[Magdalen] Diocese of Virginia 2015 Council Meeting

[Grace Cangialosi]

Candy,
I don't know anything about the slave trail in Alabama, but I've walked the one in Richmond, and it's quite an experience. It winds along the bank of the James River and then up to Lumpkin's Jail, where the slaves were kept. It ends at the site where Gabriel [Prosser?] was hanged. LHe had planned a slave rebellion before Nat Turner, but the plot was uncovered, and he was hanged. The site was a VCU parking lot at the time I was there, but I think it may have been restored since then. I know there is now a historical marker there dedicated to Gabriel and describing events that led to the hanging.

We walked the trail at night as part of a Juneteenth celebration in 2004, and it was a hair-raising experience. We walked by the light of a few torches through underbrush, stopping at a few places along the way where actors would present brief dramatic sketches of what might have taken place.  As we walked along, sometimes stumbling over roots or branches, I could only half imagine what it must have been like for the slaves, taken off the ship at Rocket's Landing and then marched for a couple of miles, shackled together, to an unknown destination by people whose language they couldn't understand.

A couple of years earlier I had visited the Slavery Museum in Liverpool and gone on a guided tour of many of their buildings and sites connected with the slave trade. It was a shock to see one of the huge marble buildings called the Alabama. The bronze plaque bearing the name of the building also has a Confederate flag on it.

On January 24, 2015, at 6:11 PM, cady soukup <cadyasoukup at gmail.com> wrote:

Susie/Susan Buchanan - no, Vinnie Lainson is not on the list, but she
was raised up from our church where she was fairly close to being an
institution. We still miss her, and continue to wish her well in her
new life.

I was also able to see -from across the room- Cathy Tibbetts, who is
another who was raised up from our church. She is now over the Blue
Ridge Mountains in Luray, VA as rector there. I wasn't able to talk to
very many people for very long - frustrating!

The highlights of the council meeting were singing with the
all-diocese choir at St Paul's, Richmond (being directed very, very
capably by Bishop Shannon Johnston's wife Ellen) and talking at
breakfast for nearly 30 minutes this morning with the Rev. Malcom
Rogers from the Diocese of Liverpool about the slave trade,
Liverpool-Virginia-Nigeria, and the upcoming Liverpool Diocese young
adult pilgrimage to Alabama, where they plan to go along what he
called the "slave trail" to learn more about what happened years ago,
and how to work with the results in the present time. Dynamic and
interesting man! From him, I finally learned what "indaba" is - I
haven't been paying attention, so when Bp Shannon mentioned it last
night at the service, I had no idea what it meant. I've already
ordered the book he recommended, "Living Reconciliation".

800 Episcopalians in a room can really lift up the spirits!

hugs - Cady
tired.