A Red Letter Day in Black History Month for TEC

 
Today is a pretty amazing day on the calendar. Indeed, it is a Red Letter Day in Black History Month for The Episcopal Church and Anglican Communion.

Let me explain:

On February 11, 1989, Barbara Clementine Harris was consecrated as Bishop Suffragan of The Episcopal Diocese of Massachusetts. I can’t even begin to explain what a monumental event this was in the life of the church.

I mean, she was the first woman in “God’s one, holy, catholic and apostolic church” to be elected and consecrated a bishop. And, that woman was also Black.

That made two major cracks in the Stained Glass Ceiling, and the shock waves reverberated around the Anglican Communion and the world. I remember flags with the symbol of the Episcopal Church being flown upside down, the international distress symbol.

There were anxious discussions at coffee hour and angry protests in front of churches and “Chicken Little” sermons preached from pulpits that declared that The Theological Sky Was Falling and the Anglican Communion would be no more.

You know, the way that was predicted in 1974 at the ordination of the Philadelphia Eleven. And again, when Marriage Equality 2015 was finally achieved in our country and in our church. And, now, even now, in the UK as the Church of England approves the Rites of Blessings for Marriage (but not marriage) of LGBTQ people.

It was ever thus.

I remember that Bishop Barbara had received several death threats, but, in Barbara’s way, she refused to wear a Kevlar vest. “I don’t take this personally,” I remember her saying.

But it was. Personal. Very personal. You can’t get more personal than gender and race. And, the personal is, in fact, political. Which, turns out, is a very dangerous combination.

To wit: On February 11, 1990, one year after Bishop Barbara’s consecration, Nelson Mandela was released from Robben Island prison. He had been incarcerated for 27 years for the political crime of leading the movement to end South African apartheid. Apartheid, of course, is the policy and system of segregation and discrimination on grounds of race – specifically, Black. Or, mixed race.

It doesn’t get more personal than that.

A decade later, on February 11, 2000, Michael Bruce Curry was elected Bishop of North Carolina on the 11th ballot. He wasn’t the first Black man ever to be elected bishop. There had been Bishops Suffragans, of course, who were Black. Indeed, in The Episcopal Church the office of Suffragan is inextricably linked with the struggle of Black Episcopalians for equality and recognition. "

See also: Harold Lewis “The History of Bishops Suffragan in TEC”

As Edward Rodman observed:

"The office of Suffragan Bishop grew out of the controversy of how to deal with "colored work." For in fact, there were those who believed that black suffragans under the authority of white diocesans would be a more effective missionary strategy for managing the growing number of small and primarily rural congregations that were developing in the south after the end of slavery."

Accordingly, at the 1874 General Convention, a proposal was put forward by the Diocese of Texas. requesting the Convention "to appoint a suffragan bishop for the supervision of the freedmen."

However, it would take until 1918 until two Black men, Edward Thomas Demby in Arkansas and Henry Beard Delaney in North Carolina, were consecrated suffragan bishops “for colored work”.

See also: “The Church Archives: Episcopal Passage: The First African American Bishops”

Michael Bruce Curry was the first African American Diocesan Bishop elected in the American South. His election also marked the first time the great-grandson of enslaved people was elected by the great-grandchildren of some slave owners.

Just stop, take a deep breath and wrap your head around that fact for a few minutes and let it sink in.

If you're not a person of color and you’ve been watching The 1619 Project you have some sense of that achievement and the incredible nature of that landmark in time.

In 2015, Michael Curry would become the 27th Presiding Bishop and Primate in the Episcopal Church and the first Black man – indeed, the first person of color – to be elected to that high office.

And so it is that February 11th is a Red Letter Day in Black History Month. On this 11th day of the second and shortest month on the calendar, The Episcopal Church and Anglican Communion hit a trifecta of notable achievements.

Black History Month, for us, is very personal. 

 

And so, yes, it is political. If you are one of those Episcopalians who likes your religion 'pure' and free from politics, well, deal with it.

One of my favorite Nelson Mandela quotes is this: “Lead from the back – and let others believe they are in front.”

Or, as I once heard Ed Rodman say, “I want my fingerprints on everything and my name on nothing.”

That “strategy of the humility of the activist” seems to be the thread of wisdom that ties these three people to each other and to the achievement of the service of sacrificial distinction.

Today, let us take personally and remember and be inspired by their courage and bravery and boldness to be obedient to the call of God to leadership. The world is – we are – better for the gift of their lives and their service.

I can hear all three saying, "To God be the glory."