Monday, August 26, 2019

The Madonna of Trumpland



The young mother had travelled miles from her home across the desert with her infant son. She fled a murderous tyrant whose murderous regime had put the safety of all young males in her homeland in jeopardy. She carried her young child in her arms.

Her older husband, José - who had agreed to marry her despite her state of pregnancy, contrary to the dictates of the honor/shame tribal culture they shared - accompanied the two of them. He was a humble, deeply spiritual man. He told anyone who would listen that angels had come to him in his dreams and told him that he should still marry this young, unwed mother he loved and adopt her child.

So he had. But when the armed men came to their towns, killing young boys with abandon, driven by a tyrant fearful for his own power and privilege, they both knew they had no choice but to flee.

It had been a long journey, engaged in the cover of darkness. They had come on foot across wide stretches of desert. When they came to the border of the neighboring land, they were met by other men of power. They told the men their story of terror in their homeland, saying that they sought refuge, asylum in this new land. Most of all they sought protection for their young child whom they believed had been sent by G-d to save them all.

But the men of power would not let them pass. They immediately separated the husband from the mother and child. And eventually even the child would be taken away from his mother as well. Upon her return to her homeland without him, Maria would tell all who would listen that it was as if a sword had pierced her very heart.

The child was now separated from both his parents in a strange land where even the rudimentary language he possessed was not spoken there. The men of power, bearing deadly weapons now, came and escorted the child to a hearing before a magistrate of the tyrant king. The magistrate demanded that he justify his presence there. He had no idea what they were talking about and no one was provided to help him in that appearance.

Soon thereafter they placed him in a cage not unlike that which was used to contain animals. They would deny him regular bathing or brushing of his teeth. They would make him sleep on the cold stone floor with but a blanket, one of many children sharing that overcrowded, noisy cage.

The child who had been sent from G-d to save them would soon disappear into a system of prison camps and foster homes. He would face abuse from guards and the threat of sexual abuse in the foster system. He would never know what happened to either of his parents. And then, one day, the men of power would come and take him back to the border to which he and his family had come for refuge, force him at gunpoint back across the border and turn and walk away.

He would be alone then, left to survive on his own. His life thereafter would prove to be brief and anything but memorable. There would be no books to record his thought, words and deeds. And in the end, no one would remember his name.

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Harry Scott Coverston
Orlando, Florida

frharry@cfl.rr.com

hcoverston.orlando@gmail.com

If the unexamined life is not worth living, surely an unexamined belief system, be it religious or political, is not worth holding. Most things worth considering do not come in sound bites.

For what does G-d require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your G-d? (Micah 6:8, Hebrew Scriptures)

Do not be daunted by the enormity of the world's grief. Do justly, now. Love mercy, now. Walk humbly now. You are not obligated to complete the work, but neither are you free to abandon it. - Rabbi Rami Shapiro, Wisdom of the Jewish Sages (1993)

 © Harry Coverston 2019
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Tuesday, August 20, 2019

Commemoration 400th Anniversary of Africans Landing





Taizé, A Time of Prayer


 


Commemoration of 400th Anniversary of

Africans Landing in English North America

Sunday, August 25, 2019
 

Opening Meditation:


Leader:  Be still and know that I am God

            People:  Be still and know that I am God

Leader:  Be still and know that I am

            People:  Be still and know that I am
Leader:  Be still and know
            People:  Be still and know
Leader:  Be still
            People:  Be still
Leader:  Be
            People:  Be

[Sung in English]
  


 


Psalm 137 (1-6), Lament over Destruction of Jerusalem



By the rivers of Babylon—

   there we sat down and there we wept

   when we remembered Zion.

“You may choose to look the other way
but you can never say again that you did not know.”

On the willows there
   we hung up our harps.
For there our captors
   asked us for songs,
and our tormentors asked for mirth, saying,
   ‘Sing us one of the songs of Zion!’

“You may choose to look the other way
but you can never say again that you did not know.”

How could we sing the LORD’s song
   in a foreign land?
If I forget you, O Jerusalem,
   let my right hand wither!
Let my tongue cling to the roof of my mouth,
   if I do not remember you,
if I do not set Jerusalem
   above my highest joy.

“You may choose to look the other way
but you can never say again that you did not know.”

[Response from abolitionist William Wilberforce, speech to British Parliament, 1791]

Silence
 

 [Sung in English]











The Reading: Luke 4: 16-21


16 When Jesus came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, he went to the synagogue on the sabbath day, as was his custom. He stood up to read, 17and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written:

18 ‘The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
   because he has anointed me
     to bring good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives
   and recovery of sight to the blind,
     to let the oppressed go free,
19 to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour.’

20And he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant, and sat down. The eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him. 21Then he began to say to them, ‘Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.’

Silence

Intercessions (from the Union of Black Episcopalians)

Sanctus Bell to be rung three times after each intercession

Lector: As we commemorate the 400th Anniversary of the arrival of enslaved Africans in Virginia in 1619, the church invites us to give thanks for the resilience and cultural contributions of people from the African diaspora. Therefore, let us offer our prayers to our Loving, Liberating and Life-giving God. (pause)

Repairing God, help us to lift every voice and sing, ‘til earth and heaven ring, ring with the harmonies of Liberty for all your children, that our divisions may cease and we may be one. By your might;

People: Lead us into the light.

Sanctus Bell is rung three times

Lector: Reconciling God, we have come over a way that with tears has been watered, we have come, treading our path through the blood of the slaughtered, give us grace to see in each other the face of Christ. By your might;

People: Lead us into the light.

Sanctus Bell is rung three times

Lector: Resilient God, keep us forever in your path, we pray, lest our feet stray from the places, our God, where we met you in gift of friend and stranger, in the crucible of fortitude and struggle, that we never forget the ancestors who have brought us thus far by faith. By your might;

People: Lead us into the light.

Sanctus Bell is rung three times

Lector: Restoring God, yet with a steady beat, our weary feet have come to the places for which our parents sighed, inspire us with the energy to run with perseverance the race that is set before us, keeping our eyes fixed on you. By your might;

People: Lead us into the light.

Sanctus Bell is rung three times

Lector: God of Hope, stony the road we trod, bitter the chastening rod, born in the day that hope unborn had died, revive in us your people that sense of hope that never fails so that we can make new this old world in the name of Jesus our brother. AMEN.

 (Said in unison)

God, Creator, bring us new life. 
Jesus, Redeemer, renew and strengthen us. 
Holy Spirit, Sustainer, guide us and give us your peace. AMEN.

Prayers Around the Cross  
Those who wish to make their silent prayers around the cross are invited to move to the seats located there and return to your seat when finished.
 





Concluding Prayers 


Collect for the African Diaspora



God of our weary years, God of our silent tears, you who have brought us thus far on the way; Give us grace to honor the lives of your precious children, enslaved in body yet free in mind. May we forever stand on the shoulders of those who have gone before and make no peace with oppression, that children of slaves and former slave owners may one day live in harmony; through Jesus Christ our liberator, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, One God for ever and ever. Amen.

(From Compline, Book of Common Prayer) Said together 


Lord, you now have set your servant free *
   to go in peace as you have promised;
For these eyes of mine have seen the Savior, *
   whom you have prepared for all the world to see:
A Light to enlighten the nations, *
   and the glory of your people Israel.

Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit: *
   as it was in the beginning, is now, and will be forever.
   World  without end. Amen. 

Guide us waking, O Lord, and guard us sleeping; that awake
we may watch with Christ, and asleep we may rest in peace.





v.3  - Someone’s singing, Lord….             v.4Someone’s praying, Lord…..

V. Let us depart in peace.  

R. Thanks be to God! 

Commemoration of 400th Anniversary of
Africans Landing in English North America

This month marks the 400th anniversary of the arrival of the first persons of African descent into the English-speaking North America. Presiding Bishop Michael Curry and Episcopal Diocese of Southern Virginia Bishop James B. Magness have invited Episcopal churches to take part in a national action to remember and honor the first enslaved Africans who landed in English North America at the Jamestown colony in 1619 by tolling their bells for one minute on Sunday, August 25, 2019 at 3:00 pm ET.

The Presiding Bishop declared that this commemoration is “part of our continued work of racial healing and reconciliation.” He called Episcopalians to “join together with people of other Christian faiths and people of all faiths to remember those who came as enslaved, who came to a country that one day would proclaim liberty. And so we remember them and pray for a new future for us all.” – Presiding Bishop Michael Curry

St. Richards has no bell tower. But we are a people who seek justice and reconciliation. In order to honor the calling of our Church to commemorate this day, we have incorporated the sounding of the sanctus bells we use each week in our eucharists as a part of our Taize liturgy this evening. We lift our voices to join with the sounding of the bells together with our Church and with our countrymen and women of all faiths in remembering this event which would irrevocably change and shape the country and the people we have become. 



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Harry Scott Coverston
Orlando, Florida



If the unexamined life is not worth living, surely an unexamined belief system, be it religious or political, is not worth holding. Most things worth considering do not come in sound bites.

For what does G-d require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your G-d? (Micah 6:8, Hebrew Scriptures)

Do not be daunted by the enormity of the world's grief. Do justly, now. Love mercy, now. Walk humbly now. You are not obligated to complete the work, but neither are you free to abandon it. - Rabbi Rami Shapiro, Wisdom of the Jewish Sages (1993)

 © Harry Coverston 2019
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