All shall be well
All shall be well
My peace I give to you
All shall be well

As we gather here at Camp McDowell, Alabama, we name this land and the people who have inhabited this holy space where we sing and pray, laugh and cry, where we are challenged, nurtured, and transformed. This land is a gift which welcomes and supports us in our holy journey.

We name, now, the Yuchi, Muscogee, Chickasaw, and Shawnee people, whose ancestors – as many as 23,000 years ago entered the land mass of North American across the Bering strait from Asia. They were the first humans who joined the winged creatures, the four-leggeds, and the ones who swim in the water and crawl over the land.

These Yuchi, Muscogee, Chickasaw, and Shawnee people used this area as a common hunting ground. And they were custodians of the land on which this camp stands. They occupied and cared for this land over countless generations before being invaded and decimated by European forces.

In 1830, after the Indian Removal Act was signed by President Andrew Jackson, they were forcibly relocated to the country we now call Oklahoma. During the Trail of Tears, thousands of men, women, and children died on the journey. We also acknowledge the enslaved persons of African descent who lived in bondage here in Winston county, Alabama. In 1860 census (the year before the civil war started), we find that120 Africans -- ranging in age from 2 months to 56 years were enslaved by 16 owners.

We acknowledge the 347 reported lynchings in the state of Alabama between the years of 1882 and 1968. While there were no reported lynchings in this county, in Walker county, just south of here, there were four. We acknowledged those lynchings that went unreported and those which have occurred since 1968. And those unnamed which continue.

We acknowledge and repent of the ways that we have, over generations, benefitted from the genocide of the indigenous human beings of this land. Have benefited from the enslavement of beloved human beings. Have benefitted from the system of white supremacy that created so much of this country.

Beloveds, this land is rich with history. We are surrounded by the spirits of those who walked this ground before us. As we walk on this land, let us walk gently. It is land hallowed by the blood and sweat, moans and tears of our indigenous and African siblings. It is land hallowed by the lives of all those who went before us.

All shall be well
All shall be well
My peace I give to you
All shall be well

Beloveds, this land is hallowed by our tears and our prayers. Our laughter and our songs. Our breaking bread together over meals and at the communion table. Our storytelling and our silences.

Our time here, walking together as the community of Academy 42 transforms this land we walk on, transforms the air we breathe. Transforms our lives and the trajectory of the world in its long arc towards Love.

In the mystery of love, we are united with the land and with all the people who have gone before us and all who will come after us.

In the mystery and power of love, we are united in this place and at this time with all of our community. Those of us here today, those of us who are not with us this week, and even into the reaches of heaven.

We gather in this place and at this time open and ready to be transformed, once again, by the power of God’s spirit moving through us – through the words of our faculty, through the worship services, the times of eating and laughing and praying together.

Friends, a lot of life has happened to us, since we gathered here in April. A lot of life has happened to us, our loved ones, and our families. To our churches, our nation, our world. We have experienced losses – of people – of jobs and dreams -- and we carry our grief here with us. Some of us are struggling with issues of health. We hold space for each other.

All shall be well
All shall be well
My peace I give to you
All shall be well

This week, we are thinking of our community members who are not able to be with us: Kate Jones, Aida-Luz Beltran-Gaitan, Linda Zombres, Cathy Jones, Theresa Coleman.

And someone who is here with us this week. We are so grateful, Blake, that you have returned to us. Blake, would you have some words to share with us?