The Angelus May 2016 What’s Inside? From the Rector – Father John tells of his amazing journey. Also, Jazz Vespers, benefiting the Bishop Walker School is on May 1st. Interested in going GREEN? Electronic offering/gift giving helps! Studies in Christian Faith – Updates on when, where, and what… check it out! Environmental Stewardship – Speaking of GREEN, you can help Christ Church be green by getting involved here as well. Adult Forum – May 1st forum details, and the schedule for May is inside. St. Francis Flock – Please join SFF to see how we are helping horses. This promises to be a great opportunity to learn and interact with the horses. Inside Outreach – Read all about the good work Bishop Walker School is doing with our area’s youth and how Christ Church supports this incredible school. Newcomers – Christ Church welcomes a new family with a new baby! No baby pictures, but we bet she is CUTE! The Bargain Box – Find out-of-the-ordinary Mother’s Day gifts. Also, read about the next The Angelus is published 10 months a year. Outreach Sunday. Editors: Kathy Moch & Tim Smeltzer Direct queries to the Church office or email Do you love Christ Episcopal Church? Then “Like” to [email protected] and Christ Episcopal Church on Facebook at [email protected] https://www.facebook.com/christchurchrockville From the Rector Fr. McDuffie Dear Friends in Christ, I have just returned from one of the most amazing journeys I have ever been on – an eight-day odyssey covering over 2,000 miles, traveling by bus to many of the historic places of the American Civil Rights Movement from 1954 to 1968. This tour was sponsored by the Montgomery County Office of Human Rights, and had 33 participants – most of whom were from the greater Washington, D.C. area, but there were also folks from California, Massachusetts, North Carolina, and Canada. I’m grateful to Christ Church for giving me a week, including two Sundays, to be on this tour. I had said to our senior warden Christie Carrico that I thought this would be a significant chapter in my personal spiritual journey – and indeed, it was! I Growing up as a child in the American South in the 1950’s and 60’s, I could remember many of the events of that period, including the integration of Central High School in Little Rock in 1957; the lunch counter sit-ins in Greensboro, North Carolina in 1960; the Freedom Riders in 1961; the murder of Medgar Evers in Mississippi in 1963; our own public school integration in my home town in the fall of 1964; Bloody Sunday in Selma in March 1965; and, of course, the assassination of Martin Luther King when I was a senior in high school in 1968. I had for years admired the witness of Dr. King, revealed in his speeches, sermons, and other writings; and when I learned of this tour, I resolved that I needed to go. I What I experienced was a re-living of this whole period of history, starting with our stop in Greensboro at the site of the Woolworth’s lunch counter where four brave young African American students from North Carolina A&T University resolved on February 1st, 1960 that they would combat the shackles of segregation and sit down at a counter where only whites could be served. Their courage and perseverance set off a whole series of sit-ins at other lunch counters across southern American cities. I From Greensboro, we went on to Atlanta, to historic Ebenezer Baptist Church where Dr. King and his father served, and then to the King family home, and to the tombs of Martin and Coretta Scott King. We were there on April 4th, the anniversary of Dr. King’s death, and as I stood before his tomb, which bears the words, “Free at last, free at last, thank God almighty I’m free at last”, I shed some of my many tears of the week, as I found echoing in my mind the words of jazz singer Nina Simone, shortly after April 4th, 1968 – “the King of love is dead”. I From Atlanta we journeyed to Montgomery, Alabama, site of the historic bus boycott of 1955 and ’56, which lasted an unbelievable 381 days. At the Rosa Parks Museum, we met the Rev. Robert Graetz and his wife Jeannie, now in their eighties, who lived in Montgomery during the 2 boycott, where the Rev. Graetz served as a white Lutheran pastor. One of the most personally moving moments of the trip for me came as Pastor Graetz was telling us of how their home was bombed twice during the boycott – they were especially hated because they were white and supporting the cause of desegregation – and a third bomb, which had enough dynamite in it to blow up an entire city block, miraculously did not go off. When one of our group asked Mrs. Graetz how they were able to remain in Montgomery with the constant threat of death, she smiled and quietly said, “God”. Bob Graetz added that the gathered community of support also enabled them to take courage. From Montgomery we journeyed to Selma, Alabama, the site of the “Bloody Sunday” march of March 7th, 1965, and we heard from Joanne Bland, who was fourteen years old on the day of the march and who was on the Edmund Pettus Bridge when the marchers were attacked by the state troopers. From Selma, we went on to Birmingham, where the demonstrations of May, 1963 took place, inspired by the presence and commitment of the Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth; and where four young girls lost their lives in the bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church on September 15th of that year. In our time in Alabama, we also learned about the Freedom Riders of 1961. We then traveled to Memphis, Tennessee where Dr. King was assassinated, and then on to Little Rock, Arkansas. We visited Central High School, where the historic desegregation of September, 1957 took place. Next, we went to Jackson, Mississippi, and visited the Medgar Evers home, the site of his murder in June, 1963. Our final stop was in Nashville, Tennessee, where we visited Fisk University, which provided the environment for training persons in non- violent protest. Our guide at Fisk was Kwame Lillard, who worked with Diane Nash in organizing the Freedom Rides. I cannot begin to recount here all the stories and impressions I took away from this trip. What I can tell you is that over and over again, I was deeply moved by stories of great faith, courage, and hope in the face of coming to grips with intense hatred and viciousness. We forget that in the 1950’s and 60’s, we were a nation in the throes of regular episodes of violence, intimidation, and terrorism toward African American citizens in this country – and that finally, as Fannie Lou Hamer of Mississippi famously said, “We are sick and tired of being sick and tired.” I give thanks for the well-known and not-so-well-known persons who lived by faith in striving toward the truth stated in our Declaration of Independence, that “all men are created equal” – a truth that was by no means a reality in our not-so-distant past. Today, we live in a nation that has made so many strides in guaranteeing the civil rights of its citizens, and where the evil Jim Crow laws of the South were eradicated. Today, Central High School in Little Rock is the epitome of racial diversity, in contrast to 1957 when the first black students were cursed and spat upon. But I agree with our House of Bishops, who declared in their Word to the Church last month that we are still a nation that lives in the shadow of the lynching tree. The divisive rhetoric during this disturbing political season has again showed us that we may be living on the tip of an iceberg of immense anger, suspiciousness, and distrust, which often, in aggressive expression, finds targets in people who are different than we are. I stand in my commitment to that part of our baptismal covenant, in which we promise, with God’s help, that we will strive for justice and peace among all people, and respect the dignity of every human being. I am happy to talk further with any of you about this tour – and I hope that I can inspire more people to consider being a part of the journey sometime in the future. Faithfully in Christ, John+ 3 Special Jazz Vespers Service on May 1st – Please Come! I am delighted that Christ Church will host its fourth annual Jazz Vespers to benefit the Bishop John T. Walker School for Boys, on Sunday, May 1st, at 5:00 p.m. in the church. Once again our regular Jazz Vespers band will be joined by the great vocalist Myrna Clayton. Myrna has sung nationally and internationally – check out her website at www.myrnaclayton.com. The more people Myrna sings for, the more exciting and energizing is her performance, because she is a true “people person”. She is travelling all the way from Atlanta, Georgia to sing with us, just because she likes working with our band! – and also because her performance will go to support a great mission arm of the Diocese of Washington. The Bishop Walker School gives a quality education to underprivileged boys who live in Ward 8 and enables them to have a chance to reach for some goals to give them a fulfilling and promising new life.