Our nation has been confronted again and again with its untended business of racial reconciliation. We hear of incident after incident, death after death, and we wonder, when will it end? And what can we do?
This Sunday we will use the prayers recommended by our bishop as part of our 8 am and 10 am services. We will also hear from Elisabeth Misner and Gillian Prater-Lee about their experience on the Jonathan Daniels pilgrimage last month to Hayneville Alabana, where 50 years ago seminarian Daniels was killed while protecting a young African Amercian woman aiding in voting registration.
Bishop Dietsche's letter referred to the pilgrimage and sounded the call to action now:
From August 13 to 15 some 60 people from the Diocese of New York, evenly divided between teenagers and adults, were part of a 1500-person pilgrimage to Hayneville, Alabama to remember and honor the sacrifices of Jonathan Daniels and the Martyrs of Alabama. We walked through a different Alabama than the one of 1965. To immerse ourselves again in the apartheid state of pre-civil-rights America, to look again on firehoses and biting dogs and bombs planted under church steps, to stand on earth watered by Jonathan Daniels' blood, was to remember in sorrow and to give thanks in gladness that the sacrifices of many who came before did indeed make a different America. They were black and white together; they were Christian and Jew arm in arm.
To fail to see the transformation of America over this half century would be to dishonor the self-offering and sacrifices of those who gave everything they had, even their lives, to make a new world. But to fail to see the current of white supremacy that still soaks through our society and touches everything, and to fail to see how long the road before us still stretches, is to dishonor those yet to come who are already counting on us, and to dismiss the work that God is already placing before our feet. Dr. King's reasoned analysis sixty years ago feeds me yet, makes me glad, but I hear in it again a wake-up call for our own day. On this day which the Lord hath made, we people of faith must step up.
Our prayers Sunday will be drawn from the African Methodist Episcopal Church's and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America's "End Racism Sunday" offerings. The concluding prayer in the AME offerings reads:
"Great Creator of the universe who brought chaos to order, we agree to commit ourselves to walk and live under Your covenant of righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit. You have revealed Your heart's desire by declaring that we must turn from evil, seek peace, and pursue it. We commit to walk in peace and not return to the foolishness of inhumanity to humankind. .." Amen
Ask yourself, "What Can I Do?"
Kick-off Sunday is over now, but that does not mean we should forget about the call for sharing our time and talent. Now we should be thinking about how we will share that time and talent. That "WE" is the first part to consider.
often is it heard "You know, St. Paul's ought to do things differently" or "It would be great if they would do this or that". Quite often there is a lot of wishing, figuring that someone (meaning anyone but me) should do a thing. Everything, it seems would be great if someone would just take care of things. Now how can we say it is our church if we will not be part of making things happen? We are all part of the church and there is the need to realize that "we" are part of the "They" that should be doing things.
Once we accept thus, we then need to decide what we can do. That is not always easy. Some have limited time, others are uncertain what to do: "What can I do, I don't have a specific skill" or " I don't know, I am not good at..." That is the second hurdle we have to overcome. What we do is not measured so that one person's gift is better than another's. It is the gift of that time and whatever it is that you do that is important. If all you can do is help with coffee hour, or dinners, greeting Sunday morning, that is wonderful. If you want sing in the choir, and that is all you can give that is wonderful. We should not get "hung up" on trying to make the biggest or what we see as the "most valuable" contribution.
If you are not sure what you can do, ask a committee chair, or someone one you know on a committee. They will be glad to fill you in, and welcome you to their committee. Then you will be one of them too! Remember when you join them, you are one of us! --Warden Pete Bedrossian
This week's lessons
'Whoever wants to be first must be last'
Jeremiah 11:18-20; Psalm 54; James 3:13-4:3, 7-8a; Mark 9:30-37
This Sunday our Gospel offers us a magnifying glass to examine the topic of racial reconciliation. In our prayers we note the history of racism in our nation and beyond and we commit to making changes that will last. 
Jesus was always trying to put the topics people brought to him in a context they could handle. This Sunday he lays out the details of his earthly end. Later, as he sees his disciples squabbling he asks what they are discussing and they admit they were debating who was the greatest. After Jesus details his pending death they are disputing who's going to be the greatest of his disciples.
With mind-boggling patience Jesus tells them that they lack and they need humility. "Whoever wants to be first must be last of all and servant of all." This news is upsetting to those who think that leadership is won through competition and bravado. They don't know what to make of Jesus' lesson.
"Then (Jesus) took a little child and put it among them; and taking it in his arms, he said to them, "Whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me, and whoever
welcomes me welcomes not me but the one who sent me."
Jesus is reminding his followers that the innocence of children is something we all can regain and learn to use in our daily living, in our spiritual lives and in our interactions with one another.
The week ahead from our bulletin calendar for September:
20 8 am Rite I; 8:45 Bible study; 9:30 Choir rehearsal; 10 am Rite II and Sunday School; 11:15 coffee hour, 12 pm special meeting of the Worship Committee and Altar Guild
21 7 pm Evening Prayer; 7:30 vestry meeting
23 NO HEALING SERVICE (suspended until Oct. 21)
27 8 am Rite I; 8:45 Bible study; 9:30 Choir rehearsal; 10 am Rite II and Sunday School; 11:15 coffee hour, parish news report
