This book - Centro de Estudos Anglicanos

134THE EPISCOPALIANSnatural dignity and value of every man, of whatever color or race, as created inthe image of God.” The convention also encouraged church members “to worktogether, in charity and forbearance, towards the establishment . . . of full opportunitiesin fields such as education, housing, employment and public accommodations.”3 After the meeting, two white priests—Cornelius Tarplee, an employeeof the denomination’s National Council, and John B. Morris, the rector of a parishin South Carolina—agreed between themselves to keep pressure on church leadersabout the civil rights issue. Morris and Tarplee’s decision soon led them to organizethe Episcopal Society for Cultural and Racial Unity (ESCRU). Foundedin December 1959, ESCRU was dedicated to the principle that no division basedupon race, ethnicity, or social class should exist within the Episcopal Church. 4The formation of ESCRU coincided with the beginning of an important stagein the civil rights movement as “sit-in” protests started to take place in southerncities in early 1960. A few weeks after the first sit-ins began in Greensboro, NorthCarolina, several employees of the National Council published a report declaringthat Anglican social teaching recognized the Christian’s duty to disobey unjustlaws. This statement outraged white Episcopalians in the South, especiallyCharles C.J. Carpenter, the bishop of Alabama. “ ‘Civil disobedience,’ ” hecharged, “is just another name for lawlessness,” and the Episcopal Church wascourting danger by giving more attention to sit-in protests than to preaching thegospel of Jesus Christ. 5 This outburst from a prominent southern bishop eliciteda counterblast from the ESCRU leadership. Speaking for the organization, JohnMorris lambasted Carpenter and predicted that the civil rights movement wouldprove to be “a plumb-line in the South,” dividing church leaders who were readyto implement their denomination’s racially inclusive teachings from those, likethe bishop of Alabama, who aspired to be only “chaplains to the dying order ofthe Confederacy.” 6Despite these biting words, Carpenter continued to oppose the civil rightsmovement. When racial protests spread to Birmingham (where the offices of thediocese of Alabama were located) in 1963, Carpenter again became the focus ofattention among Episcopalians. Although Birmingham was generally regarded asthe most racially divided city in the United States, white moderates were in theprocess of wresting political control from Eugene “Bull” Connor, the hard-linesegregationist police commissioner. Worried that further challenges from blackgroups might hinder the moderates’ efforts to ameliorate the Jim Crow system,white political and religious leaders tried to convince Martin Luther King Jr. tohalt the civil rights demonstrations he was organizing in Birmingham. When Kingrefused to follow this advice, Carpenter and seven other white clergymen releaseda public letter criticizing him for heightening racial tensions in their city. Infuriatedby this statement, King responded in the now-celebrated “Letter from BirminghamJail” by rebuking the white clergy for ignoring the Bible’s message ofjustice for people of all races. 7Pressure from white church leaders in the South prevented the National Councilof the Episcopal Church from taking a definitive stand on the civil rights move-