Summary

Litchfield County Times – Caring for Bethlehem takes a village — and many others – Cathy Wheeler and Carolyn Happy purchase fresh produce from local farmers and distribute it for children’s summer meals…

Words&Way – DC Episcopal Bishop Says She’ll Appeal to ‘Better Angels’ in Convention Prayer – Mariann Budde, the Episcopal bishop of Washington who criticized President Donald Trump after he held a Bible aloft during a photo op…

Faith & Leadership – ‘400 years of tears’ — how three churches in the present are beginning to atone for the past – Preserved in old vestry minutes, newspaper articles, correspondence and member rolls is a history some churches are beginning to grapple with…

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Litchfield County Times

Caring for Bethlehem takes a village — and many others

BETHLEHEM — On a recent Friday morning, Carolyn Happy from Bethlehem and Cathy Wheeler of Morris, both members of Christ Episcopal Church Stewardship Committee, were preparing 11 colorful bags of fresh produce, as they have done since late June. The church members stepped up when the school district stopped free lunches once the school year ended.

The church buys fruit and vegetables from local farmers to support them, and to supplement the sandwiches and other meals provided by the town’s food bank. In addition to March Farms, Percy Thomson Meadows and Sun One Organics, the group purchases homemade hummus from Oliva on Main, a Mediterranean café across the street from the church. Owner Riad Aamar said the restaurant is happy to be part of the healthy meals for local children and noted that their hummus is now for sale at New Morning in Woodbury, The Market in Bantam, The Market in Northville and the Pantry in Washington Depot. […]

Words&Way

DC Episcopal Bishop Says She’ll Appeal to ‘Better Angels’ in Convention Prayer

(RNS) — Mariann Budde, the Episcopal bishop of Washington who criticized President Donald Trump after he held a Bible aloft during a photo op in front St. John’s Church near the White House in June, says she will call upon “higher angels of our nature” in her prayer before the Democratic National Convention on Tuesday evening (Aug. 18).

Budde told Religion News Service that she intends to intersperse her roughly 100-word prerecorded benediction with homages to prominent religious figures of the past such as Protestant minister and peace activist William Sloane Coffin, civil rights icon Martin Luther King Jr. and the late Congressman and civil rights activist John Lewis. She plans to ask God “to give us the grace to realize in our time something out of the ‘beloved community’ of Dr. King, the ‘just society’ of Congressman Lewis, and the ‘more perfect union’ of President Lincoln.” […]

Faith & Leadership

‘400 years of tears’ — how three churches in the present are beginning to atone for the past

Faith communities should be careful and thoughtful as they repent of this nation’s original sin, but they must move ahead with the work.

Preserved in old vestry minutes, newspaper articles, correspondence and member rolls is a history some churches are beginning to grapple with — the ways they have benefited from the labor of enslaved people, their championing of segregation from the pulpit or their tacit acceptance of systemic oppression under Jim Crow.

For faith communities that have begun admitting their transgressions, repenting of their role in America’s original sin can take many forms as they seek to heal wounds sometimes hundreds of years in the making. […]