Lent Madness takes its toll

While many might not associate Lent with fun activities, those who do not have not participated in Lent Madness.

Momma and I have been fans of Lent Madness since it began in 2010 as the brainchild of The Rev. Tim Schenck.

Momma's friend came up with this unique Lenten devotion while seeking a fun, engaging way for people to learn about the men and women comprising The Episcopal Church’s Calendar of Saints. Combining his love of sports with his passion for the lives of the saints, Lent Madness was born on his blog, "Clergy Family Confidential."

The format is straightforward: 32 saints are placed into a tournament-like single elimination bracket. Each pairing remains open for a set period of time and people vote for their favorite saint. Sixteen saints make it to the Round of the Saintly Sixteen; eight advance to the Round of the Elate Eight; four make it to the Faithful Four; two to the Championship; and the winner is awarded the Golden Halo.

(Last year's winner? U.S. Secretary of Labor Frances Perkins won the coveted Golden Halo!)

The first round consists of basic biographical information about each of the 32 saints. Things get a bit more interesting in the subsequent rounds as they offer quotes and quirks, explore legends, and even move into the area of saintly kitsch. 

Today's pairing? Joseph of Arimathea vs. Anna Cooper

Today’s match-up is why Lent Madness can sometimes resemble the theater of the absurd. The Scriptural figure Joseph of Armimathea, who asked Pilate for Jesus’ body in order to give him a proper burial, takes on Anna Cooper, African-American feminist, writer, and academic. The good news? Lent Madness returns after taking a sabbath on the First Sunday in Lent. 

Anna Julia Haywood Cooper was one of the first feminists of the 20th century and a tireless advocate for "neglected people," in particular, African American women. Born in 1858 as the daughter of an enslaved African woman and a white man, likely her master, Cooper transcended the limitations of slavery and the post-Civil War’s Reconstruction.

She attended St. Augustine’s Normal & Technical Institute — now St. Augustine’s University — in Raleigh, N.C. She later studied at Oberlin College in Oberlin, Ohio and graduated in 1884 with a bachelor’s degree and in 1887 with a master’s in mathematics. While at St. Augustine’s, Anna met and married her husband George Cooper, who was preparing for the priesthood. Although he died two years after they married, Cooper pressed forward with her education and career because of her desire to foster the full inclusion of black women in civic life.

Cooper’s passionate belief in the power of education to transform lives led her to serve as a teacher and principal at M Street High School, the only all-black school in Washington, D.C. When her superintendent told Cooper that she should focus on teaching trades to her students instead of science, math, and literature, Cooper unabashedly defied his orders and continued with her original plans. As a result of her firm resolve, M Street’s graduates attended some of the nation’s most prestigious colleges and universities during a time when such opportunities were limited for women and people of color.

Cooper wrote A Voice from the South, in which she argued that black women had a unique voice about the experience of oppression and criticized educational, social, and civic advancements that only favored black men. At the heart of Cooper’s work was a firm belief in the potential of every human being.

Never one to slow down, Cooper adopted five orphaned children in 1915, and she earned her doctorate in history in 1925 at the age of 65 from the University of Paris. Cooper died in 1964 when she was 105 years old.

In 2009, the United States Postal Service issued a stamp in her honor. Pages 26-27 of all United States passports quote Cooper’s passionate beliefs about equality and freedom for all:

"The cause of freedom is not the cause of a race or a sect, a party, or a class—it is the cause of humankind, the very birthright of humanity."

(Thus it is possible to meditate on Lent Madness while waiting in slow-moving immigration lines when you return to the United States from vacationing elsewhere.)

Collect for Anna Julia Haywood Cooper
 

Almighty God, you inspired your servant Anna Julia Haywood Cooper with the love of learning and the skill of teaching: Enlighten us more and more through the discipline of learning, and deepen our commitment to the education of all your children; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen. 

Guess who got our vote?

Unshriven

http://www.etsy.com/shop/pippaloo

Momma is in mourning today because it's Shrove Tuesday and she has to work, so no church pancake supper tonight for her.

Shrove Tuesday is the day preceding Ash Wednesday, the first day of Lent. (Shrove Tuesday is a moveable feast which is determined by Easter.)

Pancakes are associated with Shrove Tuesday because they were a way to use up rich foods such as eggs, milk, and sugar. The liturgical fasting of the 40 days of Lent emphasizes eating plainer food and refraining from food that would give pleasure: in many cultures, this means no meat, dairy products, or eggs.

The word shrove is the past tense of the English verb shrive, which means to obtain absolution for one's sins by way of Confession and doing penance. Thus Shrove Tuesday gets its name from the custom for Christians to be "shriven" before the start of Lent. 

Shrove Tuesday is also the last day of "shrovetide," such as Mardi Gras in New Orleans, and the Carnival tradition that developed in Latin Europe and Latin America.

Miss Navajo

www.missnavajocouncil.org

Phoebe, Clementine and I were quite excited to discover we were in the presence of Navajo royalty when we visited Navajoland last weekend. 

Miss Navajo 1963-1964: Anna Mae Begay Fowler!

Anna Fowler, who is married to The Rev. Jack Fowler, Rector Emeritus of All Saints Church in Farmington, N.M., was one of the most beautiful and gracious women any of us had ever met.

(In fact, we were quite smitten.)

Miss Navajo Nation is a pageant that has been held annually on the Navajo Nation since 1952. The name has changed over the years from Miss Navajo, to Miss Traditional Navajo and Miss Modern Navajo, back to Miss Navajo, to Miss Navajo Nation.

Currently, pageant contestants must be unmarried, over 18 years of age, be a high school graduate, and be able to speak the Navajo language. They compete in such activities such as answering questions about traditional and modern Navajo customs both in Navajo and English, sheep butchering, and performing a contemporary and Navajo cultural talent.

www.missnavajocouncil.org

The role of Miss Navajo Nation is to exemplify the essence and characters of First Woman, White Shell Woman and Changing Woman and to display leadership as the Goodwill Ambassador.

Miss Navajo Nation represents womanhood and fulfills the role of "grandmother, mother, aunt, and sister" to the Navajo people and therefore she can speak as a leader, teacher, counselor, adviser and friend.

www.missnavajocouncil.org

I was fascinated to learn more aboout Anna Fowler, according to the Miss Navajo Council website:

• Hometown: Black Mountain, AZ
• Age during reign: 20
• Education: Intermountain Indian school for Junior High School, Window Rock High School, B.S. in Elementary Education, minor in Early Childhood Education at Univ of New Mexico
• I am (Nishlí): Red Running into the Water Clan (Naasht’ezhi dine’e Tachii’nii)
• Born for (Báshíshchíín): Bitter Water Clan (Todich’ii’nii)
• My Maternal Grandparents are (Dashichei): Salt Clan (Ashiihi)
• My Paternal Grandparents are (Dashinálí): The Water Flow Together Clan (To’aheedliinii)

I was born Dec. 17, 1943, in Black Mountain, Arizona (Chinle). Herded sheep ‘til 8 years old. Then enrolled in Chinle Boarding School, where I continued ‘til sent to Intermountain Indian school (Brigham City, Utah) for Junior High School. After that, I attended high school at Window Rock High School living in the dormitory at Good Shepherd Mission, Fort Defiance, Arizona. It was from there that I competed for Miss Navajo 1963. Later on, I found my future husband at Fort Defiance and married following my reign. These years of our marriage we have raised five children, now all married and who have given us 13 grandchildren. My career as a graduate of UNM in Elementary education has spanned a variety of teachings and administrative positions. Sharing God’s love as a minister's wife has been a satisfying part of my career. My years as Miss Navajo Nation contributed richly in preparing me for my life’s work.

What do you feel were your significant accomplishments during your reign as Miss Navajo Nation? The public relations and goodwill that I accomplished for the Navajo Tribe through my visibility.

What do you feel are your accomplishments in your career? My graduation from University of New Mexico and the success I achieved with early childhood and pre-kindergarten children.

What is your greatest accomplishment? Motherhood and grandmotherhood which I am accomplishing.

What do you feel are your accomplishments in your life? Teaching for modern living and teaching the tradition of the Navajo people in school and outside the school setting. Understanding and accepting the two cultures that I live in that I can get along with the other culture and people. Using my god-given gifts as a mother and grandmother to help my children and grandchildren to cope in this world.

What are your fondest memories of your reign as Miss Navajo Nation? I was attendant to the Sun Bowl Queen in El Paso, Texas along with several other royalties. My Clearwater and St. Petersburg (Florida) trip when I received the key to the City of St. Petersburg from the Mayor and the pride that I felt in sharing information about my people.

What challenges did you face as Miss Navajo Nation? I was trying to finish high school at the same time during my reign, but made it with a lot of studying on my part.

What was your greatest learning experience during your reign as Miss Navajo Nation? That I can be a winner and believe in myself and that I can reach my life goals. Interacting with people different than myself helped improved my self-image.

What was required of you when you were running for Miss Navajo Nation? Commitment and persistence to improve my skills in both modern and traditional categories as I was the first to compete in both. In the traditional, the weaving, spinning and carding for a rug and sung a song, jokes. Modern; typing, sewing and public speaking.

What is your advice to future Miss Navajo Nations? To make sure full backing of family and friends first as well as a good sponsor. Even if you don’t win, the experience in worth it. Go for it!

I'll bet Phoebe's Momma won't get to meet the Queen of England while she's in Great Britain!

Fancy that

Oh boy, we got to attend a Gourd Dance tonight!

First we attended a banquet with many delicious foods, including traditional Navajo fry bread and mutton stew.

Then they danced!

The Gourd Dance is a Native American celebration dance and ceremony that originated with another tribe, not the Navajo.

The Master of Ceremonies tonight told us that four men went off to war, but one became ill so the others went for help. They heard an unusual sound coming from the other side of a hill, where they saw a red wolf singing and dancing on its hind legs. The wolf spoke to them and told them to take the songs and dances back to The People. A "howl" at the end of each Gourd Dance song is a tribute to the red wolf.

Veterans or their families traditionally do the gourd dance, but women can do the Shawl Dance around them. Most of the women were wearing plain street clothes, but their beautiful shawls reminded me of Kaya's Fancy Shawl Outfit of Today.

The women's Shawl Dance represents the opening of a cocoon when the butterfly emerges. The shawl is frequently the most extravagant piece of their wardrobe.

Fancy dance was originally created by Native Americans in the 1920s and 1930s in an attempt to preserve their culture. Fancy dance was considered appropriate to be performed for visitors to reservations and at "Wild West" shows. But today, fancy dancers can be seen at many powwows across the nation and even the world.

The truth is out there

American  Girl

Phoebe, Clementine, and I are so excited we can hardly stand it.

(So is my big sister.)

We leave Friday for the Navajoland Convocation in Farmington, NM! 

Farmington was settled by the Anasazi Indians in the 7th Century with ruins still visible. The Navajos, Jicarilla Apaches, and Utes moved into the area when the Anasazi left, and part of the region is known in Navajo as "Totah," which means "where three rivers meet."

Although Spanish and American mineral prospecting happened in the area, there were few permanent settlements. In 1868, the Navajo Nation was created taking up the western half of San Juan County, NM.

In 1901 the town was incorporated and named Farmington with a population of 548. The population expanded significantly with construction of a developed road connecting Farmington to U.S. Route 66 and Albuquerque in the 1940s, but the development of Interstate 40 and the 1970s energy crisis resulted in an economic downturn. 

On March 18, 1950, Farmington was the site of a mass Unidentified Flying Object sighting when more than half the town's population reported seeing large objects in the sky flying at rapid speeds.

You can be sure I've got my telescope and binoculars packed!

Tee time

San Marcos Golf Course in 1913.

Golf is so not my thing, but Phin was ecstatic to discover he was in Arizona and immediately set off to find a green.


Golfers have long flocked to Arizona and its sunny skies.  

Perhaps the first golf course was built in 1899 Arizona by a group that later would become the Phoenix Country Club. Their course was a nine-hole layout of dirt fairways and sand "greens" located near what is now Central Avenue and Roosevelt Street.

(Coincidentally, Trinity Episcopal Church needed larger facilities and purchased a parcel of land on Central Avenue and Roosevelt Street. The new site was so far north of Phoenix's business section that it was called "The Episcopal Folly." Building for what is now Trinity Episcopal Cathedral began in 1915. Arizona bishops always had a free Country Club membership until it was refused by Bishop Joseph Harte in 1962 because the Club would not admit African Americans.)

When the San Marcos Hotel opened in 1913 in present-day Chandler it also opened the nine-hole San Marcos Golf Course. One year later nine more holes were added. 

The original course was made of oiled sand with cottonseed meal greens. In 1914, the entire course was planted to rye grass, giving it the distinction of being the first turf course in the entire state of Arizona.

Arizona now has at least 421 golf courses to choose from, so Phin will have plenty of choices.

Once he gets some clubs.

Kissin' cousins

Happy birthday, cousin Daniel Boone!

I discovered last week that Momma is (distantly) related to Daniel Boone!

Depending on which calendar you use, Daniel Boone was born on Oct. 22, 1734 (That's the date he used so I shall, too.). Boone was an American pioneer, explorer, and frontiersman whose exploits made him one of the first folk heroes of the United States.

Daniel Boone's aunt Sarah Boone married Jacob Stover at Christ Church (Episcopal) in Philadelphia, Pa. (This caused quite a scandal since the Boone family was Quaker.)

1. Their daughter (Boone's first cousin) Barbara Stover married Martin Kauffman;
2. Their daughter Anna Kauffman married Johann Brombach;
3. Their daughter Elizabeth Brombach married Abraham Miller;
4. Their daughter Elizabeth Miller married Christian Beery;
5. Their daughter Elizabeth Beery married John Wilson Weltner;
6. Their daughter Elizabeth Roberts Weltner married Captain William Harrison Huls;
7. Their son A.E. Huls married Anna Rebecca Troxell;
8. Their son Fred Huls married Alice Hamilton;
9. Their son Fritz Huls married Patricia Taylor;
10. Their daughter Greta had my Big Sister - and Me!

I knew I got that adventurous spirit somewhere!

They could not take your pride

April 4: Martin Luther King, Jr.
Civil Rights Leader and Martyr, 1968

Martin Luther King, Jr. was born on Jan. 15, 1929, in Atlanta. As the son and grandson of Baptist preachers, he was steeped in the Black Church tradition. To this heritage he added a thorough academic preparation, earning the degrees of B.A., B.D., and Ph.D. in Systematic Theology from Boston University.

In 1954, King became pastor of a church in Montgomery, Alabama. There, Black indignation at inhumane treatment on segregated buses culminated in December, 1955, in the arrest of Rosa Parks for refusing to give up her seat to a white man. King was catapulted into national prominence as the leader of the Montgomery bus boycott. He became increasingly the articulate prophet, who could not only rally the Black masses, but could also move the consciences of Whites.

King founded the Southern Christian Leadership Conference to spearhead non-violent mass demonstrations against racism. Many confrontations followed, most notably in Birmingham and Selma, Alabama, and in Chicago. King’s campaigns were instrumental to the passage of the Civil Rights Acts of 1964, 1965 and 1968. King then turned his attention to economic empowerment of the poor and opposition to the Vietnam War, contending that racism, poverty and militarism were interrelated.

King lived in constant danger: his home was dynamited, he was almost fatally stabbed, and he was harassed by death threats. He was even jailed 30 times; but through it all he was sustained by his deep faith. In 1957, he received, late at night, a vicious telephone threat. Alone in his kitchen he wept and prayed. He relates that he heard the Lord speaking to him and saying, “Martin Luther, stand up for righteousness, stand up for justice,” and promising never to leave him alone—“No, never alone.” King refers to his vision as his “Mountain-top Experience.”

After preaching at Washington Cathedral on March 31, 1968, King went to Memphis in support of sanitation workers in their struggle for better wages. There, he proclaimed that he had been “to the mountain-top” and had seen “the Promised Land,” and that he knew that one day he and his people would be “free at last.” On the following day, April 4, he was cut down by an assassin’s bullet.

Almighty God, by the hand of Moses your servant you led your people out of slavery, and made them free at last: Grant that your Church, following the example of your prophet Martin Luther King, may resist oppression in the name of your love, and may secure for all your children the blessed liberty of the Gospel of Jesus Christ; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

A visit from St. Nicholas of Myra

Today The Episcopal Church and I would like to remember St. Nicholas. Very little is known about the life of Nicholas, except that he suffered torture and imprisonment during the persecution under the Emperor Diocletian. It is possible that he was one of the bishops attending the First Ecumenical Council of Nicaea in 325. He was honored as a saint in Constantinople in the sixth century by the Emperor Justinian. His veneration became immensely popular in the West after the supposed removal of his body to Bari, Italy, in the late 11th century. In England almost 400 churches were dedicated to him.

Nicholas is famed as the traditional patron of seafarers and sailors, and, more especially, of children. As a bearer of gifts to children, his name was brought to America by the Dutch colonists in New York, from whom he is popularly known as Santa Claus. ("Santa Claus" comes from the Dutch Sinterklaas.)

Almighty God, in your love you gave your servant Nicholas of Myra a perpetual name for deeds of kindness both on land and sea: Grant, we pray, that your Church may never cease to work for the happiness of children, the safety of sailors, the relief of the poor, and the help of those tossed by tempests of doubt or grief; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Aloha ʻoe

Today my friend Kanani and I remember King Kamehameha IV and his wife Emma of Hawai'i.

Within a year of ascending the throne in 1855, the 20-year-old King Kamehameha IV and his bride, Emma Rooke, embarked on the path of altruism and unassuming humility for which they have been revered by their people. The year before, Honolulu, and especially its native Hawaiians, had been horribly afflicted by smallpox. The people, accustomed to a royalty which ruled with pomp and power, were confronted instead by a king and queen who went about, “with notebook in hand,” soliciting from rich and poor the funds to build a hospital. Queen’s Hospital, named for Emma, is now the largest civilian hospital in Hawai'i.

In 1860, the king and queen petitioned the Bishop of Oxford to send missionaries to establish the Anglican Church in Hawai'i. The king’s interest came through a boyhood tour of England where he had seen, in the stately beauty of Anglican liturgy, a quality that seemed attuned to the gentle beauty of the Hawaiian spirit. England responded by sending The Rt. Rev. Thomas N. Staley and two priests. They arrived on Oct. 11, 1862, and the king and queen were confirmed a month later, on Nov. 28, 1862. They then began preparations for a cathedral and school, and the king set about to translate the Book of Common Prayer and much of the Hymnal.

Kamehameha’s life was marred by the tragic death of his 4-year-old son and only child, in 1863. He seemed unable to survive his sadness, although a sermon he preached after his son’s death expresses a hope and faith that is eloquent and profound. His own death took place only a year after his son’s, in 1864. Emma declined to rule; instead, she committed her life to good works. She was responsible for schools, churches, and efforts on behalf of the poor and sick. She traveled several times to England and the Continent to raise funds, and became a favorite of Queen Victoria’s. Archbishop Longley of Canterbury, remarked upon her visit to Lambeth: “I was much struck by the cultivation of her mind … But what excited my interest most was her almost saintly piety.”

The Cathedral was completed after Emma died. It was named St. Andrew’s in memory of the king, who died on that saint’s day. Among the Hawaiian people, Emma is still referred to as “our beloved Queen.”

Their successor, Kamehameha V, was the last of his dynasty. In 1893 Queen Lili'uokalani (who wrote the song Aloha ʻOe) was deposed and a republic proclaimed. The United States annexed the Republic of Hawai'i in 1898 and Hawai'i was made a territory in 1900 and a State in 1959.

O Sovereign God, who raised up (King) Kamehameha (IV) and (Queen) Emma to be rulers in Hawai'i, and didst inspire and enable them to be diligent in good works for the welfare of their people and the good of thy Church: Receive our thanks for their witness to the Gospel; and grant that we, with them, may attain to the crown of glory that fadeth not away; through Jesus Christ our Savior and Redeemer, who with thee and the Holy Spirit liveth and reigneth, one God, for ever and ever.

The day the muses died

Between Heaven and Hell

On Nov. 22, 1963 three influential men and authors died: author Aldous Huxley, U.S. President John F. Kennedy, and author C. S. Lewis.

The world was so shattered by Kennedy's assassination that the other deaths were barely noted at the time, so I thought I'd take a moment to think of all three.

Huxley was an English writer best known for his novels including Brave New World and a wide-ranging output of essays. Huxley also edited the magazine Oxford Poetry, and published short stories, poetry, travel writing, and film stories and scripts. Huxley spent the later part of his life in the United States, living in Los Angeles from 1937 until his death.

Kennedy was the 35th President of the United States, serving from 1961 until his assassination in 1963. He was the youngest elected to the office and the first president to have been born in the 20th century. Kennedy is the only Catholic president, and is the only president to have won a Pulitzer Prize. Events during his presidency included the Bay of Pigs Invasion, the Cuban Missile Crisis, the building of the Berlin Wall, the Space Race, the African American Civil Rights Movement and early stages of the Vietnam War.

Lewis, known to his friends and family as "Jack," was a novelist, academic, medievalist, literary critic, essayist, lay theologian and Christian apologist. He is known for his fictional work, especially The Screwtape Letters, The Chronicles of Narnia and The Space Trilogy.

Today The Episcopal Church and I remember Lewis:

O God of searing truth and surpassing beauty, we give thee thanks for Clive Staples Lewis, whose sanctified imagination lighteth fires of faith in young and old alike. Surprise us also with thy joy and draw us into that new and abundant life which is ours in Christ Jesus, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

I was fascinated to find this book by Peter Kreeft, Between Heaven and Hell: A Dialog Somewhere Beyond Death with John F. Kennedy, C. S. Lewis & Aldous Huxley:

On November 22, 1963, three great men died within a few hours of each other: C.S. Lewis, John F. Kennedy and Aldous Huxley. All three believed, in different ways, that death is not the end of human life. Suppose they were right, and suppose they met after death. How might the conversation go? Peter Kreeft imagines their discourse as a modern Socratic dialog--a part of The Great Conversation that has been going on for centuries. Does human life have meaning? Is it possible to know about life after death? What if one could prove that Jesus was God? Combining logical argument and literary imagination, Kreeft portrays Lewis as a Christian theist, Kennedy as a modern humanist and Huxley as an Eastern pantheist. Their interaction involves not only good thinking but good drama.

Sounds fascinating and the premise (of course) reminds me of Lewis' own The Screwtape Letters.

It was a dark and stormy night....

WARNING: Do not read if you can't accept silliness in its proper context.

I know it's not Talk Like a Pirate Day anymore, but I believe I have found a series o' 10 books (for now) t' include in me floatin' bookmobile.

Oops, sorry.

The Liturgical Mysteries by Mark Schweizer. Have you read them?

Li-tur-gi-cal mys-te-ry n.

1. A religious truth that is incomprehensible to reason and knowable only through divine revelation.
2. Any one of a series of absurd novels featuring choir-director/detective Hayden Konig.

I had never heard of them until a friend (He Who Shall Remain Nameless) shared with me The Pirate Eucharist - from the fourth book, The Soprano Wore Falsettos.

I mean, who can resist this:

Arr Father in heaven, hallow’d be yar Name, yar kingdom come, yar will be done, on arth as in heaven. Give us today arr daily ration. Fergive us arr sins as we fergive those scurvy dogs who sneak up behind us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. Far thine be the kingdom, and the pow’r, and the glory, farever and ever. Aye, aye.

You can even hear an excerpt HERE.

Just the fact that Schweizer has had the distinction of receiving a Dishonorable Mention in the Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest makes me a fan!

Being proper I shall start with the first, The Alto Wore Tweed. I'll let you know how it goes.

How beautiful the hands

While wandering around Washington, D.C. this week (between earthquakes and hurricanes) I couldn't help but notice the beautiful hands on the Abraham Lincoln memorial.

Monument theorists have suggested that the Abraham Lincoln Memorial Statue is using sign language to represent the letters A (left hand) and L (right hand). The National Park Service says this is an urban legend, but historian Gerald Prokopowicz writes that it is possible that sculptor Daniel Chester French intended Lincoln's hands to be formed into sign language versions of his initials.

French was familiar with American Sign Language since he had a deaf son and he would have had a reason to pay tribute to Lincoln for signing the federal legislation giving Gallaudet University, a university for the deaf, the authority to grant college degrees.

Coincidentally, the Episcopal Church remembers two important leaders for the deaf today in Holy Women, Holy Men.

Thomas Gallaudet was born in 1822, in Hartford, Connecticut. His mother, Sophia was deaf, and his father, Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet, was the founder of the West Hartford School for the deaf, which was the principal institution for the education of the deaf in America from 1806 to 1857 (the year of the founding of Gallaudet College in Washington, D.C.). The father had intended to become a priest, but had become an educator of the deaf instead. The son also intended to seek ordination, but was persuaded by his father to work for a while first as a teacher of the deaf. He did, and so met and married Miss Elizabeth Budd, who was deaf. He was ordained in 1851, and the next year established St. Ann's Church in New York, especially for deaf persons, with services primarily in sign language. As a result of his work, congregations for the deaf were established in many cities. (Alternatively, some congregations that are mostly hearing will have someone standing near the front and signing the service for the benefit of deaf parishioners.) Gallaudet died Aug. 27, 1902.

One of Gallaudet's students and parishioners was Henry Winter Syle, deaf from an early age, who had attended Trinity College (Hartford, Conn), St. John's (Cambridge, England), and Yale. Gallaudet encouraged him to become a priest, and in 1876 he became the first deaf person to be ordained by the Episcopal Church in the United States. He established a congregation for the deaf in 1888, and died Jan. 6, 1890.

This fragile earth, our island home

I am So Thankful no one was Seriously Injured, but oh, how I loath seeing historic sites damaged.

Washington Monument. Mathew Brady, 1860

The 5.8-magnitude quake near Washington, D.C., that toppled capstones from the National Cathedral and cracked the Washington Monument also damaged a Virginia church where Robert E. Lee once worshiped.

The epicenter of Tuesday's quake was northwest of the former Confederate capital of  Richmond, Va.

At St. Stephen's Episcopal Church in Culpeper, Va., the quake separated the narthex (lobby) from the nave (the main body of the church) and the building has been condemned, according to the Richmond-based Diocese of Virginia.

Lee and Gen. J.E.B. Stuart worshiped there in June 1863 before the Army of Northern Virginia marched toward Gettysburg.

Sadly, most of these churches, including the National Cathedral, have discovered they are not covered by earthquake insurance. Damage at the Washington National Cathedral alone is estimated in the millions of dollars.

Darth Vader safe and sound at National Cathedral

Skip the jokes.

The highest elevated point of Washington, D.C., the "Gloria in Excelsis" central tower of Washington National Cathedral, sustained significant damage in the 5.8-magnitude earthquake that struck Tuesday, Aug. 23.

However, Darth Vader is safe and sound, as far as I know.

According to the Cathedral's Twitter account, "We've checked, and Darth Vader appears to be okay." 

Yes, Darth Vader.

In the 1980s, while the west towers were under construction, Washington National Cathedral held a decorative sculpture competition for children. Word of the competition was spread nationwide through National Geographic World Magazine. The third-place winner was Christopher Rader, with his drawing of that fearful villain, Darth Vader. The fierce head was sculpted by Jay Hall Carpenter, carved by Patrick J. Plunkett, and placed high upon the northwest tower of the Cathedral.

The Force is strong with this one. 

Mason Foreman Joe Alonso is currently assessing the damage to the Cathedral building with the help of other Cathedral stonemasons and structural engineers.

Three of four pinnacles (corner spires) on the central tower have been damaged. Specifically, three "finials" (capstones shaped like fleurs-de-lys) have fallen from them, with more significant damage to two of the pinnacles. Similar decorative elements on the Cathedral's exterior also appear to be damaged. Cracks have appeared in the flying buttresses around the apse at the Cathedral's east end, the first portion of the building to be constructed, but the buttresses supporting the central tower seem to be sound.

No individuals were injured either within the Cathedral or on its grounds. Despite some cracks on upper floors in the interior, no damage to the stained-glass windows has been reported. The building has been closed to visitors until further notice.

The Protestant Episcopal Cathedral Foundation erected the cathedral (officially named the Cathedral Church of Saint Peter and Saint Paul) under a charter passed by the U.S. Congress on Jan. 6, 1893.

Construction began on Sept. 29, 1907, when the foundation stone was laid in the presence of President Theodore Roosevelt and ended 83 years later when the last finial was placed in the presence of President George H. W. Bush in 1990. The foundation operates and funds the cathedral, which is not funded by the U.S. government.

It is the sixth largest cathedral in the world, the second largest in the United States, and the fourth tallest structure in Washington, D.C. 

Coincidentally, the National Park Service says the memorials and monuments, including the new Martin Luther King, Jr. memorial, were evacuated immediately after the quake.

I hope it wasn't something I said or did....

We are indelibly and unspeakably one

Daniels with an unknown child.

One of the advantages of time travel is you can learn about many amazing people. One is Jonathan Myrick Daniels, a white Episcopal seminarian who died on Aug. 20, 1965 while saving the life of 16-year-old Ruby Sales, a black girl.

She went on to attend Episcopal Theological School (now Episcopal Divinity School) in Massachusetts where Daniels attended, and has worked as a human rights advocate in Washington, D.C. as well as founding an inner-city mission dedicated to Daniels.

Jonathan Myrick Daniels
Seminarian and Witness for Civil Rights, 1965

Jonathan Myrick Daniels was born in Keene, New Hampshire, in 1939. He was shot and killed by an unemployed highway worker in Hayneville, Alabama, August 14, 1965.

From high school in Keene to graduate school at Harvard, Jonathan wrestled with the meaning of life and death and vocation. Attracted to medicine, the ordained ministry, law and writing, he found himself close to a loss of faith when his search was resolved by a profound conversion on Easter Day 1962 at the Church of the Advent in Boston. Jonathan then entered the Episcopal Theological School in Cambridge, Massachusetts. In March 1965, the televised appeal of Martin Luther King, Jr. to come to Selma to secure for all citizens the right to vote drew Jonathan to a time and place where the nation’s racism and the Episcopal Church’s share in that inheritance were exposed.

He returned to seminary and asked leave to work in Selma where he would be sponsored by the Episcopal Society for Cultural and Racial Unity. Conviction of his calling was deepened at Evening Prayer during the singing of the Magnificat: “‘He hath put down the mighty from their seat and hath exalted the humble and meek. He hath filled the hungry with good things.’ I knew that I must go to Selma. The Virgin’s song was to grow more and more dear to me in the weeks ahead.”

Jailed on August 14 for joining a picket line, Jonathan and his companions were unexpectedly released. Aware that they were in danger, four of them walked to a small store. As 16-year-old Ruby Sales reached the top step of the entrance, a man with a gun appeared, cursing her. Jonathan pulled her to one side to shield her from the unexpected threats. As a result, he was killed by a blast from the 12-gauge gun.

The letters and papers Jonathan left bear eloquent witness to the profound effect Selma had upon him. He writes, “The doctrine of the creeds, the enacted faith of the sacraments, were the essential preconditions of the experience itself. The faith with which I went to Selma has not changed: it has grown. . . . I began to know in my bones and sinews that I had been truly baptized into the Lord’s death and resurrection. . . with them, the black men and white men, with all life, in him whose Name is above all the names that the races and nations shout. . . .We are indelibly and unspeakably one.”

Lesser Feasts and Fasts - 2003
pages 334-335

I highly recommend Outside Agitator: Jon Daniels and the Civil Rights Movement in Alabama, by Charles W. Eagles (University of North Carolina Press, 1993; ISBN: 0807844209).

The Lady with the Lamp

Today The Episcopal Church and I remember nurse Florence Nightingale. Nursing roles and education were first defined by Nightingale, following her experiences caring for the wounded in the Crimean War (October 1853 – February 1856). Prior to this, nursing was frequently done by women of little or no means (such as prostitutes) and thought to be a trade with few skills or standards. 

From Holy Women, Holy Men:

Florence Nightingale was born in Florence, Italy, on May 12, 1820. She was trained as a nurse at Kaiserwerth (1851) and Paris and in 1853 became superintendent of a hospital for invalid women in London. In response to God’s call and animated by a spirit of service, in 1854 she volunteered for duty during the Crimean War and recruited 38 nurses to join her. With them she organized the first modern nursing service in the British field hospitals of Scutari and Balaclava. By imposing strict discipline and high standards of sanitation she radically reduced the drastic death toll and rampant infection then typical in field hospitals. She returned to England in 1856 and a fund of £50,000 was subscribed to enable her to form an institution for the training of nurses at St. Thomas’s Hospital and at King’s College Hospital. Her school at St. Thomas’s Hospital became significant in helping to elevate nursing into a profession. She devoted many years to the question of army sanitary reform, to the improvement of nursing and to public health in India. Her main work, Notes on Nursing, 1859, went through many editions.

An Anglican, she remained committed to a personal mystical religion which sustained her through many years of poor health until her death in 1910. Until the end of her life, although her illness prevented her from leaving her home, she continued in frequent spiritual conversation with many prominent church leaders of the day, including the local parish priest who regularly brought Communion to her. By the time of her death on Aug. 13, 1910, her reputation as a healer and holy person had assumed mythical proportions, and she is honored throughout the world as the founder of the modern profession of nursing.

Collect of the Day

Life-giving God, you alone have power over life and death, over health and sickness: Give power, wisdom, and gentleness to those who follow the lead of Florence Nightingale, that they, bearing with them your presence, may not only heal but bless, and shine as lanterns of hope in the darkest hours of pain and fear; through Jesus Christ, the healer of body and soul, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen. 

During the Crimean war, Nightingale gained the nickname "The Lady with the Lamp," deriving from a phrase in a report in The Times:

She is a ‘ministering angel’ without any exaggeration in these hospitals, and as her slender form glides quietly along each corridor, every poor fellow's face softens with gratitude at the sight of her. When all the medical officers have retired for the night and silence and darkness have settled down upon those miles of prostrate sick, she may be observed alone, with a little lamp in her hand, making her solitary rounds.

The phrase was further popularized by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's 1857 poem "Santa Filomena":

Lo! in that house of misery
A lady with a lamp I see
Pass through the glimmering gloom,
And flit from room to room.

I am certain Nightingale and her Notes on Nursing had an effect upon Mary Mahoney (April 16, 1845 – Jan. 4, 1926) who was the first professionally trained African American nurse in the United States. Of the 42 students admitted to the New England Hospital for Women and Children nursing program, Mahoney was one of four who graduated on Aug. 1, 1879.

In 1908, she co-founded the National Association of Colored Graduate Nurses which merged with the American Nurses Association in 1951.

Something to Bragg about

Those Episcopalians are on a roll! Two black men commemorated in one day!!

George Freeman Bragg, Jr., Priest, 1940

An historian whose work gives us invaluable insight into the early history of African Americans in the Episcopal Church, George Freeman Bragg served for 35 years as the secretary of the Conference for Church Workers Among the Colored People and authored important studies such as A History of the Afro-American Group of The Episcopal Church and Richard Allen and Absalom Jones.

The grandson of a slave, Bragg was born into an Episcopalian family in Warrenton, N.C. in 1863. As a young man he campaigned for the Readjuster Party in Virginia, which advocated for voting rights and state supported higher education for African-Americans. He was the editor of the influential black weekly paper The Lancet, which he renamed the Afro-American Churchman upon his entrance into divinity school in 1885. Through this paper, Bragg called attention to the fact that African Americans were treated as recipients of mission work but were not supported in raising up self-sustaining institutions that would have fostered their presence in the church.

George Bragg was ordained a deacon in 1887 in Norfolk, Va. He challenged the diocese’s policy of requiring black men to remain in deacon’s orders for five or more years, much longer than their white counterparts, and in 1888 he was ordained a priest. He served as the rector of St. James’ First African Church in Baltimore for 49 years, from 1891 until his death in 1940. He helped establish the Maryland Home for Friendless Colored Children, and did not cease in his advocacy for black Episcopalians and their full inclusion in the larger life of the church. He vehemently challenged the exclusion of African Americans from the church’s society for mission work. He was instrumental in fostering more than 20 priestly vocations in an environment in which black Episcopalians were often left to fend for themselves without the support and resources of the larger church.

Almighty God, we thank you for the strength and courage of George Freeman Bragg, who rose from slavery to freedom, documented African-American history, and helped to found the first advocacy group for black people. Grant that we may tell the story of your wondrous works in ways that proclaim your justice in our own time, to the glory of Jesus Christ; who with you and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

William Edward Burghardt DuBois, Sociologist, 1963

William Edward Burghardt Dubois was born in 1868 in Great Barrington, Mass. As a young man he had already developed a deep concern for the advancement of his race, and at 15, he began to advocate for black Americans in his capacity as the local correspondent for the New York Globe.

In 1896, following the completion of his doctoral degree, Dubois received a fellowship to conduct research in the seventh ward slums of Philadelphia. His work with the urban black population there marked the first scientific approach to sociological study, and for that reason, Dubois is hailed as the father of Social Science.

In 1903, while teaching at Atlanta University, he published his book The Souls of Black Folks, in which he outlined his philosophical disagreement with important figures such as Booker T. Washington, who argued that Black people should forego political equality and civil rights and focus instead on industrial evolution. DuBois believed instead in the higher education of a “talented tenth” whose education would naturally help other African Americans achieve.

In 1906, he sought others to aid him in his efforts toward “organized determination and aggressive action on the part of men who believe in Negro freedom and growth.” The result was the so-called “Niagara Movement” (named for the group’s first meeting site, which was shifted to Canada when they were prevented from meeting in the U.S.), the objectives of which were to advocate civil justice and oppose discrimination. In 1909, most of the group members merged with white supporters and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People was formed. DuBois advanced his causes, sometimes at odds with the white leadership of the NAACP, in the magazine Crisis.

A leading participant in several Pan-African meetings, DuBois renounced his American citizenship and moved to Ghana, where he died in 1963, on the eve of the March on Washington. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. wrote of DuBois, “His singular greatness lay in his quest for truth about his own people. There were very few scholars who concerned themselves with honest study of the black man and he sought to fill the immense void.”

Gracious God, we thank you for the witness of William Edward Burghardt DuBois, passionate prophet of civil rights, whose scholarship advanced the dignity of the souls of black folk; and we pray that we, like him, may use our gifts to do justice in the Name of Jesus Christ our Liberator and Advocate; who with you and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns, one God for ever and ever. Amen.