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kapal kelemMonday, 28 February 20110
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Anna Julia Hayward Cooper
Anna Julia Haywood Cooper
and Elizabeth Evelyn Wright
St. John’s Chapel
Episcopal Divinity School
Cambridge, MA
(the Rev’d Dr.) Elizabeth Kaeton
Proctor Scholar, Spring Semester 2011
Elizabeth Evelyn Wright
Please pray with me: O God, take my mind and think through it. Take my lips and speak through them. Take all our hearts and set them on fire with a love of your gospel. Amen.
Not too long ago, I heard Desmond Tutu, the retired archbishop of South Africa – well, the rumor is that he’s retired, but you would never know that to watch him – tell a playful story he told to some school children during Black History Month about the story of how people of different color were created.
According to Archbishop Tutu’s story, when God set out to make humankind, S/he was in the Heavenly Kitchen, mixing up great batches of mud and clay, straw and water, much the way bricks are made. And when S/he had fashioned them just so, S/he put these marvelous creations into the Heavenly Kiln to fire them.
S/he then went about making yet another batch, losing Her/himself in the enormously enjoying creative process. Suddenly, S/he became aware that something was burning. Returning to the kiln, S/he was horrified to open the kiln and find His creations burned to cinder.
God was, of course, disappointed, but God is persistent and persevered. S/he finished the next batch and, this time, hovered over the kiln to make sure S/he didn’t repeat Her mistake. S/he was very anxious to have them come out perfectly, so one might understand that, in haste, God opened the door of the kiln too soon.
And this, Tutu said, was how White people came into being.
I haven’t mustered the nerve to ask the good Archbishop if, when God made the first batch of men, S/he was just experimenting and improved on Her creation when S/he created women. Perhaps S/he realized that S/he needed to add a few more gray matter cells to the area of the cerebellum, and perhaps, add just a pinch more persistence and perseverance.
I want to talk about the qualities of persistence and perseverance this afternoon, as we honor the lives of Anna Julia Haywood Cooper and Elizabeth Evelyn Wright, two of the saints of God who are noted as proposed additions to the Liturgical Calendar of Saints, ‘Holy Women, Holy Men’.
Now, this is a homily, not a lecture or a history lesson. I am also keenly aware and deeply respectful of your time. I want to say a few words about these two women, not so that you will know everything about them, but so that you might use their lives as a lens through which to view today’s scripture – especially this pericope from Luke’s Gospel and what Jesus has to say about fulfilling the scripture – which is the preacher’s task and responsibility and joy.
I suppose Anna and Elizabeth share a place on the proposed new liturgical calendar because they are both women who shared a passion for education. They are both, as well, African American women – born 14 years apart, Anna in North Carolina and Elizabeth (whose mother was Cherokee) in Georgia – both the daughters of slavery.
Despite the formidable obstacles of being women – and women of color – who lived through the Civil War and The Emancipation in the South, Anna became the fourth African American woman to receive a PhD from the University of Paris, Sorbonne. Elizabeth graduated from Booker T. Washington's Tuskegee Institute in Alabama.
Those are the “facts on the ground” about these two incredible women. As you read more about their stories – and, I trust you will – I hope you will be inspired not only by their intellect and faith, but by the persistence and perseverance required to achieve their life’s work.
I can only wonder if they took for their inspiration and role models some of the women they read in Holy Scripture. I wonder if they, too, were inspired by the stories of Sarah and Poor Ole Aunt Hagar, or Rachel, Leah and Rebecca, or their respective names’ sake – Anna, the mother of Mary – who was the mother of Jesus – and Elizabeth – the mother of John the Baptist – from whom Mary sought solace when, as a young unmarried woman, found herself “full of grace” and with child after she said ‘Yes’ to God.
Perhaps these ancient holy women and Blessed Jesus were inspirations for these two women, both of whom followed God and loved Jesus and served the people of God through The Episcopal Church. I wonder if they, like me, were struck by the persistence and perseverance of Jesus in today’s Gospel lesson about what it takes to fulfill the scripture of God for your life.
To today’s gospel, then.
Jesus has just returned to his home in Galilee after he had been baptized by John and “immediately after”, scripture tells us, spent forty days and forty nights in the wilderness. He returned to Galilee “filled with the Spirit” and everyone was talking about him. On the Sabbath, he went to the Temple in Nazareth, where he had been brought up.
Someone handed him the Torah and he began to read from the writings of the prophet Isaiah about being anointed to bring good news to the poor, and proclaiming release to the captives and restoring the sight to the blind and letting the oppressed go free and proclaiming the year of the Lord’s favor.
Now, imagine it – just let your mind picture this scene. He rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant, and sat down. Everyone was looking at him. Then he said to them, "Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing."
What an incredibly bold thing to say! How absolutely audacious! “Today, this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.” If you read the rest of the passage from Luke, you realize that everyone in the Temple was, at first, pleased with him – until Jesus quit preachin’ and went on to meddlin’ – because it became clear that, no, he wasn’t just being clever and articulate.
He persisted in demonstrating that he actually meant what he said when he said, “Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.”
The people in the synagogue got so enraged that they got up, drove him out of the synagogue and out of town and led him to the brow of the hill on which their town was built, so that they might hurl him off the cliff. But, Luke’s gospel tells us, Jesus passed through the midst of them and went on his way.
I wonder if Anna Julia Hayward Cooper recognized in herself something of the persistence and perseverance of Jesus when she was at Saint Augustine's Normal School and Collegiate Institute, in North Carolina, and insisted that she be allowed to jump off the so-called “Lady’s Track” of education and take higher-level courses such as Greek, which were reserved for men. She won that right by demonstrating her scholastic ability. And, she passed through the midst of them and went on her way to earn her PhD in Paris.
I wonder if Elizabeth Evelyn Wright saw something in herself in the persistence and perseverance of Jesus when she started a school for the Black children and adults in South Carolina, only to see it burned down. Undaunted, she started another school until it, too, was the target of arson. So, she started another and yet another, eventually passing through the midst of them and went on her way to secure donations and grants to open the Voorhees Industrial School for male and female students at the elementary and high school levels. For years this was the only high school for Blacks in the area. The school was later affiliated with The Episcopal Church and eventually became a fully accredited four-year college.
I submit to you for your consideration the idea that it was in the midst of the dangers and temptations of the wilderness of slavery and the Civil War, while the beasts of racism and sexism roared and tried to snare them off their paths, that the scripture of the lives of these two remarkable women were fulfilled in their hearing.
It was the same call Jesus had heard and responded to in the wilderness when he was sorely tempted by the powers and principalities of the world. Somewhere out there, in the midst of the wildernesses of our lives, we of’t times find the grace to fulfill the scriptures God has for our lives.
I ask you to consider this notion because it is the scriptural link I find between the lives of Anna Julia Haywood Cooper and Elizabeth Evelyn Wright and the scripture Jesus asks us to consider today. Actually, I want to quit preachin’ and commence to meddlin’ and ask you, directly: What scripture is calling out to you to be fulfilled in your life?
I want to be so bold and audacious to ask us to consider what scripture or words of scriptural wisdom ground us in the belief that we can actually make a difference in the church – The Episcopal Church, the Presbyterian Church, the UCC or MCC church – so that we can use the church as a vehicle of transformation and change in our lives so that we can change the places in the world we see need to be changed?
As Verna Dozier, another blessed saint of our church used to say, "Don't tell me what you believe. Tell me what difference it makes that you believe!"
What are we doing with the excellent theological education we are receiving and teaching in this amazing place which is training us to be leaders in Christian community? What will we do with what we learn and teach today – this day – to take all that we are, and all that we have been, and, by the grace of God, turn that into something that will put food into the mouths of the hungry, or clothes on the back of the naked, or bring the light of education to those held in darkness, and give hope and inspiration to those still enslaved by the shackles of racism, sexism, heterosexism, homophobia and religious prejudice and bigotry?
What will we do with the grace bestowed upon us in baptism to grow into the promise we made at Baptism and some of us renewed at Confirmation to grow into the full stature of Christ – with all the risks and challenges and sacrifices that requires?
Grace is a powerful, amazing gift. Don’t squander it.
As my old friend Canon P.D. Quirk says, “Never letteth the grace grow under thy feet.”
Okay, so your probably going to giggle and snicker when I say this, but one of my favorite modern theologians is none other than Lady Gaga. Don’t dismiss her because of the way she looks.
Underneath all that makeup and plastic outfits and (God help us) meat dresses, beats the 23 year-old heart of a good Italian Catholic girl who was educated by the nuns at Convent Sacred Heart, 91st Street, on the Upper West Side of NYC.
Her latest song ‘Born that Way’ has a powerful message. She sings,
“I'm beautiful in my way 'Cause God makes no mistakes. / I'm on the right track baby. I was born this way. / Don't be a drag, just be a queen / Whether you're broke or evergreen /You're black, white, beige, chola descent / You're lebanese, you're orient /Whether life's disabilities / Left you outcast, bullied, or teased / Rejoice and love yourself today / 'Cause baby you were born this way / No matter gay, straight, or bi, / Lesbian, transgendered life / I'm on the right track baby / I was born to survive / No matter black, white or beige/ Chola or orient made / I'm on the right track baby / I was born to be brave.”
Now, if Lady Gaga can get that message out there, so can we – in our own unique way (but perhaps not in a dress made of meat).
If Anna Julia Haywood Cooper and Elizabeth Evelyn Wright can overcome the obstacles of their lives and fulfill the scriptures written thousands of years ago by men who had no idea that these women of color would hear them much less act on them, so can we.
We were born to be brave. Our baptism gives us the sacramental grace to be bold in the name of Jesus.
Oh, people will try to tell us that we can’t because of this or that – how we were made in the Great Heavenly Kiln and we were underdone or overdone or not smart enough or strong enough or don’t have the ‘right stuff’ because our parents didn’t go to the right schools and neither, perhaps, did we.
If we’re baptized, we’ll do it anyway and make people so angry that they’ll drive us out of the church and try to throw us off the cliff. When we’re walking with Jesus, and fulfilling the scriptures, we’ll pass through the midst of them and be on our way.
I don’t know how that works. I only know from my own life, that it does.
We were born to be brave. We were baptized to be bold and audacious.
Let us be persistent and persevere so that we, too, may be raised to the full stature of Christ.
We won’t walk on water, but we’ll walk through walls.
Grace Patricia Kelly (November 12, 1929 – September 14, 1982) was an American actress and Princess consort of Monaco. In April 1956 Kelly married Rainier III, Prince of Monaco, and became styled as Her Serene Highness The Princess of Monaco, and was commonly referred to as Princess Grace. After embarking on an acting career in 1950, at the age of 20, Grace Kelly appeared in New York City theatrical productions as well as in more than forty episodes of live drama productions broadcast during the early 1950s Golden Age of Television. In October 1953, with the release of Mogambo, she became a movie star, a status confirmed in 1954 with a Golden Globe Award and Academy Award nomination as well as leading roles in five films, including The Country Girl, in which she gave a deglamorized, Academy Award-winning performance. She retired from acting at 26 to enter upon her duties in Monaco. She and Prince Rainier had three children: Caroline, Albert, and Stéphanie. She also retained her American roots, maintaining dual US and Monégasque citizenships. She died on September 14, 1982, two months before her 53rd birthday, when she lost control of her automobile and crashed after suffering a stroke. Her daughter Princess Stéphanie, who was in the car with her, survived the accident. In June 1999, the American Film Institute ranked her #13 in their list of top female stars of American cinema.
A native of Philadelphia, Grace Kelly was born to John Brendan "Jack" Kelly (October 4, 1889–June 20, 1960), and his wife, Margaret Katherine Majer (December 13, 1898–January 6, 1990). The newborn was named in memory of her father's sister, who had died at a young age. She was raised Catholic by her IrishDemocrat parents. Before her marriage, Margaret Majer studied physical education at Temple University and later became the first woman to head the Physical Education Department at the University of Pennsylvania. Jack Kelly was a local hero as a triple Olympic-gold-medal-winning sculler, and subsequently became a self-made millionaire, with his brick business rising to prominence as the largest such enterprise on the East Coast. Registering as a Democrat, he obtained the party's nomination for mayor in the 1935 election and lost by the closest margin for any Democrat in the city's electoral history. In later years, he served on the Fairmount Park Commission and, during World War II, was appointed by President Roosevelt as National Director of Physical Fitness. When Grace was born, the Kellys already had two children, Margaret Katherine, known as Peggy (June 13, 1925–November 23, 1991) and John Brendan, Jr., known as Kell (May 24, 1927–May 2, 1985). Another daughter, Elizabeth Anne, known as Lizanne (June 25, 1933–November 24, 2009), was born three and a half years after Grace. At Margaret's baptism in 1925, Jack Kelly's mother, Mary Costello Kelly, expressed her disappointment that the baby was not named Grace in memory of her last daughter who died young. Upon his mother's death the following year, Jack Kelly resolved that his next daughter would bear the name and, three years later, with the arrival of Grace Patricia in November 1929, his late mother's wish was honored. Following in his father's athletic footsteps, John Jr. won in 1947 the James E. Sullivan Award as the country's top amateur athlete. Also, similar to his father's gold medals in rowing at the 1920 and 1924 Summer Olympics, he competed in the sport at the 1948, 1952 and the 1956 Summer Olympics in Melbourne where, on November 27, seven months after his sister's Monaco wedding, he won a bronze medal, which he gave to her as a gift of the occasion. He also served as a city councilman and Philadelphia's Kelly Drive is named for him. Two of Grace Kelly's uncles were prominent in the arts; her father's eldest brother, Walter C. Kelly (1873–1939), was a vaudeville star whose nationally known act, The Virginia Judge, was filmed as a 1930 MGM short and a 1935 Paramount feature, and another older brother, George Kelly (1887–1974), estranged from the family due to his homosexuality, became renowned in the 1920s as a dramatist, screenwriter and director with a hit comedy-drama, The Show Off, in 1924–25, and was awarded the 1926 Pulitzer Prize for Drama for his next play, Craig's Wife.
While attending Ravenhill Academy, a prestigious Catholic girls' school, Kelly modeled fashions at local social events with her mother and sisters. In 1942, at the age of twelve, she played a lead in Don't Feed the Animals, a play produced by the East Falls Old Academy Players. During high school, she acted and danced, graduating in May 1947 from Stevens School, a small private institution in a mansion on Walnut Lane in the Northwest Philadelphia neighborhood of Germantown. Her graduation yearbook listed her favorite actress as Ingrid Bergman and her favorite actor as Joseph Cotten. Written in the "Stevens' Prophecy" section was, “Miss Grace P. Kelly - a famous star of stage and screen.”
Theatre
Because of low mathematics scores, Kelly was rejected by Bennington College in July 1947.To the dismay of her mother, Kelly decided to pursue her dreams of a career in the theater. For an audition into the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York she used a scene from her uncle's 1923 play The Torch-Bearers. Although the school had already selected its semester quota, Kelly wrangled an interview with the school's admission officer, Emile Diestel. Alumni of the school include Lauren Bacall, Gene Tierney, and Spencer Tracy. Living in Manhattan's Barbizon Hotel for Women, a prestigious establishment which barred men from entering after 10 p.m., and working as a model to support her studies, Kelly began her first term the following October. A diligent student, she would use a tape recorder to practice and perfect her speech. Her early acting pursuits led her to the stage, most notably a Broadway debut in Strindberg’s The Father alongside Raymond Massey. At 19, her graduation performance was in The Philadelphia Story, a role with which she would also end her film career, in the MGM musical film version High Society. Television producer Delbert Mann cast Kelly as Bethel Merriday, an adaptation of the Sinclair Lewis novel of the same name, in her first of nearly sixty live television programs. Success on television eventually brought her a role in a major motion picture. Kelly made her film debut in a small role in the 1951 film Fourteen Hours. She was noticed during a visit to the set by Gary Cooper, who subsequently starred with her in High Noon. Cooper was charmed by Kelly and said that she was "different from all these actresses we've been seeing so much of." However, her performance in Fourteen Hours was not noticed by critics, and did not lead to her receiving other film acting roles. She continued her work in the theater and on television. She was performing in Colorado’s Elitch Gardens when she received a telegram from Hollywood producer Stanley Kramer, offering her a co-starring role opposite Gary Cooper in High Noon.
Kelly's role in Mogambo garnered her a Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress and her first Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress. To audition for the role of Linda Nordley in MGM's production of Mogambo, the studio had Kelly flown to Los Angeles in September 1952. Gene Tierney was initially cast in the role, but due to emotional problems dropped out at the last minute. Kelly won the role, along with a 7-year contract, although she was hired at a relatively low salary of $850 a week. Kelly signed the deal under two conditions: First that, one out of every two years, she have time off to work in the theater and second, that she be able to live in New York City, at the now-landmarked Manhattan House, at 200 E. 66th Street. Just two months later, in November, the cast arrived in Nairobi to begin production. She later told Hollywood columnist Hedda Hopper, "Mogambo had three things that interested me. John Ford, Clark Gable, and a trip to Africa with expenses paid. If Mogambo had been made in Arizona, I wouldn't have done it." The filming timetable afforded her opportunity to indulge in types of activities that undoubtably would not have been broadcast to the likes of Hedda Hopper or her reading public. Kelly and Mogambo co-star Ava Gardner enjoyed a break in the production schedule to journey to Rome and spent time there "brothel-hopping."
After the success of Mogambo, Kelly starred in a TV play The Way of an Eagle, with Jean-Pierre Aumont before being cast in the film adaptation of Frederick Knott's Broadway hit Dial M for Murder. Alfred Hitchcock was slated to direct the film and would become one of Kelly's last mentors. Hitchcock also took full advantage of Kelly's virginal beauty on-camera. In a scene in which her character Margot Wendice is nearly murdered, a struggle breaks out between her and her would-be-killer Tony Dawson as she kicks her legs and flails her arms attempting to fight off her killer. Dial M for Murder opened in theaters in May 1954 to both positive reviews and box-office triumph. Kelly began filming scenes for her next film, The Bridges at Toko-Ri, in January 1954 with William Holden. The role of Nancy, the wife of naval officer Harry (Holden), proved to be a minor but pivotal part of the story. Released in January 1955, The New Yorker wrote of Kelly and Holden's unbridled on-screen chemistry, taking note of Kelly's performance of the part "with quiet confidence." In committing to the role of Lisa Fremont in Rear Window, Kelly unhesitatingly turned down the opportunity to star alongside Marlon Brando in On the Waterfront, which won her replacement, Eva Marie Saint, an Academy Award. "All through the making of Dial M for Murder, he [Hitchcock] sat and talked to me about Rear Window all the time, even before we had discussed my being in it." Much like the shooting of Dial M for Murder, Kelly and Hitchcock shared a close bond of humor and admiration. Sometimes, however, minor strife would emerge on set concerning the wardrobe:
“
At the rehearsal for the scene in Rear Window when I wore a sheer nightgown, Hitchcock called for Edith Head. He came over here and said, 'Look, the bosom is not right, we're going to have to put something in there.' He was very sweet about it; he didn't want to upset me, so he spoke quietly to Edith. When we went into my dressing room and Edith said, 'Mr. Hitchcock is worried because there's a false pleat here. He wants me to put in falsies.' Well, I said, 'You can't put falsies in this, it's going to show and I'm not going to wear them.' And she said, 'What are we going to do?' So we quickly took it up here, made some adjustments there, and I just did what I could and stood as straight as possible - without falsies. When I walked out onto the set Hitchcock looked at me and at Edith and said, 'See what a difference they make?'
Kelly's new co-star, James Stewart, was highly enthusiastic about working with her. The role of Lisa Fremont, a wealthy Manhattan socialite and model, was unlike any of the previous women which she had played. For the very first time, she was an independent career woman. Stewart played a speculative photographer with a broken leg, bound to a wheelchair and so reduced to curiously observing the happenings outside his window. Kelly is not seen until twenty-two minutes into the movie. Just as he had done earlier, Hitchcock provided the camera with a slow-sequenced silhouette of Kelly, along with a close-up of the two stars kissing and finally lingering closely on her profile. With the film's opening in October 1954, Kelly was again praised. Variety's film critic remarked on the casting, commenting about the "earthy quality to the relationship between Stewart and Miss Kelly. Both do a fine job of the picture's acting demands." Kelly won the role of Bing Crosby's long-suffering wife, Georgie Elgin, in The Country Girl, after a pregnant Jennifer Jones bowed out. Already familiar with the play, Kelly was desperate for the part. This meant that, to MGM's dismay, she would have to be loaned out to Paramount. Kelly threatened the studio that she would pack her bags and leave for New York for good. The vanquished studio caved in, and the part was hers. The film also paired Kelly again with William Holden. The wife of a washed-up alcoholic singer, played by Crosby, Kelly's character is emotionally torn between two lovers. Holden willfully begs Kelly to leave her husband and be with him. A piece of frail tenderness manages to cloak itself inside of her, even after having been demonized by Crosby, describing "a pathetic hint of frailty in a wonderful glowing man. That appeals a lot to us. It did to me. I was so young. His weaknesses seemed touching and sweet, they made me love him more." As a result of her performance in The Country Girl, Kelly was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress. Her main competitor for the prize was Judy Garland's much heralded comeback performance in A Star Is Born; playing not only the part of an up and coming actress-singer, but also ironically, the wife of an alcoholic movie star. Although Kelly won the New York Film Critics Circle Award for best actress for her performances in her three big movie roles of 1954 (Rear Window, Dial M For Murder, and The Country Girl), she and Garland both received Golden Globe Awards for their respective performances. By the following March, the race between Kelly and Garland for the Oscar was very close. On the night of the Academy Awards telecast, March 30, 1955, Garland was unable to attend because she was in the hospital having just given birth to her son, Joseph Luft. However, she was rumored to be the odds-on favorite, and NBC Television cameras were set up in her hospital room so that if she was announced as the winner, Garland could make her acceptance speech live from her hospital bed. However, when William Holden announced Kelly as the winner, the technicians immediately dismantled the cameras without saying one word to Garland. Garland was reported not to have been very gracious about Kelly's win, saying in later years, "I didn't appreciate Grace Kelly taking off her makeup and walking away with my Oscar." In April 1954, Kelly flew to Colombia for a 10-day shoot on her next project, Green Fire, with Stewart Granger. Kelly plays Catherine Knowland, a coffee plantation owner. In Granger's autobiography he writes of his distaste for the film's script, while Kelly later confided to Hedda Hopper, "It wasn't pleasant. We worked at a pathetic village - miserable huts and dirty. Part of the crew got shipwrecked ... It was awful."Green Fire was a critical and box-office failure.
After the back-to-back filming of Rear Window, Toko-Ri, Country Girl and Green Fire, Kelly flew to France, along with department store heir Bernard "Barney" Strauss, to begin work on her third and last film for Alfred Hitchcock, To Catch a Thief. Kelly and her co-star, Cary Grant, developed a mutual admiration. The two cherished their time together for the rest of their lives. Years later, when asked to name his all-time favorite actress, Grant replied without hesitation: "Well, with all due respect to dear Ingrid Bergman, I much preferred Grace. She had serenity." The fireworks scene has been the subject of much commentary, as Hitchcock subliminally peppers an undertone of sexual innuendo during the sequence.
Kelly headed the US delegation at the Cannes Film Festival in April 1955. While there, she was invited to participate in a photo session at the Palace of Monaco with Prince Rainier III, the sovereign of the principality. After a series of delays and complications, Kelly met the prince in Monaco. Upon returning to America, Kelly began work on The Swan, in which she coincidentally portrayed a princess. Meanwhile, she was privately beginning a correspondence with Rainier. In December, Rainier came to America on a trip officially designated as a tour, although it was speculated that Rainier was actively seeking a wife. A 1918 treaty with France stated that if Rainier did not produce an heir, Monaco would revert to France as a result of the Monaco Succession Crisis of 1918. At a press conference in the United States, Rainier was asked if he was pursuing a wife, to which he answered, "No." A second question was posed, asking, "If you were pursuing a wife, what kind would you like?" Rainier smiled and answered, "I don't know — the best." Rainier met Kelly and her family, and after three days, the prince proposed. Kelly accepted and the families began preparing for what the press called "The Wedding of the Century." Kelly and her family had to provide Prince Rainier with dowry of $2,000,000 USD in order for the marriage to go ahead. The religious wedding was set for April 19, 1956. News of the engagement was a sensation even though it meant the possible end to Kelly's film career. Industry professionals realized that it would have been impractical for her to continue acting and wished her well. Alfred Hitchcock had quipped that he was "very happy that Grace has found herself such a good part."
Preparations for the wedding were elaborate. The Palace of Monaco was painted and redecorated throughout. On April 4, 1956, leaving from Pier 84 in New York Harbor, Kelly, with her family, bridesmaids, poodle, and over eighty pieces of luggage boarded the ocean liner SS Constitution for the French Riviera. Some 400 reporters applied to sail, though most were turned away. Thousands of fans sent the party off for the eight-day voyage. In Monaco, more than 20,000 people lined the streets to greet the future princess consort. That same year, MGM released Kelly's last film, the musical comedy High Society (based on the studio's 1940 comedy Philadelphia Story). One highlight of the film was Kelly's duet with Bing Crosby, singing "True Love," with words and music by Cole Porter.
As is customary in some countries, Kelly and Rainier had both civil and religious weddings. The 40-minute civil ceremony took place in the Palace Throne Room of Monaco on April 18, 1956, and was broadcast across Europe. To cap the ceremony, the 142 official titles (counterparts of Rainier's) that Kelly acquired in the union were formally recited. The following day the church ceremony took place at Monaco's Saint Nicholas Cathedral. Kelly's wedding dress, designed by MGM's Academy Award–winning Helen Rose, was worked on for six weeks by three dozen seamstresses. The bridesmaid's gowns were designed by Joe Allen Hong at Neiman Marcus after Lawrence Marcus visited Monaco. The 600 guests included Hollywood stars David Niven and his wife Hjördis, Gloria Swanson, Ava Gardner, the crowned head Aga Khan, Gloria Guinness, Daisy Fellowes, Etti Plesch, Lady Diana Cooper, Enid, Lady Kenmare, Loelia, Duchess of Westminster and Conrad Hilton. Frank Sinatra initially accepted an invitation but at the last minute decided otherwise, afraid of upstaging the bride on her wedding day. The ceremony was watched by an estimated 30 million people on television. The prince and princess left that night for their seven-week Mediterranean honeymoon cruise on Rainier's yacht, Deo Juvante II. As Princess of Monaco, she founded AMADE Mondiale, a Monaco-based non-profit organization eventually recognized by the United Nations as a Non-Governmental Organization. According to UNESCO's website, AMADE promotes and protects the "moral and physical integrity" and "spiritual well-being of children throughout the world, without distinction of race, nationality or religion and in a spirit of complete political independence." Her daughter Princess Caroline carries the torch for AMADE today in her role as President.
Children and family
Princess Grace gave birth to the couple's first child, Princess Caroline, nine months and four days after the wedding. Twenty-one guns announced the event, a national holiday was called, gambling ceased, and free champagne flowed throughout the principality. A little over a year later, 101 guns announced the birth of their second child, Prince Albert. Prince Rainier and Princess Grace had three children:
After the wedding, Prince Rainier banned the screening of Kelly's films. Hitchcock offered Kelly the lead in his film Marnie in 1962. She was eager, but public outcry in Monaco against her involvement in a film that portrayed her as a kleptomaniac made her reconsider and ultimately reject the project. Director Herbert Ross attempted to lure Princess Grace for his 1977 film The Turning Point, but Prince Rainier quashed the idea. Later that year, Kelly returned to the arts in a series of poetry readings on stage and the narration of the documentary The Children of Theater Street. She also narrated ABC's made-for-television film The Poppy Is Also a Flower (1966). As princess, Kelly was active in improving the arts institutions of Monaco, and eventually the Princess Grace Foundation was formed to support local artisans. She was one of the first celebrities to support and speak on behalf of La Leche League, an organization that advocates breastfeeding; she planned a yearly Christmas party for local orphans, and dedicated a Garden Club that reflected her love of flowers. Kelly was also a member of the International Best Dressed List since 1960. In 1981, the Prince and Princess celebrated their 25th wedding anniversary.
Personal life
Kelly was the object of the tabloids and gossip throughout her life. Her love life was a particular focus of speculation. Stories of affairs circulated from her first major role in motion pictures and eventually included the names of almost every major actor at the time. During the making of Dial M for Murder, her co-star Ray Milland attempted to seduce her. Milland was 22 years older than she. Milland was married to Muriel Milland for thirty years, and the couple had a son. Milland assured Kelly that he had left his wife, which she would later find out to have been a lie. Muriel Milland was one of the most popular wives in Hollywood and had the support of many friends, including gossip columnist Hedda Hopper. After Muriel Milland found out about the alleged affair, Kelly was branded a homewrecker. After Kelly gave a press interview explaining her side of the story the town seemed to lose interest in the scandal. It was never proven that Kelly actually succumbed to Milland's advances; in fact, her friends at the time, such as Rita Gam, believed she had little interest in him.
Russian fashion designer Oleg Cassini, having just seen Mogambo earlier that evening, encountered Grace Kelly having dinner at Le Veau d'Or. Formerly married to actress Gene Tierney, the original choice to play Mogambo's Linda Nordley, Cassini was raised in Florence and had a cultured air with an abundance of charm and courtliness. He became just as captivated by Kelly in person as he had been while watching her in the film and soon piqued her curiosity by sending her a daily bouquet of red roses. His persistence paid off when she accepted his invitation to lunch, with the provision that her eldest sister, Peggy, join them. Ultimately, her relationship with Cassini foundered on her parents' refusal to accept a divorced non-Catholic as a future son-in-law. When she was a princess, Prince Rainier laid down a list of strict rules when it came to the encounters with the Princess at the palace, which included, no autographs, no photographs, no audio recording devices, and nobody was allowed to leave the room for anything, unless, and until, the Princess left the room first, so that she would avoid being trapped by a mob of fans. This observation was reported in 1963. In a 1960s interview, Kelly explained how she had grown to accept the scrutiny as a part of being in the public eye, but expressed concern for her children’s exposure to such relentless scandalmongering. After her death, celebrity biographers chronicled the rumors with renewed enthusiasm.
Friendship with Josephine Baker
In 1951, the newly famous Kelly took a bold stand against a racist incident involving Black American expatriate singer/dancer Josephine Baker, when Sherman Billingsley's Stork Club in New York refused Baker as a customer. Kelly, who was dining at the club when this happened, was so disgusted that she rushed over to Baker (whom she had never met), took her by the arm, and stormed out with her entire party, vowing never to return (and she never did). The two women became close friends after that night. A significant testament to their close friendship was made evident when Baker was near bankruptcy, and was offered a villa and financial assistance by Kelly (who by that time had become The Princess of Monaco) and her husband Rainier III of Monaco. The princess also encouraged Baker to return to performing and financed Baker's triumphant comeback in 1975, attending the opening night's performance. When Baker died, the Princess secured her burial in Monaco.
Death
On September 13, 1982, while driving with her daughter Stéphanie to Monaco from their country home on the French side of the border, Princess Grace suffered a stroke, which caused her to drive her Rover P6 off the serpentine road down a mountainside. The accident site is located at 43°43′35″N7°24′10″E / 43.72639°N 7.40278°E / 43.72639; 7.40278. Grace was pulled alive from the wreckage, but had suffered serious injuries and was unconscious. She died the following day at the Monaco Hospital (renamed Centre Hospitalier Princesse Grace — "The Princess Grace Hospital Centre" in English—in 1985), having never regained consciousness. It was initially reported that Princess Stéphanie suffered only minor bruising, although it later emerged that she had suffered a serious cervical fracture. Grace was buried in the Grimaldi family vault on September 18, 1982, after a requiem mass in Saint Nicholas Cathedral, Monaco. The 400 guests at the service included representatives of foreign governments and of present and past European royal houses. Diana, Princess of Wales represented the British royal family. Cary Grant was among the members of the film community in attendance. Nearly 100 million people worldwide watched her funeral.Prince Rainier, who did not remarry, was buried alongside her following his death in 2005. In his eulogy, James Stewart said:
“
You know, I just love Grace Kelly. Not because she was a princess, not because she was an actress, not because she was my friend, but because she was just about the nicest lady I ever met. Grace brought into my life as she brought into yours, a soft, warm light every time I saw her, and every time I saw her was a holiday of its own. No question, I'll miss her, we'll all miss her, God bless you, Princess Grace.
”
Legacy
Grace Kelly in 1967
The Princess Grace Foundation, Monaco was founded in 1964 with the aim of helping those with special needs for whom no provision was made within the ordinary social services. In 1983, following Princess Grace's death, Caroline, Princess of Hanover assumed the duties of President of the Board of Trustees of the Foundation. Albert II, Prince of Monaco is Vice-President. The Princess Grace Foundation-USA (PGF-USA) was established following the death of Princess Grace of Monaco to continue the work that she had done, anonymously, during her lifetime, assisting emerging theater, dance and film artists in America. Incorporated in 1982, PGF-USA is headquartered in New York and is a tax-exempt, not-for-profit, publicly supported organization. The Princess Grace Awards, a program of the Princess Grace Foundation-USA, has awarded nearly 500 artists at more than 100 institutions in the U.S. with more than $7 million to date. The Princess Grace Foundation-USA also holds the exclusive rights to, and facilitates the licensing of, Princess Grace of Monaco's name and likeness throughout the world. Princess Grace Foundation-USA On June 18, 1984, Prince Rainier inaugurated a public rose garden in Monaco in Princess Grace's memory because of her passion for the flower. In 1993, Princess Grace became the first U.S. actress to appear on a U.S. postage stamp. In 2003, 83 years after Olympic Gold Medalist John Kelly, Sr. was refused entry to the most prestigious rowing event in the world, the Henley Royal Regatta renamed the Women's Quadruple Sculls after his daughter, "Princess Grace Challenge Cup". Princess Grace was invited to present the prizes at the Henley Royal Regatta in 1981 as a peace offering by the Henley Stewards to put a long conflict (61 years) between the Kelly family and Stewards to rest. Her brother, John Kelly, Jr., won the Diamond Sculls at Henley in 1947 and 1949 as well as a Bronze Medal in the single sculls at the 1956 Summer Olympics in Melbourne. In 2004 her son, Prince Albert, presented the prizes at the Henley Royal Regatta. On April 1, 2006, The Philadelphia Museum of Art presented an exhibition entitled, Fit for a Princess: Grace Kelly's Wedding Dress, that ran through May 21, 2006. The exhibition was in honor of the 50th anniversary of Princess Grace and Prince Rainier's wedding. To commemorate the 25th anniversary of her death €2 commemorative coins were issued on July 1, 2007 with the "national" side bearing the image of Princess Grace. In Monaco (at the Grimaldi Forum) and the United States (at Sotheby's) a large Princess Grace exhibition, coordinated by the Princely Family, called "Grace, Princess of Monaco: A Tribute to the Life and Legacy of Grace Kelly", celebrated her life and her contribution to the arts through her Foundation. In October 2009, a plaque was placed on the "Rodeo Drive Walk of Style" in recognition of Princess Grace's contributions to style and fashion. In November 2009, to commemorate what would have been her 80th birthday TCM named her as star of the month which saw Prince Albert II pay a special tribute to his mother.
Today is the Feast Day, proposed by "Holy Women, Holy Men", of Anna Julia Haywood Cooper and Evelyn Wright. I am preaching today at St. John's Chapel at the 12:15 Eucharist. It's an enormous privilege and a decided pleasure.
I'll post my sermon later this afternoon, but I wanted to post the Eucharistic prayer I put together for today's service. The Rev'd Dr. Susanna Snyder, Assistant Professor of Contemporary Society and Christian Ethics, will be presiding.
I packed like a monk to come to EDS as Proctor Scholar, so I did not have any of my liturgical files with me. I needn't have worried. Dr. Snyder was a rich and generous resource of liturgical material for this service, for which I am deeply grateful.
I am also deeply grateful to Patrick Michaels, pianist and organist at St. John's Chapel, who was so very generous with his time and musical talent in suggesting the music for this service.
I cobbled this service together from a variety of sources: The New Women Included, St. Hilda Community; Bread of Tomorrow: Praying with the World’s Poor, Janet Morley, ed; Holy Ground: Liturgies and worship resources for an engaged spirituality, Neil Paynter & Helen Boothroyd - and, I confess, from the rapidly dwindling shreds of memory I have left in my cerebellum.
I would be happy for you to borrow any or all of it, with proper attribution, of course.
A Eucharistic Service Anna Julia Haywood Cooper and Elizabeth Evelyn Wright Monday, February 28, 2011
SERVICE OF HOLY EUCHARIST
INVITATION:
Presider: Come to the living God Come to stand alongside the poor in spirit. Come to struggle with those who seek freedom. Come to resist all that offends God’s justice Come to the living, disturbing God.
+Blessed be God, One, Holy and Living. All: And Blessed be God’s Beloved Community, now and forever. Amen.
HYMN OF PRAISE: “I know the Lord’s laid his hands on me.” LEVAS 131
Presider: Our God is with you. All: And also with you. Presider: Let us pray.
COLLECT:
Eternal God, you inspired Anna Julia Haywood Cooper and Elizabeth Evelyn Wright with the love of learning and the joy of teaching: Help us also to gather and use the resources of our communities for the education of all your children; through Jesus Christ our Savior, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God for ever and ever. Amen.
LESSONS:
First Reading Proverbs 9:1-6
Psalm 78:1-7 (spoken)
Give ear to my teaching, O my people; incline your ears to the words of my mouth! I will open my mouth in a parable; I will declare the mysteries of ancient times, That which we have heard and known, and what our forebears have told us. we will not hide them from their children. We will recount to generations to come the praiseworthy deeds and the powers of God, and the wonderful works s/he has done. S/he established a testimony in Jacob and appointed a law in Israel, which s/he commanded our forebears to teach to their children; That the next generation might know them, the children yet unborn, and arise and tell them to their children, So that they should set their hope in God, and not forget the works of God, but keep God’s commandments;
GRADUAL HYMN: “Make me a blessing” LEVAS 158
Gospel Luke 4:6-16
Homily: Fulfilling scripture” (the Rev’d Dr.) Elizabeth Kaeton
Note: after the homily, please take a full minute of silence for reflection.
Prayers of the People
Gracious God, we pray for your holy catholic Church; That we all may be one.
Grant that every member of the Church may truly and humbly serve you; That your Name may be glorified by al people.
We pray for all bishops, priests, deacons and laity; That they may be faithful ministers of your Word and Sacraments.
We pray for all who govern and hold authority in the nations of the world; That there may be justice and peace on the earth.
Give us grace to do your will in all that we undertake; That our works may find favor in your sight.
Have compassion on those who suffer from any grief or trouble; That they may be delivered from their distress.
Give to the departed eternal rest. Let light perpetual shine upon them.
We praise you for your saints who have entered into joy; May we also come to share in your heavenly kin-dom.
Let us pray for our own needs and those of others.
Silence
The prophet Zechariah has taught us that these are the things we must do: Speak the truth to one another. In the courts give real justice – the kind that gives peace. Do not plan ways to hurt each other. Do not tell lies about each other. Have courage. Do not be afraid. Love truth and love peace. Amen. Confession
All: God, you know us as we are: you know our selfishness, our anger and bitterness, our fear and apathy, our hardness of heart, our deliberate blindness, our need to begin again. In your mercy and love Forgive us, change and renew us. Amen.
Presider: God forgives you. God blesses you. God loves you, now and always.
The Passing of the Peace
OFFERTORY HYMN: “Come, Eat and Drink for my table is set” (Words and Music: Patrick Michaels)
Eucharistic Prayers
God is with us God’s Spirit is here Lift up your hearts We lift them up to God Let us give thanks to God our Creator It is right to give our thanks and praise.
Holy God, who breathes fire into our very existence, filling us with heavenly joy and holy indignation at the plight of our world: we worship you, we praise you, and we trust in your promise to be with us, now and always.
We claim the sign of renewal given to a broken and discouraged community, now as then in Jerusalem. For you came to your people, filling them with confidence. Your Holy Spirit inspired their lives, bringing clarity and vision, perseverance and persistence, hope and peace.
We join our voices now with them and with all those who have gone before us, with Anna and Elizabeth and all your saints who have struggled to bring a glimpse of your kin-dom here on earth, singing this hymn of unending praise:
Sanctus: LEVAS 225
Blessed is Jesus, our brother, who calls us beyond the limits of our understanding of our humanity to seek the divine spark within us all, and fills us with a sense of oneness with God and with each other in community.
On the night he was betrayed, while at supper with his friends, +Jesus took bread, gave thanks, and broke it saying, “Take and eat: this is my body which is given for you. Do this for the remembrance of me.”
After supper, +he took the cup, blessed it and said: “Drink this, all of you: this is the new covenant made in my blood; do this for the remembrance of me.”
Holy God, we now offer you these gifts, longing for the bread of justice and the wine of the age to come. Therefore, we proclaim the mystery of our faith.
Jesus Christ has died
Jesus Christ is risen
Jesus Christ will come again
Oh, deep in my heart
I do believe
Jesus Christ will come again.
Tune: ‘We Shall Overcome’
+ Pour out your Spirit on these gifts, O God, that through them we may be vehicles of justice and compassion and may reconcile ourselves and each other and the world through your unconditional love and abundant grace.
+ Sanctified by the power of your Spirit, may we be better able to proclaim your message, look beyond the obstacles in our path and see new visions, dream new dreams and become your Beloved Community in the Name of Jesus.
+Through Christ, and with Christ, and in Christ, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, all honor and glory be given to you, O Source of all life, now and forever. Amen.
In the spirit of the teaching of Jesus, let us now pray -
Our Father/Mother, who art in heaven
hallowed be thy name.
thy kin-dom come,
thy will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread
and forgive us our trespasses,
as we forgive those who trespass against us.
And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil.
For thine is the kin-dom,
and the power and the glory,
forever and ever. Amen.
The Fraction:
Take and eat, for the peace of all nations Take and drink, for the love of all people. For you have shown us the path that leads to life. And this feast will fill us with joy.
COMMUNION HYMN: “Mungu ni mwema” (Democratic Republic of Congo) "Know that God is good."
POST COMMUNION HYMN: “Justice Round” (Words and music by Thew Elliott)
All around me voices sing
Justice is the song they sing, And with-
in this song I'll sing my part; I will
rise and speak what's in my heart; I will
rise! I will rise!
Post Communion Prayer
Let us pray:
Those who work for change suffer resistance So make us strong Those who do new things sometimes feel afraid So make us brave. Those who challenge the world as it is arouse its anger So grant us inner peace. Those who try to love encounter hate. So make us steadfast in you.
