The Episcopal Diocese 

of Northern California

Beloved Community

Resource Newsletter

Published by

The Commission for

Intercultural Ministries

July 2024 

Episcopal Church Becoming Beloved Community

Newsletter Highlights:

• Racial Truth-telling, Reckoning & Healing at General Convention by the Rev. Jim Richardson
• Miriam Casey's Reflection on General Convention 81
• General Convention Reflection by the Rev. Canon Julie Wakelee
• Season of Courage: Shireen Miles
• Episcopal Migration Ministries, Our Episcopal Church Partner, Urgently Needs Your Help
• Gardening with Our Neighbors
• St. John's, Roseville, will begin a new series of Regular and Deeper Dive Sacred Ground Dialogue Circles via Zoom in August 2024
• I Will, With God's Help: Journey Toward Racial Healing and Justice - Registration Now Open
• A Calling Story
• Colors of Compassion
• A Prayer to Remember the Innocents
• Dear Advocate

Note: Due to a summer break, there will not be an August issue of the newsletter. It will resume in September.

Bishop-elect Sean Rowe. Photo by Randall Gornowich.

Listen to the sermon delivered by Presiding Bishop-elect Sean Rowe during the June 28 Closing Eucharist service at the 81st General Convention of The Episcopal Church in Louisville, Kentucky.

Group photo of the Racial Truth-telling, Reckoning & Healing Committee at General Convention. The Rev. Jim Richardson is in the back row, second from the left.

It was my privilege to serve as one of our eight “deputies” representing the Diocese of Northern California at General Convention in Louisville in June. This was my fifth General Convention but my first serving on a legislative committee — and I was assigned to my first choice: “Committee No. 5 — Racial Truth-telling, Reckoning & Healing.”

Each committee is really two committees meeting jointly: the House of Deputies committee, composed of lay and clergy deputies, and the House of Bishops committee composed of bishops (see photo). We heard testimony and discussed each resolution together but voted separately. Unlike some other committees, we reached a unanimous consensus on every resolution before us.

Our committee work began in March on Zoom as resolutions were assigned to us for review and revision where necessary. We continued that work in Louisville, meeting nearly every morning at 7 a.m. In all, we considered twelve resolutions, and were able to revise and recommend ten for votes by the House of Deputies and the House of Bishops. For adoption, both houses had to agree on the same language.

The most significant resolutions to come before our committee and adopted by General Convention:

•  A015 “Owning a Commitment to Reparations” — sets up a task force of lay, clergy and bishops to make recommendations on how The Episcopal Church can create a reparations fund from its assets “for the ongoing legacy of the displacement of Indigenous peoples and of chattel slavery.” The task force is to complete preliminary research on the shape of reparations and report back to the next General Convention in 2027.

• A095 “Continue the Task Force on Indigenous Liturgies” — continuing the work of a task force established in 2022 that has barely begun its work. There are more than 300 indigenous languages in the United States, but few liturgical resources have been translated into any indigenous language. The 1928 version of the Book of Common Prayer is the only BCP that has been translated into an indigenous language. This task force would oversee translations and encourage the development of liturgies by indigenous peoples in their own languages.

• A034 “Promoting Equitable Formation for Future Church Leaders” — encouraging seminaries and schools of theology to adopt teaching programs for racial justice and healing. We were mindful that General Convention has no direct control over such schools but can exert its influence with resolutions such as this.

Bishop Megan testified in support of additional funding for creation care focused resolutions.

Miriam Casey testified in support of the budget and advocating for resolutions that provide infrastructure and funding to address climate change.

The Rev. Dr. Pamela Dolan testified to expand funding for resolutions that address the climate crisis and climate justice.

As a Lay Alternate for the Episcopal Diocese of Northern California Deputation, my role was to be available to stand-in as a voting deputy, if needed. And so, much of the time, I was an observer of the proceedings.

However, as a member of the Creation Care Caucus, my role included being active in support of resolutions that addressed God’s creation and climate change. In this role, I engaged with the Convention in several other ways.

• The Rev. Dr. Pamela Dolan and I co-authored a resolution (D050 Resolution to Complete the Journey Toward Net Carbon Neutrality by 2030) which was amended and passed by both the House of Bishops and the House of Deputies. To further this resolution, we both testified before a legislative committee with responsibility for managing creation care-related resolutions and before the Budget Committee. The resolution provides funding for an additional person in the Creation Care Ministry at the churchwide office, to enable them to be more supportive to dioceses and congregations on their journeys toward being carbon neutral.

• Bishop Megan testified in the House of Bishops, and Pamela+ and I testified in the House of Deputies in support of all the resolutions that included additional funding for the work of addressing climate change. These resolutions all passed both Houses and provide a roadmap forward for the wider church to make a real impact on carbon reduction.

• We also had the opportunity to meet with the Green Bishops and members of the Green Caucus to begin to envision a movement in The Episcopal Church to fulfill our Baptismal promise to love God and love our neighbors as ourselves, which by necessity, means loving God’s creation which sustains us all.

Top: NorCal and Honduras deputations. Bottom left: Canon Julie with Canon Anthony Guillen.

Bottom Right: Canon Julie with Rev. Cathlena Plummer of Navajoland.

This General Convention was my first as an alternate deputy. I was so proud to be on the floor when we voted unanimously to welcome Navajoland as a missionary diocese of the Episcopal Church, righting an historic wrong. There were few dry eyes in the place, and it was especially moving to see the Rev. Cathlena Plummer of Navajoland, who I met when she was in seminary, speak in favor of the vote, and address the group with her deputation afterwards. Her father was the first Navajo bishop, and she is carrying his mantle forward beautifully.

Another delight was finally meeting the deputation from our sister diocese of Honduras, especially my counterpart, la Rev. Canoniga Connie Sanchez. We are both looking forward to continuing to build our relationship, as colleagues and as leaders in our dioceses.

The 81st General Convention is behind us! Convention passed dozens of public policy-focused resolutions. Please join us on Wednesday, July 24, 1:00-2:00 pm EDT [10-11 am PDT] to hear from the Office of Government Relations staff about new public policy areas we will be focusing on, what happens to these resolutions after they are passed, and how you can help carry out the public policy witness of the church. Registration is below, and we hope you can join us!

Bishop Curry chuckles as Gay Clark Jennings makes a comic face. | Episcopal News Service

When I first became president of the House of Deputies, I imagined that my interactions with the Presiding Bishop would be somewhat formal, usually conducted in offices or conference rooms and accompanied by staff, chancellors, and official memos and reports.

I did not anticipate early morning FaceTime conversations about the Buffalo Bills and America’s Got Talent, or the relative merits of various brands of hot sauce. But from 2015 until 2022, the years that Michael Curry and I served together, that’s often how it went. Whether the issue at hand was big or small — and we faced some big ones as we led through a global pandemic — Michael’s love of laughter and unsurpassed skill at building relationships allowed us to navigate difficult situations, and even some disagreements, with good humor and affection. He knew, and he helped me know, that in the end our shared love for both Jesus and the church would see us through.

Michael loves deeply. He loves Jesus and his family most of all, of course, but his love of life makes him an evangelist not only for the gospel, but also for Bit-O-Honey candy, cheesy videos of small children singing with big voices on reality television, his beloved Bills, and Tarheel basketball. During our years in ministry together, he won me over to AGT, but was never bitter that I remain an unregenerate Cleveland Browns and Syracuse basketball fan. I think he was gracious in defeat because he is a generous and loving soul, but perhaps it was because I sent him boxes of Bit-O-Honey, which, to his sorrow, cannot be bought in Raleigh.

In fact, Michael loves so deeply that his love has changed our church. He has spent his ministry as presiding bishop proclaiming the power of love, because he truly believes that love is so deep and broad that it can change the world and each of us. As our chief evangelism officer, he has helped us learn to articulate our faith more clearly, to proclaim with him the power of God’s transformational and unconditional love for humankind and for all of creation. We Episcopalians talk about Jesus more easily than we did nine years ago, thanks to Michael, and when he asks us to imagine a world in which sacrificial, redemptive love is the way, we can more easily imagine what it would mean for us to become that Beloved Community.

When 36 confused migrants fleeing violence and economic devastation in their home countries—primarily Venezuela—were dropped off outside the Sacramento offices of the Catholic Diocese in June [2023] with only the clothes on their back, not even knowing where they were, it didn’t take courage for me and the other members of Sacramento Area Congregations Together’s 40+ faith communities to respond. Clergy and congregants of Trinity Cathedral stepped up immediately. The message of the gospel in Matthew 5, “I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me,”seemed to us to be the only appropriate response. It’s been a whirlwind of activity since then. Through these subsequent months, our team listened with lumps in our throats to the stories of their harrowing and dangerous pilgrimage through multiple countries as they sought relief. We tapped into local resources and the generosity of donors to find them clothing and lodging, arranged for volunteer immigration attorneys and English lessons, secured urgently needed medical and dental treatment, taught them how to get around their new city and found them odd jobs to tide them over before they get official work permits. We also shared their joy. We enjoyed delicious meals they prepared for us to share their own cuisine. I was honored to be asked to stand up and stood up as a witness at the marriage of one couple. It has been a humbling and inspiring reminder of how much we share as humans. When our guests express gratitude and ask how they can ever repay our hospitality, we simply remind them of the tenets of our faith and suggest that they can help others someday when they are flourishing.

Episcopal Migration Ministries, Our Episcopal Church Partner, Urgently Needs Your Help

Church and community teams throughout the Diocese have welcomed scores of refugees to their new home in Northern California in the past three years.  Currently, thousands of refugees have been approved for admission to our country and resettlement. EMM needs our help to do the job. As followers of Jesus, we are called to welcome the stranger. Please consider involving yourself and/or your church to engage in this vital ministry and answer this urgent call. We know how to do this in the diocese. Our experienced teams will help you get organized and started. Click here for details about this need. 

Please contact me to learn more-Bob Wohlsen, bob.wohlsen@gmail.com

(510) 926-0286

Resettlement Team Chair, Commission for Intercultural Ministries

Episcopal Diocese of Northern California

Garden Dedication September 2021, with Bishop Megan Traquair. Fr. Ray Hess, Priest-in-Charge at St. George's, Carmichael, is standing next to her.

St. George’s Community Garden was started in 2009 to utilize the large open area on the west side of our property, which is home to a heritage oak that precludes any building on that part of our property. Initially the garden provided space for apartment and renters in the area to have gardens, as well as some members of St. George’s, including plots to support St. Matthew’s food closet. With time the number of gardeners dwindled as well as the members of the congregation who wereable to serve as volunteer garden managers. In 2020 a partnership with the New Roots Program of the International Rescue Committee, Sacramento, was formed. The New Roots Program provides refugees, immigrants, and other community members with culturally relevant community-based agricultural education, nutrition and healthy cooking workshops, community gardening, emergency food, and more.

Our garden coordinator, Vicky Karsten, stays in touch with Aminah Hassoun, Sacramento IRC’s New Roots representative, concerning the needs of the garden. Annually we have had get-togethers with the gardeners for a luncheon.  Since many of the gardeners speak little or no English, we are fortunate that our Music Director, Tess Testeza, can translate what is said in English to the gardeners and what is said by the gardeners in Russian for the rest of us. At the luncheon last year, the ladies asked if they could sing us a song of gratitude. While we may not have understood the words, the sentiment came through clearly.

Lunch April 2023 – Ladies singing

St. John’s, Roseville, will begin a new series of Sacred Ground Dialogue Circles via Zoom in August 2024. Regular circles and Deeper Dive circles will be offered again. The 11-part series is built around a powerful online curriculum of documentary films and readings that focus on Indigenous, Black, Latino, and Asian/Pacific American histories as they intersect with European American histories. To learn more, please view this video by Presiding Bishop Michael Curry about the Sacred Ground program.

Last year, St. John’s offered “Deeper Dive” dialogue circles to participants who have already completed Sacred Ground. Two of our facilitators, Michael Adams and Diane Williamson, went through the Deeper Dive materials from the Sacred Ground website for each session and chose those that they believed would spark the best conversations. The sessions followed the same topics for the 11 sessions, but discussions went much deeper. We had two Deeper Dive circles and two regular circles via Zoom. Everyone began and ended together in the same room, and then we were divided into breakout rooms for the circle discussions. Deeper Dive participants were very positive about the experience.

This series will be held via Zoom so that all may participate, regardless of distance and circumstances. We have found it works best to space the sessions at least 2 weeks apart to allow time for participants to complete the work in between sessions. The sessions are scheduled for August 14th and 28th, September 11th and 25th, October 9th and 23rd, November 13th , December 11th, January 8th and 22nd, and culminating with a Saturday morning session on February 1st .

Please contact Diane Williamson, dianewilliamson864@gmail.com, or 916-300-6384 for more information or to sign up.

Keeping Track of Sacred Ground

Are you forming a Sacred Ground Circle? Let the Commission for Intercultural Ministries know by registering it here: https://forms.gle/hriHCPKmLwjUHEyEA

Are you interested in joining a Sacred Ground Circle? Sign up here: https://forms.gle/G26EPxDzEFSpnsZW7

In late 2002 into 2003 St. Paul’s was tasked with looking at developing a “Shared Ministry” model in an urban setting. In late 2003 Bishop Lamb asked Pastor Diana Luckert if St. Paul’s might be ready to call someone to ordained ministry. She replied, "Yes, Bishop, but it's St. Paul’s." When he questioned what that meant, she said that looking at the likely candidates, St. Paul’s was likely to call an LGBTQ person in a committed relationship. Up to that point Bishop Lamb would not consider LGBTQ people living in a committed relationship for ordained ministry.

In late 2003 St. Paul’s put me forward to the bishop to be considered for ordained ministry. Also, in 2003 the Rt. Rev. Gene Robinson was elected as Bishop of New Hampshire. Many in the Episcopal Diocese of Northern California were surprised that Bishop Lamb voted at General Convention to confirm that election. During the intense emotions of that time, I was invited, along with Pastor Diana, to have a conversation around a possible call to ordained ministry in this Diocese. After a long conversation, Bishop Lamb said he heard a call to ordained ministry, but asked if I could wait a year “for the water to perhaps go from a roaring boil to a simmer” before he put me forward. Having escaped the Holy Spirit's grasp for many years, I said that was fine. Pastor Diana suggested that was fine, but with a caveat. She wanted the year to include a productive period of active discernment with me and someone else. Bishop Lamb agreed that was a good idea – at which point Pastor Diana said that person should be the Bishop. I met with the Bishop monthly for about the following year.

St. Paul's Episcopal Church, Sacramento, new mural windows

Community neighbors and visitors to downtown Sacramento have new artwork to admire as they walk or drive along J Street. St. Paul's 175th Anniversary Planning Committee commissioned artist Nora Bruhn to create a mural to fill the two bricked-up window spaces on the west side of the church building.

The mural entitled "Colors of Compassion" was installed March 26 by the artist who said the artwork represents concepts of inclusivity and openness.

Members of the Planning Committee, seeking a public way to share and commemorate the 175th anniversary of the parish, invited Bruhn to visit the historic church and see first-hand how its members serve the community. She chose the colors she used in the mural from the stained glass windows in the church.

"I was so inspired witnessing the support St. Paul's offers the public, especially with their Saturday morning bagged lunch program," Bruhn said. "I wanted the artwork to feel joyous, celebratory, vibrant and inclusive just like their ever-changing community."

St. Paul's is celebrating 175 years in Sacramento throughout 2024. Two public events are planned for later this summer to mark the milestone. A Celebratory Mass will be held at 10 am Sunday, August 18, with Bishop Megan Traquair and other distinguished guests in attendance. "Wide Open Doors" will be held Saturday, September 14, and will feature a full day of music, speakers, building tours and a food truck. All are welcome at both events. Watch for updates on St. Paul's website and Facebook.

The Rev. Jim Richardson shared that one of the most moving moments at General Convention in Louisville was when indigenous deputies from Navajoland and South Dakota lead them in a prayer expressing remorse for the Indian boarding schools where children were forcibly taken from their families. The prayer was written by tribes in South Dakota. After hearing the prayer, General Convention adopted resolution C032 encouraging its use in our churches. Here is the prayer:

Ohiŋni wičhauŋkiksuyapi kte. "We will always remember them." 

Dear Lord, Almighty God, we pray for all Indigenous children who were in residential and boarding schools in Canada and the United States. Some died there; we ask that you give assurance to their descendants that their souls are with you and their ancestors. Some survived there; we ask that you give your healing grace to all who endured hardship while there and are still struggling with those memories. Lastly, we ask you to help us guard our children against harm in this world. All this we ask in the name of your Son, Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, now and for ever. Amen. 

In the summer of 2020, the U.S. commemorated Independence Day amid nationwide protests for racial justice and systemic reforms in the wake of George Floyd's death. That June, we asked five young descendants of Frederick Douglass to read and respond to excerpts of his famous speech, "What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?". It's a powerful, historical text that reminds us of the ongoing work of liberation.

A text version of the full speech is available here.

This video was inspired by Jennifer Crandall's documentary project "Whitman, Alabama." Visit whitmanalabama.com.

Did you know there are broken shackles representing the end of slavery partially hidden underneath the skirt of the Statue of Liberty (Lady Liberty)?

Wow! It is amazing the extent to which we have been and continue to be willing to go to hide our truth from ourselves and everyone else. For the vast majority of Americans and for all our lives, we have been taught the Statue of Liberty is a gift given to us by the French to celebrate us as the welcomers of immigrants. Rarely, if ever, have we been taught that it really was designed to celebrate the end of slavery.

The statue was unveiled in 1886, and Ellis Island opened six years later to welcome immigrants. Emma Lazarus’ poem stating, “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free” was added in 1903, according to Edward Berenson, a New York University history professor and author of the book, The

Statue of Liberty: A Transatlantic Story.

According to a 2019 Washington Post article by Gillian Brockell, the monument, which was drawing about 4.5 million visitors a year at that time, was first imagined by Edouard de Laboulaye. It seems he was an expert on the U.S. Constitution and loved America. He was so delighted when the Civil War ended, he served on a French Committee that raised and distributed funds to newly freed enslaved persons. Laboulaye was jubilant when slavery was abolished, according to Y.S. Khan, the author of the book, Enlightening the World: The Creation of the Statute of Liberty.

Laboulaye used his influence and organized a group of French abolitionists to explore the possibility of creating some kind of commemorative gift France could give to the United States that would recognize the importance of the liberation of enslaved people. Originally the design was for the Lady to hold a torch in her right hand and broken shackles in her left hand. But the final model has her holding the torch and a tablet inscribed with the Roman numerals for July 4,1776. The shackles are still present, but they are beneath her feet and almost not visible. They are intended to be underneath the hem of her skirt and invisible.

The dark history of a short-lived World War II Japanese-American internment camp in Sacramento's Walerga Park.

Dear Advocate,

Are you discouraged by all the atrocities in the world, the climate crisis, and the political situation in the US?  There is something positive you can do:

Engage in public witness and advocacy for the church!

How - Click Below:

• Take Action! Join EPPN. Attend weekly legislative briefing. 

Peace be with you on this path,

Bob

Bob Wohlsen

(510) 926-0286

Advocacy Team - Chair

Commission for Intercultural Ministries

Episcopal Diocese of Northern California

Will you or someone you know turn 18 before the November election?  Make sure they’re registered to vote. Visit the California Secretary of State’s website for information. 

But even if a person is too young to be eligible this November, the website explains ways for teenagers to get involved in this year’s election. Discover how a young person can pre-register at age 16 and vote when they turn 18. Learn how they can become a poll worker on Election Day to earn up to $150, or take part in the College Ballot Bowl in which universities and colleges compete to register the most students to vote. And middle school and high school students can participate in the California Student Mock Election taking place on October 8.  

Check out all this and more at the Student Voting Programs portal on the Secretary of State’s website: https://www.sos.ca.gov/elections/student-voting-programs

• Call for a Ceasefire Now
• Release All Unjustly Detained Palestinians
• Support Maternal Health Care
• Support the World Health Organization
• Speak Out to Support Haitians
• Establish Paid Family Leave
• Urge Congress to Protect Children's Safety Online

For more information, contact Bob Wohlsen, Advocacy Team Chair, bob.wohlsen@gmail.com.

The Episcopal Diocese of Northern California

The Commission for Intercultural Ministries

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