Readings

September 24: [Anna Ellison Butler Alexander, Deaconess and Teacher, 1947]

The Collect of the Day

Anna Ellison Butler Alexander

Loving God, who called Anna Alexander as a deaconess in your church: Grant us the wisdom to teach the gospel of Christ to whomever we meet, by word and by example, that all may come to the enlightenment that you intend for your people; through Jesus Christ, our Teacher and Savior. Amen.

Anna Ellison Butler Alexander

Loving God, who didst call Anna Alexander as a deaconess in thy church: Grant unto us the wisdom to teach the gospel of Christ to whomever we meet, by word and by example, that all may come to the enlightenment thou dost intend for thy people; through Jesus Christ, our Teacher and Savior. Amen.

Anna Ellison Butler Alexander was the youngest of 11 children, born to recently emancipated slaves Aleck and Daphne Alexander on Butler Plantation in MacIntosh County, Georgia, in 1865. Her parents were devout Episcopalians, and they also instilled in their children a love of learning. Anna became a teacher, and eventually the only African American to be consecrated as a deaconess in the Episcopal Church.

Anna dedicated herself to working for the education of African American children in poor communities. First she helped to found and to run St. Cyprian’s School at St. Cyprian’s Episcopal Church in Darien, and in 1902 she founded a school at Good Shepherd Church in rural Glynn County’s Pennick community, where she taught children to read—by tradition, from the Book of Common Prayer and the Bible—in a one-room schoolhouse. The school was later expanded to two rooms with a loft where Anna lived.

In 1907, she was consecrated as a deaconess by Bishop C.K. Nelson. Deaconess Alexander served in difficult times, however. The Diocese of Georgia segregated its congregations in 1907 and African American congregations were not invited to another diocesan convention until 1947. However, her witness—wearing the distinctive dress of a deaconess, traveling by foot from Brunswick through Darien to Pennick, showing care and love for all whom she met—represents the best in Christian witness.

The poor white residents of Glynn County also trusted Deaconess Alexander. When the Depression hit the rural poor, she became the agent for government and private aid, and Good Shepherd Mission served as the distribution center. Locals remember that no one ever questioned her as she served the needs of both races in a segregated south. Strictly religious, strictly business, Deaconess Alexander commanded respect. White men took off their hats when she passed.

Deaconess Alexander wrote, “I am to see everyone gets what they need…some folk don’t need help now and I know who they are. The old people and the children, they need the most…when I tell some they can’t get help just now…that others come first, they get mad, a little, but I don’t pay no mind and soon they forget to be mad.”

She ministered in Pennick for 53 years, leaving a legacy of love and devotion that is still felt in Glynn County.

Lessons and Psalm

First Lesson

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Psalm

1Hear my teaching, O my people; *incline your ears to the words of my mouth.

2I will open my mouth in a parable; *I will declare the mysteries of ancient times.

3That which we have heard and known, and what our forefathers have told us, *we will not hide from their children.

4We will recount to generations to come the praiseworthy deeds and the power of the Lord, *and the wonderful works he has done.

5He gave his decrees to Jacob and established a law for Israel, *which he commanded them to teach their children;

6That the generations to come might know, and the children yet unborn; *that they in their turn might tell it to their children;

7So that they might put their trust in God, *and not forget the deeds of God, but keep his commandments;

8And not be like their forefathers, a stubborn and rebellious generation, *a generation whose heart was not steadfast, and whose spirit was not faithful to God.

9The people of Ephraim, armed with the bow, *turned back in the day of battle;

10They did not keep the covenant of God, *and refused to walk in his law;

11They forgot what he had done, *and the wonders he had shown them.

12He worked marvels in the sight of their forefathers, *in the land of Egypt, in the field of Zoan.

13He split open the sea and let them pass through; *he made the waters stand up like walls.

14He led them with a cloud by day, *and all the night through with a glow of fire.

15He split the hard rocks in the wilderness *and gave them drink as from the great deep.

16He brought streams out of the cliff, *and the waters gushed out like rivers.

17But they went on sinning against him, *rebelling in the desert against the Most High.

18They tested God in their hearts, *demanding food for their craving.

19They railed against God and said, *“Can God set a table in the wilderness?

20True, he struck the rock, the waters gushed out, and the gullies overflowed; *but is he able to give bread or to provide meat for his people?”

21When the Lord heard this, he was full of wrath; *a fire was kindled against Jacob, and his anger mounted against Israel;

22For they had no faith in God, *nor did they put their trust in his saving power.

23So he commanded the clouds above *and opened the doors of heaven.

24He rained down manna upon them to eat *and gave them grain from heaven.

25So mortals ate the bread of angels; *he provided for them food enough.

26He caused the east wind to blow in the heavens *and led out the south wind by his might.

27He rained down flesh upon them like dust *and wingèd birds like the sand of the sea.

28He let it fall in the midst of their camp *and round about their dwellings.

29So they ate and were well filled, *for he gave them what they craved.

30But they did not stop their craving, *though the food was still in their mouths.

31So God’s anger mounted against them; *he slew their strongest men and laid low the youth of Israel.

32In spite of all this, they went on sinning *and had no faith in his wonderful works.

33So he brought their days to an end like a breath *and their years in sudden terror.

34Whenever he slew them, they would seek him, *and repent, and diligently search for God.

35They would remember that God was their rock, *and the Most High God their redeemer.

36But they flattered him with their mouths *and lied to him with their tongues.

37Their heart was not steadfast toward him, *and they were not faithful to his covenant.

38But he was so merciful that he forgave their sins and did not destroy them; *many times he held back his anger and did not permit his wrath to be roused.

39For he remembered that they were but flesh, *a breath that goes forth and does not return.

Part II

Quoties exacerbaverunt

40How often the people disobeyed him in the wilderness *and offended him in the desert!

41Again and again they tempted God *and provoked the Holy One of Israel.

42They did not remember his power *in the day when he ransomed them from the enemy;

43How he wrought his signs in Egypt *and his omens in the field of Zoan.

44He turned their rivers into blood, *so that they could not drink of their streams.

45He sent swarms of flies among them, which ate them up, *and frogs, which destroyed them.

46He gave their crops to the caterpillar, *the fruit of their toil to the locust.

47He killed their vines with hail *and their sycamores with frost.

48He delivered their cattle to hailstones *and their livestock to hot thunderbolts.

49He poured out upon them his blazing anger: *fury, indignation, and distress, a troop of destroying angels.

50He gave full rein to his anger; he did not spare their souls from death; *but delivered their lives to the plague.

51He struck down all the firstborn of Egypt, *the flower of manhood in the dwellings of Ham.

52He led out his people like sheep *and guided them in the wilderness like a flock.

53He led them to safety, and they were not afraid; *but the sea overwhelmed their enemies.

54He brought them to his holy land, *the mountain his right hand had won.

55He drove out the Canaanites before them and apportioned an inheritance to them by lot; *he made the tribes of Israel to dwell in their tents.

56But they tested the Most High God, and defied him, *and did not keep his commandments.

57They turned away and were disloyal like their fathers; *they were undependable like a warped bow.

58The grieved him with their hill-altars *they provoked his displeasure with their idols.

59When God heard this, he was angry *and utterly rejected Israel.

60He forsook the shrine at Shiloh, *the tabernacle where he had lived among his people.

61He delivered the ark into captivity, *his glory into the adversary’s hand.

62He gave his people to the sword *and was angered against his inheritance.

63The fire consumed their young men; *there were no wedding songs for their maidens.

64Their priests fell by the sword, *and their widows made no lamentation.

65Then the Lord woke as though from sleep, *like a warrior refreshed with wine.

66He struck his enemies on the backside *and put them to perpetual shame.

67He rejected the tent of Joseph *and did not choose the tribe of Ephraim;

68He chose instead the tribe of Judah *and Mount Zion, which he loved.

69He built his sanctuary like the heights of heaven, *like the earth which he founded for ever.

70He chose David his servant, *and took him away from the sheepfolds.

71He brought him from following the ewes, *to be a shepherd over Jacob his people and over Israel his inheritance.

72So he shepherded them with a faithful and true heart *and guided them with the skillfulness of his hands.

Gospel

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Deuteronomy 6:4–9

4 Hear, O Israel: The Lord is our God, the Lord alone. 5 You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might. 6 Keep these words that I am commanding you today in your heart. 7 Recite them to your children and talk about them when you are at home and when you are away, when you lie down and when you rise. 8 Bind them as a sign on your hand, fix them as an emblem on your forehead, 9 and write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.

Matthew 11:25–30

25 At that time Jesus said, “I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and the intelligent and have revealed them to infants; 26 yes, Father, for such was your gracious will. 27 All things have been handed over to me by my Father; and no one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him. 28 “Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”