Tag Archives: law

Blessed Pauli Murray

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Feast of Pauli Murray.  9 July. 2023. The Very Rev. Pamela L. Werntz

  • Sirach 15:1-6. They will lean on her and not fall.
  • Galatians 3:23-29. There is no longer Jew or Greek…slave or free…male and female.
  • Mark 12:1-12.  The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone [or keystone]; this was the Lord’s doing, and it is amazing.

O God of reconciling love, grant us the wisdom, the strength and the courage to seek always and everywhere after truth, come when it may, and cost what it will.

Today is a long-anticipated, special day at Emmanuel Church because we are celebrating the Feast Day of The Rev. Dr. Pauli Murray with the unveiling of a statue of her, beautifully rendered by our Artist-in-Residence Ted Southwick. The statue is installed on the sanctuary pulpit, from which Dr. Murray preached. We are thrilled and honored to welcome her niece Rosita Stevens-Holsey, who will speak with us after the service. While Dr. Murray’s feast day is July 1, the day that she completed her earthly mission, today is the 112th anniversary of her baptism at St. James’ Episcopal Church in Baltimore. Just prior to being ordained, she had described herself as: woman, Christian, seminarian, poet, lawyer, person of color, and senior citizen. Last week in Supreme Court Justice Sotomayor’s dissenting opinion in the bigoted-website case, she recalled Murray’s pioneering work with regard to public accommodations.[1] I want to assure you that Pauli Murray is still speaking to us all. Continue reading →

A Place in This Seedpod

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Lent 1B, February 21, 2021, The Rev. Pamela L. Werntz.

Genesis 9:8-17. I will remember my covenant.
1 Peter 3:18-22. An appeal to God for a good conscience.
Mark 1:9-15. The Spirit immediately drove him out into the wilderness.

O God of Love, grant us the wisdom, the strength and the courage to seek always and everywhere after truth, come when it may, and cost what it will.

I always love praying the Great Litany with you on the first Sunday of Lent, and I’m sad not to have prayed it chanting in a solemn procession that surrounds and enfolds the congregation in this prayer written for, and intended to be used during, times of great duress, danger, or devastation. I’ve been thinking about and hearing from some of you about how right it feels to be back in our liturgical, spiritual season of Lent. Lent is a season that aligns with much of what we are experiencing: a season of self-sacrifice, a season of recognition of when, where, and how we’ve missed the mark of Love, which is the Biblical definition of sin. Continue reading →

2017

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  • Feb. 5.  At our annual meeting we voted to update our Parish By-Laws.
  • Oct 15.  Rabbi Howard Berman preached about the 13th anniversary of our relationship with Central Reform Temple (formerly Boston Jewish Spirit).
  • Jane Crow: The Life of Pauli Murray by Rosiland Rosenberg is published by Oxford U. Press.  Amazon’s record describes her contribution:  “Throughout her prodigious life, activist and lawyer Pauli Murray systematically fought against all arbitrary distinctions in society, channeling her outrage at the discrimination she faced to make America a more democratic country.”  

    Book jacket, Oxford U. Press

Its last chapter deals with Pauli’s call to ordained ministry. On p. 356, Rosenblatt notes that in 1967 Pauli began to attend Emmanuel, where then rector Alvin Kershaw advised her and referred her to The Rt. Rev. John W. Burgess, who was our diocesan bishop and the first African American episcopal bishop.  

See also Timeline entries for Pauli Murray: 1944, 1951, 1970, 1973, 1974, 1977, 1985, 1987, 2012 & 2015.

See also Timeline entry 2007 about the restoration of our former organ:  Casavant Frères Opus 700.

 

1985

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  • March 31. Our own composer John Harbison preached on the 300th birthday of Johann Sebastian Bach.
  • July 1. The Rev. Dr. Anna Pauline Murray died in Pittsburg PA at the age of 75.  She is buried in Cypress Hills Cemetery, Brooklyn, New York, beside her partner Irene Barlow, whose death in 1972 had led Murray to discern a call to the priesthood at Emmanuel. The Episcopal Church has designated July 1st as her feast day.

See also:

1951

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Pauli Murray, whom Emmanuel would eventually sponsor for the priesthood, compiled and edited a seminal work for the civil rights cases:  States‘ laws on race and color: and appendices containing international documents, federal laws and regulations, local ordinances and charts (Cincinnati: Women’s Division of Christian Service, Board of Missions and Church Extension, Methodist Church, 1951).  Her fight for civil rights had begun in 1938, when the NAACP unsuccessfully sponsored her for admission to the University of NC.  In 1940 she was arrested in Virginia for refusing to sit in back of a bus.  For a timeline of her struggles and achievements, see Duke Human Rights Center’s Pauli Murray Project.

See also our guide to her legacy and Timeline entries about her: 1970, 1973, 1974, 1977, 1985, 1987, 2012 & 2015.

 

1944

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Pauli Murray Roots & Soul Mural, Durham NC
credit: Brett Cook & Pauli Murray Project

Pauli Murray, first African American woman to attend Howard U. School of Law and later a vestry member of Emmanuel, received her J.D..  For its sesquicentennial Howard is hosting a TEDx conference on 9/15/1917: Singing of a New American”: Pauli Murray’s Legacy and Justice in the 21st Century.

See also:

1912

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The Rev. Dr. Elwood Worcester established a Free Legal Bureau, which was set up at the Emmanuel Memorial House in the South End under the direction of the Vicar of Church of the Ascension, The Rev. William A. Brade.  He reported in the Year Book of Emmanuel Parish  (pp. 168-70):

Some cases have required but a word of counsel, others have required time and care to adjust, and only in extreme cases has recourse been had to our courts….the wrong has, in many cases, been righted and the oppression removed as quietly and expeditiously as possible and at no expense.