From: The Episcopal Diocese of Alabama, Birmingham, Alabama

“IT is difficult for young people today who live in places outside the United States of America, including Guyana, to understand that, just 50 short years ago, many black Americans were not only denied the right to vote, but were also prevented from eating in many restaurants, shopping in many stores, and even drinking from water fountains that were designated for ‘whites only,” said the Right Reverend Santosh Marray, paraphrasing a point made in a recent Anglican News Service Article.

Bishop Marray is a Guyana-born U.S. bishop who was instrumental in organizing a recent major civil rights martyrs’ pilgrimage in Alabama to celebrate the lives and commemorate the sacrifice of those killed in the 1960s’ struggle for civil rights. One of those killed was a white Episcopal/Anglican seminarian from Keene, New Hampshire, USA. Jonathan Myrick Daniels came to Alabama in 1965, in response to a call from civil rights leader the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., to join a march from Selma to the state capital of Montgomery -– part of the voting rights movement underway in the south. Daniels was drawn by his deep faith and belief in the racial equality of all people. Unlike most of the marchers who returned home immediately following the march, Daniels remained in Alabama and worked on a number of civil rights projects.

On August 14, 1965, Daniels and twenty-some others –- mostly young African American demonstrators — were jailed in Hayneville, Alabama after being arrested while protesting “whites-only” businesses in the nearby town of Fort Deposit.

Released unexpectedly on a sweltering August 20, Daniels and three others who had been jailed with him went to a local store –- one of the few that served blacks — to purchase soft drinks. As the group approached the door, a shotgun-wielding volunteer deputy sheriff confronted Daniels, Father Richard Morrisroe, a white Catholic priest; and Joyce Bailey and Ruby Sales, two black teenagers, and barred their entrance. Following a brief verbal exchange, the deputy raised his shotgun. Daniels pushed Sales safely out of the way as the deputy pulled the trigger.

Daniels was hit at near point-blank range, and died instantly. A second blast from the deputy’s shotgun cut down Morrisroe, who had grabbed Bailey’s hand and turned to run. Although critically wounded, Morrisroe survived. The volunteer deputy, Tom Coleman, was tried for manslaughter and quickly acquitted by an all-white jury of men.

On hearing of the incident, Dr. Martin Luther King called Daniels’s actions “one of the most heroic Christian deeds of which I have heard in my entire ministry.”

In 1991, The Episcopal Church designated Jonathan Myrick Daniels as a martyr. He is one of only 15 martyrs recognized by the Church since the beginning of the 20th century. Jonathan Daniels is commemorated in the Chapel of Saints and Martyrs of Our Time, Canterbury Cathedral, Kent, United Kingdom. Canterbury Cathedral is the home of global Anglicanism. Every year, pilgrims from all over the United States come to Hayneville to commemorate this profoundly spiritual observance. As this year marks the 50th anniversary of his death, a series of events were organized to commemorate his sacrifice.

For the past eighteen years, the Episcopal/Anglican Diocese of Alabama organized, through its Commission on Race Relations in the church, an annual pilgrimage to observe the selfless sacrifice of Jonathan Daniels and the other martyrs of the civil rights movement.

Bishop Marray, Assistant Bishop of Alabama, is of Guyanese origin. He has been a vital part of the organization of the pilgrimage. From the time Bishop Marray joined the diocese three years ago, he immediately assumed this responsibility of working with the commission to strengthen the witness of this pilgrimage.

Bishop Marray said it was natural for him to do this because, over the thirty-four years of active ministry in numerous countries where he has lived, he has publicly proclaimed and served the cause of reconciliation, and in particular racial reconciliation, and it has evolved into his personal mission and calling from God. He said, “How can any Christian not be a reconciler? For God is reconciliation, and Jesus’s death was about reconciling the world to God?” This, the bishop says, “is the vision of God for the world”.

He describes himself as a ‘reconciled reconciler’, meaning that as God has reconciled him to God’s self through God’s forgiveness, compassion, mercy, grace and love, he has devoted his life and ministry to the task of bringing all human beings to live in the common bond of one creation under God. Also, to respect the dignity of every person, for all are created in the image and likeness of God. He goes on to say that “when the society and people, especially Christians, abandon the message of reconciliation and equality, the church’s core values are compromised. When her core values are abrogated, integrity is diminished. The church is the moral compass of society, so when her witness is noticeably different from her message, society loses the benefit of having its very ‘soul’ nurtured to health and spiritual wellness simply because its spiritual tutor is sending mixed messages.

Bishop Marray believes that, “to think or even to suggest that one race is comprehensively superior to another is to say that diversity, one of God’s greatest and most demonstrative expressions of His perfect nature, has no place in this world. And, to go as far as to support this thesis could be tantamount to blasphemy against the Holy Spirit, the unforgiveable sin, according to the Bible.

The 57-year-old church leader regards Jonathan Daniels as one of his heroes. As a devotee to racial justice and equality, Jonathan towered above others of his time, because he dared to live what he believed, sacrificing his life in doing so –a rare quality to find in these times.

This year’s pilgrimage on Saturday, August 15, was attended by over 1,500 pilgrims, including numerous bishops across the Episcopal/Anglican Church. The sermon was preached by the new Presiding Bishop–Elect of the Episcopal Church USA, the Right Reverend Michael H. Curry, Episcopal Bishop of North Carolina, USA, the first African American to hold this high office. His powerful sermon reiterated the call of all Christians to discipleship.

“We are here because we who have been baptized – we’re not simply baptized into church membership – we were consecrated to radical discipleship, into the Jesus Movement to change this world,” said Presiding Bishop-Elect Curry. “The same movement that called Jonathan and Mary; Queen Esther, Moses, Abraham, and Sarah and Hagar; the same movement that moved the world into being.

“We must raise up a new generation, and pass the torch to that generation; so that the march will continue; so that the movement will go on; so that we will not stop, we will not cease, we will not desist until justice rolls down like a mighty stream and righteousness like an ever-flowing brook.

“That’s the movement we’re all a part of! It’s a movement that believes passionately that love can actually change the world.”

Bishop Marray is a global Anglican Church leader of thirty-four years, including ten as bishop, a son of the Anglican Diocese of Guyana. Before he left Guyana, he served as parish priest in New Amsterdam, Canje, Berbice River Missions, Church of The Transfiguration, La Penitence and St. Aloysius Churches, South Ruimveldt Gardens, and Army Chaplain to the Guyana Defence Force. It was during his tenure that the Church of the Transfiguration was renovated and consecrated on Sunday, August 13, 1989. He said that his reason for leaving had to do with his desire to improve his pastoral training, be exposed to the church globally, and further his education.

He served fourteen years in the Diocese of the Bahamas. In February 2005, he was elected and consecrated Bishop of Seychelles, Indian Ocean, a country off the eastern coast of Africa. He has travelled extensively throughout the global Anglican Community. Between 2006 and 2009, he was chosen as part of a twelve-member church leaders’ conference across the worldwide communion that was tasked by the Anglican Communion to draft an Anglican Communion Covenant. The covenant was designed to offer guidelines as to how best the Anglican Communion could live its common life together as an effective global witness.

In 2009, the former Archbishop of Canterbury, The Most Reverend Dr. Rowan Williams, appointed him one of his commissaries to the Anglican Communion in the role of Pastoral Visitor. Other commissaries included the present Archbishop of Canterbury, The Most Reverend Justin Welby, when he was Dean of Liverpool and later Bishop of Durham. This role took Marray to many parts of the world, and involved him as both a presence and conflict mediator.

Marray is a trained mediation trainer with one of the foremost mediation centers in USA –the Lombard Mennonite Peace Centre in Chicago, Illinois — and the Coventry Cathedral Centre for Reconciliation, United Kingdom. Bishop Marray holds a Diploma in Pastoral Studies from Codrington College; Bachelor of Arts (Upper Second Class Honours) in Theology from University of the West Indies, Barbados; Master of Law in Canon Law from the University of Wales in the United Kingdom; Master in Sacred Theology in Christian Spirituality from the General Theological Seminary of New York; Doctor of Ministry from Colgate Rochester Divinity/Bexley Hall Episcopal Seminary, Rochester, NY; and Doctor of Divinity (honoris causa) in recognition of his outstanding leadership in church global and local, planting new churches and renewal of congregations across the many dioceses he has served.

Bishop Marray holds the distinction of being the first Guyanese and Caribbean/West Indian of East Indian descent to be bishop in the worldwide Anglican Communion, and the first and only Caribbean/West Indian to serve as bishop in the eastern and western hemisphere.

Our Assistant Bishop and his wife of thirty-eight years, Nalini, are beloved in the Diocese of Alabama, and have brought to Alabama the gift of diversity, love and West Indian charm; and a sense and knowledge of the global church never experienced before. The Diocese of Alabama comprises ninety-three congregations, over thirty thousand members, and over two hundred and forty clergy led by its Bishop Diocesan, the Right Reverend Kee Sloan.

The words of Jonathan Daniels, the Martyr, continue to resound for all nations and all peoples: “We are indelibly, unspeakably one”.

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