We are All Called to Lead and Lead Well
20 for 2020 is a newsletter sent to 20 people in preparation for the U.S. Presidential election of 2020. This is the eighth newsletter and its subject is leadership. January 2020
I recently heard a Priest give a talk on General Robert E. Lee and it inspired me and I decided to research it. It involved a church service shortly after the Civil War.
I have found an article on it with two versions of the story. The following is quoted from The Civil War Monitor, “Fantasizing Lee as a Civil Rights Pioneer” by Andy Hall posted 7/23/2012. Please read.
One last dramatic scene awaited the rebirth of the Republic. Back in Richmond, soon after the war was over, the congregation of St. Paul's met again for the usual Sunday services, which were to be the Episcopalian Order of Holy Communion.
The Richmond gentry and the former leaders of the Confederacy were present as usual in spite of the destruction of much of the city. When it came time for the faithful to kneel before the altar and take the Eucharistic bread and wine, a joyful young black man strode forth and knelt at the altar rail alongside the white congregants.
A silence and a gasp went across the segregated congregation. This had never happened before, and the clergy were frozen in their places not sure what to do. A black man kneeling beside a white man? It was unknown in the old South.
From the back of St. Paul's a lone figure in a gray suit walked forward and knelt beside the freed slave. With a look of command he nodded to the priests, who gave both him and the black man Holy Communion together, eating bread from the same paten and drinking wine from the same cup.
The lone figure was Robert E. Lee, who knelt beside the man whose slavery, among other things, he had only recently fought to defend. And when the vanquished Southern commander came to the altar, the rest of the congregation followed him as well, white and black together.
NEGRO COMMUNED AT ST. PAUL'S CHURCH
Col. T. L. Broun, of Charleston, W. Va., writes of having been present at St. Paul's Church, Richmond, Va., just after the war when a negro marched to the communion table ahead of the congregation. His account of the event is as follows:‘Two months after the evacuation of Richmond business called me to Richmond for a few days, and on a Sunday morning in June, 1865, I attended St. Paul's Church. Dr. Minnegerode [sic] preached. It was communion day; and when the minister was ready to administer the holy communion, a negro in the church arose and advanced to the communion table. He was tall, well-dressed, and black. This was a great surprise and shock to the communicants and others present. Its effect upon the communicants was startling, and for several moments they retained their seats in solemn silence and did not move, being deeply chagrined at this attempt to inaugurate the 'new regime' to offend and humiliate them during their most devoted Church services. Dr. Minnegerode [sic., Minnigerode] was evidently embarrassed.
General Robert E. Lee was present, and, ignoring the action and presence of the negro, arose in his usual dignified and self-possessed manner, walked up the aisle to the chancel rail, and reverently knelt down to partake of the communion, and not far from the negro. This lofty conception of duty by Gen. Lee under such provoking and irritating circumstances had a magic effect upon the other communicants (including the writer), who went forward to the communion table. By this action of Gen. Lee the services were conducted as if the negro had not been present. It was a grand exhibition of superiority shown by a true Christian and great soldier under the most trying and offensive circumstances."
As our country is deeply divided now and as actions are subject to much interpretation and little good will, I ask you ponder this situation and meditate on the notion that the Negro in the story was a leader and that General Lee was also a leader and that they took communion together.
We do not know their motives and they may not have even known all of their motives but they took action, they led, and they ended up in communion.
At the end of the war, Lee is quoted as saying “Before and during the War Between the States I was a Virginian. After the war I became an American.”
Our country is crying out for leadership. Let us pray that in 2020 we find it. Let us pray that in 2020 we can model it.
God bless you and May you have a Merry Christmas and a Happy Hanukah.