{"id":23160,"date":"2023-11-30T10:46:32","date_gmt":"2023-11-30T15:46:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/?p=23160"},"modified":"2023-11-30T10:51:19","modified_gmt":"2023-11-30T15:51:19","slug":"a-liberating-experience","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/?p=23160","title":{"rendered":"A Liberating Experience"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Micah Tyler - I See Grace (Official Lyric Video)\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/eMHoKdawIEY?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>All the strands of my life had come together. Descendant of slave and of slave owner, I had already been called poet, lawyer, teacher, and friend. <strong>Now I was empowered to minister the sacrament of One in whom there is no north or south, no black or white, no male or female\u2014only the spirit of love and reconciliation drawing us all toward the goal of human wholeness.<\/strong><br>\u2014Pauli Murray,&nbsp;<em>Song in a Weary Throat<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Reverend Dr. Pauli Murray (1910\u20131985) was the first Black woman ordained to the priesthood in the Episcopal Church. Editor Anthony B. Pinn writes:<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Growing up, [Pauli] Murray had a sneaking suspicion of the path she would take and the \u201ccosmic\u201d and historical events that might have conditioned her life.\u2026 [1]<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In Murray\u2019s words, \u201cI came [into the priesthood] because I had no other alternative. I fought death, God, and my own articulated plans\u2014but the Call would give me no peace until I had made the decision.\u201d [2] It was not enough for Murray to discern the calling on her life; s<strong>he wanted this recognized and acknowledged in ways that she could not produce on her own, ways that might point to the cosmic trail of God working in her personal history\u2026.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Shortly after her ordination, <strong>she addressed the issue of inclusion with passion, biting humor, and sarcasm. <\/strong>In this way, she pointed to her deep resolve to make social equality a moral and spiritual issue \u2026 : \u201c<strong>Bearing pain for Christ\u2019s sake does not mean that I shall participate in my own degradation. It means that I must witness to the equality of all humanity before God in words as well as deeds.\u201d<\/strong> [3]<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Murray preaches the value of recognizing the universal dignity of the children of God:&nbsp;<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>To think of oneself as a child of God is a liberating experience\u2014it is to free oneself from all feelings of inferiority\u2014whether of race, or color, or sex, or age, or economic status, or position in life. When I say that I am a child of God\u2014made in [God\u2019s] image\u2014 \u2026 I imply that \u201cBlack is beautiful,\u201d that White is beautiful, that Red is beautiful, or Yellow is beautiful. I do not need to make special pleading for my sex\u2014male or female or in-between\u2014to bolster self-esteem. <strong>When I truly believe that God is my Father and Mother, in short, my Creator, I am bound also to believe that all men, women, and children of whatever race, color, creed, or ethnic origin are my sisters-and-brothers-in-Christ\u2014whether they are Anglicans, Roman Catholics, Methodists, Black Muslims, members of the Judaic faith, Russian Orthodox, Buddhists, or atheists\u2026. <\/strong>If I am a child of God, a sister-in-Christ, and belong with all of you to the priesthood of all believers, then <strong>my job is to love, not hate, to be creative, not destructive, to follow Christ\u2019s cross. This is the lesson of the great prophets down through the ages..<\/strong>.. [4]<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>____________________________________<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Story From Our Community<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p><em>My contemplative practice centers on my breath. Each morning, I sit in stillness for what I call, \u201ccoming home to myself.\u201d Sometimes, though rarely, I feel a part of the greater whole which evokes great tenderness within me. I don\u2019t know whether to softly cry in surrender to such love or whether to bubble up with a quiet joy. For the last couple of years, I recognize how quiet yet strong I have become. I am content and at peace within myself. More importantly, I can now be amused by people and actions I would have judged harshly before. This is my experience of divinity.<\/em><br>\u2014Kathy R.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>All the strands of my life had come together. Descendant of slave and of slave owner, I had already been called poet, lawyer, teacher, and friend. Now I was empowered to minister the sacrament of One in whom there is no north or south, no black or white, no male or female\u2014only the spirit of [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23160"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=23160"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23160\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23162,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23160\/revisions\/23162"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=23160"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=23160"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=23160"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}