In the last battle before the Round of the Saintly Sixteen, we encounter two trailblazers. Edward Thomas Demby was the first African-American bishop ordained in the Episcopal Church and Dorothy Day was an important figure in the cause of social justice. Will Dorothy win the Day? Or will Edward Demby-onstrate the will to win? (sorry, couldn't come up with anything comparable for him). The winner will take on Benedict of Nursia in the next round.
In yesterday's action, Martha of Bethany trampled all over the "Little Flower," Thérèse of Lisieux. While we don't take sides, it's nice that we'll no longer have to search for those accents on Thérèse. Martha will face Harriet Tubman in what should prove to be a hotly contested battle.
Edward Thomas Demby
Edward Thomas Demby holds the distinction of being ordained the first African American bishop in the Episcopal Church. In 1918 he became the Suffragan Bishop for Colored Work in Arkansas and the Providence of the Southwest.
Bishop Demby, born in Wilmington, Delaware, and raised in Philadelphia, attended Howard University and Wilberforce University in Ohio. He then entered the academic world and from 1894 to 1896 was Dean of Students at Paul Quinn College in Texas. At this time he was confirmed in the Episcopal Church.
This is when Bishop John F. Spalding of Colorado took special interest in Demby. He went to work in the Diocese of Tennessee where he was ordained a deacon in 1898 and a priest the following year.
While in Tennessee, Demby served as rector at St. Paul’s Church in Mason as well as two posts in academic administration. Then, from 1900 to 1907 Demby ministered to parishes in Illinois, Missouri, and Florida.
Demby returned to Tennessee in 1907 to become rector of Emmanuel Church in Memphis. This is where he served as the Secretary of the segregated southern “colored convocations” and was the Archdeacon for Colored Work. It was while he was Archdeacon that he was elected the first African American suffragan bishop.
Demby's context was a segregated ministry, in which he worked tirelessly to establish black service institutions, like schools, hospitals and orphanages. Demby saw this as a way to build relationships with African Americans who, before emancipation, had understood the Episcopal Church as the faith community of their masters. However Demby’s witness, as a compassionate leader and committed Episcopalian, helped forge bonds that attracted many people and live on today.
For more than twenty years, Demby labored amidst white apathy, inconsistent funding, and the foggy commitment of his own denomination (not to mention the Great Depression) to build a ministry that would eventually evolve into desegregation.
Bishop Demby shares a feast day with the second African American bishop in the Episcopal Church, Henry Beard Delany, hence the wording of their Collect.
Collect for Edward Thomas Demby
Loving God, we thank you for the ministries of Edward Thomas Demby and Henry Beard Delany, bishops of your Church who, though limited by segregation, served faithfully to your honor and glory. Assist us, we pray, to break through the limitations of our own time, that we may minister in obedience to Jesus Christ; who with you and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
-- Chris Yaw
Dorothy Day
Dorothy Day, co-founder of the Catholic Worker movement, was born in Brooklyn in 1897. As a young girl, while living in San Francisco where her father was a journalist, she experienced the devastating earthquake of 1906. Her memory of the assistance people offered to those made homeless by the tragedy remained with her throughout her life.
Though her parents were not religious, her brothers were members of an Episcopal church choir and, from the age of ten, she attended services and became enamored of the liturgy and music. She was baptized and confirmed but continued to think of herself as an agnostic.
After dropping out of college, she lived a bohemian life in New York City. She wrote for socialist publications and immersed herself in the causes of pacifism and women’s suffrage. Gradually a spiritual awakening crystalized into a conversion to Christianity upon the birth of her daughter Tamar in 1927. She was received into the Roman Catholic Church and later became an Benedictine oblate.
In the midst of the Great Depression, with her friend and colleague Peter Maurin, Day founded the Catholic Worker movement. Their newspaper, the Catholic Worker, an immediate success, focused on promoting Catholic social teaching and offering a pacifist viewpoint in a period when international tensions increased around the world.
Implicit in the movement was the need to care for those in need. Houses of Hospitality were started first in New York to care for the needs of anyone who needed food, clothing, or shelter. Before long several farms were established to allow people to live in community and grow their own food. By the early 1940s, 30 Catholic Worker communities were established across the U.S. Today 100 communities serve people in ten countries.
Throughout her life, until her death in 1980, Day spoke of God’s love and the causes of peace and justice, even when she ran afoul of the Roman Catholic hierarchy. When broached by critics with Jesus’ words that the “poor shall always be with us,” she replied, "Yes, but we are not content that there should be so many of them.”
Novelist and theologian Frederick Buechner said, “Vocation is the place where your deep gladness and the world’s deep hunger meet.” Dorothy Day’s life bears witness to that definition; she remains an icon for those who would meld their Christian faith with the pursuit of social justice.
Collect for Dorothy Day
Merciful God, you called your servant Dorothy Day to show us the face of Jesus in the poor and forsaken. By constant practice of the works of mercy, she embraced poverty and witnessed steadfastly to justice and peace. Count her among your saints and lead us all to become friends of the poor ones of the earth, and to recognize you in them. We ask this through your Son Jesus Christ, bringer of good news to the poor. Amen.
-- Heidi Shott
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117 comments on “Edward Thomas Demby vs. Dorothy Day”
Actually Bishop James Theodore Holly was the first U.S. African American ordained bishop by the Episcopal Church. Holly, ordained deacon and priest in Connecticut, was consecrated bishop in 1874 to serve the Diocese of Haiti. His account of his life and ministry can be found at http://anglicanhistory.org/usa/jtholly/facts1897.html.
Today's saints are a tough choice. Dorothy Day is one of my great heroes. But I'm a member of historically African American St. Luke's in Knoxville TN, and Bishop Demby celebrated the first St. Luke's Eucharist, March 16, 1936. Demby's biography
"Black Bishop: Edward T. Demby and the Struggle for Racial Equality in the Episcopal Church, " (by Edward Beary) details his struggle and success in building Black ministry despite lack of funds and ecclesiastical racial disrespect. (Neither Bishop Demby nor Bishop Henry Beard DeLaney were ever given the vote in the House of Bishops and at least one Arkansas Diocesan convention insisted that all Black clergy, including Demby, retire e to the church basement to receive communion!) Demby bore these handicaps and insults with dignity and forbearance. He gets my vote.
Both Day and Demby ministered under difficult circumstances but I have to vote for the largely unrecognized bishop, Edward T. Demby.
Being from Arkansas, I had to cast my ballot for Bishop Demby. As horrible as the circumstances were in the diocese after the turn of the century (the bishop at the time's so-called "Arkansas Plan" that split the diocese between white churches and black churches and created the position for which Demby was appointed), and as embarrassing a time as it was, he still served with dignity and faith. He is very popular in my sweet, small state, even today!
I have a Baptist minister friend who says that this country is the most segregated on Sunday mornings in churches. I suspect he is right. I voted for Demby. BTW, is Bishop Delaney mentioned in the blog the father of the famed Delaney sisters whose story was told in the book "The Delaney Sisters, the First Hundred Years"? I am suspecting so but would like confirmation.
Have to vote for the bishop today. Although DD certainly is a woman of honor, Demby was a measure of grace in an almost impossible situation. We need to hear more of these unsung heros of our faith. Go bishop!
Very interesting biography’s. I knew of Dorothy Day but not of Bishop Demby. It appears this will be the”revenge” of the Catholics today after poor Little Flower’s defeat yesterday.
Dorothy Day for me today. Not a simple choice. But I'm sure. She has been a saint working in my head and heart for many years.
anyone, especially a woman, who bucks the RC Church gets my vote for that sole reason. Add to that the fact that Dorothy Day lived out the Gospel and continues to inspire people to do the same and she gets my vote.
Born in Delaware, The First State, The State that started this wonderful nation. That is reason enough for me. (guess where I was born? Yup your right.) Well he is also the first African American Bishop also. Now doubt about it, my decision is made.
Once again Lent Madness reminds me that there are no degrees of worthiness. Bishop Demby's life speaks to me as an example I may follow--not the path to the Episcopacy--but quietly and continually bearing witness to the love of God in the face of human conflict, ignorance, and evil. Thanks be to God for the lives of all the saints.
My vote is for Bp. Demby. His colleague, Bp. Delany was the first Suffragan for Colored Work in North Carolina, his descendants still actively worship at my home parish. St. Ambrose: Raleigh. But I do offer thanksgiving for the work and legacy of DD.
The Supreme Court in Plessey vs. Ferguson in 1896 ruled in favor of "separate but equal". In 1954 in Brown vs. Board of Education (Topeka), the Court ruled "separate but equal" invalid. Most, if not all, of Bishop Demby's life was during Segregation. His faith and his persistence led many people to Christ.
Voting for Bishop Demby.
Another Delawarean here. I was lucky enough to hear of Bp Demby from his nephew - both exceptional men. Sorry, Miss Dorothy - not this round.
How cool for you, Mary Beth.
on many other days, I could have voted for Bishop Demby, but paired against Dorothy Day just couldn't do it. I appreciate the inclusion of so many women & persons of color. white men are still a bit disproportionately represented, but I appreciate the fact that the SEC (who also appear to be white males themselves, though I don't ever assume and I don't think they have ever self-identified) has done a great job in leaving the impression that we are a catholic and multi-cultural, multi-gendered church despite the fact that Church history books often leave a different impression... (granted church history books of the last couple of decades are doing better, but I attend seminary in the 60's/early 70's) Blessigs and KOKO...
I voted for the Christian, and so should you!!!
Holly did not serve as bishop in America, thus the reason for not being recognized as the "first". Yes, Bishop Delaney was indeed the father of the well known Delaney sisters and their siblings. It's not surprising that some Delaneys still worship at Raleigh's St. Ambrose Parish. It must be remembered that there are canonical reasons for designating who's first and who's second and geographic placement/assignment does figure in final selections. Looking for a miracle to put Demby ahead...I do pipe dream!
I have to go with Rev Demby for all the reason I have read in the comments.
I appreciate the life and work of DD, but I have more affinity for a man who was in that in-between place of working within the Episcopal Church while serving a rightly suspicious population. I get it, and he gets my vote.
VERY tough choice today, but I'm currently reading "All Is Grace," a biography of Dorothy Day, and am inspired. Among other things, in the Catholic Worker she showed that media do not have to sell their souls to advertisers. In today's media world, that's a voice in the wilderness.
Voting for the (slight) underdog as of 9:10 pm - everyone knows Dorothy Day while helping Bishop Demby's reputation to spread might draw someone new to Christ.
Difficulties online, but would vote for Denby for his commitment & humility, that he would remain in the church that retained segregation, & thus became a model of tenacity & love of God, & inspiration to stay the course in the knowledge that desegregation needed just that. Dorothy Day was admirable , but I have to vote for the one who faced more discrimination...even than the woman.
Lent Madness has been an interesting and light-hearted way to observe the season; I've thoroughly enjoyed the fun of it. Today's matchup, however, is even more sobering than "Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return." Thank you Tim and Scott. I get it.
I actually meant that comment to appear under Daniels vs. Luwum. The "getting it" pretty much applies anywhere now.