St. Columba's Stirring the Waters

09/06/2026

07/05/2026

Today, July 1st, is Pauli Murray’s Feast Day in the Episcopal Church.
“Hope is a crushed stalk
Between clenched fingers
Hope is a bird’s wing
Broken by a stone.
Hope is a word in a tuneless ditty –
A word whispered with the wind,
A dream of forty acres and a mule,
A cabin of one’s own and a moment to rest,
A name and place for one’s children
And children’s children at last . . .
Hope is a song in a weary throat.
Give me a song of hope
And a world where I can sing it.
Give me a song of faith
And a people to believe in it.
Give me a song of kindliness
And a country where I can live it.
Give me a song of hope and love
And a brown girl’s heart”

~from ‘Dark Testament’ verse 8.

Pauli Murray was an American civil rights activist, lawyer, gender equality advocate, Episcopal priest, poet and author.

As a lawyer, Murray argued for civil rights and women’s rights. National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) Chief Counsel Thurgood Marshall called Murray’s 1950 book States’ Laws on Race and Color, the “bible” of the civil rights movement. In 1966, she was a co-founder of the National Organization for Women. Ruth Bader Ginsburg named Murray as a coauthor of the ACLU brief in the landmark 1971 Supreme Court case Reed v. Reed, in recognition of her pioneering work on gender discrimination. In 1973, Murray left academia and became an ordained priest and in 1977, among the first generation of women priests and the first African-American woman to be ordained as an Episcopal priest.

May Pauli’s life inspire us to stand with the most vulnerable among us!

Signed Giclee Prints: kellylatimoreicons.com

07/04/2026

A collection of more than a dozen people's history stories from July 4th beyond 1776. The stories include July 4th anniversaries such as when slavery was abolished in New York (1827), Frederick Douglass's speech "The Meaning of July Fourth for the Negro" (1852), the Reconstruction era attack on a Bl...

07/04/2026

[Episcopal News Service] If you ask New York Bishop Matthew Heyd for his two cents on how The Episcopal Church should mark the United States’ 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of …

06/19/2026

The Bethesda African Cemetery Coalition (BACC) hosted a Juneteenth Celebration at Glen Echo National Park. Members of Stirring the Waters joined BACC members and the community for dance, music, poems, and recounting of the history of the African American community along River Road, associated with Macedonia Baptist Church. The community was largely forced out in the 1960s and the Moses Cemetery paved over and built upon. In 2016 a coalition was formed to preserve the cemetery and create a memorial.

06/19/2026

A word from Opal Lee, ‘Grandmother of Juneteenth,’ who led the way to make the day a federally recognized holiday.

06/04/2026

"Listen like you might be wrong"

Harvard student - Noah Eckstein's commencement speech, "The Punchline", sends a powerful message about building understanding when we disagree.

Graduate Noah Eckstein delivers the Senior English Address, “The Pu...

06/04/2026

We've got a family friendly summer concert of contemporary folk pop music coming up on Sunday June 21 at 7pm. Bring a chair or blanket and join us in the courtyard to hear our own Wee Worship song leader, Sara Curtin, and her band share an evening showcasing Sara's "angelic" vocals and original songwriting, as well as some favorite covers. The playground will be open, so kids can explore while enjoying the music.

Our Courtyard Concerts are free and open to all in the community. In the event of rain, the concert will be offered inside in the nave.

Tell your friends! Share on social media!

05/25/2026

Learn about the people’s history of Decoration Day (Memorial Day) and the Memorial Day Massacre.