Sing Kyrie

As we gather here at Camp McDowell, Alabama, we name this land and the people who have inhabited this holy space where we sing and pray, laugh and cry, where we are challenged, nurtured, and transformed. This land is a gift which welcomes and supports us in our holy journey.

We name, now, the Yuchi, Muscogee, Chickasaw, and Shawnee people, whose ancestors – as many as 23,000 years ago entered the land mass of North American across the Bering strait from Asia. They were the first humans who joined the winged creatures, the four-leggeds, and the ones who swim in the water and crawl over the land.

These Yuchi, Muscogee, Chickasaw, and Shawnee used this area as a common hunting ground. And they were custodians of the land on which this camp stands. They occupied and cared for this land over countless generations before being invaded and decimated by European forces.

In 1830, after the Indian Removal Act was signed by President Andrew Jackson, they were forcibly relocated to the country we now call Oklahoma. During the Trail of Tears, thousands of men, women, and children died on the journey.

Sing Kyrie

We also acknowledge the enslaved persons of African descent who lived in bondage here in Winston county, Alabama. In 1860 census (the year before the civil war started), we find that 120 Africans -- ranging in age from 2 months to 56 years were enslaved by 16 owners.

We acknowledge the 347 reported lynchings in the state of Alabama between the years of 1882 and 1968. While there were no reported lynchings in this county, in Walker county, just south of here, there were four.

Beloveds, this land is rich with history. We are surrounded by the spirits of those who walked this ground before us. As we walk on this land, let us walk gently. It is land hallowed by the blood and sweat, moans and tears of our indigenous and African siblings. It is land hallowed by the lives of all those who went before us.

Sing Kyrie

This week, we sit vigil with Kenneth Eugene Smith, who sits in a cell on death row in Holman Prison in Atmore, Alabama, about 250 miles due south of here. He is scheduled to be executed on Thursday of this week. Unless there is intervention, he will have his last meal about the time that we hold our Thursday Eucharist service.

Mr. Smith was convicted of murder and sentenced to death in 1989. Two years ago was his first execution date. On that day, he was taken to the death chamber; only to have the lethal injection procedure botched. Since then, the state of Alabama has tried to find a different way to kill Mr. Smith. As we learned in our last session, the State has decided to use Nitrogen Gas Asphyxiation, never before used in a death chamber.

Last week, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights said the never-before-used method could amount to torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment, and called for a halt.

We light vigil candles in our worship spaces this week to pray with Mr. Smith, to hold space for him, for his family, for the family of Mr. Smith’s victim, for those in leadership who could commute his sentence, for his friends and his guards in the prison system.

This week, as we walk and worship, sing and pray, laugh and cry, let us listen for the ways the spirit is moving us to take action in response to all that has happened in this place. All the injustice and cruelty that are done, often, in our names. We offer our hearts, our minds, our spirits, our hands, and our feet to the Holy One who challenges, who listens, and who heals.

Sing Kyrie