Men's Group

Art with Heart 1st & 3rd Saturday of the Month at 10 am Explore spirituality through art! No experience needed—just bring your creativity and an open heart! Everyone from preteens to adults is welcome to join the fun! Supplies are provided, or bring your favorite medium.

St. Paul's Juneteenth Celebration has become a major event in the life of the Parish. This year's event will feature a Pot Luck, fun & games and a Gospel Choir - You may even learn a thing or two! Mark your calendar for June 15, at 12:30 and dust off those recipes for the "Food of our Father's" pot luck lunch! June 19th is the day in 1865 in Galveston, Texas when a Union general rode in to inform the city that the institution of slavery had ended and that all enslaved people were from that moment, free. This should not have been a surprise to the enslaved African Americans of Texas since President Lincoln had in fact already issued a proclamation two years earlier, on Jan 1, 1863 liberating all enslaved persons living in Confederate states. But the order carried little weight in Texas, where there were few Union soldiers to enforce it, and where, according to Annette Gordon-Reed in her book “On Juneteenth,” despite the formal surrender of the Confederate General Robert E. Lee two months earlier, the Confederate army continued fighting until mid -May. Many of the enslaved persons in that state therefore continued working for their enslavers, but others we are told by Annette Gordon-Reed “knew the gist of the general order prior to June 19, as Galveston, the largest city in Texas was a port city through which most of the cotton picked and processed in the state was shipped out to the world.” And she stresses, “port cities are prefect vehicles for transmission of information to people of all degrees of literacy.” Ms. Gordon-Reed herself a Texan says: “Two days before General Granger arrived on the island, Black men working on the wharves began to shout in exultation. When asked what they were celebrating, they replied, because they were free.” The news began to spread to other towns but the enslaved had to be careful about openly celebrating as “White in Texas were incensed by what had transpired so much so that some reacted violently to the Blacks’ display of joy at emancipation.” Nevertheless, once the announcement was made in 1865 African Americans in Texas and elsewhere in the United States as the cultural practice spread began to celebrate the day. But though acknowledged by some 47 states and the district of Columbia it is only in 2021 that Juneteenth was made a federal holiday in the United States commemorating the emancipation of enslaved African Americans.