31/01/2016 Sunday
This morning we went to St Philip’s Episcopal Church which serves the mainly black community close to St Philip’s College. Again we were given a warm welcome and invited to join them for Sunday lunch after the service. After a great lunch we left the congregation to get on with what I would call their Annual Vestry meeting. (Didn’t want to get elected onto any committees!)
We met several people who had connections with the military. In fact this had been a recurring theme amongst the many people we have met so far. San Antonio has a number of military bases and its military history goes right back to the Alamo and Texas independence.
In the afternoon we went to an event called “Deep in the Heart: A passion for peace” organised by the Peace Center and hosted by the Oblate School of Theology. This was the 10th annual Blessing of San Antonio Peacemakers. The main part of the event was the appointment of Father Ron Rolheiser as the 9th San Antonio Peace Laureate. We had prayers from Imam Omar Shakir and Rabbi Sam & Lynn Stahl, previous laureates.
Father Ron spoke of Jesus and the Syro-phoenician woman and reminded us that we are all in the same house, all faiths with deep common sole for compassion. He used the image of the group photograph where we immediately look to see ourselves in the photograph when, in fact, we are all “digging a well” together.
The Peace Center is about to receive a Peace Pole similar to the one outside the Croi at Corrymeela.
While the Oblate School provides some accommodation and a postal address for the Peace Center the Peace Center is run as a totally voluntary organisation.
