The "Episcopal Churches Struggle With Social Problems" Story

It was an ordinary day.  Reading that the Episcopalians, which I count myself as one, are struggling with historical Confederate symbols.  So what else is new.  

A tombstone in the church's graveyard.

Seems that all that has been happened recently in the USA with towns, cities and states in the south, as well as north, deciding to remove Confederate flags and sculptures has led to debates as to what to do with tombstones and emblems that dot Trinity Episcopal Cathedral in Columbia, South Carolina.  Many churches in the south date back to the Civil War times and beyond and have found themselves on the side of the pro-slavery South when their sons marched off to war.  After the war ended, so did slavery, but it seems racism didn't.  So, what to do about the tombstones, flags, monuments and Confederate emblems that still remain at the churches.  Trinity Episcopal Cathedral prayed for the president of the Confederacy, and not the Union, during the Civil War.  They had built an attachment to this national identity into their church and church doctrines.  And now, they are wrestling Confederate ghosts and what to do with them.  Seems the South's General Wade Hampton and its poet laureate, Henry Timrod were members of the church and were buried on the parish's grounds.  To top that off, a plaque in its sanctuary honors members who died in the Civil War.  These members more than likely fought for the Confederacy.  At present they do not allow any Confederate flags to be flown in the church yard, but what do you do with the tombstones?  The minister at the church, Very Rev. Dean Timothy Jones, said, "I care deeply about how historical symbols can create hurt and communicate a message of discrimination.  We believe in redressing the terrible wrongs of slavery and affirming the dignity of every human being."  The national Episcopal Church called for removal of Confederate flags from all Episcopal church yards as well as removal of the images from iconography, like plaques and stained-glass windows.  The National Cathedral in Washington, D.C. is Episcopalian and has announced plans to remove Confederate battle flags from two windows honoring Confederate generals Lee and "Stonewall" Jackson.  The windows were to be removed and stored until a future decision on their future was made.  St. Paul's Episcopal in Richmond, Virginia was the home church of Robert E. Lee as well as Jefferson Davis, president of the Confederacy.  During the 1890s it was popular to memorialize family members with sanctuary wall plaques and naturally there are several in the church with battle flags as part of them.  They also have kneelers with needlepoint that display Confederate symbols and flags.  These as well as the church coat of arms was retired.  In the northern city of Cincinnati, Ohio there are a pair of stained-glass memorials to Lee and Episcopal Bishop Lionidas Polk who served as a Confederate General.  At present they are considering what to do about them. In Lexington, Virginia the R.E. Lee Episcopal Church, voted to change their name in 2015.  Confederate emblems and icons have their defenders who speak to an indispensable episode of American history.  

Plaque standing in the churchyard in North East, MD.

But they may be ultimately defeated.  There are also many other denomin- ations that are now going through the same problems at present.  Removing plaques and flags seems to be what most are doing.  Someone wondered why it took the murder of nine black people in a Bible study class in an African-American parish in Charleston, South Carolina to force this all to happen.  

This flag no longer flies in the churchyard.

A few years ago I wrote about an Episcopal Church in North East, Maryland called St. Mary Ann's Church.  It was built in 1742 and was one of the oldest churches in Cecil County, MD.  As I wandered about the graveyard I noticed Confederate flags flying on quite a few graves.  On a recent visit to the town for a good crabcake at Woody's, I stopped once again and found they have all been removed.  Some things are hard to understand why they were done in the first place, but they seem to always work out for the best.  After all, we're all Americans.  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.