fbpx

Grace Cathedral

Grace Cathedral is an Episcopal church in San Francisco. A house of prayer for all people, and a center for social justice, the arts and service.

The Rev. Dr. Ellen Clark-King

Grace Cathedral’s Statement on Anti-Racism

|

In this painful and critical moment of our common life, Grace Cathedral stands committed to the deep and ongoing work of anti-racism.

Our baptismal covenant calls us to renounce the evil powers of this world and strive to uphold the dignity of every human being without exception.

It is clear to us that living into our baptismal covenant at this time means using our voices, our collective power, and our resources to demand racial justice and healing and to say, without hesitation, that Black Lives Matter. We recognize that both in the past and in the present our institution has perpetuated racism and that we must begin by naming and dismantling our individual prejudices as well as our collective complicity in institutional racism and white privilege.

We make these commitments:

To name the reality of systemic racism within Grace Cathedral and the wider Episcopal Church and to recognize the culture of white privilege.

To listen to the voices of people of color within the congregation, the staff and the wider church and world community and to act on what we hear.

To provide anti-racism training for all our staff and to build an anti-racism staff and congregation culture. We commit to taking strategic action in our hiring and advancement practices that makes Grace Cathedral a more equal and equitable employer.

To be guided by, and partner with, leaders of color in the local community in working to address racial injustice in the Bay Area.

To pray for the day when all God’s children will be free and know no barriers to the love that should unite us.

Grace and GLIDE’s Who Is Your Neighbor Series

|

At the beginning of 2020, Grace Cathedral and Glide Memorial Church partnered to create a series of community discussions called Who Is Your Neighbor. 

To pull-together an increasingly divided city, we joined hands to discuss issues including systemic racism, poverty and climate change, seeking to build bridges toward inclusivity and justice. We gathered in January and February for two sessions about who are neighbors are, and how we can live in community with others.  

Our gatherings were filled with vibrant conversation and insight from the community, clergy and lay leaders from Grace and GLIDE, including our very own Jorim Rhee, program manager at Grace. Jorim offered her unique perspective as a child of immigrants and woman of color. Marvin K. White, GLIDE’s Minister of Celebration, facilitated the second gathering. 

Unfortunately, the coronavirus outbreak has led us to pause the Who Is Your Neighbor discussions until we can gather in person again. Many participants in the Neighbors conversations don’t have access to a computer or the Internet, and their voices are essential to our work. 

Glide Memorial Church and Grace Cathedral encourage San Franciscans to express the spirit of Who is Your Neighbor through action. Please read the letter below, and thank you for your efforts on behalf of the neediest among us. 

Dear friend,

We wanted to let you know our plans for the Grace/Glide Who Is Your Neighbor gatherings.

Many participants in the Neighbors conversations don’t have access to a computer or the Internet, and their voices are essential to these discussions. Rather than holding these meetings virtually, we are postponing our conversations until we are able to gather in person once again.

Look out for an announcement of new dates this summer. We’re all looking forward to gathering together again.

In the meantime, here are several ways to get involved and to learn more about the plight of our neighbors:

1. Support all those organizations that are working with the homeless during this pandemic. Our unhoused neighbors are at greater risk of contracting COVID-19 and also at greater risk of serious health complications. In our own anxieties let us not forget the needs of those in greatest peril.

2. Write to Mayor London Breed, Director Dr. Grant Colfax from the SF Health Department, and Trent Rhorer from the SF Human Services Agency to ask them to take UCSF up on its offer to test all shelter residents immediately for COVID-19, and move all unhoused people from shelters to hotel rooms. We are making progress, but it is far too slow. This is another action step you can take to push our city’s leaders to do the right thing. Sample email is located here:

Email To:
MayorLondonBreed@sfgov.org
Grant.Colfax@sfdph.org
Trent.Rhorer@sfgov.org

Subject: Test and House Shelter Residents Now

I am asking as a concerned San Francisco resident that you act now to do the following:

  • Test all homeless shelter residents for COVID-19 immediately. Homeless people deserve to be tested.
  • House all shelter residents in hotel rooms by moving entire shelter operations into hotels. Moving the entire shelter into a hotel can happen quickly: Los Angeles is moving a thousand people a day. San Francisco should at least get this done. If they move the entire shelter, they don’t need to worry about staffing, structure, rules, food or anything else. They simply duplicate the shelter in a new, safe space — this one with private sleeping and baths.
  • Let’s not wait for homeless people to get infected before putting them into housing.

Sincerely,
Your Name

3. From Faith In Action:Our PICO California family is launching a campaign to make unity visible. All over the state, people will light a candle, take a selfie with it, and post the picture with the hashtag #LightToUnite. If you’re in San Francisco, you can also tag it #ShelterfortheSoulofSF, #HotelsNotHospital Beds, and @mayorlondonbreed, with a message to shelter ALL homeless people in hotels immediately to prevent more infections and deaths. May this ritual be a way to share our hope, and give us strength to continue acting together to make real change.

4. Join this Facebook group, organizing to get unhoused people into hotel rooms, mostly from faith communities but open to all.

5. Read one of these books that help us understand race in our society. Let us know if you have difficulty obtaining one for any reason and we will do what we can to help: Bryan Stevenson – Just Mercy; Robin DiAngelo – White Fragility; Ibram X. Kendi – How To Be An Antiracist.

We look forward to being together again and in the meantime hope that you will all take good care of yourselves and look out for your most vulnerable neighbors.

With our love and best wishes,

Ellen Clark-King                                   Miguel Bustos
Grace Cathedral                                  Glide’s Center for Social Justice

A Prayer For These Uncertain Times

|

As people across the Bay Area, across the United States and around the world enter into a time of sheltering-in-place, quarantine, and increased social isolation, the Rev. Canon Dr. Ellen Clark-King wrote this prayer to guide us in these uncertain times:

Holy God,
who created us for and from love,
in this time of social distancing,
hold us close in your arms.
Comfort those who are afraid,
enliven those who are bored,
give courage to those who are distressed,
and warm those who feel the cold touch of loneliness.
Breathe in, with and through us
as we walk through uncertainty into a new future
knowing that you are with us now and await us there.
In the name of Christ the Beloved we pray.
Amen.

By the Rev. Canon Dr. Ellen Clark-King, Vice Dean and Canon for Social Justice at Grace Cathedral

Responding to the Church of England’s Statement of Civil Partnerships

|

In response to the statement The House of the Bishops of the Church of England made in their recent Pastoral Statement on Civil Partnerships, we at Grace Cathedral will continue to take delight in marrying couples both in opposite and same sex marriages and in witnessing to a love of God that is inclusive, unboundaried and focused on the well-being of all humanity. Read below for the full letter.

The House of the Bishops of the Church of England in their recent Pastoral Statement on Civil Partnerships makes this statement:

“the Church of England teaches that “sexual intercourse, as an expression of faithful intimacy, properly belongs within marriage exclusively” (Marriage: a teaching document of the House of Bishops, 1999). Sexual relationships outside heterosexual marriage are regarded as falling short of God’s purposes for human beings.” December 2019

In response to the hurt this statement has caused, and from our own deeply held beliefs about what our faith teaches us about God and humanity, the Bishop of California and the Dean, Chapter and Clergy of Grace Cathedral affirm:

  1. Sexual activity meets God’s purposes most fully when it is part of a loving, faithful, committed relationship and serves to build ties of intimacy, trust and mutual cherishing.
  2. The rightness of a sexual act does not depend on the gender of those engaged in it but in the love, respect and honoring of the self and other that they bring to the act.
  3. Those whom God created lesbian, gay, trans, bi, straight, intersex, asexual all bear the image of the God who is beyond gender and are all equally called to loving, nurturing, intimate relationships and to the service of God in the Church and world.

We at Grace Cathedral will continue to take delight in marrying couples both in opposite and same sex marriages and in witnessing to a love of God that is inclusive, unboundaried and focused on the well-being of all humanity.

The Rt. Rev. Marc Handley Andrus, Bishop of California
The Very Rev. Dr. Malcolm Clemens Young, Dean
The Rev. Canon Dr. Ellen Clark-King, Vice Dean and Canon for Social Justice
Canon Lori Coleman, Canon for Finance
Canon Katherine Thompson, Canon for Development
Canon Jeffrey Hookom, Canon Precentor
The Rev. Canon Jude Harmon, Canon for Innovative Ministries
Canon Jack Fagan, Canon Director of Operations
The Rev. Mary Carter Greene, Director of Children, Youth and Family Ministry
The Rev. Kristin Saylor, Director of Formation
The Rev. Anna E. Rossi, Succentor
The Rev. Heather Erickson, Director of Senior Ministry and Social Outreach

Protecting Children at the Border

|

Many of us have been watching the detention of children and adults at our southern border with growing disgust and despair. Here is one way for those of us who are clergy to respond and try to influence public and government opinion in the direction of ending this outrage.

 The following letter will be sent to The Department of Homeland Security, to Senator Feinstein and to the President:

Dear _,

The horrific spectacle of children being separated from their parents, detained, and held in deplorable conditions is shaming our nation in the eyes of the world and in the eyes of God. This has to stop.

We the undersigned are clergy and lay leaders from across religious faiths who are mandated reporters of child abuse, and thus legally required to report such behavior to the relevant authorities. We would therefore be remiss in our civil as well as our religious duty if we did not draw your attention to this unlawful neglect and abuse of minors in the detention centers on our southern border.

Our humanity is outraged at this treatment carried out by our own country. Let us know what steps you will be taking as a public servant to rectify this immoral state of affairs.

If you, a clergy or lay mandated reporter are willing to add your name in your role as a mandated reporter of child abuse please do so by following this link. If you have questions please email ellenc@gracecathedral.org. And please share widely!