Before the icon
V. Look for Jesus
R. In the oppressed and sweated
Two Readings
You cannot claim to worship Jesus in the Tabernacle, if you do not pity Jesus in the slums. . . It is folly, it is madness, to suppose that you can worship Jesus in the Sacraments and Jesus on the throne of glory, when you are sweating him in the souls and bodies of his children. Bishop Frank Weston, Anglo-Catholic Congress of 1923
Preaching at Weston's former church on the centenary of his birth, the then Archbishop of Canterbury Michael Ramsey said "But Jesus Christ is the same, yesterday, today, and forever; and for all time his people need the witness of sacrifice, of selflessness, of penitence, and of joy which shone in Frank Weston of Zanzibar. But it would displease him if we tried to be solemn about him. So let the last word be that of a little African boy who said 'You know he is a loving man, for his mouth is always opened ready for laughter, for he is still laughing and he will laugh forever.'"
A collect
Lord God, King and Servant, you are the mighty one who kneels to wash the feet of the oppressed; we thank you for the witness of Frank Weston of Zanzibar, who sought to be one with those he served, in the Name of Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.
Blessed Frank, advocate of racial justice, pray for us.
———————————————-
Feast Day — He died on All Souls Day, 11/2/1924 September 13, 1871 - November 2, 1924
Zanzibar takes London – Covenant
Notwithstanding the corporate mind of Lambeth 1920 on race, Bishop Weston had already concluded by 1899 that, as his biographer recounts, the great obstacle to real progress [in establishing a self-supporting African Church] lay in that consciousness of race superiority which is so characteristic of Englishmen. Missionaries had come to Africa to be kind to Africans, but they were inclined to treat them as children to be corrected and controlled, and they expected from them deference and service. This [Weston] saw to be the wrong attitude, for if a native Church was ever to grow, the native priests must be treated as equals. “We have,” he said, “always to remember that they, and not we, are the permanent leaders of the African Church.”[6]
Accordingly, for his part, Bishop Weston sought to “break down the barrier which separated black from white” by articulating, for his context, a “missionary ideal” of blackness, that is, “to become as the black man, and to identify oneself with black ideals” (p. 36). His biographer explains:
Frank believed that God had made of one blood all the nations of men, that our Lord had come to be the servant of all, had died for all, and had commissioned His disciples to serve and suffer gladly, that all might be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth. He could not understand a missionary who adopted the attitude of a master with benevolent intentions; the missionary, he thought, should only be eager to serve. … For him there was only one way of service — it was the way of the Incarnation — a man must make himself one with those whom he wished to serve….
When race cleavage is so complete …, it is difficult to see how the gulf can ever be bridged. Frank saw a way and was bold enough to follow it. He found it “necessary to adopt as far as possible African ways in order to help his African priests to feel at home in his own house.” In 1919 he sent a circular letter to his staff, saying that in future he intended to live as much as possible with natives, and must not be expected to pay long visits to European Mission stations.[7]
About Frank Weston In Project Canterbury
Racial solidarity and English Catholicism – Covenant
Icon writer: Mary Ellen Watson