Fr Ben Garren

Dear Siblings in Christ,

At points we encounter Easter, the resurrection of life amidst death, in a moment. At other points the new life of Easter is encountered over time, present amidst the work of generations overcoming injustice.

The Besant and Cassey families were prominent African American families who worked first for abolition and then for racial equality in the United States. These families came together when Annie Besant married Peter Cassey, and the two would soon depart the southern United States and in 1853, the twenty-something newlyweds, moved to California.

There, the two would start the first Secondary School for African Americans in the state. The Phoenixonian Institute would be one of the only resources for high-school level education for black youth on the west coast but could only house a student body of twenty-two.

By the 1870s California was required to create a public school system for non-white children. This new system followed the racial segregation expectation of “separate but equal.” One goal of the Phoenixonian institute had been fulfilled, now all African American youth had access to secondary education, while the hurdle of racial segregation remained.

When we look at Annie Cassey’s work to administer this school, as Peter was ordained to the diaconate and began organizing African American Episcopal communities, we are looking at Easter, new life, new hope, entering the world.

We are looking at a slow movement of the arc of the moral universe turning towards justice, as MLKjr would remark amidst the Civil Rights Movement.

This slower expression of the Easter transformation in our personal lives and over generations in community is just as essential as the moments in which we experience the Easter Light.

Pax,

—Ben