February 19, 2021
Dear Doubters of Great Faith,
As we begin to unwind and thaw from the Great Freeze, “Sn-ovid” 2021, I hope and pray that you are safe and warm and have your utilities restored, and that your property has emerged unharmed. If any of that is not the case, I hope you will let me or one of the clergy know how we can be of service to engage the love, care, and support of the St. Thomas the Apostle family at this most precarious time.
Please be prayerful for our sisters and brothers around the city and state who are not so fortunate. Many have been left without food, water, and other resources, or homeless. I urge you to look for ways that you can share from what you have, most especially through generosity to organizations such as Episcopal Relief and Development (https://support.episcopalrelief.org/) and the North Texas Food Bank (https://ntfb.org/). These are two ways of many that you can translate resource into direct help immediately.
We mark the beginning of our Lenten journey inward, 40 days of self-reflection and introspection, with the chanting of the Great Litany (in procession, if we were together). It replicates the spiritual journey that we take into ourselves as we consider what it means to be followers of Christ, fellow sojourners on the road to the cross. As Christians, we live in this world, but not of this world. What does that mean, when we are so deeply connected to this world?
In Epiphany, Seminarian Allen Junek facilitated a wonderful course on Christian Evangelism, the process of telling our sacred stories. I want us to use that skill now, during Lent, to look at a particular aspect of our sacred stories, our individual (and then collective) stories of race. What are our stories, past, present, and future, as regards to our own race identities, and the race identities of those around us? We are going to do some deep listening, and some telling of those stories, to see where we have been, where we are, and where we want to go, as individuals, and as the community known as St. Thomas the Apostle.
Over the course of the five weeks of Lent, on Wednesday evenings in Zoom, from 6 – 7 pm, we are going to engage in exercises that help us reflect on our own sacred stories of race. The discussions will be facilitated by Ruth Woodward, Fr. Stephen Waller, and me. We will have guests and videos that provoke and prompt thought and consideration. And we will spend time in small groups, telling and listening to our stories.
We are going to use exercises from Dr. Anneliese A. Singh’s workbook “The Racial Healing Handbook: Practical Activities to Help You Challenge Privilege, Confront Systemic Racism & Engage in Collective Healing” as a guide, but you do not need to purchase or read in advance, unless you would like to do that work. I would encourage you to watch the Netflix documentary “13th” if time allows.
I hope that you will show up with an open mind and a curious heart, ready to explore where you have been, where you are, and where you want to go, with respect to this most important work that we have been called to do. As we move forward in racial healing, it is critical to be able to tell our own stories, and our collective story, as we seek to move into deeper relationship with those who are not us.
I invite you to join us!
Yours on the journey,
Fr. Christopher+
