|
Dear friends,
June 19th marks the day enslaved African Americans in west Texas learned of their freedom. It is the oldest of all African American celebrations.
It was June 19, 1865 in Galveston, Texas when Union Army General Gordon Granger read General Order Number 3 declaring, “The people of Texas are informed that in accordance with a Proclamation from the Executive of the United States, all slaves are free” and “the connection (between former master and slave) becomes that between employer and hired labor.” The enslaved African Americans in West Texas were the last to learn of their freedom as granted in the Emancipation Proclamation two and a half years earlier.
Juneteenth is also known as Freedom Day or Emancipation Day. It began a year later in Texas and quickly spread to surrounding states. Commemorations waned during the Jim Crow era but resumed in the Civil Rights era of the 1950s and 1960s.
Although many celebrations will be virtual this year, the numbers are increasing in 2020 and are often including calls and actions to end racism. The District of Columbia and 47 states recognize Juneteenth, although few designate it as a legal holiday. Increasingly, businesses are closing on Juneteenth. The General Board of Church and Society announced on June 18 that it would make Juneteenth a paid holiday for all employees.
Over the years, celebrations have included parades, picnics, dancing, sporting events, music, plays, recounting of stories by former slaves, inspirational speeches, reading of the Emancipation Proclamation and prayer services. Churches have long been in the forefront of celebrating Juneteenth for a day, a week or the entire month.
Celebrating this Freedom day, let us lift “A Prayer for Hope and Justice” together:
We pray, O Lord, for change. Jesus you revealed God through your wise words and loving deeds, and we encounter you still today in the faces of those whom society has pushed to the margins.
Guide us, through the love you revealed, to establish the justice you proclaimed, that all peoples might dwell in harmony and peace, united by that one love that binds us to each other, and to you.
And most of all, Lord, change our routine worship and work into genuine encounter with you and our better selves so that our lives will be changed for the good of all. Amen (from the Archdiocese of Baltimore and the Black Catholic ministry.)
Peace and Grace,
Rev. Jennifer
| 
