6/28
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| Pride |
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| .Pride Sunday |
Pride Sunday. Different than any other I’ve experienced.
I go to the West Park Sunday shrive and a very happy to see a banner proclaiming Pride Sunday. The Gospel lesson is Matthew 10: 40-42, ends with these words
42 and whoever gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones in the name of a disciple—truly I tell you, none of these will lose their reward.” …Dan, the preacher, tells a beautiful story of meeting a young man in a park in Pittsburgh who had been rejected by his family after he came out and then reconnecting him with a friend whose family took him in. During the prayers, I recount how the wife of the former pastor of West Park had started a water table during the Pride march to give a “cup of cold water” in Jesus’ name to hot and tired marchers. It’s good to see my old church worshipping again.
I meet my family for our weekly ZOOM get together, some in the Catskills, some in Berlin and me in Harlem. It’s interesting to hear my oldest son, probably the furthest left in the family, speak against “cancel culture.” I had mentioned that as a young Boy Scout, our troop had done a minstrel show. My son laughed and said, “I hope no one took pictures”, which led to a conversation about the necessity of grace in people’s lives leading to change and redirecting ones’ life, the total life being what counts. US Grant may have owned one slave, but could not bring himself to order him to work and granted him his freedom at a cost of $1000 at a time he was without funds. As a General he defeated the South, defied President Johnson in pursuing reconstruction, led military operations against the Ku Klux Klan. What exactly is the message in tearing down his statue? I remember my friend Osagyefo Sekou’s criticism of the so-called Black Bloc white anarchists who with no sense of historic anarchism would wreak havoc which always resulted in Black heads getting cracked. Still the same. Tear down all the statues. Fire people for dumb mistakes. It's all virtue signaling. The system remains intact.
One last General Assembly related event. My friends in the HIV network hold a webinar featuring people working with HIV in Baltimore, where we were supposed to have met. Workers from the Hope Springs project. In Baltimore, the face of HIV is Black. One out of 41 over age 13 will contract HIV. One out of 20 in predominately Black zip codes. One half of Black trans will have HIV and one half of Black men who have sex with men. (MSMs, they say, not gay.) Baltimore is number 5 in the US in total HIV cases. People who have been abandoned by the church. Already marginalized people further marginalized. These are my friends, on the front line. I bring a word on behalf of the Presbyterian Health Educational Welfare Association. Thankful for their work.
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| Rock stars and prophets |
I’m wearing, not seen, my tshirt from the Rock Stars and Prophets event where That All May Freely Serve called together all those who for decades had fought the fight for full inclusion of LGBTQIA+ people in the Presbyterian Church, as a reminder to me of that struggle that began in 1978 and finally ended in May 2011. I do this in honor of Pride.
My friends in Composers Concordance hold another Social Distance Concert. Their new classic music reflecting the months of quarantine and lockdown. Again I envy them and wish I were there.
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| double rainbow |
I meet a fiend for dinner, wanting to celebrate the new opening. The line at the Tavern is 25 minutes long. The Jamaican seafood restaurant only has uncovered seating. It’s starting to rain. We settle for middle eastern under an awning, beef kebabs and laban yogurt. Before the sun goes down, there’s a double rainbow.
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