On August 13, 2011, in the small Lowndes County town of Haynesville, AL, where Jonathan Myrick Daniels was shot to death, the annual one day pilgrimage was held to honor him and other martyrs of the Civil Rights movement. Current seminarians participated in this moving event.  A full story may be  found in this week's August 14th issue of The Living Church and also can be found online at www.livingchurch.org, if you are a subscriber.



Of the over 5000 seminarians who have received at least one SIM grant, most became bishops (29% of today's bishops received a SIM grant), rectors, deans, priests, professors and/or chaplains.  Not Jonathan Myrick Daniels.  Yet, August 14th is recognized on the Episcopal Church Calendar of saints and martyrs as the Feast of Jonathan Myrick Daniels, Martyr.

As a SIM-supported seminarian at Episcopal Theological School in Cambridge, Massachusetts [now Episcopal Divinity School], Jonathan Myrick Daniels joined Martin Luther King's march in Selma, Alabama to secure voting rights for all citizens. On August 14, 1965, Jonathan, along with other marchers, was arrested and jailed for "disturbing the peace."  Because of the jailed marchers' pact to refuse release unless all were freed, Jonathan rejected offers of bail money from friends and clergy.  After six days of incarceration the marchers were released and ordered to leave town. As Jonathan and Ruby Sales, a 16 year old African American girl, were walking in obedience to the order, a local resident of "Bloody Lowndes," as the county was known, raised his 12-gauge shotgun on Ruby. Risking it all, Jonathan deliberately positioned his life, his ministry, his purpose - present and future - in front of Ruby.  The angry blast, heard around the world, instantly killed Jonathan Myrick Daniels.
 
Of Jonathan's witness Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. wrote, "Certainly there are no incidents more beautiful in the annals of Church history.  Jonathan had a promising life ... cut so short by this brutal and bestial deed, but the meaning of life was so fulfilled in his death that few people in our time will know such fulfillment or meaning."  In 1991, the General Convention of The Episcopal Church voted to enter the name of Jonathan Myrick Daniels, seminarian and witness for Civil Rights, on the calendar of saints and martyrs.  August 14th is Jonathan's liturgical day.

SIM's mission to invest in future ordained leaders to serve The Episcopal Church cannot be more fulfilled than in our grant to Jonathan.  In his letter of recommendation to SIM, a lifelong family friend of Jonathan wrote, "... perhaps no individual reaching such a decision [to pursue the ministry] does it without considerable search of mind and soul.  I really can see this young man emerging as a powerful force in the church, one who can be depended upon to be a good leader." Indeed "a powerful force in the church," Jonathan's mark shall forever permeate the American story.

As the only organization raising funds on a national basis for the support of Episcopal seminarians, SIM is humbled to continue to carry out our founding mission to "find suitable persons for the Episcopal ministry and aid them in acquiring a thorough education" (October 2, 1857).  The ordained ministry, described by author Reverend Frederick Buechner as "... a risky as well as holy, trade" could not have been more fully realized than by seminarian Jonathan Myrick Daniels.
 
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Faithfully,