Dear friends,
On this day, the United States commemorates the end of slavery in this nation. It was on June 19, 1865 that Major General Gordon Granger ordered the final enforcement of the Emancipation Proclamation in Texas at the end of the Civil War. While our nation has come a long way since then in the struggle to ensure that justice and equality applies to everyone, we will always have work to do in seeking "a more perfect union."
For Christians, we are called to this work not because of secular ideologies but because God has created all of humanity in his image, redeems us equally at the Cross, and adopts us as heirs of the promise equally. As one of my professors said in a class years ago, if we take baptism and the Eucharist seriously, if we are made members of the household of God together and share the same blood of Christ, are we not called to care for each other - and care about the injuries done to each other - as we would members of our own family? I believe that we are.
Today, I invite each one of us, as members of the Trinity Church family, to pray that God will continue to show us what we may be called to do as Christians to work towards a just society.
Almighty God, who hast created us in thine own image: Grant us grace fearlessly to contend against evil and to make no peace with oppression; and, that we may reverently use our freedom, help us to employ it in the maintenance of justice in our communities and among the nations, to the glory of thy holy Name; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
(Book of Common Prayer, p. 209)
Yours faithfully in Christ,
The Rev. Canon Dr. Kara Slade
Associate Rector