Bearing One Another's Crosses

Dear Calvary-St. George’s,

As we continue the solemn and sacred time of Holy Week, our faith calls us to contemplate those mighty acts whereby the cross we are reconciled to both God and each other. While our faith tells us this is already a reality, unfortunately we live in the tension of a tragic “not yet,” where we continue to see the sin of racial violence rear its ugly face against our brothers and sisters in the Asian American and Pacific Islander community. As a church, this Holy Week we join our voice with the Psalmist and cry out, “How long O Lord? How long must I take counsel in my soul and have sorrow in my heart all day?”  

The hateful rhetoric around the global pandemic, the senseless murders in Georgia, and the acts of violence in our own city are part of a long history of oppression and violence against AAPI communities in the United States. Amongst some there is a narrative that these communities are “perpetual foreigners” who do not really belong in this country. This is abhorrent to all we stand for at Calvary-St.George’s. Diversity and inclusion are anything but empty buzz words, rather they are actual fruits of the Gospel and are central to our mission. 

Therefore we as your clergy and wardens once again commit ourselves to this mission and in the name of Jesus will stand against the powers and principalities of racism, ethnic discrimination, and misappropriated privilege. Under God there is one race - Human. As your clergy and wardens we commit to stand in solidarity with the AAPI communities and like St. Simon of Cyrene help bear this awful cross by support and listening. Finally, we as your clergy and wardens commit to kneel in prayer and through the preaching of the Gospel, trust that Calvary-St. George’s will continue to be a community which lives into that already resurrected reality that Jesus, through his body, has torn down these dividing walls of hostility and by his blood made us truly one.

Peace,

The Reverend Jacob A. Smith, Rector

The Reverend Ben DeHart, Vicar

The Reverend James Munroe

The Reverend Nancy W. Hanna

M. Scott Peeler Warden

Jennifer Graham Warden