August 14: Jonathan Daniels Pilgrimage and the Song of Mary

August 14: Remember Jonathan Daniels when we sing the Song of Mary

“I knew then that I must go to Selma. The Virgin’s song was to grow more and more dear in the weeks ahead.”—Jonathan Daniels, quoted in The Jon Daniels Story, William J. Schneider, ed. (The Seabury Press, 1967), p. 67.

On this second Saturday in August, people from all over the country will assemble at 11:00 a.m. Central in Hayneville, Lowndes County, Alabama, to remember the death of an Episcopal seminarian, Jonathan Myrick Daniels. On August 20, 1965, Daniels died as he protected an African American teenage girl named Ruby Sales. 2025 is the 60th year of his martyrdom.

The pilgrimage starts at the courthouse, where a trial lasting less than an hour found the man who murdered Daniels “not guilty.” Next, it moves to a small country store where Jonathan was killed.

The pilgrimage then returns to the courthouse for Eucharist, where the bread and wine are consecrated on an altar previously the judge’s bench for that 1965 sham trial lasting less than an hour that found the man who murdered Jonathan not guilty. Previously, the Right Reverend Phoebe Roaf, the Bishop of the Diocese of West Tennessee, was the preacher. In 2025, the Right Reverend Michael Curry was the preacher.

Bishop Russell Kendrick of the Diocese of the Central Gulf Coast recently reminded us that this march, remembering the death of the twenty-six-year-old Daniels, took place on the same day as the disastrous march of white supremacists in Charlottesville, Virginia, in 2017. The similarities are sometimes too much to bear, reminding us that we seem no further advanced in race relations than we were three-quarters of a century ago. As a nation, we seriously lack the ability to secure human rights. We all need continued growth to recognize who our neighbor is.

Daniels took a leave from the Episcopal Seminary in Cambridge, Massachusetts, after hearing Martin Luther King, Jr.’s call for students to join him in his march in Selma, Alabama, to support the Civil Rights movement. He had been moved by singing the Song of Mary, the Magnificat, in Evening Prayer, and especially by the words: “He hath put down the mighty from their seat and exalted the humble and meek.”

Jon devoted many Sundays in Selma to bringing small groups of black high school students to services to integrate the local Episcopal church. They were seated, but many from the congregation scowled at them. Many parishioners openly resented their presence, putting their priest squarely and uncomfortably in the middle of the controversy.

Jon returned to the seminary in May to take examinations and complete other requirements. Then, in July, he returned to Alabama, where he helped create a list of helpful local, state, and federal agencies and other supportive resources legally available to persons of color.

On Friday, August 13, Jon and others went to Fort Deposit to join in picketing three local businesses. On Saturday, they were arrested and held in the county jail in Hayneville for six days before receiving bail. After their release on Friday, August 20, four of them went to purchase sodas at a local country store and were met at the door by a special county deputy with a shotgun who told them to leave or be shot. After a brief confrontation, the part-time deputy aimed the gun at a seventeen-year-old black girl in the party, Ruby Sales. Jon pushed her out of the way, took the bullet, and was instantly killed.

Ruby attended the same seminary as Daniels and now heads the SpiritHouse Project in Atlanta. This program uses art, spirituality, and education to bring about racial, economic, and social justice.

Our senior associate rector, Michael, reminded me that at the School of Theology, Sewanee, Tennessee, all first-year students are loaded onto a bus and taken on the Jonathan Daniels pilgrimage during seminary orientation. He describes it as a very moving experience for many who are visiting the site of a martyr for the first time.

When we sing or say Mary’s song, The Magnificat (Book of Common Prayer, p. 119), together, let us remember Jonathan Myrick Daniels and Ruby Sales and how this Canticle altered their lives. Is there something in that song that also resonates with each of us?

Daniels died on August 20th, but is remembered on the day of his arrest, August 14. The march will also be live-streamed from the Diocese of Alabama at these two sites:

Their website: www.dioala.org/jonathandaniels

Their Facebook Page: www.fb.com/dioala/live 

Joanna. https://www.joannaseibert.com/daily

Finding Beauty in the Discarded

Photography as a Spiritual Practice

Guest Writer: George Taylor

Finding Beauty in the Discarded

With the advent of smartphones and computers, most images remain as digital files, rarely making it to print. The small percentage of printed images is printed on paper and can be reproduced without limit, each an exact duplicate of the last print. Over the last few years, I have begun to explore printing images on surfaces of discarded and found objects. As the image merges with an old shingle, a piece of driftwood, or discarded cardboard, the result is a one-of-a-kind object with characteristics of both the image and the substrate. While the same image can be placed on several different surfaces, the resulting object will differ in complexity and feel. 

The surfaces I have chosen are found objects discarded because they can no longer fulfill their original purpose. Using them as photographic objects allows a new and different meaning for each of these discarded fragments. The fragment changes the image just as much as the photograph transforms the fragment into something new.

As we get older, it can feel like we are becoming the discarded fragments of a life once lived. These pieces of driftwood and old cardboard remind me that we can all find a new purpose as we transition from one phase of life into a new one. There is always something we can do to contribute. It does not have to be monumental. Just finding beauty in discarded fragments can be enough to make a positive difference. 

For more images on discarded fragments, please visit https://taylorimaging.smugmug.com/Discarded-Fragments/

Images:

1.Fells Point, Baltimore. Printed on a fragment of roofing slate from Baltimore.

2-Cold Storage Building, Philadelphia. Printed on a discarded Amazon shipping box found across the street.

3-Moulton Barn, Wyoming. Printed on a plywood fragment found on Cape Cod.

George Taylor

Joanna. https://www.joannaseibert.com/