Emancipation - From Repentance to Hope

By the Rev. Linda Hawkins

Despite his resistance beforehand, our eight-year-old son remarked on the way home from church, “I’m glad I went tonight because I made a new friend.” He had met Alex, and from the start they were kindred spirits. Never did he articulate their common bond so obvious to the rest of us.

Both had sisters with Down Syndrome. For Alex, it was his twin sister, Annie. Two boys, one black, one white, living in radically different neighborhoods but each loving and defending a sister enslaved by disability. Two girls, one white, one black, together blossoming in a church that delighted in their giftedness when the larger world did not. The freedom and growth of one fed the freedom and growth of the other in the years ahead.

Around that time, my son learned about slavery as I read a children’s book about the underground railroad. He interrupted the story with an urgent question, “This is make believe, right? This didn’t really happen.” His disbelief continued later as the neighborhood of Alex and Annie deteriorated. He could not understand why their family just didn’t move. He could not fathom the continued shackles of slavery woven into our lives. He expected his friends to have the same freedom he enjoyed. As a young adult, the little black girl died of lack of proper health care—a testimony to the continued legacy of slavery among us.

Today we give thanks for emancipation, for the bold act of freeing those enslaved one hundred and fifty years ago. As a woman of my generation, I know even myself to be the beneficiary of that movement of freedom. Only as slaves were freed and civil rights granted did doors open for women as well. Despite the privileges I had in a white family, never would I have imagined as a little girl in South Carolina that someday I would be a priest in the church with women as my bishop and presiding bishop. After all, the vocational interest test that I took in high school only listed “Nun” as an option, and I for one flunked that category.

Yet we dare not forget that continued legacy of slavery in our midst. None of us is truly free unless all of us are free—whatever our race, disability, economic or educational status, language, gender, sexual orientation, or place of origin.

We will know the truth, and the truth will set us free. But truth must have hands and feet to set us all free. May we find again our childlike disbelief that any child of God could be the possession of another. May we join hands like Alex and Crawford, Annie and Ellen, that someday all God’s children might be free.

Family, Fellowship and Warmth at the Annual Shrove Tuesday Supper

Family, Fellowship and Warmth on Shrove Tuesday

by Librada Estrada

On February 12, St. Barnabas held its annual Shrove Tuesday pancake supper hosted by the Vestry. The day precedes the start of Lent and the 40 days of fasting involved in the season. Traditionally it involves eating pancakes to use up rich foods so that individuals eat simpler foods throughout Lent.

The conversation and sense of camaraderie that I had an opportunity to participate in and witness was a rich and unexpected experience.  As a new Vestry member, I originally thought I would attend, make pancakes, serve some food, attend the mass that evening and then be on my merry way.  The Vestry prepared the bacon in advance and then came together early in the afternoon to ready the Richardson room. As we organized the kitchen, the Vestry members shared stories from past Shrove Tuesday suppers, about the number of participants, funny occurrences, running out of a particular food item, etc. We identified that some of us were more talented at mixing the batter, others of us in flipping pancakes and some at pouring out just the right amount of mix to form a round pancake. While I worked in the kitchen, other congregation members involved my children in activities, and as the evening progressed, helped them with their supper, identified which noisemaker would be the “right” one to hold, and eventually guided them into the chapel for the Farewell to Alleluias mass.

What I experienced was a great reminder of the wonderful history and tradition associated with the pancake supper. I was reminded of preparing meals with my very large family in San Antonio, Texas. As several of us were in the kitchen, kids were running around, we had early arrivers coming in to nibble on a little something before we officially were ready to cook. I can imagine that many of us have witnessed this in our homes. Participating in the pancake supper was just a bit brighter and sharper because it connected me even more to the community of St. Barnabas and my family in a way that was positive and affirming.

Additionally, it brought home a topic that the Vestry had recently discussed. Our January retreat involved the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator. We learned that individuals have different preferences for how they experience spirituality. For some, the preference is to follow tradition such as through prayer and mass, others prefer to discuss or debate liturgy, there are those who experience through building and serving the community and for others it involves helping others grow in their faith. All of those in attendance at the pancake supper and mass, regardless of their role, contributed to the spiritual growth of our community by creating an environment that allowed us to celebrate together the start of a new Lenten season.