Service of Repentance for Slavery
Saturday, October 30, 2010
Bishop's Address
by the Rt. Rev. Wayne Wright, Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Delaware
Your eyes are the lamp of your body. When your eyes are open, your whole body is full of light. When your eyes are closed, you are full of blindness. See to it then that your eyes are open!
- Luke 11:34-35
Since my father’s recent death I have become a family historian. My mother gave me a collection of mementoes including portraits of my great-grandparents – Jacob Henry Parker and Priscilla Simpson Parker. Their stern, formal Victorian photographs don’t reveal the love and respect that my grandmother had for them. As a little boy I remember seeing the photographs hanging in a place of honor over the mantel in my grandparent’s home. We were taught to love and respect our ancestors. My middle name is Parker.
When I viewed the documentary, Traces of the Trade, I remembered that my own family history is not that different from filmmaker Katrina Brown’s. My great-grandparents were both born in the 1840s in North Carolina. They lived their entire lives there. The Parkers were slaveholders. My great-grandfather served in the Confederate Army. In the years following Reconstruction, Henry Jacob Parker was elected to the North Carolina House of Representatives. He was one of a generation of leaders who erected the system of Jim Crow laws legalizing segregation and discrimination. This heritage is a part of my family history.
In much the same way we love our Church. We know about its blessings, generosity, and ministry of caring. We have spoken about them often. At the same time we are grateful to Diocesan Committee on Slavery & the Episcopal Church in Delaware for their leadership and to everyone who watched Traces of the Trade.
We have learned how the early missionaries who brought us the Gospel from Europe were supported in their ministries by money made from the labor of slaves in Caribbean sugar plantations. We know that many of our earliest church buildings were built by slaves and that congregations provided slaves to our some of our clergy. We have discovered that the earliest fortunes in this city and state were gained from the labor of slaves growing wheat – not cotton, or tobacco, or sugar, but wheat – the Bread of Life – brought to large flour mills here in Wilmington. We know that Episcopalians used Holy Scripture to justify slaveholding and Jim Crow laws enforcing segregation and legalized discrimination.
“Your eyes,” Jesus said, “are the Lamp of your Body.” What we have learned has opened our eyes, opened our blind eyes. We see our past, our present, and our future in a new way. This is where repentance begins. We see things differently. “Open, O Lord, the eyes of my heart!” is the prayer of the penitent.
The most powerful New Testament moments are those precious encounters with Jesus as the Living God. What did the man born blind say? “All I know is that whereas once I was blind, now I see.” This is the Light of Christ that quickens conscience, changes our minds, and empowers our will.
As descendents and inheritors of a cruel and unjust history, today we take responsibility for it. Racism, prejudice, and bias continue to haunt us, impair our relationships, and stunt human potential.
Take a walk. Look at our neighborhoods. The distance between haves and have-nots is just too great, and it continues to grow. We spend so much on prisons here in Delaware, while campaigning politicians claim we are wasting money on our schools. Social statistics and personal testimony bear witness to a lack of opportunity and access to the many blessings of this life.
This is the distorted heritage of a world that the slaveholders made, and it is our world too. But, this is not the world that God intends. It is not what it means to respect the dignity of every human being. To repent is to see the world with different eyes, to take responsibility for it, and to make a commitment to a new way of life.
What did the blessed Apostle Paul say? “Be ye transformed by the renewal of your minds.” A new life requires new ways of thinking. For us, as a church, this will mean continuing study, dialogue, and reflection on the sin of racism – our role and our responsibility. It will mean cultivating and respecting inclusion and diversity – as individuals and as institutions.
We say the Episcopal Church welcomes you. Now we must mean it! It will mean committing ourselves to lead lives that are compassionate, generous, and just. We will make our voices heard in offices, the polling places, and in the public square.
It is not too much to say that our salvation hinges on these things. You know the words to the old song:
“Amazing grace how sweet the sound,
that saved a wretch like me,
I once was lost, but now I’m found,
Was blind, but now I see.”
These are not words of comfort – they are words of challenge. This Light, seen with open eyes, is the Light of Christ. And what did Jesus say about this Light?
“Your eyes are the lamp of your body. When your eyes are open, your whole body is full of light. When your eyes are closed, you are full of blindness. See to it then that your eyes are open!”
Amen