By Eileen E. Flynn
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
Saturday, July 21, 2007
When the Rev. Gregory Rickel arrived to be the rector
at St. James' Episcopal Church, a historically black
congregation in East Austin, he decided he had to
come clean about his upbringing in rural Arkansas.
"I'm a recovering racist," he told parishioners.
At St. James', they believed him. And almost
immediately, they embraced him. In the past six years,
the increasingly diverse congregation on Martin Luther
King Jr. Boulevard has supported the priest with the
youthful, rugged face and Arkansas drawl as he took
on thorny issues from the pulpit and tried to balance
the African American traditions of the parish with its
growing mix of other cultures.
On Sunday, the congregation will say farewell to
Rickel, 44 (right in photo), who will give his final
sermon before
leaving to become bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of
Olympia, Wash.
Rickel's honesty and his ability to connect with people
of all backgrounds will serve him well in his new role,
parishioners and fellow priests say.
Rickel nurtured those qualities in Austin, where as a
hospital administrator-turned-seminarian, he said he
experienced a conversion that changed his thinking
about racial differences and prompted him to speak
out for racial equality and social justice as the face of
one of Austin's most multicultural churches.
But acknowledging his bigoted background was the
crucial first step to building trust with his
congregation, said Ora Houston, a longtime St.
James' member. She said that when she goes to
predominantly white churches, people avoid sitting
next to her "even today in my own denomination."
Rickel, she said, wasn't afraid to talk about those
realities.
"He came in and he listened and asked questions,"
she said. "He's able to acknowledge that he comes
from a society and a part of the country that is racist."
Rickel, who grew up in Bryant, Ark., says he
was "marinated in the racist South" as a child in the
1960s and '70s.
"A lot of adults around me fed that . . . and children
pick up on that," he said.
He remembered coming home from school one day
when he was 12 and announcing to his mother that
he didn't like sharing a classroom with black kids,
using a racial slur to describe his fellow
students.
He said his mother smacked him and told him:"Don't
ever use that word in my presence or in this
house."
As he got older, he said, his mother continued to
challenge his bigotry, encouraging him to get to know
people who were different from him.
When Rickel was 15, he worked at a summer camp
for inner city youths, most of whom were African
American.
"I learned what it was to be black in the South," he
said.
