It has been an unusual Holy Week so far, and I'd like to share why ... and how it fits into what I believe our call as a Cathedral of this city can be.
By now, most of you are well aware of the story of Anna Brown, a black, homeless woman who died in a Richmond Heights jail cell of blood clots in her leg hours after being medically cleared at St. Mary's Health Center. Since this story came to light in the Post-Dispatch, there has been an understandable firestorm.
The firestorm is understandable because Anna Brown's death, like that of Trayvon Martin, not only is disturbing in itself but it touches the heart of a brutally common experience of Black America and Homeless America. As a man I sat with this week said succinctly: "Black. Homeless. Woman. Not taken seriously."
The opportunity of moments like this is that they become springboards for communities to come together and work together for substantive change. The danger of moments like this is they become flashpoints for scapegoating and deepening of the chasms that already divide us in this highly segregated metropolitan area.
St. Mary's Health Center has become a target in this. They have received death threats and they are in a state of 24-hour heightened security. There is no doubt that the treatment Anna received at St. Mary's missed making a diagnosis that might have saved her life. But there is also no evidence that St. Mary's had any malice of intent toward Anna Brown or did anything but what they thought was the care they needed to give their patient.
But experience and emotion trumps fact almost every time. And the truth of the preponderance of experience that "black, homeless and woman" has so many times equaled "discarded and denied" makes it easy to turn St. Mary's into a scapegoat ... instead of exploring ways to embrace them as a powerful friend in the struggle to improve access to necessary services for all.
My personal experience of St. Mary's is of an institution that truly tries to live its mission statement of "Through our exceptional health care services, we reveal the healing presence of God." When I have been in St. Mary's ER, I have seen it incredibly overburdened by sheer volume of people (they estimate nearly 50,000 a year), much of which is due to the closing of other city hospitals and the attractiveness of ERs as collecting spots for people who have no insurance. I have seen staff who are trying to live St. Mary's creed under incredibly difficult circumstances.
So I was grateful when our Canon Minor, the Rev. Dr. John Kilgore, called me and asked if I could set up a meeting with him and the Rev. Chris Rice, a minister at New Life Evangelistic Center, which is planning a Good Friday march starting at the County Government Building in Clayton and ending with a rally at St. Mary's. Chris and I have worked together on issues of homelessness downtown, and I love him not only as a brother in Christ but respect him as a colleague. He heard my concern that this Good Friday action might take what I saw as a powerful friend in the battle to improve health care (St. Mary's) and instead alienate them and make it more difficult to work together. He heard and on Monday morning, John, Chris and I sat down and the conversations began.
Throughout the week, I have sat down with John and Chris. I have spent time with Kate Becker, the president of SSM St. Mary's Health Center. I have sat down with the Rev. Larry Rice and a passionate group of pastors and homeless advocates at their planning meeting for the Good Friday action. At each one of these gatherings, I found people of deep faith who want the same thing -- that a deeply broken system that leaves many on the outside of health care looking in be reformed, and that specifically the government, churches and institutions of St. Louis County commit to doing their part to care for the homeless in their communities, and not just continuing to dump them on the City of St. Louis and on overloaded institutions like the St. Mary's ER.
John's and my hope was to bring St. Mary's and the organizers of the march together in a public way on Friday that would take an event that I think has the potential to turn into an unhelpful finger-pointing and blame-throwing exercise and turn it into a springboard for powerful collaboration for the good. With both Kate Becker and Larry & Chris Rice, we imagined what a public role for St. Mary's might be in tomorrow's rally that would be helpful and productive. In the end, St. Mary's decided not to participate tomorrow .. and all I can say about that is that while it saddens me and I think it is a missed opportunity, I am absolutely convinced that they are committed to being an active part of improving access to health care for all people in St. Louis City and County.
On one level, the time we spent this week with St. Mary's and NLEC was fruitless. The rally tomorrow will probably look the same as it would have had we never had these meetings. But on a deeper level, I believe there is much fruit that is yet to be borne. Christ Church Cathedral now has deeper relationships with St. Mary's and New Life Evangelistic Center. I will not be a part of the event on Friday -- and I struggled with this -- but I finally decided I do not want to be a visible part of something that could easily be spun as attacking an institution in St. Mary's that I believe wants to be part of the solution. However, I have already committed at their request to continue to meet with both people from St. Mary's and NLEC to explore how we can work toward collaborative solutions to improve the lives of our most vulnerable sisters and brothers.
I am hopeful that Anna Brown's death may yet be a catalyst for real change. And that we at Christ Church Cathedral can be a part of it.
Why is this important for Christ Church Cathedral?
I believe one of our greatest opportunities as a Cathedral for St. Louis is not to be one more voice shouting, but to be a place of reconciliation ... a place where people and institutions are gathered together to live the Gospel in the world. There are plenty of churches that are known for their politics ... and many of them accomplish wonderful things. But I hope Christ Church Cathedral can be known as the place and community that brings St. Louis together across its many and deep divides. That helps us find the common compassion we all share deep down. That, as I preached in my Maundy Thursday sermon tonight, models and equips us to "love one another as Christ has loved us."
What do you think?
Do you think I should be going to the rally tomorrow? Do you think it's the Cathedral's or my role to be bringing sides together ... or should we just pick one side and push hard? What do you think?
By now, most of you are well aware of the story of Anna Brown, a black, homeless woman who died in a Richmond Heights jail cell of blood clots in her leg hours after being medically cleared at St. Mary's Health Center. Since this story came to light in the Post-Dispatch, there has been an understandable firestorm.
The firestorm is understandable because Anna Brown's death, like that of Trayvon Martin, not only is disturbing in itself but it touches the heart of a brutally common experience of Black America and Homeless America. As a man I sat with this week said succinctly: "Black. Homeless. Woman. Not taken seriously."
The opportunity of moments like this is that they become springboards for communities to come together and work together for substantive change. The danger of moments like this is they become flashpoints for scapegoating and deepening of the chasms that already divide us in this highly segregated metropolitan area.
St. Mary's Health Center has become a target in this. They have received death threats and they are in a state of 24-hour heightened security. There is no doubt that the treatment Anna received at St. Mary's missed making a diagnosis that might have saved her life. But there is also no evidence that St. Mary's had any malice of intent toward Anna Brown or did anything but what they thought was the care they needed to give their patient.
But experience and emotion trumps fact almost every time. And the truth of the preponderance of experience that "black, homeless and woman" has so many times equaled "discarded and denied" makes it easy to turn St. Mary's into a scapegoat ... instead of exploring ways to embrace them as a powerful friend in the struggle to improve access to necessary services for all.
My personal experience of St. Mary's is of an institution that truly tries to live its mission statement of "Through our exceptional health care services, we reveal the healing presence of God." When I have been in St. Mary's ER, I have seen it incredibly overburdened by sheer volume of people (they estimate nearly 50,000 a year), much of which is due to the closing of other city hospitals and the attractiveness of ERs as collecting spots for people who have no insurance. I have seen staff who are trying to live St. Mary's creed under incredibly difficult circumstances.
So I was grateful when our Canon Minor, the Rev. Dr. John Kilgore, called me and asked if I could set up a meeting with him and the Rev. Chris Rice, a minister at New Life Evangelistic Center, which is planning a Good Friday march starting at the County Government Building in Clayton and ending with a rally at St. Mary's. Chris and I have worked together on issues of homelessness downtown, and I love him not only as a brother in Christ but respect him as a colleague. He heard my concern that this Good Friday action might take what I saw as a powerful friend in the battle to improve health care (St. Mary's) and instead alienate them and make it more difficult to work together. He heard and on Monday morning, John, Chris and I sat down and the conversations began.
Throughout the week, I have sat down with John and Chris. I have spent time with Kate Becker, the president of SSM St. Mary's Health Center. I have sat down with the Rev. Larry Rice and a passionate group of pastors and homeless advocates at their planning meeting for the Good Friday action. At each one of these gatherings, I found people of deep faith who want the same thing -- that a deeply broken system that leaves many on the outside of health care looking in be reformed, and that specifically the government, churches and institutions of St. Louis County commit to doing their part to care for the homeless in their communities, and not just continuing to dump them on the City of St. Louis and on overloaded institutions like the St. Mary's ER.
John's and my hope was to bring St. Mary's and the organizers of the march together in a public way on Friday that would take an event that I think has the potential to turn into an unhelpful finger-pointing and blame-throwing exercise and turn it into a springboard for powerful collaboration for the good. With both Kate Becker and Larry & Chris Rice, we imagined what a public role for St. Mary's might be in tomorrow's rally that would be helpful and productive. In the end, St. Mary's decided not to participate tomorrow .. and all I can say about that is that while it saddens me and I think it is a missed opportunity, I am absolutely convinced that they are committed to being an active part of improving access to health care for all people in St. Louis City and County.
On one level, the time we spent this week with St. Mary's and NLEC was fruitless. The rally tomorrow will probably look the same as it would have had we never had these meetings. But on a deeper level, I believe there is much fruit that is yet to be borne. Christ Church Cathedral now has deeper relationships with St. Mary's and New Life Evangelistic Center. I will not be a part of the event on Friday -- and I struggled with this -- but I finally decided I do not want to be a visible part of something that could easily be spun as attacking an institution in St. Mary's that I believe wants to be part of the solution. However, I have already committed at their request to continue to meet with both people from St. Mary's and NLEC to explore how we can work toward collaborative solutions to improve the lives of our most vulnerable sisters and brothers.
I am hopeful that Anna Brown's death may yet be a catalyst for real change. And that we at Christ Church Cathedral can be a part of it.
Why is this important for Christ Church Cathedral?
I believe one of our greatest opportunities as a Cathedral for St. Louis is not to be one more voice shouting, but to be a place of reconciliation ... a place where people and institutions are gathered together to live the Gospel in the world. There are plenty of churches that are known for their politics ... and many of them accomplish wonderful things. But I hope Christ Church Cathedral can be known as the place and community that brings St. Louis together across its many and deep divides. That helps us find the common compassion we all share deep down. That, as I preached in my Maundy Thursday sermon tonight, models and equips us to "love one another as Christ has loved us."
What do you think?
Do you think I should be going to the rally tomorrow? Do you think it's the Cathedral's or my role to be bringing sides together ... or should we just pick one side and push hard? What do you think?
1 comment:
Mike -
Thank you for your thoughtful comments about this incident. I support your decision about the rally. I have thought that this death says more about our health care system than it does about St. Mary's. Those persons in our country who do not have adequate health care coverage are vulnerable to what happened to Anna. I hope that the conversations with St. Mary's continue. Pointing the finger at St. Mary's is not the solution.
Pat Cleary
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