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REFLECTION
June 16 2025
Preface:
For the five years that we’ve distributed meditations, Scripture has been their singular starting point; but I’m aware that there are many issues, concerns, and points of interest specific to our time, that are never explicitly mentioned in Scripture and that, nonetheless, deserve theologically-informed comment. Periodically, then, in place of Meditations, we will offer Reflections that address these matters. Hopefully, they will both broaden and deepen the reach of faith and how it can appropriately be included in the general conversation of life.
Reflection by Jeremy O’Neill
If you read these meditations/reflections, you will notice that some days include the name of a person from the history of the church. The Episcopal Church has multiple calendars of people it wishes to commemorate, with the most updated being Lesser Feasts and Fasts 2024. In earlier calendars, today is a day where the church remembers George Berkeley, the slave owning Anglo-Irish bishop and philosopher.
I grew up in the City of Berkeley, California and was trained to be a priest at Berkeley Divinity School at Yale, both named after George Berkeley in recognition of his commitments to education, philosophy, and the church. Due to the University of California, and the sociopolitical culture of the surrounding city, the name Berkeley has become associated with education, academia, and progressive causes. The city and university pride themselves on being on the forefront of social movements that seek to make conditions better for all, and at least make nominal efforts to distance themselves from the violence of colonialism and slavery. In 1992, Berkeley became the first city to change the celebration of Columbus Day to Indigenous People’s Day, a practice that many other municipalities have followed.
All of this is paradoxical considering George Berkeley’s deep involvement in the colonial project and his ownership of what is believed to be 3-5 enslaved people. He is reported to have baptized at least three, named Phillip, Anthony, and Agnes (all of which are Saints’ names) which calls into question what Berkeley would have thought about baptism. But why would the Church choose to commemorate such a person?
Historically, the answer would either be that: a. Berkeley was simply a man of his time and men of his time did terrible things or b. Berkeley was a flawed person whose positive qualities were worth celebrating over and against his negative ones. The reality we must sit with and acknowledge is that Berkeley’s status as a slave owner was not enough for the church to avoid commemorating him in the first place. And while this is a reality that is personally difficult for me, but much more difficult and all too real for the people who still deal with the consequences of his actions. There is still racism throughout the church, which manifests itself not least in the ways that the church refuses to acknowledge the sins of the past and continues to actively celebrate people whose life and work actively harmed others.
I should clarify that while I am disappointed in the church’s history of honoring slaveholders and many other people guilty of great harm, I am grateful for the church. I also recognize that my own positionality and identity—more similar to Berkeley than to the people he harmed—has likely made this gratitude easier for me to come to. The church has historically done a much better job of serving people who look like me than it has people who do not. Thus our need for lamentation. And, paradoxically, like many of you reading this, the church has been a place where I have experienced God’s loving presence and given me a place to talk about the transformative power of the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. But the church is far from perfect. And we must never be complacent or think that the church is “fine as it is.”
There is a lot of discourse about the church’s declining role as a moral authority in today’s world. Now, those in the church often like to point to the outside world and place blame on cultural factors beyond our control when we see these trends. While the broader culture may contribute, the reality is that the church has as questionable of a moral history as other institutions, and it does us no favors to assume that the church has always been on the right side of history. People have been seriously harmed by the church and seen its moral failures whilst it claims to have the moral authority. It is understandable that this would result in a lack of trust.
I would say our job, then, is to be the church that we want to see. For all of our talk of evangelism and growth, it is worth critical thinking to ask ourselves what parts of the institution are worth celebrating, which parts are worth lamenting, and how we can change it so it seeks and serves Christ in all people and truly respects, honors, and is a place to celebrate every human being.
This week is the celebration of Juneteenth, and my prayer for the church this week and always is that it will be an advocate for liberation and freedom rather than an advocate of control, profit, and captivity. If we want the church to grow, we must make the church a place where all people can flourish. Only then are we truly bearing witness to the Good News: when it is news that is Good for All.
Prayer:
God of all mercy, we confess that we have sinned against you, opposing your will in our lives. We have denied your goodness in each other, in ourselves, and in the world you have created. We repent of the evil that enslaves us, the evil we have done, and the evil done on our behalf. Forgive, restore, and strengthen us through our Savior Jesus Christ, that we may abide in your love and serve only your will. Amen.
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