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For Whom the Bell Tolls
Posted by Kimberly Allen
Thank you to all those who attended this afternoon's Homeless Persons Memorial Vigil in the St. Paul's Memorial Garden, sponsored by Homeward. It was a poignant service as Wallace+ and the Rev. Tyrone Nelson of Sixth Mount Zion Baptist Church read the names of 17 individuals who died without homes in Richmond this year. The church bells tolled and candles were lit in honor of each life.
In his homily, Wallace+ described the importance of remembering each life:
We remember those who have died, and we hope that by remembering them, that we would also raise awareness—raise consciousness—in our community; that hearts might be moved, and that minds might be opened, so that metropolitan Richmond would become more the compassionate community that God yearns for us to be.
His full remarks are posted below.
Remarks/Homily by the Rev. Wallace Adams-Riley, Rector, St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, on National Homeless Person’s Memorial Day, December 21, 2010, in the Memorial Garden, St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, Richmond, Virginia:
We come together today to remember 17 members of our community, 17 of our neighbors, 17 children of God, who died in the last year.
While we remember these 17 persons, in particular, by name, we are also mindful of homeless people who have died in the last year across our country.
And today we join, in spirit, with people participating in over 100 other memorial services taking place, from the east coast to the west coast, on this National Homeless Persons’ Memorial Day.
Twenty years ago, National Homeless Person’s Memorial Day was created, first and foremost, as a way of honoring the dignity and worth of each homeless man, woman, and child who dies. By gathering today, we affirm the truth that each and every homeless person is precious to God, and that each of them should, therefore, also be precious to us.
We remember those who have died, and we hope that by remembering them, that we would also raise awareness—raise consciousness—in our community; that hearts might be moved, and that minds might be opened, so that metropolitan Richmond would become more the compassionate community that God yearns for us to be.
Words from the priest and poet John Donne speak to us now, reminding us of the unalterable bonds that all human beings share. With some gentle editing, Donne’s short mediation, “No man is an island”:
No man, or woman, or child, is an island entire to itself; every woman, every man, and every child is a piece of the continent, a part of the mainland; if a clod be washed away by the sea, America is the less, Richmond is the less, as well as if a promontory were, as well as if any of one’s friends or one’s own family were; any man, woman, or child’s death diminishes me, because I am involved in humanity.
And therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee.
Yes, we are diminished by the deaths of 17 members of humanity, 17 children of God. We grieve their loss, and we grieve the poverty and the injustices that contributed to their deaths.
At the same time, we are not without hope—far from it; we are not without strength—far from it; and we are not without the vision that God has given us, of a city upon a hill, where no woman, no man, and no child dies in the streets of the city.
May we leave here, on this the longest night of the year, that much more determined, that much more prayerful, that much more clear about what we have to do.
And may God bless us in what we do; and may God bless all God’s children.
