General Convention 2006

Marshall legislation may take longer than supporters hoped

By Jim Naughton

Getting former Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall's name into the Book of Lesser Feasts and Fasts will take at least three years longer than his supporters had originally hoped, if General Convention accepts the recommendation of its Prayer Book, Liturgy and Music Committee.

The committee this morning proposed sending Marshall's nomination to the church's Standing Commission on Liturgy and Music. The proposal must be adopted by the House of Bishops and the House of Deputies.

If both houses concur, and the Standing Commission makes a positive recommendation, Marshall's nomination would be voted on for the first time at the General Convention in 2009, and could not be included in Lesser Feasts and Fasts until it was endorsed by two consecutive conventions.

In making the referral, committee members emphasized their desire to see Marshall's nomination succeed, but said that routing the proposal through the Standing Commission was standard procedure.

Committee members also urged parishes throughout the church to follow the lead of St. Augustine's in the District and Seabury-Western Seminary, both of which have developed liturgies honoring Marshall. Marshall was a parishioner at St. Augustine's, and his widow, Cissy, still attends that church.

"This isn't a bad thing," said Barbara Miles of St. Nicholas, Darnestown who attended the hearing along with 12 other members of the diocese. She said the diocese had hoped that by including propers and lectionary readings in its resolution, it might be able to bypass the Standing Commission and hasten the date of Marshall 's inclusion on the church's calendar.

Darren McCutchen, a high school student and alternate deputy from St. Timothy's, D.C., made a three-minute presentation in support of the nomination. "I consider myself a witness to the work of Thurgood Marshall," said McCutchen, who is African-American. Were it not to Marshall 's success in desegregating public schools in the United States , "the chances that I would be standing in this place.delivering this speech would be nil."

McCutchen asked the committee to waive the guideline that suggests a candidate for Lesser Feasts and Fasts be dead for 50 years. Brown v. Board of Education, the landmark civil rights case that Marshall argued before the U.S. Supreme Court, was more than 50 years old, he pointed out, indicating that Marshall 's Christian witness had already stood the test of time.

Among approximately 50 onlookers at the 7:30 a.m. committee meeting were the Rev. Martha Clarke, interim rector of St. Augustine's; deputation members Wesley Baldwin, the Rev. Joan Beilstein, Mary Dail , the Rev. Patricia Downing, Iris Harris, the Rev. Elizabeth McWhorter, Karen Chane and the Rev. Paula Clark Greene.