Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, to all the exiles whom I have sent into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon: Build houses and live in them; plant gardens and eat what they produce. But seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the Lord on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare. —Jeremiah 29: 4-5,7
These verses from Jeremiah have stuck with me since we read them in church on October 13th, the Sunday before Indigenous Peoples’ Day. I’ve been thinking about what it means to be part of a larger community and how we understand our presence, here, now, in this city, on this land. We talk a lot about community at St. John’s, and especially as we look towards renovations of our buildings. It’s a time for us to look to the future, to think about what we want St. John’s to be, not just for us, but for the welfare of the wider community too. This time of transition – a time of planting and building houses – also offers us an opportunity to look at our past, to make sense of the legacy of St. John’s as we hope to carry it into the future.
The story of St. John’s is connected to power and prestige. We were the established Church in the Royal province of New Hampshire. The first royal governor of New Hampshire, Benning Wentworth, was a parishioner and benefactor. He’s buried in our churchyard. Members of the vestry served as councilors in the provincial government. Our churchyard is full of graves with recognizable names of prominent Portsmouth families. The St. John’s we know today is here because of them. It’s natural for us to want to celebrate our generous benefactors and to lift up the names of people with power and prestige who crossed the threshold of the church. But when we focus on the stories of people with power and prominence, what do we miss?
The first Rector of Queen’s Chapel (which became St. John’s after America gained independence) was a slave owner. He lived in a house on Court Street with his two black male slaves. The sign that the Black Heritage Trail of Portsmouth has outside of Thaxter Hall tells the story of “Venus — a black” who was given one dollar by the community on Christmas in 1807. And what of the people who inhabited this land long before there was a Queen’s Chapel or even a Portsmouth, the Abenaki people who’ve lived on this land for 12,000 years? Just a few years before Queen’s Chapel was built in 1732, Lt. Gov. John Wentworth (Benning’s uncle) along with the provincial government placed a 100 pound bounty on the scalp of any Indian, man, woman, or child, further driving the Abenaki people off their traditional lands. Their stories are our stories. They’re written on the landscape and in the DNA of our communities.
As we think about how St. John’s can “seek the welfare of the city,” I hope we can remember to look beyond our walls and the names displayed on them to see the wider community. Jesus spent his life ministering to the exiled, the marginalized, the sick, and the homeless. He went to those who history had left behind. I hope that we will continue to have the courage to reckon with our past and to continually seek the welfare of the city, bring God’s love to every corner of our community.