Grace Cathedral
For years, the Community Preschool at Grace Cathedral has offered children and their families a safe, inclusive space for optimal learning and growing. During the shelter-in-place, administrators worked hard behind the scenes to pivot to online learning while still maintaining the same high-quality education and sense of inclusion. Now, five months after the start of the pandemic, with precautions securely in place, the Grace Cathedral Community Preschool reopened its doors on August 24.
It wasn’t an easy road
One can imagine the challenges online learning presents, especially as it relates to early childhood development, where interaction and exploration are key pillars of the curriculum. Thanks to Community Preschool Director, Brooke Giesen, and her dedicated team of teachers, however, the learning experience hardly missed a beat during the transition to online learning.
Daily Zoom meetings, as well as weekly check-ins for families to be able to express their feelings during these uncertain times, offered a true sense of community, despite the shelter-in-place mandate. It is this Grace community (and the knowledge, resilience, spirit and financial support they provide) that makes it possible to follow the city guidelines and create a healthy space for the Community Preschool to be able to open while so many other schools around San Francisco are unable to.
Building diverse classrooms and communities
The reopening of the preschool, with four teachers, one director and ten students on site, brings a renewed dedication to its equitable and inclusive mission: to provide a balanced educational learning experience for children and their families from all socioeconomic backgrounds, ethnicities, religious traditions, places of national origin, gender identity, ability and family structure who will benefit from a program that addresses the emotional, social, artistic, language, literacy, motor skills, scientific inquiry and critical thinking skills of every child.
While the pandemic has offered a host of challenges, it has also provided the opportunity for learning and growth. Transitioning to online learning, and now back to in-person education with social distancing guidelines in place, the Community Preschool is an extraordinary example of an early childhood program that prepares children not just for kindergarten success, but for life itself.
Thanks again to the families, supporters and teachers that have brought love and learning to these young students during this time of tremendous change and challenge. We appreciate you.
- Note: Due to the California fires and smoke, preschool students are staying solely indoors but will otherwise be able to go outside.
Thanks to all who joined our Town Hall on Sunday, August 9. Our conversation was led by our Vice Dean, the Rev. Canon Dr. Ellen Clark-King and the Co-Chair of the Congregation Council, Steph McNally.
In this virtual space of 100 attendees, the support and love for one another and the Grace community were wonderfully apparent as we journey together during these difficult times. The Rev. Canon Dr. Ellen Clark-King shared the congregation’s responses to the 2020 Congregation Survey, as well as general updates for these times of reimagining church. Steph McNally shared updates on upcoming congregation events and our ongoing ministries.
The full recording is available below for viewing.
For any general questions or inquiries about this Town Hall, please reach us at congregation@gracecathedral.org.
Thanks to all who joined our Town Hall on Sunday, August 9. Our conversation was led by our Vice Dean, the Rev. Canon Dr. Ellen Clark-King and the Co-Chair of the Congregation Council, Steph McNally.
In this virtual space of 100 attendees, the support and love for one another and the Grace community were wonderfully apparent as we journey together during these difficult times. The Rev. Canon Dr. Ellen Clark-King shared the congregation’s responses to the 2020 Congregation Survey, as well as general updates for these times of reimagining church. Steph McNally shared updates on upcoming congregation events and our ongoing ministries.
The full recording is available below for viewing.
For any general questions or inquiries about this Town Hall, please reach us at congregation@gracecathedral.org.
In celebration of the ratification of the 19th Amendment, Grace Cathedral is proud to present the Music of Fanny Hensel, an online concert featuring Susan Jane Matthews on Friday, August 21st. Matthews will perform the amazing music of Fanny Hensel (1805-1847) from the 1934 Aeolian-Skinner pipe organ and Steinway D piano of Grace Cathedral in San Francisco.
The 19th Amendment, which granted and guaranteed suffrage regardless of sex, finally gave women a voice in American politics. Grace Cathedral marks the centennial of this momentous occasion by reflecting on the music of Fanny Hensel, a German composer whose work went unrecognized in her time due to the era’s politics surrounding gender.
Fanny was the older sister of famed composer Felix Mendelssohn, and was by most accounts even more talented than her younger brother. Though Felix would often publish Fanny’s works under his own name, there was great mutual respect between the siblings, and they would often send each other notes and critiques on their compositions. When Queen Victoria chose to sing her favorite lieder by Felix, Schöner und schöner, he confessed to her that it had in fact been written by his sister.
Fanny married Wilhelm Hansel, a painter and feminist, and wrote her only two organ pieces for their wedding mere hours before the occasion. Fanny would often perform her and her brother’s compositions at Sonntagsmusiken (Sunday musicales), which she hosted at the Hensel home in Berlin, where even Chopin was in attendance. While Fanny was able to publish her work in the last two years of her life, she did not receive proper recognition until the 1980s.
Soloist Susan Jane Matthews aims to shine a light on Fanny Hensel’s legacy and introduce her music to a larger global audience. Of the 450 compositions, Matthews’ program highlights the first musical calendar ever composed for piano and the organ processionals Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel composed for her own wedding. Matthews will also perform four of Fanny’s favorite songs for piano which she did publish just before her sudden death.
Susan Jane Matthews has performed throughout the United States and in Europe, including solo organ recitals at St. John the Divine Cathedral, New York City; La Madeleine and St.-Sulpice, Paris; St. Paul’s Cathedral, London; and the Himmerod Abbey, Germany. She is Director of Music at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Burlingame, California and former Principal Organist of Grace Cathedral, San Francisco.
In celebration of the ratification of the 19th Amendment, Grace Cathedral is proud to present the Music of Fanny Hensel, an online concert featuring Susan Jane Matthews on Friday, August 21st. Matthews will perform the amazing music of Fanny Hensel (1805-1847) from the 1934 Aeolian-Skinner pipe organ and Steinway D piano of Grace Cathedral in San Francisco.
The 19th Amendment, which granted and guaranteed suffrage regardless of sex, finally gave women a voice in American politics. Grace Cathedral marks the centennial of this momentous occasion by reflecting on the music of Fanny Hensel, a German composer whose work went unrecognized in her time due to the era’s politics surrounding gender.
Fanny was the older sister of famed composer Felix Mendelssohn, and was by most accounts even more talented than her younger brother. Though Felix would often publish Fanny’s works under his own name, there was great mutual respect between the siblings, and they would often send each other notes and critiques on their compositions. When Queen Victoria chose to sing her favorite lieder by Felix, Schöner und schöner, he confessed to her that it had in fact been written by his sister.
Fanny married Wilhelm Hansel, a painter and feminist, and wrote her only two organ pieces for their wedding mere hours before the occasion. Fanny would often perform her and her brother’s compositions at Sonntagsmusiken (Sunday musicales), which she hosted at the Hensel home in Berlin, where even Chopin was in attendance. While Fanny was able to publish her work in the last two years of her life, she did not receive proper recognition until the 1980s.
Soloist Susan Jane Matthews aims to shine a light on Fanny Hensel’s legacy and introduce her music to a larger global audience. Of the 450 compositions, Matthews’ program highlights the first musical calendar ever composed for piano and the organ processionals Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel composed for her own wedding. Matthews will also perform four of Fanny’s favorite songs for piano which she did publish just before her sudden death.
Susan Jane Matthews has performed throughout the United States and in Europe, including solo organ recitals at St. John the Divine Cathedral, New York City; La Madeleine and St.-Sulpice, Paris; St. Paul’s Cathedral, London; and the Himmerod Abbey, Germany. She is Director of Music at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Burlingame, California and former Principal Organist of Grace Cathedral, San Francisco.
This week we are celebrating the 30th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). One in five people in the United States lives with a disability — some visible, others less apparent, but all are underrepresented in media and popular culture.
The #DisabilityVisibility Project has published a book of essays by Disabled People of Color, Disability Visibility: First Person Stories from the 21st Century (edited by Alice Wong), that examines what the law has and hasn’t done for this often overlooked group.
Learn more at: disabilityvisibilityproject.com/ada30/
#ADA30 #ThanksToTheADA #ADA30InColor
[image is the cover of the book Disability Visibility: First Person Stories from the 21st Century edited by Alice Wong, showing 5 different color triangles – pink, purple, blue, grebes and yellow – overlapping each other.]
This week we are celebrating the 30th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). One in five people in the United States lives with a disability — some visible, others less apparent, but all are underrepresented in media and popular culture.
The #DisabilityVisibility Project has published a book of essays by Disabled People of Color, Disability Visibility: First Person Stories from the 21st Century (edited by Alice Wong), that examines what the law has and hasn’t done for this often overlooked group.
Learn more at: disabilityvisibilityproject.com/ada30/
#ADA30 #ThanksToTheADA #ADA30InColor
[image is the cover of the book Disability Visibility: First Person Stories from the 21st Century edited by Alice Wong, showing 5 different color triangles – pink, purple, blue, grebes and yellow – overlapping each other.]
Hello Grace Cathedral Community,
We’d like to know more about your experience with us, and your help we as move ahead. The coronavirus has created great change across our community and the world, and your voice in the 2020 Congregation Survey matters more than ever. In the coming year we envision a balance of both in-person and online worship, and you can help us reimagine church.
These questions are the beginning of a conversation that will continue with a congregational town hall later this year. The survey should take about 10 minutes to complete.
Thank you so much for your response, we deeply value your feedback.
The survey is now closed. We look forward to sharing the results of the survey with you in the coming weeks.
Warmly,
Your Friends at Grace
by Dorothy Randall Tsuruta
“Friends, Brothers and Sisters in the struggle for human dignity and freedom. I am here to represent the struggle that has gone on for 300 or more years, a struggle to be recognized in the country in which we were born. I have had years of struggle ever since a little boy on the streets of Norfolk called me a nigger. I struck him back, and I have had to learn that hitting back with my fist one individual was not enough. It takes organizations, it takes dedication, it takes willingness to stand by and do what must be done, when it must be done.”
Regina Walton, congregation member and convener of Grace Cathedral’s Deanery delegates, shares her perspective on the current anger, grief and protest rising across our nation.
“I’m writing this with a caveat that it’s definitely incomplete and, most important, that it doesn’t represent the views of all black people. This is my perspective on a very complex issue that touches all of us. I say it when someone asks me about black people: we’re not a monolith. We’re part of the black diaspora, which is multi-layered and rich with different types of people, cultures, beliefs, and priorities.
“What we’re seeing now is simply unprecedented. The murder of George Floyd has been a catalyst to protests not only in Minneapolis but nation- and worldwide. Layer on top of that the recent murders of Ahmaud Arbery and Breonna Taylor, along with pandemic that’s had a ho-hum response from the Federal and some local governments which hits the black community harder? This was a powder keg waiting to explode.
“All of this is inherently difficult and traumatic for us as people. I only speak from a black American point of view. We’ve suffered through slavery. Slaves, unlike indentured servants, weren’t allowed to keep their language or their culture or to buy their freedom. To this day, a lot of us have no idea where we come from except that our blood links us back to the African continent. For immigrants whose families were never enslaved, thankfully, they have a different experience. From 1619 until now the black experience in the United States of America has been one of struggle in a system that’s not made for us. We’re reminded of that on a daily basis. I’ve been reminded of that at Grace. I was baptized there during the 2009 Easter Vigil. I moved away to NYC shortly after that and moved back to the Bay Area in 2011. There have been a few times where someone has made small talk with me and approached me as the other. I’m assuming they think I’m passing through. If you know me, that’s why you’ll almost always see me with my name tag on. When I wear that, I don’t get that conversation.
“I’m originally from Los Angeles. I grew up in South Central Los Angeles. I was there during the ‘92 riots when the four Los Angeles Police Department officers accused of assault and use of excessive force were acquitted. I’d just graduated from UCLA. I was at a friend’s apartment in Beverly Hills when the riots started. She and I then went to her father’s home in Malibu. At the time, I lived in South Central Los Angeles in the guest house behind the home I grew up in. Because my parents told me to stay where I was, for the first two days of the L.A. riots, I saw it on T.V. Even then, it was traumatic to see.
“Fast forward to 2020, there are new protests, and the same trauma is back. I thought the week would peak with the video of Amy Cooper going from zero to sixty when a black man, Christian Cooper, asked her to put her dog on its leash. They were in an area of Central Park where dogs have to be on a leash. For me, it was traumatizing because I’ve worked with and for Amys before, and that brought all of that back up. Then news about the murder of George Floyd’s breaks. It was recorded and sent out of the Internet for all to see. That was traumatizing, and I’ll admit that I’ve still not watched most of it. I’ve also not watched the video showing Ahmaud Arbery’s murder. I also knew about Breonna Taylor’s murder. She was shot eight times when officers served a no-knock warrant in the middle of the night. Then layer on all of that dealing with a pandemic and the daily slights of living in a racist world. (It’s not just in the United States.)
“I and a lot of black people I know are angry, frustrated, exhausted, and just numb right now. In spite of that, a lot of us are out there protesting. That’s also worrying. With all of these gatherings, how much quicker will this virus spread? How many more black bodies will it claim?
“With that, I want to say please think twice before putting more emotional strain on the black people you know. Check-in on them, but please understand that they’re tired and might not have the emotional bandwidth to go very deep especially if you’re not already a close friend. Go to Google, and search for ways to help. Don’t ask a black person what should you do. Please don’t center yourself. Most important, if we do choose to speak, listen.
“I want to say thank you to Bishop Marc, all of Grace Cathedral’s clergy, and to the Grace Cathedral community. The vast majority of you have been wonderful, empathetic, and supportive. Keep doing that. Please stay safe. Peace be with you, and God bless you and yours.”
— Regina Walton, Grace Cathedral Congregation Member and Convener of the San Francisco Deanery
Photo by frankie cordoba on Unsplash
By Lisa S. Wong, member of the Congregation Council and the Social Justice Committee
There’s a particular racism on the rise and each one of us has a role to play in stopping its spread.
I walk every day, rain or shine. This has been part of my daily routine for as long as I can remember. I walk because it gives me time to think and to pray. Most of the time, people passing by are so busy with their own lives, that they go about their business and leave me alone to my own thoughts. Recently though, that changed. The other day, a homeless man started yelling at me that I shouldn’t have brought “it” here. He was possibly on drugs or alcohol or mentally ill. He was also angry at me for bringing “it” here. I can only assume that the “it” he was referring to was the COVID-19 virus.
He picked me to yell at because of my face.
Did the man know that I’m a second-generation Chinese American San Franciscan unicorn? That I only speak English? That I haven’t travelled out of the country? That peanut butter is my favorite food?
Had he been open to seeing and listening to me, these are the things that I would have told him:
I’m more than my face. That the virus COVID-19 can make anyone sick (due to respiratory droplets spreading from person to person due to coughing, sneezing, or talking) regardless of their race or ethnicity. It is not a Chinese disease. You can’t catch the virus from eating Chinese food. COVID-19 has been reported in every continent except Antarctica.
There are many things we can do as a congregation to fight racism against Asians and people of Asian descent. We’re so proud of the letter sent by the Dean Malcom Young, Chapter and Staff of Grace Cathedral to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors that endorsed the Board’s condemnation of the racialization of COVID-19. We’re also proud of the statement released by the San Francisco Interfaith Council (SFIC) addressing xenophobia and racism. We applaud the Executive Director of the SFIC, Michael Pappas, and the SFIC board members, including our Vice Dean and Canon for Social Justice, Dr. Ellen Clark-King, for their work on this statement, as well as our Bishop Marc Andrus for signing on to it. The Congregation Council will keep working to support our clergy and staff in their efforts to advocate for unity and togetherness. We also will be exploring ways in which we as a community can reach out to Asian and Asian American communities in the Bay Area. In the Year of Bridges, it seems that this is going to be a particularly important bridge to build.
We can also make a choice to educate ourselves on how to keep ourselves, our families, and our communities safe. We can take a stand with our neighbors who are Asian and of Asian-descent. We can speak up and educate when we hear or see racism. We can share information and links such as those at the end of this article with our loved ones and online communities. We can choose to be good, to be strong, to be wise, and most importantly, to be kind.
We are experiencing fear, anger, and hurt, as we adjust to our new lives. We have all been shaken like bottles of soda pop by recent events, and it will take a while for the bubbles to subside. We all have a role to play in this brave new world. Please choose to help, rather than to blame. Remember Fred Rogers’ mother’s advice to her son when he saw scary things: “Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping.” If you can’t find a helper, be a helper. Mr. Rogers’ said he was always glad to be your neighbor. Now is the time for us to show our gladness to all of our neighbors, including, especially, our Asian and Asian American neighbors. Be kind to your neighbor. She may be someone who is just going for a walk to think and to pray.
Guidelines for Reducing Stigma (CDC)
Stop The Spread of Rumors — Know the Facts (CDC)
How to Look for the Helpers (USA Today)
The coronavirus has created great hardship across our community and the world, and Grace Cathedral is taking action. In this personal address from inside the cathedral, Dean Malcolm Clemens Young shares highlights of our work distributing resources, building new bridges with God through technology and supporting those in need.