Posted by: Douglas Travis, July 3, 2012
Last night I was deeply moved in attending the opening Eucharist for the annual meeting of the Union of Black Episcopalians at St. Philip’s church here in Indianapolis. We heard an extraordinary sermon from the Right Rev. Gayle Harris, Bishop Suffragan of the Diocese of Massachusetts. Acknowledging that racism in one form or another is a nearly universal phenomenon, she went on to observe that things in this country have gotten better, though there’s still so very much work to do. She underscored that to combat the evil of treating another person as an “other” we must acknowledge that we stand on the shoulders of those who have gone before, whose efforts have contributed to the progress we enjoy today. The list is of course endless. In the Prayers of the People we acknowledged Fredrick Douglas, W. E. B. DuBois, Thurgood Marshall, Sojourner Truth, Harriet Tubman, Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King, and Malcolm X. But it’s not enough to be grateful. We must likewise become the shoulders upon which our children and our children’s children will stand so that, in God’s time, we will be able to celebrate our differences, honor who we are, but also recognize with all our hearts that we are all God’s children!
