The Episcopal Church’s presiding bishop the Most Rev. Michael B. Curry brought his “Way of Love” message to Massachusetts last weekend: Preaching at a rally Saturday on Boston Common and making a stop Sunday at Grace Episcopal Church in New Bedford for a panel discussion on inclusivity and racial justice both in the Episcopal Church and in society.
Nearly 400 people filled the pews of Grace Episcopal Church to hear Bishop Curry join his voice with those of fellow panelists the Rt. Rev. Barbara C. Harris, who is celebrating the 30th anniversary of her consecration as the first female bishop in the Anglican Communion, and former Massachusetts state representative Byron Rushing, who is serving his third term as the vice president of the Episcopal Church General Convention’s House of Deputies, according to the release.
The panelists shared their experiences of racism and considered questions of who is on the inside, who is on the outside and who is still on the margins of the church and society.
“My takeaway from the conversation was that it is right and good to recognize how far we’ve come, but that we also have no room to be patting ourselves on the back because we have a lot more work to do as far as truly living out the generous and indiscriminate and all-inclusive embrace that we see in Jesus,” the Rev. Chris Morck, the rector of Grace Episcopal Church, said in a statement.
“It’s about owning our particular histories, owning our particular deficits or challenges, owning where we’re not living out this way of love, and then continuing to walk towards it together, and that we need to do it together.”