A service of remembrance and solidarity for victims of the tsunami in South Asia will be held Saturday, February 19, at 3 p.m., at the Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine, in New York City.
The service, which is open to the diocese and community, will offer meditations, prayers and a performance of Faure’s Requiem by a combined Asian chorus from the Metropolitan area.
Donations will be accepted for the relief effort.
For more information visit http://www.dioceseny.org/
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The life and work of Bishop James Theodore Augustus Holly will be remembered as part of the Black History Month service at St. John’s Cathedral, in San Juan, Puerto Rico, on Sunday, February 20.
Holly made history on November 8, 1874 when he was consecrated Haiti's first bishop and the first black bishop of the Episcopal Church.
Holly was ordained a deacon in 1855 and a priest in 1856. During this time, he founded "The Protestant Episcopal Society for Promoting the Extension of the Church Among Colored People" which today is known as the "Union of Black Episcopalians" an organization that encourages the involvement of Black People in the total life of the Church -- on every level and in every way -- mission, stewardship, evangelism, education, sharing, liberation, empowerment, leadership, governance and politics.
Holly was also the first black bishop present at a Lambeth Conference. He contributed to many different publications, i.e. "The Voice of the Fugitive", "The Church Eclectic", "The African Methodist Review" and established several primary schools, a school of agricultural studies and a school for medical work in Haiti.
Presiding at Sunday’s service will be Canon Wilner Millien of Haiti and Bishop Telesforo Isaac of the Dominican Republic will preach.
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Note: The following titles are available from the Episcopal Book/Resource Center, 815 Second Avenue, New York, NY 10017; 800.334.7626 or 212.716.6118 http://www.episcopalbookstore.org/
To Read: RACING ACROSS THE LINES: Changing race relations through friendship by Deborah L. Plummer (Cleveland, Ohio: The Pilgrim Press, 2004: 127 pages; $16.00.)
From the publisher: In Racing Across the Lines, Plummer offers a valuable personal testament to her journeys across America’s racial divide. But more than that, she provides a thoughtful look at the importance of interracial relationships and at the possibilities they offer all of us. In this America of the 21st Century, as Plummer makes clear, Americans no longer have the luxury of being racial isolationists. Our well-being as a nation may well depend on our ability to forge relationships across racial and ethnic lines. For those searching for a path that leads to a brighter, more enlightened tomorrow, Plummer is a most reliable guide.” - Ellis Cose, author of The Rage of a Privileged Class, Bone to Pick, and Color-Blind.
Deborah L. Plummer is professor of psychology and director of the Diversity Management Program at Cleveland State University.
To Read: THIS FAR BY FAITH by Juan Williams and Quinton Dixie (New York, New York: Amistad of Harper Collins Publisher, 2003: 326 pages; $15.95 [50% off])
From the publisher: Hailed upon publication as a beautiful, seminal book on the role of the church in the African American community as well as on the social history of America, This Far by Faith reveals the deep religious conviction that empowered a people viewed as powerless to blaze a path to freedom and deliverance, to stand and be counted in this one nation under God. Here are the stories of politics, tent revivals, and the importance of black churches as touchstones for every step of the faith journey that became the Civil Rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s.
Juan Williams is senior correspondent for National Public Radio and a political analyst for television’s Fox News. In addition to a twenty-three year career as a reporter and a columnist for the Washington Post, he is the author of the critically acclaimed biography Thurgood Marshall: American Revolutionary and the best-selling Eyes on the Prize: America’s Civil Rights Years 1954-1965, the companion volume to the award-winning PBS series.
Quinton Dixie, Ph.d., is a professor of religious studies at Indiana University. He studied at Michigan State University and the Union Theological Seminary in New York.
