Date: March 21, 2022
As we regather this week after a much-need break, we are once again presented with wonderful opportunities for deeper engagement by the Center for Anglican Communion Studies. This week the Center’s events take us into the crucial issues of sanctuary and martyrdom.
Tuesday at 12:45 pm in the Lettie Pate Evans Room (LPER), we will hear from the Rev. Luis Barrios, Ph.D., Professor of Psychology, Criminal Justice, and Latin American & Latina/o Studies at John Jay College of Criminal Justice-CUNY and Priest-in-Charge, Holyrood Church/Iglesia Santa Cruz, New York City. Dr. Barrios will discuss how sanctuary churches are a project of civil disobedience to denounce unjust and immoral immigration laws and how, in the context of oppression and marginalization, civil disobedience is a divine mandate. This is an issue that many students will confront moving into parish work and one that we all need to understand, so I commend this forum to everyone in the community.
Then, on Wednesday evening at 7:00 pm, in Addison 101, CACS will show the film Romero about the martyrdom of Archbishop Óscar Romero in 1998 by Salvadoran right-wing assassins. It is a difficult film, but it is right that we remember this tragic event, especially on Wednesday, as the following day is the 42nd anniversary of Archbishop Romero’s murder. We will honor him in our worship on Thursday. Romero is a canonized saint in the Roman Catholic church and is respected and beloved by many across Latin America.
I hope you will find time for these two theologically important topics in your schedules this week.
The Very Rev. Ian S. Markham, Ph.D.
Dean and President