April 2015
Standing Witness
Standing Witness commemorates the 150TH anniversary of the ending of the American Civil War, abolition of slavery and assassination of President Abraham Lincoln. The weekend events begin with a symposium in the new Student Union Theater at San Jose State University. The program traces advances and struggles in civil rights and civil liberties of Californian pioneers of color from Emancipation to the turn of the 20th century, from San Francisco Bay to San Jose. The Standing Witness Symposium will include…
Find out more »Moving Forward In Reconciliation and Celebration
The Rev. Peter Williams Cassey was the first person of color ordained in the Episcopal Church West of the Mississippi River at Trinity Episcopal Cathedral in 1866. Peter arrived in San Francisco in 1863, and became a leader in the Underground Railroad and community organizer of blacks throughout the state. He and his wife, Anna Besant Cassey, founded St. Philip’s Mission, the first black church in San Jose, and St. Philip’s Academy and the Phoenixonian Institute, the first secondary school…
Find out more »Evensong in Celebration of the Casseys
Singing witness in Celebration of Peter Williams Cassey and Anna Besant Cassey. Officiant, The Rt. Rev. Mary Gray-Reeves, Bishop of El Camino Real; Preacher, the Rev. Ronald Culmer, Rector, St. Clare’s Episcopal Church, Pleasanton, California All are cordially invited; all beliefs or disbeliefs are embraced Sponsored by the Episcopal Diocese of El Camino Real.
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