WASHINGTON – The Episcopal bishop of Vermont approached the microphone with a question for John Lewis, the congressman and civil rights icon. How might racial justice be addressed in what is the whitest state in the nation?
“One of the things you can do is travel through some of the areas where there happen to be people of another race and get to know those people, and invite some of the members of the American community to Vermont,” Lewis responded to the Right Rev. Thomas Clark Ely.
Reflecting later on the exchange, Bishop Ely said by that measure Vermont seems to be on the right track. And efforts by the state’s clergy to promote racial justice were advanced during a weekend in the nation’s capital that was capped by a special Vermont worship service March 30 at Washington National Cathedral.
Ely and 20 members of the Vermont diocese’s Commission on Dismantling Racism engaged in dialogue with the Union of Black Episcopalians, were hosted at St. Luke’s, the nation’s first black Episcopal parish, studied at the Sandy Spring Slave Museum in Maryland and at the National Museum of the American Indian.
“We were led through these wonderful exercises on how to make racial justice, social justice, a priority in the life of the church,” Ely said. Historically the most homogenous state, Ely said an influx of refugees in recent years from Sudan, Somalia, Rwanda and the Middle East are presenting opportunities and challenges.
“It was a wonderful confirmation of what we have begun and an encouragement to keep doing it,” said the Rev. Nancy Vogele, the commission chairwoman.
The bishop’s discussion with Lewis, and the Vermont State Day service that followed, was the culmination of a pilgrimage the bishop and his flock made to the Cathedral. Washington National Cathedral designates one state each month for special service, inviting religious leaders, political leaders and people of all faiths. Vermont Day continued the Cathedral’s celebration of its Centennial year, marking the 100th anniversary of the laying of its first stone.
Vermont Day was scheduled to coincide with the commemoration of the 40th anniversary of the last Sunday sermon delivered by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Dr. King spoke at the Cathedral on March 31, 1968, just days before his assassination in Memphis.
The 11:15 a.m. service drew 1,304 worshipers including dozens who traveled from Vermont for the weekend, as well as natives now living in the Washington area.
Ely said the Cathedral’s focus on racial reconciliation carried special meaning for Vermont. While Vermont was the first sovereign state to outlaw slavery 231 years ago, there still were slaves there, he said. And the Episcopal Church’s first bishop in Vermont, the Right Rev. John Henry Hopkins, defended slavery and wrote a Biblical defense of it.
“We have these tensions that live out,” Ely said. “We face some of the challenges of making the issue of racial injustice pertinent for people in their lives, of helping people see that their voice is important.”
Bishop Ely presided at the service. Other Vermont clergy included Vogele, who is rector at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in White River Junction; the Rev. Linda M. Maloney, priest-in-charge of St. Matthew’s Episcopal Church in Enosburg Falls; and the Rev. Lisa Ransom, vicar at St. Dunstan’s Episcopal Church in Waitsfield.
The Very Rev. Samuel T. Lloyd III, dean of Washington National Cathedral, welcomed the visitors. He said the service focusing on the need to eradicate racial injustice “is a very significant moment in the life of the Cathedral.”
Lewis, a leader of the civil rights movement in the 1960s and today a congressman representing Georgia, delivered the sermon, speaking from the Canterbury Pulpit where King also had preached. Lewis also conversed with worshipers and with Dean Lloyd in the The Sunday Forum, a Cathedral program preceding the service.
If King were alive, Lewis said, “he would ask if we were still sweeping through a great revolution… He would be saying we are still all in this together.”
“In the life of Martin Luther King in the 60s here in America we witnessed a nonviolent revolution, a revolution of values, a revolution of ideas that have helped redeem the soul of America,” Lewis said. “But the struggle to seek the heaven here on earth is not yet done.”
There is no question that weaponry is more advanced than 40 years ago, Lewis said, “But what about human rights? Have we moved forward to respect the dignity of all humankind?
“We have made the world a neighborhood but we have not made it into a brotherhood,” he said.
Dean Lloyd said Lewis delivered a powerful address. “I don’t know about you but it sounded like Dr. Martin Luther King was here again,” he said. “There is no more important of an issue for us to be thinking about.”
Vermonters played roles throughout the service.
Maddie Baughman of Moretown carried the state flag in the service’s grand opening procession. Mark Hutchins of Brattleboro, Grace Willingham of Brattleboro and Jodi Gonyaw Worth and Cara Worth of Island Point served as oblation bearers.
The Green Mountain College Choir and Cantorion, of Poultney, under the direction of James P. Cassarino, offered a prelude to the Cathedral’s Choral Evensong service later in the day. “The students were definitely on fire, when they left the Cathedral,” Cassarino said. He added, “They definitely viewed their time at the Cathedral not as a performance, but very much a part of their own music ministry in connection with the Cathedral.” His group spent months preparing for their visit choosing specific pieces relating to the theme of reconciliation. These pieces included Precious Lord by Thomas Dorsey, as well pieces of early American music and Easter motets from the Renaissance. Attendees included parents and Green Mountain College president Jack Brennan and his wife Dianne.
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SOURCE: Washington National Cathedral