So you all know about the protests yesterday, yes? Maybe you were at one of the many many gatherings across this country that were about saying no to kings, to autocrats, to tyranny of any kind.
This is not a partisan issue. It is about who we are as Americans. Most all of us grew up standing at attention, facing the flag, putting our hands over our hearts and pledging allegiance to the country who values liberty and justice for all. Some of you are veterans who fought to protect this democracy and the world against fascism, and we honor you and the memories of those who laid down their lives for This.
We are also Christians, and our primary allegiance, before country or nationality and certainly before any political party, is to the Kingdom of God, whose citizenship includes our baptismal vow to resist evil and to strive for justice and peace among all people, and respect the dignity of every human being. And so both as Christians and as Americans, we stand up and let our voices be heard. As one teacher’s or mother’s sign said yesterday, It’s time to use our outside voices. And it is encouraging to be in the company of so many, so many others – including others who are in far more dangerous positions than we are. People who have darker skin than most of us do. People who are trying to work and feed their families and pay taxes, and who may or may not have the proper documentation. Politicians who risk not just their careers but increasingly their safety. And I want to pause a moment to send our prayers for the recovery of Minnesota State Senator John Hoffman and his wife after being shot, and pray that the souls of Minnesota State Representative Melissa Hortmann and her husband John, who were politically assassinated may rest in peace and rise in glory. Yes, it is time now to stand up and use our outside voices and to exercise our constitutional rights, again and again and again.
The six California Bishops co-wrote a letter this past week to all the episcopal parishes and missions in California, and our presiding Bishop, Sean Rowe, wrote to the whole Episcopal Church USA, to all of us who follow Jesus in the Episcopal tradition. I’m going to quote from these letters and if you have not yet read them in their entirety, I encourage you to do so.
This one from the six California Bishops:
Bishop John Harvey Taylor, the Episcopal Bishop of Los Angeles, has expressed deep pain and anger as fourteen people in one single Episcopal congregation in that diocese were detained by ICE on Friday. Certainly, we as Episcopalians are shocked and saddened when any of our own are removed from our beloved Community.
In all six of our dioceses, people are concerned and fearful about the denial of due process for those detained and the potential for ICE raids targeting beloved community institutions and people working to support their families. People feel angry and threatened that the haven they sought in our communities is no longer safe. US citizens and legal residents feel deep grief at losing beloved friends and family members. Children whose parents are deported face uncertain futures. In our churches, we strive to protect our members who are at risk.
In the Episcopal Church, we uphold a proud tradition of advocating for civil rights and supporting the vulnerable in our society. We stand for fierce love and for justice that leads to peace, as well as societal practices that preserve human dignity. With God’s help, we will speak and pray on behalf of all in this situation. Bishop Taylor has asked for our prayers for Los Angeles, and we invite all our dioceses to pray for the unfolding situation there as well as for peace and justice in all our communities. We ask that you join us in praying:
“Grant, O God, that your holy and life-giving Spirit may so move every human heart, and especially the hearts of the people of this land, that barriers which divide us may crumble, suspicions disappear, and hatreds cease; that our divisions being healed, we may live in justice and peace; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen (BCP p. 823).”
And from our Presiding Bishop, The Most Rev. Sean Rowe, in its entirety:
Dear people of God in The Episcopal Church:
I am writing to you from Geneva, where I am meeting with global partners at the World Council of Churches and the United Nations Refugee Agency. As we have discussed how our institutions might act faithfully and boldly in these turbulent times, I have been reflecting on how we Episcopalians can respond to what is unfolding around us as followers of the Risen Christ whose first allegiance is to the kingdom of God, not to any nation or political party.
The events of the last several days lend urgency to this spiritual challenge. Earlier this week, President Trump’s executive order banning or restricting travel from 19 countries went into effect. This order impacts countries that are home to dioceses of The Episcopal Church and many of our Anglican Communion partners, and I have written to the bishops and primates in those countries to express our concern.
The unwarranted deployment of the National Guard and U.S. Marine Corps on the streets of Los Angeles also signals a dangerous turn. As the bishops of California have written, these military deployments risk escalating the confrontations unnecessarily and set a dangerous precedent for future deployments that heighten tensions rather than resolve them. As Christians committed to strive for justice and peace among all people, we know that there is a better way. What we are witnessing is the kind of distortion that arises when institutions like the military and the State Department are turned on the people they were meant to protect. These mainstays of the federal government, designed to safeguard civil society and promote peace and stability, are now being weaponized for political advantage.
The violence on television is not our only risk. We are also seeing federal budget proposals that would shift resources from the poor to the wealthy; due process being denied to immigrants; and the defunding of essential public health, social service, and foreign aid programs that have long fulfilled the Gospel mandate to care for the vulnerable, children, and those who are hungry and sick.
With all of this in mind, we are finding ways to respond as Christians to what we see happening around us. We are exploring options to support litigation challenging the travel ban on the ground of religious freedom; advocating for federal spending that safeguards the welfare of the most vulnerable; caring for immigrants and refugees in our congregations and communities; and standing in solidarity with other faith groups. In short, we are practicing institutional resistance rooted not in partisan allegiance, but in Christian conviction.
At its best, our church is capable of moral clarity and resolute commitment to justice. I believe we can bring those strengths to bear on this gathering storm. Churches like ours, protected by the First Amendment and practiced in galvanizing people of goodwill, may be some of the last institutions capable of resisting the injustice now being promulgated. That is not a role we sought—but it is one we are called to.
In Geneva, I have been reminded that we are part of a global communion of hope in the Risen Christ. We do not stand alone as we live by our baptismal promises: to persevere in resisting evil, to strive for justice and peace among all people, and to respect the dignity of every human being. In these troubling times, may we find courage and resilience in our identity as members of the Body of Christ.
Yours in Christ,
The Most Rev. Sean Rowe
Presiding Bishop
The Episcopal Church
And how, my friends, do we live our baptismal promises, even when our hearts may be leaden with despair or fear of the coming storm, and our bodies fearful of being harmed or our friends being hurt? We live our baptismal promises because the Holy Spirit lives in us, God with us, God within us, guiding us, encouraging us, putting us back on our feet when we fall, inspiring us. “When the Spirit of truth comes, Jesus said, he will guide you into all the truth; for he will not speak on his own, but will speak whatever he hears, and he will declare to you the things that are to come.”
And what does the Spirit declare? So much, so, so much. More than any one book or any one person could possibly hold or tell. But it is this Spirit that informs us in the moment as to what is needed to follow the way of Jesus, guides our decision making in the moment as we resist evil and strive for justice and peace among all people. Do we always get it right? No. Our own biases and prejudices and fears and sins get in the way of spiritual clarity – but we keep at it. We keep asking. We keep listening. We keep desiring to go the way of truth and the way of love above all other ways. And the Spirit? Jesus told his disciples will not leave us orphaned. And it is that Spirit who will ensure that we do find the courage and the resilience that our Presiding Bishop desires for us, as well as the moral clarity and resolute commitment to justice that he commends to us as the church.
My friends, I am so so grateful to be an American. I am even more grateful to be a living member of the body of Christ, following Jesus in our time and in our place. May we know that we and all others are created in God’s image, that we Christians bear the marks of Jesus, and that the Holy Spirit indwells us, guiding us always, correcting us as needed, breathing peace into our souls, truth into our minds, and courage into our bodies.
In the name of the One Holy Trinity, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen.
