Chain of Fools

St. Mary's, Belleville

The Feast of Saint Mary, the 13th Sunday after Pentecost

August 19, 2018

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A Note of Thanks

A Note of Thanks from Bishop Doyle

Dear Members of the Episcopal Diocese of Texas,

I write today to give special thanks to Bishop Jeff Fisher, Halley Ortiz, Anthony Chappel and Scott Madison for leading our work at General Convention. I am grateful to the many hours that each of them gave to this project. I am grateful to their spouses, friends and family who also helped. I am grateful to Susan Fisher, JoAnne Doyle and Rob Montgomery who helped to organize and support the Bishops’ Spouses and Partners events. And, I am of course thankful to your diocesan staff who did not flinch at the challenge, but gave extra during a time when we were responding to the Hurricane, regular church business/ministry and all the rest to ensure we put our best foot forward.

I am thankful for you. You volunteered, served, helped and showed the rest of the Episcopal Church why I love you so much. You were amazing hosts! More than 1,000 of you joined our deputies and bishops and gave your time and gifts to this project. The churches in the Austin area and their leadership did extra work to support our efforts.

So, as each of us is resting, recovering and relaxing, I stop today to give thanks for the Diocese of Texas. I give thanks for you. Truly, each of you, are part of a great missionary diocese – a great and delightful family of faith. I am so proud to be your bishop. I am so grateful to be your bishop. We are glad that we get to call you our family and Texas our home. So, I pray:

Accept, O Lord, our thanks and praise for all that you have

done for us. We thank you for the splendor of the whole

creation, for the beauty of this world, for the wonder of life,

and for the mystery of love. Especially for your Episcopal

Church and the Diocese of Texas.

We thank you for the blessing of family and friends, and for

the loving care which surrounds us on every side.

We thank you for setting us at tasks which demand our best

efforts, and for leading us to accomplishments which satisfy

and delight us.

We thank you also for those disappointments and failures

that lead us to acknowledge our dependence on you alone.

Above all, we thank you for your Son Jesus Christ; for the

truth of his Word and the example of his life; for his steadfast

obedience, by which he overcame temptation; for his dying,

through which he overcame death; and for his rising to life

again, in which we are raised to the life of your kingdom.

Grant us the gift of your Spirit, that we may know him and

make him known; and through him, at all times and in all

places, may give thanks to you in all things. Amen.

Thank you,

Andy

The Rt. Rev. C. Andrew Doyle, D.D.

Episcopal Bishop Diocesan of Texas

Have a Little Faith in Me

St. John's, Center

July 1, 2018

6th Sunday after Pentecost, year B

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Riders on the Storm

June 24, 2018

Fifth Sunday after Pentecost, Proper 7

St. Luke's, Lindale

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Juneteenth

What is Juneteenth?

Juneteenth, also known as Juneteenth Independence Day or Freedom Day, is a holiday that commemorates the announcement of the abolition of slavery in Texas in June 1865, and more generally the emancipation of African-American slaves throughout the Confederate South. Celebrated on June 19, Juneteenth is recognized as a state holiday or special day of observance in most states. In practice, the Emancipation Proclamation only freed persons held in Confederate States who were either behind the Union lines or close enough to take advantage of the Union advance. Therefore, the news and practice of freeing enslaved people moved slowly. The date marks the moment when the news of the end of the Civil War and the complete emancipation of all slaves was announced in Galveston, TX on June 19, 1865, over two months after the surrender of General Lee at Appomattox Courthouse in Virginia and Two Years after President Lincoln had signed the Emancipation Proclamation and published it on January 1, 1863. We mark this moment as a Church not only as the end of the institution of American slavery, but also in the spirit of reconciliation and new life as we journey together towards togetherness and community.

Litany for Juneteenth – From the African American Heritage Hymnal

Litanist: O Lord, we celebrate your strong hand of deliverance. We have seen your grace in the midst of life’s burdens.

**Lord God of Hosts, on the anniversary of our freedom from slavery, we know that we can do all things through Christ, who strengthens us. (see Phil. 4:13)

Litanist: The Emancipation Proclamation freed African slaves in the United States on New Year’s Day in 1863. But actual freedom for the last slaves did not come until a June day two and a half years later, This Juneteenth milestone reminds us of the triumph of the human spirit.

**Lord God of Hosts, be with us always, as you were with Harriet Tubman.The Constitution once defined African Americans as three- fifths human. But we have labored and died as whole men and women.

**Lord God of Hosts, be with us always, as you were with Frederick Douglas.The Thirteenth Amendment abolished the heinous institution of slavery, but we still struggle against the chains of racial discrimination.

**Lord God of Hosts, be with us always, as you were with Vernon Johns.
The Fourteenth Amendment made us citizens by legislation because our blood, sweat, and tears helped to build this nation.

**Lord God of Hosts, be with us always, as you were with Thurgood Marshall.
The Fifteenth Amendment said we could not be denied the right to vote because of our color; yet we have faced systematic exclusion from the political process, and we continue to struggle for full inclusion.

**Lord God of Hosts, be with us always, as you were with Barbara Jordan.
The Twenty-fourth Amendment abolished poll taxes, voting tests, and other restrictions upon our right to vote; but these soon were replaced by gerrymandering and political apathy.

**Lord God of Hosts, be with us always, as you were with Benjamin Quarles.
The Civil Rights Act of 1964 translated into law most of the goals of the Civil Rights Movement, protecting all citizens from racial segregation and discrimination. Let us remain ever vigilant in our commitment to proactive citizenship.

**Lord God of Hosts, be with us always, as you were with Stokely Carmichael.
Our hopes soar to heights of joy when we remember the emancipation of Nelson Mandela in 1990, and his ascendancy to President of South Africa after twenty-six long years in prison. Blessed are the righteous.

**Lord God of Hosts, be with us always, as you are with Desmond Tutu.
Let us leave behind those sins that pulled us down in the old year, and answer the high calling of your will for our lives in the new year.

**Lord God of Hosts, on the anniversary of our freedom from slavery, we know that we can do all things through Christ, who strengthens us.

Let us ALL pray together: (From the Book of Common Prayer)
O God, you made us in your own image and redeemed us through Jesus your Son: Look with compassion on the whole human family; take away the arrogance and hatred which infect our hearts; break down the walls that separate us; unite us in bonds of love; and work through our struggle and confusion to accomplish your purposes on earth; that, in your good time, all nations and races may serve you in harmony around your heavenly throne; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.