Grace Cathedral

Written by the Congregation Council

Updated Friday, May 21, 2021

In the month that has passed since this statement was written by the members of our Congregation Council, racist violence toward the AAPI community has tragically continued and, in some cases, escalated. We have seen vicious hate crimes on the streets of our own cities and are painfully aware that there are members of our community who fear for their safety when walking after dark.  

At the same time, we find ourselves amid AAPI heritage month, when we celebrate the uniqueness and the many achievements of our Asian Pacific Islander siblings. Grief and joy can and do coexist together and, as the Body of Christ in the world, we are called to witness both.  

At this pivotal moment in our common life, we, the members of the Congregation Council, reaffirm our unequivocal denunciation of all acts of hate and violence and our commitment to working together to build a society where all human beings feel safe, valued, and loved.

Across the country, there has been a dramatic increase in violence directed against people of Asian and Pacific Islander descent. While hate crimes and bigotry against Asian Americans are not a new phenomenon, the more recent mass shooting in the Atlanta area has brought national attention to the subject. Eight people were killed, and six of the seven women were of Asian descent. The victims, Xiaojie Tan, Daoyou Feng, Julie Park, Hyun Jung Grant, Yong A. Yue, Suncha Kim, Delaina Yaun and Paul Andre Michels remain in our prayers. Our hearts break with each additional news report of harassment, violence, and loss of loved ones in our communities.

We, the Congregation Council of Grace Cathedral in San Francisco, are committed to social justice. We stand strongly in solidarity with the Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) communities to fight against increased hate and violence which spark fear in our communities and in our nation. More importantly, we strongly condemn microaggressions, white supremacy, xenophobia, misogyny as well as bullying and discrimination against Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders. And we mourn and pray for an end to hate crime and gun violence.

We understand that these acts of hatred have caused significant pain and fear in Asian American communities. We celebrate and stand behind the tremendous contributions of Asian Americans to this country, as well as their longstanding history as Americans, and commit ourselves to supporting one another. We will continue to use our platform to fight against injustice and discrimination. We encourage you to reach out to us whenever you need support and healing, to share your stories with us and others, and to continue to care for and love each other with the spirit of our faith.

Stop Asian Hate
Resources & Links to Support:

The Asian Pacific Fund is raising money for Bay Area community organizations working to combat anti-Asian racism.

PBS Documentary Series: The impact of Asian Americans on the country’s past, present, and Future.

Grace Cathedral: Dean Malcolm Clemens Young’s message.

Racial Justice at Grace Cathedral: Resources, contacts, statements.

Episcopal News Service: Episcopal Deputies of Color on increased violence against Asians and Pacific Islanders

Episcopal CEEP Network: “Anti-Asian Violence in Context.”

by Jim Simpson and Alma Robinson, on behalf of the Social Justice Working Group

On November 3, California voters adopted Prop. 17 restoring the voting rights of persons on parole. The act of voting gives each citizen a voice in choosing our leaders, shaping how resources are allocated and ultimately, owning a stake in our collective future. The record number of Americans who voted this year and the sharp differences revealed by the results remind us how constant we must be in protecting everyone’s right to vote and how sparing we should be in denying voting rights to anyone.

Grace Cathedral is proud to have been one of many faith-based organizations in California that publicly endorsed Prop. 17, including the Jewish Community Relations Council of San Francisco and the Bay Area, Glide Center for Social Justice, and Faith in Action Bay Area. Among the nearly 10 million Californians who voted in favor of this measure, we are confident that many were inspired by their religious convictions. We thank you all for your support.

Accomplishing the goal of Prop. 17 requires re-engaging people who have been excluded from civic participation, often for many years. The Cathedral encourages the Secretary of State and Department of Corrections to notify parolees and people being prepared for release that the people of California have given them back their voting rights and to help them register to vote online or submit voter registration cards as part of the release and reentry process. To the people whose rights have been restored, Grace Cathedral welcomes you to the community of fully enfranchised Californians.

The decision to endorse Prop. 17 came about through the collective efforts of the trustees, clergy and staff, and congregation members who comprise Grace Cathedral’s Social Justice Working Group, aided by the Social Justice Committee of the lay-led Congregation Council. There was an essay on the Cathedral blog, discussion groups, homilies, and a Forum program that featured Dorsey Nunn, who runs Legal Services for Prisoners with Children and the All of Us or None advocacy network, in conversation with Dean Malcolm Young about the impact of this measure.

After an election as fraught as this one, many people need a break from the daily news cycle and some time to reflect. Grace Cathedral’s social justice advocacy team will use this time to identify emerging issues on which the voice of our faith community and like-minded partners can be meaningful and constructive. The Cathedral has previously identified climate change, gender justice, and racial justice as appropriate subjects for advocacy, as well as concerns about gun violence and housing for vulnerable populations.

One way to build on the momentum of Proposition 17 would be to eliminate the penal servitude exception in the California constitution, which authorizes involuntary servitude as punishment for criminal offenses. Voters in Utah and Nebraska struck penal servitude provisions from their state constitutions in November. We have met with leaders in the growing movement to amend similar language in many state constitutions as well as to repeal and replace the the 13th amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which was ratified in 1865 and abolished slavery and involuntary servitude in the United States “except as a punishment for crime whereof the party therein shall have been duly convicted….” We welcome your thoughts about social justice initiatives at Grace Cathedral and we promise to keep you informed.

As we journey through Lent together, read a sermon by the Rev. Kristin Sermon on finding ways that God wants to feed us. Follow us on Instagram and #lentwithgrace.

The night before Ash Wednesday, I came home late after our fabulous Carnivale to discover a rather unusual sight: my husband (who I had been sure would be in bed), was sitting on the couch in his pajamas, happily strumming out a bossa nova song on his guitar. As I stood in the doorframe staring at him and wondering if this was the first time he’d touched said instrument since we moved from New York a year and a half ago, he looked up and said, cheerfully: “I figured out what I’m going to do for Lent! I’m going to play some music everyday. Because I think that’s how God wants to feed me right now.”

How does God want to feed us right now? It’s an arresting question in a season that tends to focus on fasting more than feeding, on deprivation over nourishment. It’s an especially interesting question to ask in light of these two temptation scenes that we just read, both of which center around food and being fed – temptation of Eve in the Garden of Eden and the temptation of Jesus in the wilderness. In Lent, as we work out our own personal disciplines, we often focus on what we’re eating – or not eating. But these readings invite us to look deeper, not just at food but at all forms of consumption. How do we relate to what we’re consuming? And, even more importantly, what is the source of the sustenance we take in? Are we, like Adam and Eve, reaching for the forbidden fruits of our own day, sure that we know better than God what is good for us? Or are we actually listening to God, welcoming the nourishment that is so abundantly on offer?

In Matthew’s Gospel, the tempter tries to goad Jesus into relieving his hunger by using his divine power to turn stones into bread. To which Jesus replies, “One does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.” Taken literally, this verse becomes a justification for fasting from food during Lent, an invitation to prioritize spiritual nourishment over physical consumption of calories. But what happens if we look a little deeper?

Jesus’ response to the tempter is about power, and refusing to abuse it for the sake of convenience. Jesus knows who he is and how God wants to feed him. His response to Satan is an invitation to remember that we are not our own source; that we are dependent on God for life and sustenance. It is a call to be mindful of what we are consuming, to diversify our spiritual diets, and to remember at all times that God is the one doing the feeding, not us. When we fast, if we fast, however we fast, it is never to glorify ourselves, improve ourselves, or compete with anyone else. It is to make room for what God is trying to feed us.

And sometimes we discover, to our delight and surprise, that what God is trying to feed us is really tasty. Lent is not designed to make us miserable. It’s designed as a season of preparation for the ultimate joy that awaits us at Easter. And sometimes the timeline of fasting and feasting isn’t neat and tidy – if the joy of Easter starts to sneak into your life through whatever you’re doing or not doing this Lent, then embrace it. Joy is permitted even in the wilderness.

So instead of asking what you’re going to give up or take on this Lent; I invite you to reframe the question: How does God want to feed you? Not how do you think God should feed you, but what is tugging on your heart right now? What makes you feel the most alive? Maybe you are being nudged to dust off a neglected musical instrument, or another creative outlet that lets you commune with the divine. Maybe God wants to feed you through silence, or natural beauty, or the book you’ve been meaning to read for three years, or the comp day you’ve been meaning to take for three months. It doesn’t have to be programmatic. It doesn’t have to yield measurable results. It doesn’t have to feel heavy or onerous. Maybe simply asking the question gives you strength and sustenance.

Because, however God wants to feed each of us this Lent, the end goal is the same: to remind us of our fundamental belovedness. The key to this temptation scene lies in the tempter’s opening line: “If you are a child of God…” That if, that seed of doubt is the bait the devil uses to try to lure Jesus off track – to make him doubt his true identity and the solidity of God’s love. That’s usually how temptation works for us too, however cleverly it may be disguised, making us doubt who we are and whose we are. Leaving us scrambling to prove ourselves and one-up each other in an economy of scarcity and fear that there isn’t enough love to go around. Lent is about rewriting the narrative, about grounding ourselves, as Jesus does, in God’s unshakeable love, so that we can resist the voices that whisper in our ear that we’re not enough.

So what practices will help you along that road? How does God want to feed you this Lent? How might we feast on God’s love in these forty days?

This Lent, may we find abundance in the wilderness. Amen.