“Loving God … give to the people of our country a zeal for justice and the strength of forbearance, that we may use our liberty in accordance with your gracious will.”

As I write you, I am with our youth singers in St. Louis — the last stop in our civil rights choir pilgrimage. In an hour we will walk over to the Old Courthouse, where more than 170 years ago, Dred Scott was declared property not person and not entitled to the rights of citizenship in this land that proclaims “liberty and justice for all.” The decision was later upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court in a decision that future Chief Justice Charles Evans Hughes called the court’s great “self-inflicted wound.”

The Supreme Court rulings and the retirement announcement of Justice Kennedy this week have many of us in places of anger, sadness and fear. And those feelings need to be named and felt.

And … as we have traveled from the memorial to those murdered by lynching to the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma to the lower ninth ward in New Orleans and the balcony where hate and fear took Dr. King from us in Memphis. As we prepare to meet today with heroic young people who took to the streets in Ferguson we remember that the power of the people, the power of community, the power of love was greater than anything that was thrown up against it. We remember that as the struggle continues today.

We remember and we ask God to give each of us and all of us that zeal for justice and the strength of forebearance — because we will surely need those.

We remember and we ask God to help us remember that we do have liberty and a charge to use it for the freedom of all. To remember, in the words of Fannie Lou Hamer, that “nobody is free until everyone is free.”

I hope you will come together at All Saints Church this Sunday, July 1st. We need to be together right now, to affirm our zeal for justice and the strength of our forebearance. To remember that the power of the people, the power of community, the power of love is greater. Always greater. Always greater.

I will preach at all four services: 7:30, 9:00 and 11:15 a.m. and 1:00 p.m. (Spanish/English bilingual service) and the 2018 Summer Choir will debut at 11:15 a.m. with hymns and spirituals of freedom. Music will be offered at 1:00 p.m. by Dan Cole & the 1 p.m. Ensemble. At all four services, we will officially introduce and celebrate our new Director of Music, Weicheng Zhao, so I hope you can be there to greet him with great joy!

Our final Rector’s Forum of the program year is Looking Ahead to General Convention with Jim White and Susan Russell. General Convention, which will convene next week in Austin, Texas, is the every-three-year gathering of laity, clergy and bishops that reminds us that we’re all in this together: that we are part of a wider church that together makes a common witness to the world. And it reminds us that while what we do locally is essential, as Episcopalians we are part of something bigger. Decisions made in Austin will have an impact on the way The Episcopal Church — our Church — engages the world. Join Jim and Susan for a conversation about the role of General Convention in general and what’s coming up in Austin in particular. 10:15 a.m. in the Forum.

As always, if you can’t be with us in person, join our digital community and live-stream the 10:15 a.m. Rector’s Forum and the 11:15 service here. Whoever you are and wherever you find yourself, there is a place for you here at All Saints Church. Join us!