcopal Diocese of Mississippi.

Before the opening of the council, Bishop Duncan Gray III was holed up in a quiet room deep in the arena, going over his notes and trying to avoid being hassled by media types like me.

He was very gracious, and when I saw him leading his diocese later that night during the opening service I was thankful to have spent some quiet time with him. We talked about everything from football to the philosophy of Friedrich Hegel.

A week later I was once again in the arena for the 47th Annual Charity Ball. My friend Scott Morris had done most of the heavy lifting for the story and all I had to do was go and enjoy myself and get a little scenery for the article.

More here-

http://www.tradingmarkets.com/news/stock-alert/djco_northeast-mississippi-daily-journal-tupelo-miss-hearers-of-the-word-column-religious-diversity--791960.html

'Friends need us' : Episcopal Diocese of Miss. heads to Honduras

From Mississippi-

While Haiti ranks as the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, Honduras is second.

That's why the Episcopal Diocese of Mississippi has conducted an annual Honduras Medical Mission since 1982.

Every two years, participating Mississippi parishes pass on the responsibility of leading the mission. Madison's Chapel of the Cross is in charge for 2010-2011.

Scott Lenoir, Chapel of the Cross priest associate, will be taking his fifth trip as a member of the Honduras Medical Mission Team when the group leaves next week to spend a week in San Joaquin. The city serves as a hub for outlying villages.

"Even in light of the Haitian tragedy, our friends in San Joaquin need us this year more than ever," Lenoir said.

A team of around 30, including those from medical, dental and veterinarian fields, are sent to Honduras annually.

Physicians see up to 3,500 patients during the five-day clinic, supplying free medicine and treating patients for intestinal parasites. Dentists pull hundreds of teeth, and vets treat hundreds of animals.

For the past decade, the mission has also sponsored Kinder Mississippi, a Christian education and feeding program. It pays for transportation, uniforms and school supplies of San Joaquin children who want to study in San Antonio, a nearby town with a public middle school.

More here-

http://www.clarionledger.com/article/20100206/FEAT04/2060317/1020/feat/-Friends-need-us----Episcopal-Diocese-of-Miss.-heads-to-Honduras

Good Stuff in TEC: Mississippi

Churches feed body and soul

The Very Rev. Edward O'Connor, dean of St. Andrew's Episcopal Cathedral, said the church operates a breakfast and coffee club for the homeless beginning at 5 a.m. Monday through Friday and a full breakfast Tuesday mornings in the parish hall.

"We've noticed, over the last month or so, a significant increase," he said. "We usually average 80-90 and are now feeding 100-120, and it's not just men.

"There's also a great number of women coming to breakfast and a great number of young people, so that might lead one to believe that the homeless population is expanding to include those who are not traditionally homeless, those who may have lost their homes and those in significant economic distress."

O'Connor said it takes about 15-20 weekly volunteers and costs about $17,000 a year to fund the program. The church welcomes donations.

The Rev. Keith Tonkel of Jackson's Wells Memorial United Methodist Church on Bailey Avenue, said Wells' food pantry has expanded to offer health, social and psychological services each Monday from 8 a.m. to 10:30 p.m. Some 20 weekly volunteers usually serve around 100 people.

"The hope is to help people move away from the cycle of poverty," he said. "It's important for churches to seek the needs that exist in the area where they find themselves."

Warren Yoder, executive director of the Public Policy Center of Mississippi, said hunger is a serious problem.

"Families are cutting back on quality," he said. "They don't have enough money for food. That means kids who are not going hungry are having so many health problems because of their food. In some ways, we've gone backwards on nutrition issues for children.

"The food pantries and food banks have reported big increases in the number of people coming to them for food. Our unemployment is high. Food is, unfortunately, something you have to buy every week, and people have more month than they have money.

"We're publicizing the importance of working with churches to provide food, and to make sure they are providing good, quality food to help families through this tough time."

While some churches work independently to feed the hungry, others are working together.

More here-

http://www.clarionledger.com/article/20090801/FEAT04/908010318/1020/feat/Churches+feed+body+and+soul

Good Stuf in TEC: Mississippi

Trinity Episcopal to host summer lecture series

On Wednesday evenings this summer, Trinity Episcopal Church will offer a special series of seven lectures on Episcopal Church History by Dr. Edward L. Bond. They began on June 10 with a review of the Church of England in Colonial America and conclude on July 29 with an examination of the church in the early and mid-20th century.

Bond is widely recognized as one of the pre-eminent scholars of the Episcopal Church in early America. He holds degrees from The College of William and Mary, the University of Chicago, and Louisiana State University.

Bond is a professor of history at Alabama A&M University in Huntsville, Ala., and he teaches Episcopal Church History in the School of Theology at the University of the South in Sewanee, Tenn. He also serves as editor of Anglican & Episcopal History, the quarterly journal of the Historical Society of the Episcopal Church. He and his wife Kathleen are parishioners of Trinity Church in Natchez.

More here-

http://www.natchezdemocrat.com/news/2009/jun/13/trinity-episcopal-host-summer-lecture-series/

Good Stuff in TEC: Mississippi

GOD AND THE GREEN MOVEMENT

In 1970, Ann L. Whitaker attended the first Earth Day celebration in Washington, and was one of 20 million nationwide observing it.

"It was part of my formation," the Clinton resident said. "I was a senior in high school. There were many changes taking place, and there was this notion of getting back to the garden. People were saying we have this planet, and we need to do something to save it or take care of it."

Today, Whitaker is still leading people back to the garden. As the rector of Clinton's Episcopal Church of the Creator, she's helped introduce environmental initiatives there while emphasizing a connection between being green and being godly.

On Wednesday, Whitaker led an Earth Day-themed program for children during which they discussed creation care and planted a dogwood.

"My take from the book of Genesis is that God has given the care of creation to the created man and woman," she said. "I think that the instructions, right from the beginning, were that we are to care for the garden and care for the Earth."

Whitaker's congregation does that by recycling church bulletins and aluminum. They use energy-saving compact florescent light bulbs, turn their computers off daily and hope to install programmable thermostats in the future to save money and energy.

http://www.clarionledger.com/article/20090425/FEAT04/904250310/1023/FEAT03

Good Stuff in TEC: Mississippi

Diocesan Website Aids Mississippi’s Unemployed

The Diocese of Mississippi has added a feature to its website that gives employers and Episcopalians looking for work an opportunity to connect.

The most recent statistics from the Mississippi Employment Security Commission estimate that 9.2 percent of state residents able and willing to work are unemployed.

“These difficult times we’re hearing about are a reality for many members of our church, people who are very close to us,” said the Rt. Rev. Duncan Gray III, Bishop of Mississippi. “The church has probably been a little slow to respond effectively and pastorally to those who’ve been impacted in dramatic ways.”

The Rev. Scott Lenoir, editor of The Mississippi Episcopalian, said he was inspired to act after seeing an article in the Diocese of Southern Ohio’s Interchange. The resume and employment opportunity hosting service was announced in an article in the diocesan newspaper that included interviews with the first three persons to post their resumes.

“I was thinking of doing something long before I saw the [Southern Ohio] article,” he said. “The drama, trauma, of going through [unemployment] is something I felt needed to be communicated, to put some faces behind the statistics and get some practical information to people."

After the House of Bishops issued a pastoral letter on the economy at the conclusion of their spring retreat in March, Fr. Lenoir said he spoke with Bishop Gray and the idea came into clearer focus.

“We hope the article and the webpage will provide help to people searching for jobs,” he said. “The webpage particularly may initiate some networking possibilities for people that didn't exist before.”

http://www.livingchurch.org/news/news-updates/2009/4/17/diocesan-website-aids-mississippis-unemployed

You can see all of the Good Stuff posts by clicking on Good Stuff in the labels below.

Good Stuff in TEC: Mississippi

Volunteers build retiree new home in a week

Marvin Miller arrived at his new home on Sam Road on Saturday morning with a jacket over his head to prevent him from seeing it.

A week ago, he left the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency cottage that he's called home since after Aug. 29, 2005, when Hurricane Katrina destroyed the Northrop Grumman retiree's house.

On Saturday, after son Billy Miller of Lucedale got his father out of the pickup truck and removed the jacket, Marvin Miller looked up and said, "I love it. I'm no speechmaker. I don't know what to say."


Miller, 66, was flanked by his son and grandchildren, Angela, Ashley and Joseph, as he saw his new house. Daughter-in-law Margie Miller was taking photographs as Lutheran Episcopal Services volunteers cheered and took their own photographs and videos.

The house was the third "Speed Build" for the volunteers in Jackson County since the storm. Construction began March 7, and by Friday, a building inspector was looking over the finished product, said Carla Poole, a Lutheran Episcopal Services case manager.

http://www.gulflive.com/news/mississippipress/news.ssf?/base/news/1237112142152680.xml&coll=5

You can see all of the Good Stuff posts by clicking on Good Stuff in the labels below.