From Tennessee-

According to research from the university, the men who founded Sewanee: The University of the South for the Episcopal Church in 1857 did so to maintain slave-holding society.

Practically every church in the South that was erected before the Civil War has symbols of the Confederacy or complicated histories with race, said the Rev. Claire Brown, associate rector at St. Paul's Episcopal Church. During the war, many churches supported the Confederacy and believed God was on their side.

In Brown's own church — the congregation of which was established in 1852 — there still hang portraits of Episcopal bishops who were slave owners, she said.

"Race as a social category was created to justify that exploitation and it was within the same breath that people were saying that it was God-ordained that some groups of people would be inferior to others," she said. "And it got twisted pretty much immediately to be unto the glory of God."

More here-

https://www.timesfreepress.com/news/local/story/2020/jun/21/chattanoogpastors-grapple-history-church-raci/525838/

Alabama church removes pew honoring Confederate president

From Alabama-

An Alabama church has removed a pew honoring Confederate President Jefferson Davis, saying the memorial had no place at a time when rebel symbols have been adopted by white supremacists.
The pastor of St. John's Episcopal Church, Robert C. Wisnewski Jr., posted a message on the church website last week saying the wooden pew was dedicated more than 90 years ago at a service featuring a pro-lynching segregationist.

After learning of the pew's history at a recent planning retreat, church leaders discussed it and then voted to remove the pew from the sanctuary and place it in the church archive, he wrote.

"Confederate monuments and symbols have increasingly been used by groups that promote white supremacy and are now, to many people of all races, seen to represent insensitivity, hatred, and even evil," Wisnewski wrote. "The mission of our parish is diametrically opposed to what these symbols have come to mean."

More here-

https://www.krmg.com/news/alabama-church-removes-pew-honoring-confederate-president/kxvJtoW0wWz0yYtzRBBqCO/

The Complicated History of Washington & Lee University

From The Weekly Standard-

The discord at Washington and Lee had been foreshadowed in events two years earlier at another venerable Lexington institution, the R. E. Lee Memorial Church. After a small but vocal minority of the Episcopal church’s congregants, led by a few academics from Washington and Lee, objected to the name of the building, there began a long and painful debate over whether to rename it. By the end, the rector had been dismissed, several members had quit the church, and many of those who remained were left exhausted and dispirited by the dispute.

One of the most persistent voices for change was Howard Pickett, a professor of ethics and poverty studies at W&L, who had been bothered by the church’s name since arriving in Lexington a decade earlier. Most Episcopal churches that are named for people are consecrated in honor of Christian saints. What was the theological reason, Pickett wondered, for naming a church after a Confederate general?

More here-

https://www.weeklystandard.com/peter-j-boyer/confederate-history-can-washington-lee-university-successfully-deal-with-its-past

A year after Charlottesville: Confederate symbols wear out welcome at Ohio cathedral

From Southern Ohio-

Symbols of the Confederacy that have long been a part of one of Cincinnati's oldest churches are slated for removal.

The journey to this decision started one year ago for Christ Church Cathedral following a sermon by Dean Gail Greenwell. From her pulpit, she challenged the cathedral’s vestry to consider what to do with the memorials – a plaque honoring Episcopal bishop and Confederate Gen. Leonidas Polk and a stained glass pane honoring Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee – and to review what might be missing from the church.

The vestry accepted the challenge. Two scholars were brought in to discuss the context of the symbols and the issue of Confederate memorials in general. Conversations and listening session were held, according to the cathedral's head of the vestry, Senior Warden Don Lane.

Various opinions and concerns were considered by the vestry before a decision was made.

More here-

https://www.wkyc.com/article/news/local/ohio/a-year-after-charlottesville-confederate-symbols-wear-out-welcome-at-ohio-cathedral/95-582469557

The complex soul of the real Gen. Robert E. Lee

From Indiana-

Soon after the Army of Northern Virginia surrendered to Union forces, Gen. Robert E. Lee wrote to one of his spiritual advisers while wrestling with the pain of this great defeat, but also with a lesson that he had learned.

“God has thought fit to afflict us most deeply. ... How great must be our sins and how unrelenting our obduracy,” wrote Lee to the Rev. William Platt, an Episcopal priest. “We have only to submit to his gracious will and pray for his healing mercy.”

The key, Lee argued, is that the South’s defeat represented the judgment of God. Now it was time to seek true unity, not “a forced and hollow truce. ... To this end all good men should labour.”

More here-

http://www.newsbug.info/monticello_herald_journal/the-complex-soul-of-the-real-gen-robert-e-lee/article_cea857bf-2f65-56cb-95f2-fd04591cb30e.html

Our church was named for Robert E. Lee — here is how we changed it

From RNS-

Confederate symbols in churches, especially Episcopal churches in Virginia and the National Cathedral in Washington, have followed a pattern of controversy parallel to, but distinct from, the civic battles over their removal from public spaces.

In Episcopal churches directly associated with Robert E. Lee, the controversy has been a deeply emotional, semiprivate clash of sensibilities, one side claiming to respect the sacredness of history and the other, the history of sacredness.

It has been, under the surface, a re-litigating of Lee’s terms of surrender at Appomattox.

St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in downtown Richmond is the church Lee and Confederate President Jefferson Davis attended during the Civil War. Five months after the mass shooting in a black church in Charleston, S.C., by a neo-Confederate in June 2015, St. Paul’s began removing images of the Confederate flag from kneelers, bookplates and plaques.

More here-

http://gazette.com/our-church-was-named-for-robert-e.-lee-here-is-how-we-changed-it/article/1618789

A Church Struggles With Lee's Legacy

From Virginia-

When my church in Alexandria made the news, I knew it would be a bumpy ride.

The historic Episcopal church, after months of soul-searching, announced Oct. 26 it would relocate from the sanctuary two marble plaques memorializing George Washington and Robert E. Lee, its most famous members.

It may not surprise you that some media reports overly simplified and exaggerated the turn of events.

Headlines trumpeted: “Cultural terrorism comes to Christ Church in Alexandria” and “George Washington’s church to tear down memorial honoring first president.” Blogs referred to “ripping out” the memorial to Washington the church now finds “offensive.”

Asked about the plaques in a TV interview, John Kelly, President Trump’s chief of staff, criticized the decision and praised Lee as an honorable man.

More here-

http://www.newsadvance.com/opinion/columnists/mercer_marsha/a-church-struggles-with-lee-s-legacy/article_642e7d04-c0d3-11e7-bda1-1fa9d6a3c967.html

Removal of Robert E. Lee from church’s name was just start of healing for Virginia congregation

From ENS-

Grace Episcopal Church in Lexington, Virginia, has begun growing into its new name. Its website homepage is updated.  The stationery is new. And perhaps more consequentially, the annual stewardship appeal has been sent to members under the new church name.

A month ago, the vestry voted to remove Robert E. Lee from the name of the church he once attended, changing it from R.E. Memorial Church back to its previous Grace. That move ended two years of sometimes tense debate over the Confederate general’s legacy, both as a prominent member of the congregation’s past and a symbol of racial hatred in contemporary America.

At least one couple has formally left the congregation in protest of the name change. At the same time, the congregation faces a change in leadership: The Rev. Tom Crittenden announced this month he plans to step down as rector after Nov. 5.

Despite the recent upheaval, some parish leaders who had disagreed over whether to remain as R.E. Lee Memorial now express a mutual desire to move forward together as Grace Episcopal.

More here-

http://episcopaldigitalnetwork.com/ens/2017/10/18/removal-of-robert-e-lee-from-churchs-name-was-just-start-of-healing-for-virginia-congregation/

Episcopalians struggle with history of Confederate symbols

From Philadelphia-

Just steps away from the Statehouse, the Trinity Episcopal Cathedral is wrestling with Confederate ghosts. The South’s Gen. Wade Hampton and its poet laureate, Henry Timrod, are buried on the parish’s grounds. A plaque in its sanctuary honors members who died in the Civil War. However, the church doesn’t allow the display of Confederate flags, and the Very Rev. Dean Timothy Jones said Confederate flags recently placed on soldiers’ graves were removed.

“I care deeply about how historical symbols can create hurt and communicate a message of discrimination,” Jones said. “We believe in redressing the terrible wrongs of slavery and affirming the dignity of every human being.”

Several weeks after the church shootings, delegates to the national Episcopal church’s convention passed a resolution calling for the removal of Confederate battle flags from display. The call included not only taking down actual flags but also the removal of the images from iconography, like plaques and stained glass windows. Afterward, Washington National Cathedral, which is Episcopal, announced its plan to remove Confederate battle flags from two windows honoring Confederate generals Lee and Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson, saying later it would remove the windows entirely and store them pending a future decision about their fate.

More here-

http://www.phillytrib.com/episcopalians-struggle-with-history-of-confederate-symbols/article_dfb4b39e-7dc2-5b0b-9b86-24edf194f61e.html

Congregation once led by Robert E. Lee votes to remove his name from their Lexington church

 From the diocese of Southwestern Virginia-

 Leaders of R.E. Lee Memorial Episcopal Church in Lexington voted Monday evening to change the parish’s name to Grace Episcopal Church — what it was originally called when the Confederate general moved to town after the Civil War and joined the congregation.

The decision concludes a quiet, two-year debate among congregants over whether it’s appropriate for a Christian institution that aims to welcome all to carry a name that memorializes a man best known for fighting a war to preserve the institution of slavery.

“It’s been a very divisive issue for two years,” said the Rev. Tom Crittenden, the church’s rector. “But Charlottesville seems to have moved us to this point. Not that we have a different view of Lee historically in our church, but we have appreciation for our need to move on.”

More here-

http://www.richmond.com/news/virginia/congregation-once-led-by-robert-e-lee-votes-to-remove/article_30d0557f-c3c0-5be2-8a28-308159dd662c.html

It's not Iconoclasm, It Is Anti-Jim Crow Racism!

From Long Island-

On Wednesday, August 16th, I accompanied members of my staff to the property of St. John’s Episcopal Church in Fort Hamilton, Brooklyn, to remove two memorial plaques on a tree (or at least the third incarnation of the tree) planted on the property by General Robert E. Lee in the mid-1840s.

It is a fact that General Lee was a founding member of St. John’s Episcopal Church while he was stationed at Fort Hamilton and served as a lay leader (warden) of the parish during that time.

The fact also is that he was a gifted engineer and a brilliant military strategist whose tactics are still studied and taught in military academies. Most historical accounts provide a picture of his integrity, honesty, leadership, and valor. And except for leading the army of the Confederacy against the United States in an effort to preserve slavery, and therefore committing treason, he was by most accounts an outstanding historical figure.

So why in heaven’s name would anyone seek to remove his image or a plaque in his memory on a tree he planted on church property in Brooklyn?

More here-

http://www.dioceseli.org/media/diocesan-news/its-not-iconoclasm-it-is-anti-jim-crow-racism

National Cathedral to Remove or 'Contextualize' Confederate Stained Glass Windows

From D.C. (with video)-

Amid conversations across the country about whether to remove Confederate statues, the Washington National Cathedral will decide soon whether to remove two stained glass windows that depict Confederate generals, News4 has learned.

Church officials told News4 they will make an announcement soon and not wait until summer 2018 to decide, as the church previously planned.

"The events in Charlottesille have certainly added a sense of urgency that wasn't there before," cathedral spokesman Kevin Eckstrom said. 

The pair of 8-foot-by-4-foot windows installed in 1953 memorialize Gen. Robert E. Lee and Gen. Stonewall Jackson. They were sponsored by the United Daughters of the Confederacy. 

More here-

http://www.nbcwashington.com/news/local/National-Cathedral-to-Decide-on-Confederate-Windows-Fate-Soon-441552063.html

Amid national fury, local reb service proceeds quietly

From Louisiana-


They gathered in Thibodaux as they have in the past, numbering nearly 50.

Their purpose, they said, was to honor dead whose lives included service to the Confederacy during the American Civil War.

“It is a memorial to those who served who are buried at this cemetery, and for those who died at Lafourche Crossing and other battles, and those who are buried in St. Joseph’s Catholic Cemetery,” said Steve Alvarez, a retired Gretna carpenter who is commander of the Sons of Confederate Veterans Lt. J.Y. Sanders Camp, organized at Thibodaux.

The memorial service, held on private property at St. John’s Episcopal Church, was cultural as well as spiritual, as evinced by the Confederate re-enactor uniforms, the presence of several Confederate national and battle flags, and sentiments expressed in speeches and in the prayers themselves.

The Rev. Larry Beane of Salem Lutheran Church in Gretna – like St. John’s, a church steeped in history – gave the invocation.

More here-

https://www.houmatimes.com/news/amid-national-fury-local-reb-service-proceeds-quietly/article_79cd919e-87ae-11e7-8527-8710f1019676.html

Virginia congregation deeply divided over church’s name honoring Robert E. Lee

From ENS-

Was Robert E. Lee an American hero or a traitorous defender of slavery? The Confederate general has been called both in the ongoing debate over whether statues, monuments and plaques in his honor should be remain on display in public places, from parks to churches.

At least one aspect of Lee’s biography is undisputed: He was a prominent parishioner at the Episcopal church that now bears his name, R.E. Lee Memorial Church in Lexington, Virginia.
And that name now threatens to tear the congregation apart.

“Change is hard, and this is about change that goes right down to our identity,” vestry member Doug Cumming told Episcopal News Service. He supports removing Lee from the name of the church.
Turmoil has grown since 2015, when the vestry first considered but failed to approve a proposal to change the name back to the original Grace Episcopal Church. Members began leaving the congregation in protest, and such exits continued this year after the vestry in April chose not to act on a consultant’s recommendation for a name change.

More here-

http://episcopaldigitalnetwork.com/ens/2017/08/23/virginia-congregation-deeply-divide-over-churchs-name-honoring-robert-e-lee/

Bishop encourages name change for R. E. Lee Memorial

From The Cafe-

Michelle Boorstein of the Washington Post today has This is the church where Robert E. Lee declared himself a sinner. Should it keep his name?

Less than two weeks after a deadly white supremacist rally, leaders of the R.E. Lee church found themselves back at the table Monday night, with some again pressing the issue of a name change. While the church has been divided in the past over the issue, Charlottesville has pushed more members and some in leadership to conclude that, no matter what good Lee did in Lexington a century ago, white supremacists have taken ownership of his reputation and made him their symbol. The bishop [Mark Bourlakas, Episcopal bishop for Southwestern Virginia] has made clear that the Lee name is a distraction from sharing the gospel and is heading to Lexington in the next week or two to push the issue.

More here-

https://www.episcopalcafe.com/bishop-encourages-name-change-for-r-e-lee-memorial/

also here-

http://www.myajc.com/news/should-church-named-for-robert-lee-keep-his-name/HHieFXt9Mu6NadW7YGxNxK/

Bay Ridge Episcopal Church Removes Plaques Honoring Confederate General Robert E. Lee

From Brooklyn-

In the wake of riots and a murder in Virginia related to the removal of Confederate monuments, the Episcopal church this morning removed two plaques honoring Confederate general Robert E. Lee on church property in Bay Ridge.

“I think it is the responsible thing for us to do,” Bishop Lawrence Provenzano told Newsday. “People for whom the Civil War is such a critical moment — and particularly the descendants of former slaves — shouldn’t walk past what they believe is a church building and see a monument to a Confederate general.”

The plaques commemorated a spot where, according to legend, Lee planted a tree while he was stationed at Fort Hamilton as a member of the Army Corps of Engineers during the 1840s, before he became a Confederate military leader. He was a vestryman at the congregation of St. John’s Episcopal Church, located at 9818 Fort Hamilton Parkway near the army base.

The church is known as “the Church of the Generals,” because of all the military men who have worshipped there. By curious coincidence, another Confederate general, Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson, was baptized there.

More here-

http://www.brownstoner.com/brooklyn-life/robert-e-lee-brooklyn-st-johns-church-bay-ridge-fort-hamilton/

Should Churches Keep Their Civil War Landmarks?

From Christianity Today-

The most recent chapter in the story of America’s relationship with its Confederate past began in church.

Since Dylann Roof, a rebel flag-waving white supremacist, opened fire at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal in Charleston two years ago, the debate over historical markers of the Civil War South has taken on more urgency and more widespread concern.

The flags came down first, starting with the contentious one that flew on South Carolina’s capitol grounds. A year after the Mother Emanuel massacre, the Southern Baptist Convention called on Christians to stop displaying the Confederate flag. The Episcopal Church made a similar statement, and its National Cathedral in Washington, DC, opted to remove two images of the flag in its stained glass windows.

More here-

http://www.christianitytoday.com/news/2017/june/should-churches-keep-their-civil-war-landmarks.html

Lexington's R.E. Lee Episcopal contemplates name change

From Virginia (with video)-

 Lexington is a place full of history, where into a house built for him, Robert E. Lee came after the Civil War to be president of Washington College.

“He also, as a good Episcopalian, always attended the Episcopal church wherever he was," says David Cox, the author of “The Religious Life of Robert E Lee." "And that certainly was in Lexington.”

He joined the vestry, and was chosen to lead.

“Yeah, I’m filling the same job. He was senior warden of this church when he died,” says Woody Sadler, the Senior Warden today.

Leaving him with a problem. When Lee died, what was then Grace Episcopal was rebuilt as a memorial. A memorial that – as statues and parks honoring Lee and others are removed and renamed – some think should go back to being Grace Episcopal.

More here-

http://www.wdbj7.com/content/news/Lexingtons-RE-Lee-Episcopal-contemplates-name-change-429528233.html

Robert E. Lee: The man and the monument

From Richmond-

But who was the man behind the monument? A new book by a Lexington, Va., resident explains Lee’s motivation. In “The Religious Life of Robert E. Lee,” R. David Cox addresses how Lee defined his life. His reading of Lee’s papers confirms that Lee was deeply religious. But his religion allowed the moral contradiction that scarred the nation. What sort of religion allowed such wrong?

Lee then, like Cox and myself now, was an Episcopalian. Lee was the product of a rational, English Christianity and an American evangelical one. Uniting his faith was the sense of a superintending providence. As Cox explains, “whatever happens — other than as the result of human sin — happens because God wants it that way: ... what happens is, in the end, best.”

Lee believed that divine will inevitably prevailed. Mortals could accept God’s designs; or they could — by rejection, passivity, or “outright sin” — make the world “more wicked.” Lee saw passivity as a source of evil. So he acted, even as he pondered the circumstances in which he found himself. He was capable of resignation, not passivity.

More here-

http://www.richmond.com/opinion/their-opinion/guest-columnists/william-l-sachs-column-robert-e-lee-the-man-and/article_b66fa7aa-3277-545a-9a56-3fb88b284286.html

Civil War prayer books tell a story of commonality in a time of conflict, says pastor who collects them

From North Carolina-

The little Episcopalian prayer book did not have the easiest journey to the Rev. Robert Alves' private collection.

"This one has actually been in the ocean," says, Alves, holding up a leather-bound copy of the Confederate Book of Common Prayer.

In 1863, the book was part of a shipment of devotionals headed to Confederates in the battlefield. But Union ships were in hot pursuit of a Rebel blockade runner carrying the devotionals and other supplies off the coast of Beaufort. The Confederate sailors, before eventually running aground, dumped cargo to lighten the load, including the books.

More here-

http://www.fayobserver.com/opinion/myron_pitts/civil-war-prayer-books-tell-a-story-of-commonality-in/article_3ef962f7-0933-525b-9556-777dc8ccd680.html