I spent last week in Durham, North Carolina with my fellow Episcopal Service Corps program directors, enjoying the unique camaraderie that comes from being with people who truly understand the quirky subculture of faith-rooted service and justice organizations. We received vital mental health training, discussed the upcoming recruitment season, and ate amazing fried chicken (if you are ever in Chapel Hill, check out Lula’s!). In the pouring rain, we also visited the childhood home and neighborhood of the Rev. Pauli Murray [https://paulimurrayproject.org/pauli-murray/biography/], a noted civil rights attorney, co-founder of the National Organization for Women, and the first African American woman ordained a priest in the Episcopal Church. We ended the day concluding that the Rev. Murray should be “the patron saint of Episcopal Service Corps”: marginalized throughout her life due to her race and gender identity, she nevertheless worked tirelessly to bring about the Beloved Community as an unsung hero of her times. And by bringing those on the margins closer to the center of the Church, she helped make spaces like Life Together and the work we do here possible.
As the weather turns chilly and the brilliant colors of New England’s leaves begin to fade, I start thinking about those who have come before. Churches point to All Saints Day in early November as a time to remember all the unsung heroes who are bringing about God’s dream of justice and reconciliation. As we mark Life Together’s 10th anniversary year at the Episcopal Diocese of Massachusetts’ annual convention on November 2nd, we also look back on all those who, directly and indirectly, have made this transformative work possible: you! Whether you helped found this organization, participated as a fellow in it, or gave of your time, wisdom, or financial capacity to help it thrive, you have helped to shape Life Together into a space where Love can be experienced. It is the kind of community that helps support young adults as they grow into new ways of being and doing, as fellow Calvin Swindal highlights in his reflection this month. But as I have found in more than four years on staff, this community shapes and stretches each of us who participate in it. It empowers us all to live into our God-given identities as beloved, imperfect saints, stirring the waters until justice comes.
So I give thanks in this season for Rev. Murray, for fellows and friends of all kinds in this work, and for you. Thank you for growing and stretching toward Beloved Community with us in these past ten years.