Trinity Episcopal Church

October 3, 2020
A Statement on Raccism from the Clergy of the Episcopal Diocese of Newark

צדק צדק תרדף
Justice, justice, you shall pursue.
(Deuteronomy 16:20)

These words appeared on a framed print in the office of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg who died on September 18. The failure of charges to be brought against the police officers who murdered Breonna Taylor as she slept in her home in Louisville last March is a clear indication that justice has, once again, been denied a Black person in this country.

We, the members of the clergy in the Episcopal Diocese of Newark, believe that our faith requires us to stand on the side of the marginalized and the oppressed, to respond to injustice when it occurs, and to relentlessly work to eradicate the racism that plagues our country.

The highly publicized killings of Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, and George Floyd, and the disproportionate number of Black persons killed at the hands of police, reveal a system that is unable to heal itself, unable to carry out its responsibility to serve all people with equal justice and dignity.

We believe our Christian faith calls us to meet this moment, and that in order to do that, each one of us must engage in a practice of prayerful discernment to uncover and repent of the racism we all harbor within our minds and hearts. We call on those of other faith traditions or no tradition at all to join us in this act of repentance.

We believe that fewer resources are needed to militarize police departments and more resources must be devoted to community services, including social workers and public health personnel, affordable housing and first-rate schools.

We say with one voice that racism is a sin, that Black Lives Matter, and that we are committed to ensuring the rights to safety at home, when out for a jog, or going about the business of daily life for those who currently are treated with suspicion because of the color of their skin. All of these privileges that white people mindlessly and effortlessly enjoy must be equally and fully available to all of our neighbors.

We follow the One who stood with the powerless and weak against the might of empire, and we have all promised in our baptism to “strive for justice and peace” among all people. We promise to use our voices, our dollars, our votes, and our bodies to prevent the continued violence against Black people in this country, and to create a more just society where we all may flourish.

Signed:

• The Rev. Hilario Albert, Priest-in-Charge, Grace Church, Union City
• The Rev. Mariano Gargiulo, Rector, St. James Church, Ridgefield
• The Rev. Thomas M. Murphy, Rector, Church of St. Paul and Incarnation, Jersey City
• The Rev. S. Elizabeth Searle, Vicar, Church of Our Saviour, Secaucus
• The Rev. Deacon Jill Singleton, Church of St. Paul and Incarnation, Jersey City
• The Rev. Willie James Smith, Rector, Trinity Church, Cliffside Park
• The Rev. Elaine Ellis Thomas, Rector, All Saints Parish, Hoboken
• The Rev. Laurie Jean Wurm, Rector, Grace Church van Vorst, Jersey City
• The Rev. Diana L. Wilcox, Rector, Christ Church in Bloomfield & Glen Ridge
• The Rev. Rose Cohen Hassan, Interim Priest-in-Charge, South Orange
• The Rev. Canon Robert Griner, Rector, Christ Church, Newton
• The Rev. Dr. Peter Savastano, Priest Associate, St. Luke's, Montclair
• The Rev Fr Kevin PJ Coffey, SCP, a/CSJB, Rector, Atonement, Fair Lawn
• The Rev. Jon M. Richardson, Rector, St. David’s Church, Kinnelon
• The Venerable Peter Jackson, Archdeacon
• The Rev. Jill Williams, Curate, Christ Church, Ridgewood
• The Rev. Sharon Hausman, Flanders, NJ
• The Rev. Raul E. Ausa, SCP, Priest-in-Charge, Trinity Church, Allendale
• The Rev. Dr. Elizabeth Kaeton, retired, Diocese of Newark.
• The Rev. Lauren Ackland, retired
• The Rev. Dr. Franklin Vilas, retired, Diocese of Newark
• The Rev. Elizabeth M. Edman, Diocese of Newark
• The Rev. Paul Yoon, Priest-in-Charge, Saint Agnes Church, Little Falls
• The Rev. Nathaniel K. M. Darville, Rector, St. Peter’s Church, Essex Fells
• The Rev. E. Michael Allen, retired, Diocese of Newark
• The Rev. R. Grant Mansfield, Rector, St. George’s Church, Maplewood
• The Rev. Ally Brundige
• The Rev. Lorna Erixson, Rector, St. Mark’s Church, Mendham
• The Rev. Canon Michel Belt, retired, Madison
• The Rev. Dr. Debra Brewin-Wilson, Rector, St. Mary’s Church, Sparta
• The Revd Sylvester Ekunwe, Vicar, St. Andrew's Episcopal church, Newark
• The. Rev. Audrey Hasselbrook, St. James Church, Upper Montclair
• The Rev. Cynthia L. Black, D.D., Rector, Church of the Redeemer, Morristown
• The Rev. Anne E. Kitch, Rector, St. Luke’s, Phillipsburg
• The Rev. C. Melissa Hall, Rector, St. James, Upper Montclair
• Rev. Philip Wilson, retired
• The Rev. Robert L Shearer, Priest-in-Charge, Good Shepherd Episcopal Church, Fort Lee
• The Rev. Diana Doyle Clark, retired
• The Rev. Michael Gerhardt, Christ Church and St. John the Divine, Hackensack
• The Rev. Dr. Ellen Marie (Sister Helena) Barrett, OSB, St Mary's Episcopal Cathedral, Glasgow, Scotland
• The Rev. Susan Saucedo Sica, Rector, St. Gregory’s Church, Parsippany
• The Rev. Margaret Reinfield Haridis, retired
• The Venerable Diane Riley, Archdeacon
• The Rev. Paul V. Olsson, Rector, St. Paul’s Church, Morris Plains
• The Rev. Susan Chrystal
• The Rev. George C. Wong, Rector, The Church of the Saviour, Denville
• The Very Rev. Dr. C David Williams, Trinity and St. Philip’s Cathedral, retired
• The Rev. Dr. K. Christine Pae, Denison University
• The Rev. Ellen Kohn-Perry, Assistant Rector, St. Paul's Chatham
• The Rev. Dr. Shane Phelan, Companions of Mary the Apostle
• The Rev. Laura R. Matarazzo, retired
• The Rev. Geoff Curtiss
• The Rev. William Guthrie, Retired, Diocese of Newark
• The Rev. Gregory A. Jacobs, Retired
• The Rev. Bowie Snodgrass, Priest-in-Charge, Christ Church in Short Hills
• The Rev. Dr. Jane Tomaine
• The Rev. Deacon Sun-Hwan Spriggs, St. George’s, Maplewood
• The Rev. Tristan Shin, Assistant Priest, Christ Church in Short Hills
• The Rev. William Cruse, Priest-in-Charge, St. John’s Memorial, Ramsey
• The Rev. Anthony Puca, Jr., Rector, Grace Church in Westwood and Holy Trinity Church in Hillsdale
• The Rev. Mark R. Collins, Rector, All Saints’ Episcopal Church, Glen Rock
• The Reverend Deacon Erik Soldwedel, St Paul’s Paterson and St. Clement’s, Hawthorne
• The Rev. Michael Gerhardt, Christ Church and St. John the Divine, Hackensack
• The Rev. D. Andrew Olivo, Rector, St. Elizabeth’s, Ridgewood
• The Rev. Tom Mathews, Rector, Christ Church, Ridgewood
• The Rev. Robert Corin Morris, Calvary Church, Summit
• The Rev. Elizabeth Wigg-Maxwell, St. Peter’s, Livingston
• The Rev. Robert F. Solon, Jr., Saint John’s Passaic
• The Rev. Susan R. Ironside, Rector, Grace Church, Madison
• The Rev. Asa David Coulson, Associate, Grace Church, Madison
• The Rev. Michelle D. White, Vicar, Christ Church Teaneck
• The Rev Thomas C. Lincoln, Retired
• The Rev. Archie M. Palmer, Jr., Diocese of Newark
• The Rev. Elizabeth W Myers, Christ Church, Budd Lake
• The Rev. Maggie Gat, Retired
• The Right Rev. John Selby Spong, 8th Bishop of Diocese of Newark, Retired
• The Rev Virginia Dinsmore, St. Dunstan's, Succasunna
• The Rev. Sheelagh Clarke, Church of Holy Innocents, West Orange.
• The Rev. John A. Rollins, Retired
• The Rev. Joan F. Conley, Rector, St. Mark’s, Teaneck
• The Rev. Dr. Howard W. Whitaker, Retired
• The Rev. Daniel LaRue Gross, Associate Rector, St. Peter’s, Morristown
• The Rev. Deacon Kenneth R. Boccino, Deacon, The Church of the Saviour, Denville
• The Rev. Michael Muller, Rector, St. Peter’s, Mountain Lakes
• The Rev. Canon Wade A. Renn, Diocese of Newark
• The Rev. Canon Sandye A. Wilson
• The Rev. Mary Davis, Rector, St. Paul’s, Chatham
• The Rev. Dean Weber, Rector, All Saints, Leonia
• The Rev. Lynne Bleich Weber, Rector, Atonement, Tenafly
• The Rev. Dr. Diana Lee Beach, psychoanalyst, retired
• The Rev. Victoria Geer McGrath, Rector, All Saints’, Millington
• The Rev. Deacon Virginia Jenkins Whatley, Good Shepherd, Fort Lee
• The Rev. Margaret Otterburn, Rector, Messiah Chester

Ruth Bader Ginsburg

When Ruth Bader was a teenager, her mother, Celia, died of cancer just two days shy of Ruth’s graduation from high school. In keeping with Jewish custom in those days, only men could be counted as part of a minyan or quorum - so Ruth wasn’t allowed to pray the mourner’s prayer for her mother (a rule since changed in both Reform and Conservative Judaism). Ruth was both heartbroken and outraged - and as a result, felt alienated from synagogue membership for much of the rest of her life.

The Bible, however, remained a lifelong touchstone of insight and inspiration. Throughout her childhood, her mother regaled her with biblical stories of “women of valor,” heroes who were ambitious, wise, and successful. Ruth drank deeply from these stories, learning them by heart.

Accordingly, when in 2015 she was asked by the American Jewish World Service to write an insert for the Passover order of service, she enthusiastically agreed. She organized it around what she called “The Heroic and Visionary Women of Passover,” five figures who play pivotal roles in the story, and yet are often overlooked: Moses’ mother, Yocheved; the Hebrew midwives, Shifra and Puah; Moses’ sister, Miriam; and Pharaoh’s daughter, Batya.

On the last of these five, Bader Ginsburg quotes a midrash from the Babylonian Talmud:

“When Pharaoh’s daughter’s handmaidens saw that she intended to rescue Moses, they attempted to dissuade her, and persuade her to heed her father. They said to her: ‘Our mistress, it is the way of the world that when a king issues a decree, it is not heeded by the entire world, but his children and the members of his household do observe it, and you wish to transgress your father’s decree?’”

And then RBG adds: “But transgress she did.”

“These women,” she continues, “had a vision leading out of the darkness shrouding their world. They were women of action, prepared to defy authority to make their vision a reality bathed in the light of the day.”

It’s a description that applies just as well to RBG herself. Framed on a wall in her chambers at the Supreme Court, she kept a quote from Deuteronomy, three Hebrew words in beautiful calligraphy: Tzedek, tzedek tirdof - “Justice, justice, you shall pursue” (Deut 16:20).

Bishop Michael Curry

Episcopal Church Presiding Bishop Michael Curry has issued the following statement:

The events in Louisville remind us of the need for safe spaces in times of conflict. Churches, synagogues, and mosques are houses of prayer, worship, and faith. Sacred spaces are safe places where the way of love and nonviolence, the way of peace, the way of justice, and the way of reconciliation can be affirmed and practiced. In deeply conflicted situations, these spaces can play a vital role in preventing escalation into upward spirals of violence. Respecting these spaces as safe places demonstrates a commitment to finding nonviolent solutions. This can help to broker peace and change that can move a community forward, in the direction of genuine justice and eventual reconciliation.

We must ever remember Breonna Taylor, and continue to pray for her family, loved ones, and all the people of the Louisville community. We must likewise pray for America, that our divisions may cease and that we will work together to be a nation where there is liberty and justice for all. Lastly, may we all commit ourselves anew to the living the words of the prophet Micah who said, “what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, love mercy and walk humbly with your God.”

The Most Rev. Michael B. Curry
Presiding Bishop and Primate
The Episcopal Church