Hands + Feet + Voice
+ heart.
Leader: "God is Good."
People: "All the Time."
Leader: "All the Time."
People: "Good is Good."
Usually when I/we travel, I blog every night as a way to commit to memory what happened that day.
On this most recent trip, the Faith and Democracy Pilgrimage to Philadelphia and New York City, our days were so jam packed that by the time we finished our daily itinerary, all I could think of was crawling into bed since the next morning's early call would be coming all too soon. In fact, on this trip, I believe I saw more combination sunrise/sunsets than I have in years due to the 7 a.m. departures and 8 p.m. returns.
Thus, no daily blogs. Now, a test of my recollection of where we went, what we saw and did and impact of same over the past week.
So, a Pilgrimage. By definition, a pilgrimage is a journey to a place associated with someone or something well respected. It also can be seen as a journey to a holy place leading to a personal transformation. I believe going to Philadelphia and NYC meld both these definitions.
On this trip there were 11 Pilgrims: 11-16 year olds in various stages of their confirmation journey into the Episcopal church. The Pilgrims were/are members of St. Timothy Episcopal Church in West Des Moines, IA, where the church banner proclaims that members are the hands + feet + voice of Christ in the world. I added the + heart after being with these remarkable young people on this Pilgrimage. Additionally there were 11 Shepherds: parents and grandparents (we are bonus grandparents to My Friend Jeanie's 9 grandchildren, 3 of whom were on this trip), as well as the Christian Formation Director, Deacon (also a grandparent) and Rector. A nice balance between kids and adults, we came to believe, as well as a sweet spot with number of kids and their ages.
A few group shots
Church of the Holy Trinity, Rittenhouse Square, Philadelphia
Times Square, NYC
African Episcopal Church of St. Thomas, Philadelphia
Day 1: Many hours on the bus from West Des Moines, IA to the hotel outside Philadelphia in Cherry Hill, NJ
Reflection: the older you are, the more difficult and less comfortable it is to sleep on a bus, although good to know that you're still able to do same
Day 2: Brunch at the Liberty Bell Diner in Philly, an old school-type establishment with the multipage menu, then on to Church of the Holy Trinity, Rittenhouse Square, to assist in their Open Hearts Cafe.
Dinner was at Jim's South Street for the classic Philly Cheesesteak experience (although I noticed almost every restaurant with cheesesteaks on their menu made a similar claim), capping the evening with dessert at John's Water Ice.
So many of the eating establishments we visited were second if not third generation family owned, which I think is more of a hallmark on the east coast than in the Midwest.
Reflection: the ministers at Church of the Holy Trinity told us what amazing kids our Pilgrims are, and they displayed it in their actions (the hands + feet + voice of Christ in the world). The guests at the Open Hearts cafe--the ministers refer to those who come for free meals and clothing and toiletries as their guests, and the Open Hearts cafe as a place where they can feel safe and seen--were a more diverse group than I might have anticipated.
Day 3: The itinerary indicated were we to do a guided walking tour of Old City Philadelphia and I was excited to hear we'd have a guide. Turns out the Shepherds were the guides! We were each assigned a site that we'd walk past by Kelli, the Christian Formation Director who put the entire trip together. (I simply cannot say enough good things about Kelli. A shining star in the firmament.) The Shepherds googled or AI'd their site, then shared their knowledge with the group as we traversed the Old City streets. An added bonus: Dan (an architect) pointed out certain architectural constructions, including which type of pillar was used on so many of the buildings, a fair number dating back to the mid-1700s. Following our walking tour, we did have a real guide, a National Park Ranger (yes, not all of them were DOGEd) through first Independence Hall, then Congress Hall. As our Reflection book pointed out, this is where the foundations of democracy were laid.
Independence Hall
There are some original to 1776 pieces of furniture in these rooms in Congress Hall. Sure don't make 'em today like they used to!
At the Liberty Bell Center, we saw--what else--the Liberty Bell.
My Friend Jeanie and me
The Dan-o and me and some random tourist
The area outside the Liberty Bell Center is known as the President's House. Please click on that link; it will take you to the exhibit panels that should be there. The panels on slavery were abruptly removed in January, replaced by pieces of paper indicating they are, obviously, not there! Seeing this literally took my breath away, especially given how emphatic the tour guides at Independence Hall and Congress Hall were about freedom and democracy and slavery. They didn't shy away from how the founding fathers owned slaves and the conflict it caused among them and their fellow Americans. Just down the street, however, the panels on slavery are those ordered removed by the current Administration. A small group of volunteers stand near the empty spaces and read aloud the information conveyed on the panels. Legal action has resulted in the pending restoration of the panels by July 4.
Keeping in the theme of eating local, we enjoyed hoagies at Campo's Deli, then on to Christ Church and burial grounds. A word about east coast burial grounds: they are to be found literally everywhere, especially adjacent to churches and populated with those who inherited the earth at least 300 years ago. Christ Church Burial Grounds is the final resting place of Benjamin Franklin. 
The day concluded with dinner at Rosy's Taco Bar.
How did we get from place to place, you might ask? Walking. We walked. A lot. And there was not one--I kid you not, not one--complaint from the Pilgrims, even when we had to wait for the bus (which happened more than a couple times during the Pilgrimage). (The Shepherds, as you might anticipate, were the grousers.) The kids sang, played hand clapping games, made sure everyone was invited to join in. This night we were hanging around on a Philly street corner, waiting for the bus, when one of the Pilgrims suggested engaging passing cars to honk in honor of another Pilgrim's 14th birthday. And Philadelphia joined in! People waved, smiled, laughed. The kids shared their joy with the city. The hands + feet + voice (+ heart) of Christ in the world.
Reflection: Besides partaking in the exuberance of early adolescence, good for this aging woman's heart and soul, I was struck by the frankness of the National Park tour guides. They ardently, vigorously defended the formation of democracy and the need for all of us to continue to stand up for it. We have come to lionize the founders, yet they were truly ordinary citizens who stood up to the King and said, "Enough." They acted. We ordinary citizens need to keep paying attention, not turning away. "Enough," we should be saying. "Enough."
Day 4: The 7 a.m. board the bus of the previous mornings was late in comparison to this morning's 5:15 call time as we were headed today into NYC. After driving through the Lincoln Tunnel, we exited at Battery Park in Manhattan where, clad in our red shirts trumpeting "Proclaim Liberty Throughout the Land" (Leviticus 25:10), each Pilgrim paired up with a Shepherd, we crossed the Hudson to first the Statue of Liberty, then Ellis Island.
Freedom Tower
My Pilgrim partner was concerned about eating the slice properly so we tried to FaceTime with my New York born and bred son-in-law for instructions but ended up folding the slice and consuming it without difficulty. Next was a stop at Trinity Church Wall Street. Alexander Hamilton and his wife, Eliza, have their final resting place in the Trinity Church burial grounds.
Alexander Hamilton
Eliza Hamilton
Here one of our Pilgrims had a medical issue and with the good help from the people at Trinity, he and his Shepherd were able to remain and recover while the rest headed uptown to Times Square via subway. For almost all the kids and not a few adults it was their first subway ride! The kids expertly navigated the subway system and we spilled out into Times Square. Unfortunately the day was too rapidly drawing to a close so we didn't have much time there, but they certainly made the most of it. We grabbed dinner at Liberty Bagels, home of the famous rainbow bagel which can be schmeared with birthday cake cream cheese, hopped back onto the subway, trotted down to the south end of Central Park, then back on the bus to Jersey. What a day!
Reflection: The movie on Ellis Island about the immigrants was especially moving, given that I am the grandchild of immigrants who may have come through there (have to do some research). As I understand it, my paternal grandmother was sent by her father and step mother (who did not like her, or so the story goes) to the United States when she was 16. The intention was for her to make her way from NYC to Chicago where she had a sister (? none of my siblings or cousins is quite sure about this). The film emphasized that the immigrants made the sail in steerage. Many sacrificed for years to save up enough to pay for the cost of the passage. They were beyond brave. They came for a better life for themselves and their families--and now us.
Day 5: Our first stop was Washington Square Park, followed by a walk past Mother Bethel American Methodist Episcopal Church, established over 200 years ago, the oldest piece of property continuously owned by African Americans in the US. We then had a tour at St. Peter's Church, architecturally decidedly different from the other churches we had been in. Seating for congregants is in boxed pews and while many churches have that, each box has a bench on both sides as the congregants turn from the front to the back of the church during the service. Also the main floor windows are plain glass rather than stained glass so the church is flooded with natural light. This building is almost 275 years old! From there we headed to the Museum of the American Revolution. We began with a very compelling film about Washington's (as in George) War Tent that ended with a scrim lifting to display the tent itself. The Museum itself solidified that freedom really isn't free. Setting up this country required extensive, exhaustive work by many. Not everyone was George Washington or Benjamin Franklin but without those who made an ongoing difference in their own way, we'd all be speaking with a British accent. Lunch was at Reading Terminal Market, a refurbished railroad station that now has crammed into it just about every possible type of cuisine in a stand. My Friend Jeanie and I wandered a bit, found a lunch counter serving deli sandwiches, and said, "This looks good. Let's eat here." Pastrami on seeded rye accompanied by chicken noodle soup. The bulk of the afternoon was spent at the African Episcopal Church of St. Thomas, where we were treated to a tour by Willadeen (not sure this is how her name is spelled) Fox, a faith filled member of the congregation who enthusiastically shared her love of the church and its mission with us. We learned about the Reverend Blessed Absalom Jones, born enslaved on November 6, 1746. He was a founding member of the Free African Society, a group that worked on projects together and helped each other out. Willadeen demonstrated a particularly poignant moment from Absalom Jones's life. Kneeling in prayer at St. George's Methodist Church, a white church official told Absalom that he was unable to kneel there, that he must get up and go to another part of the church (Blacks were often relegated to the loft section of the church where it was decidedly hotter). Replied Reverend Jones: "Wait until prayer is over, and I will get up and trouble you no more." This precipitated a movement of Reverend Jones and other Black worshippers to walk out of St. George's, beginning the rise of the first African church in America. (Something I haven't mentioned, which came up on a number of tours, was the Yellow Fever pandemic of 1793. Many white, wealthy citizens of Philadelphia fled the city for the mountains, leaving behind the less fortunate and Blacks. It was thought by Dr. Benjamin Rush, who remained behind to care for those afflicted, that Blacks had a natural immunity to Yellow Fever so he called upon the Free African Society to volunteer to care for those who were ill. Which they did.) At the end of the tour, Willadeen exhorted us to practice and preach the three key components of our Baptismal Covenant:
With God's help, I will proclaim by word and example the Good News of God in Christ.
With God's help, I will seek and serve Christ in all persons, loving my neighbor as myself. Neighbors include people I do like; people who like me as well as people who don't like me and people I don't like.
With God's help, I will strive for justice and peace among all people and respect the dignity of every human being.
In other words, be the hands + feet + voice of Christ in the world.
The ashes of the Reverend Jones are interred in this Bible
Following a quick walk down Elfreth's Alley, which dates back to 1703 and is one of the oldest continuously occupied blocks in the United States, we pivoted to dinner in a different restaurant across the street from the Delaware River, a good thing because we had intended to eat at food trucks that were non-existent but then it poured rain so better off to be indoors. Back to the hotel. Ready for the final day.
Reflection: Willadeen! What a woman! The stories about Reverend Jones and his compatriots fall into line with what we have been learning all along. When people are willing to STAND UP for what they know is right, positive change that will impact the many is possible.
Day 5: The day began with a walk through Philadelphia's Chinatown. I found it interesting to watch the markets spring to life, reminiscent of the markets we saw last fall in Southeast Asia. We toured the US Mint, which personally was disappointing since no coins were being cast during our visit. Next on tap, a stop at the National Constitution Center, which has the beginning of the Declaration of Independence inscribed on its exterior wall. The exhibit about the 19th Amendment was especially informative and also somewhat chilling given that a segment of the Christian movement believes that women should not have the right to vote.
A tour of the Eastern State Penitentiary was a sobering reminder of the inequality and injustice embedded in the American penal institution.
Al Capone was an inmate at Eastern State for a period.
He was able to furnish his cell.
We passed by the Rocky steps on the way to the Franklin Institute
The man himself: Benjamin Franklin
Reflection: I found myself thinking, not infrequently, that our Republican legislators and members of the current Administration could do with an extended tour of the various sites we visited. This great American experiment began precariously--one battle, one missed message and it could have collapsed. Today, this great American experiment is, in my opinion, also existing precariously. We saw examples of that throughout the Pilgrimage. I hear some of my fellow citizens say they are so tired of the hooey coming out of Washington that they no longer pay attention. Please. Pay attention. Raise your voice in protest because if you don't, who will? Our founding fathers, our forebearers were not quiet people. Should we be?
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