Tuesday, February 16, 2021
Sacred Ground
Meg Moran
One of the controversial occurrences during the 2020 presidential race was the campaign event the Trump team scheduled on Juneteenth in Tulsa, site of the Black Wall Street massacre in 1921. At the time I knew almost nothing about the history of the Tulsa massacre and the making of Juneteenth as a holiday celebrating the end of slavery. While participating in the Sacred Ground program, I realized I’ve known almost nothing about so much more U.S. history, despite my lifelong interest in history – U.S. history in particular. What we learned during the Sacred Ground program was so enriching, enlightening, and humbling. Every time we gathered after reviewing the course materials, at least one of us would share that s/he’d had no idea of the particular aspects of U.S. history we’d studied for that week’s meeting, and the rest of the group would be nodding in agreement about that. There were no experts (except maybe Nathan and Anne!), and we all journeyed together along a truly spiritual course of study and new self-awareness, meanwhile making new friends and becoming inspired to do more as a group. What a gift this program has been!
The Rev. Anne Williamson
As the saying goes, you don’t know what you don’t know, and I didn’t know how little I knew about our country’s history. The journey of Sacred Ground has been illuminating, heartbreaking, encouraging, confounding… a myriad of emotions shared with a wonderful cohort of folks with enquiring hearts and minds. There were so many moments that touched my heart—listening to first generation American college students speak of their families’ stories, learning about the Native Americans who lived in this part of New England…and still do! I found myself wondering where my relatives fit into the various stories. My family’s history is varied including pre-revolutionary war colonists, late 19th century Irish immigrants, family members from the Indian subcontinent and East Asia in the mix. As we watched the videos, and read the articles and books (Jesus and Disinherited by Howard Thurman, and Waking up White by Debbie Irving) I am sure that there is much I still don’t know, but I know that this work is so important. I know it is important when I see in this week’s news the attacks on Asian Americans and other instances of racism in its ugliest forms. I know we are in the early stages of this journey, which is part of the wider work of the Episcopal Church’s mission of Becoming Beloved Community. On Ash Wednesday, we will hear the prophet Isaiah call the people of God to be ‘repairers of the breach’. That is the work of Sacred Ground, the work of Becoming Beloved Community, to seek racial healing, reconciliation and justice. I am grateful for all who been travelling with me on this journey, and I invite those who are wondering how to be ‘repairers of the breach’ to join us.