EarthRise Dedication and Blessing

Churches of the Diocese of Texas, the communities of Nassau Bay in Houston, and NASA, as we work to heal from racism by charting a new course for the future.

And I'm the Reverend Mike Stone, and I've been the rector here at St.

Thomas for 11 years.

And where this monument came from was in 2021, Bishop Doyle announced at annual council that the diocese was setting aside an endowment to aid in racial reconciliation, advancing black seminarians, aiding historically black parishes, and creating monuments of recognition.

And we were one of the first parishes to apply for one of these grants because a member of our vestry enjoyed Charlie Bolden as his youth minister.

Charlie specifically took David Whitlock skiing in Taos along with all the other kids he could round up.

So he not only piloted the space shuttle, he took kids to Taos and drove the van.

And so when we had this idea of honoring people of color who had contributed to the space program, the Talbot Committee actually had to ask the bishop's permission.

They thought, oh, maybe we were making only monuments where tragedies have happened.

Would it be okay to celebrate?

And of course the bishop said yes.

So we put out a public art call and we received 25 international bids.

And we as a committee whittled down to three finalists, and the one that we chose was the only monument we thought people would return to.

Now, just a word that this parish, every parish in the Clear Lake area calls themselves the parish of the astronauts.

Every single one.

So who do we claim?

Well, we claim Jim Lovell and we claim Charlie Duke and we claim Frank Colbertson and we claim Charlie Bolden and a number of others.

And one thing we want to say about Charlie being not only the senior warden multiple times, Charlie flew our patent that we served the communion on out of the atmosphere on Challenger's last successful mission.

He also flew our altar book.

He sang in a choir.

He was our youth director.

So we have a very special relationship with Charlie, who has poured himself out in this place.

And so we're grateful he's here to celebrate this with us.

And we sure hope that you will engage your family and friends and colleagues in getting them come to celebrate the only national monument of this type that we know of.

So it's here 24-7.

I am thrilled to invite now the three winning artists from our Public Works bid who have worked tirelessly for three years through red tape and architectural design and highlighting.

So Liz Contas Spencer and Gene Hester and Jose Dennis, please come on up.

And Liz is going to offer you the artist's perspective.

This is Jean Hester.

We applied for this commission thanks to our dear friend Christine Alexander, who did many of the wonderful stained glass pieces here at the parish.

And I have to say having our work represented at such an art-filled parish gives me personally great joy.

Genesis Collaborative Projects started in 2007 when Gene and I worked on a commission in Rockport, Texas for, I believe, an Episcopalian youth camp called Camp Aranza Zoo.

Since then, we've worked continuously on one project after another, but none of them have taken four years to complete.

So this is this is set of record, and my marriage is still intact.

Thank you, Michael.

I want to thank my colleagues.

Jose Dennis is a fabulous draftsman.

He's a wonderful artist.

I know him through a life drawing program that I attend at Archway Gallery over in the Montrose area.

I have never seen anyone draw as beautifully as Jose.

Gene is a master glass artist, someone that I've learned many, many skills from.

And I I am gonna say one thing.

And working on this has been tremendous, but art is a skill, not a talent, in my opinion.

That's my my humble opinion.

And all skills can be developed.

And the skills that we did not have to finish this project, we relied on others to help us, particularly Campo Sheet Metal, a fabrication company in Houston, a welding company, the people who poured the pad, Delgado.

I would be remiss if I didn't mention Jose Delgado and the beautiful work that his crew did.

And just yesterday, the Masons who came out and put something around the base of the project, which really finishes it off nicely.

I want to thank the members of this parish who who had the foresight and the vision to request this beautiful monument.

And I it's been an honor to work on it.

And I'm sorry it took so long.

Thank you very much.

And we had a few of those engineers make sure that this monument was windload ready.

So John Levy recruited Jeff Talbot, a structural engineer, and the parish help has been phenomenal.

And now this is the moment many of you have been waiting for, especially myself.

I am very pleased to invite Major General Charles Golden to offer some of the people.

Bishop, thanks so much for being with us today.

What a special day for me to have an opportunity to come here, a day of confirmation and reception and everything.

It's just so special in our church.

And to see all the kids here, I was asked, did I really volunteer to be the youth leader?

I'm not sure that I volunteered, but Jackie was the real leader.

And I do remember, David, the trip to Taos, which I guess I could say in in the church, because hell is a word we use everyone.

It was a trip from hell.

We did not start out intending to go to Taos, New Mexico.

We intended to take them to a smaller ski lodge where kids went and they could ski safely and everything.

And we ended up the only place we could go was Taos.

And Jaggie and I, instead of saying, no, let's not do that, we were foolhardy like most people in our profession are.

And so we struck out to Taos, New Mexico, and I think the only thing there were black slopes, if for those of you who ski.

And very first day, my son Che, I think was about eight, and we couldn't find him.

And and all of a sudden I looked way up at the top of the mountain, and I could see this little speck.

And I I mean, my my in spite in spite of the fact that he was way off, I knew who it was.

And I said, I'm gonna lose my son today because the ski patrol had been bringing people down off the mountain all day long.

Jackie and I were sitting at the bottom drinking hot buttered rum and stuff because we didn't ski.

And the kids started coming down, and we got through towels.

I don't think we got a single injury on the mountain, but it was God watching over us.

They say God watches over babies and fools.

But I just wanted to offer just a few things for you to think about.

This project is unbelievable.

And when when Father Mike called and said, hey, we're gonna do this, would you be willing to come back and sit down and talk to us a little bit?

I said, Yeah, this sounds like a great idea.

I was not serious when I said that because I never heard of anything like that.

And then they said, Well, the bishop has blessed us, and you know, so this is not just a wild and crazy idea.

And I began to get more and more excited about it.

But as as the artist said, you know, when you go, it's it's like getting ready for a space mission.

You know, you start out, and years later people have left, and and you're still getting ready to go fly.

So this was like years later, this project comes to fruition, and I came back and I have not seen it yet.

All I've seen is the thing in the rafts.

But but I it is so important for it to be in this community, in this church.

Jaws, I'm gonna embarrass you.

Stand up for a second.

I don't know how many of you know the daughter of the Mugbelis.

He was one of the people who was brought in this morning.

Have your mom and dad stand up, if you would.

She's a fellow Marine.

And she's a she's a I could use some words, but I won't in here.

But she's a she is a an attack helicopter pilot with about 150 combat missions and everything else.

And she actually commanded a crew aboard the International Space Station.

So she's the real deal.

And it is so, it is so I'm honored to have your dad and mom choose this church, first of all.

But but to have him decide on this day that he would he would be a part of this, and then to have you come out to be here with him.

And that's that's really special.

Because as everybody said, astronauts do drift in and out of this place.

You know, we just those of us who are Episcopalians, we can go to St.

Christopher's where where my old flight surgeon, Mike, is, but or you can come here, and this was convenient at the time, and then we fell in love with it.

And and I I would be remiss if I didn't acknowledge people who are here who were here when we were here, but I'm not gonna try to call names because they're they're not a lot of you, but but it's too many for me to remember.

I I remember faces nowadays.

Real quick thing, Jackie would be here, except Jackie is in advanced stage of Alzheimer's.

And I think that's really important for people to know.

She has been with me for 58 years.

Well, I've been with her for 58 years.

And we produced two kids, Che and Kelly.

Kelly is who she is today because of St.

Thomas and the school.

When we got here in 1980, Kelly was a sheltered child.

She wouldn't, I mean, she was just bashful.

She wouldn't do anything.

And we were really worried.

Che was this outgoing guy who ended up being a Marine and all that kind of stuff.

And so we brought her here to St.

Thomas to the school.

And what was done for her here, it just brought her out of her shell.

She was in pre-K and then kindergarten.

And when she went to first grade at Ed White Elementary School, she was hard to handle.

She had just blossomed, and today she is a successful plastic surgeon in DC with two kids of her own who are two and five.

And so that I think that's enough.

Father Mike asked me to talk about how I came here and all that kind of stuff, but I'm one of these reluctant astronauts.

I never dreamed of being one.

And I will tell you how I how I got to do that.

When I left Columbia, South Carolina in 1964 after high school, the segregated South, the one place I knew I wanted to go was the United States Naval Academy.

I didn't know anything about it except what I had seen on television on a program called Men of Annapolis.

And I struggled to get there, and I finally got an appointment to go, and I hated it.

I mean, it was hard.

Maryland was still the South, and the campus was like this, it's it is still this incredibly beautiful place, but it was like an island in the middle of everywhere.

There weren't a lot of people who looked like me there.

And when we went out in town, then we were we were reminded that we were still in the South.

But it was, I it grew on me over time.

And the two things I said I was never gonna do when I left home, never gonna be a Marine Jaws, because they were crazy.

And I was definitely not gonna fly airplanes jaws because that was inherently dangerous.

And and when I graduated and decided because of my very first company officer, Major John Riley Love, who was like my dad, tough but imminently fair, I said, I want to be like him.

And that's the way my life has been.

I have always found people that I could point to and say, I want to be like them.

I became a test pilot because of one of my instructors when I finally went to flight school when I decided I really didn't like crawling around in the mud.

So I would probably not be a good infantry officer.

And I went to flight school, fell in love with it.

One of my flight instructors was a test pilot.

And he talked about what it was like, the fact that no, it's not a scarf hanging out the cockpit.

It's tough, uh demanding, very precise, and everything.

And that was exactly what I wanted.

And so I struggled for about six years asking the Marine Corps to send me to test pilot school.

I finally got there, and and I loved it.

And at the same time, NASA was selecting the first group of space shuttle astronauts.

And they selected the first 35, the TFNG, 35 new guys.

There's another thing we call it two, but but TFNG is 35 new guys.

Among them were three blacks, Ron McNair, Fred Gregory, Guy Blueford, and six women.

And I was blown away by that, but still had no desire to become an astronaut.

And one weekend, one reunion weekend, three NASA T-38s came into Pax River, these sleek, white supersonic jets.

And I watched them land and I looked, and out of the backseat of one got this came this little black guy.

And it turned out to be the late great Dr.

Ron McNair.

And uh Ron and I had grown up about 42 miles from each other in South Carolina, did not know each other.

I knew of him only from Jet Magazine and Ebony, the fact that he was one of the freak the first three black astronauts.

But I ran over, introduced myself, and we spent the weekend talking to each other.

And as he got ready to go home, he said, Um, are you gonna apply for the program?

I said, Not on your life.

And he looked at me real strange.

He said, Why not?

I said, Ron, Nade never picked me.

He paused and he got this angry look on his face.

He said, That is the dumbest thing I ever heard.

How do you know if you don't ask?

And I was embarrassed.

I mean, I was just, my mom and dad were my school teachers.

My dad was my high school football coach who had taught me and embedded it in me that it's not the size of the dog in the fight, it's the size of the fight in the dog.

And I said, they never pick me.

And I had deselected myself.

So when he went back to Texas, I went home and I told Jackie, you know, this is crazy, but I'm gonna apply for the space program.

And I did.

I got nominated by the Marine Corps to NASA.

That's the way they did it back then.

And then I got an opportunity to come down here and interview and met some incredible people outside of the astronaut office.

Just, just the ones that the bishop talked about, and the ones we're commemorating in this memorial.

The janitors, you know, the custodians, people like that, who were just unbelievable.

And I went back home and I told my wife, I said, boy, that would be great.

Ain't gonna happen.

Because when I met the people who were applying to be astronauts, they were, I mean, they were like unbelievable people, like MIT grads, like Jaws.

And I said, no way.

And then I ended up getting selected and came down here.

Last story I will tell you is Bishop Doyle's story is he may not be telling the same one I am, but I'm gonna tell you a true story.

A member of a member of what he said he didn't know.

I know mine because when I was the NASA administrator, a friend of mine who was running something called the the Partnership for Public Service was really trying to help Congress this, you know, understand what their job was.

And he had a particular chairman of a committee that had oversight of personnel in the government, and he wanted to hold a hearing on the worst places to work in the federal government.

And he said, you know, I understand what you want to do, but it might be good if you started out with meeting some people from the among the best places to work in the federal government.

And by that time, NASA had become the best place to work in the federal government, number one in the government.

They positioned they have not relinquished since 2012, I think.

And so he said, Why don't you and so the the congressman said, Okay, tell me where I should go.

He said, Well, why don't you go over to NASA?

Let me introduce you to the to the administrator, Charlie Bolden.

And so I took a group of people over to the hill and we talked to him, and and I said, Look, I I can talk to you till you're blue in the face, but why don't you come over to NASA headquarters and let let me introduce you to some of my people?

I said, you know, you're gonna find that everybody there is focused on just just making the world a better place.

And some of them want to get people to Mars, some of them want to do all kinds of things.

So he said, okay, I'll do that.

He came over for a visit, and I met him in the lobby.

We went to the elevator, and as we were waiting for the elevator to come, he saw a janitor, a custodian.

And he walked over, he said, he said, you know, I'm Congressman so-and-so.

He said, What do you do here?

He said, sir, I'm working to send people to Mars.

And the the Congressman went, I don't.

He said, Did you set that up?

I said, you picked him, I did not.

I said, that's just the way people are.

And that that is the way that that we are.

So it is an honor for me to be here, an honor to have just had a just an opportunity to give Mike a couple of ideas or stuff.

But I honor the artist, and and I thank all of you here who are members of this congregation or not.

I just thank you for being here today.

Um I am truly blessed.

I've been blessed all my life, blessed to still have my wife with me.

I'm at home, and I will tell her about this and show her pictures, and I'll watch her eyes and light up when I tell her.

So thank you.

Okay, I want to offer to you that we're when we go round and in a litany, you're going to hear eight specific people or groups celebrated, and there will be more to come.

We're very fortunate that one of our parish volunteers, Zach Worley, has built an incredibly interactive website that will tell you more about all of those people.

And in about four months, there'll be a documentary.

We were able to interview Vanessa White and Charlie and Bobby Satcher, Bishop Doyle, the artist, the fabricator.

So that's all going to be stitched together and available on our website.

In case you'd like to know, that's st a c dot org or Sierra Tango Tango AlphaEchacharlie.org.

I also just want to recognize the members of our steering committee briefly.

So in the back.

Christine Alexander, who created all the stained glass that you're seeing in the chapel.

Here in the center, John Leedy, who has been a partial project manager for many things, including the Pipe Organ, but also for the structure itself.

Over here on the bench, we have Rob Puckett, David Whitlock, and Rainy Bielski, and Antha Adkins, who just retired from Jacobs as an asset subcontractor, is at her son's wedding, so she couldn't be here.

And then Todd Parker, who is making the documentary for us, who moved to Portugal, and Amy Tones as well.

So your steering committee has done an incredible job, and we're very grateful for your vision and your work.

Now we know there's a lot of things going on in the city of Houston, so what a blessing that we have County Commissioner Adrian Garcia, who's going to come make remarks and offer a proclamation.

Commissioner Garcia, please come.

Good morning.

Wow.

I feel like I need to just sit down.

But it is an incredible honor uh to be here to help us celebrise, to help celebrate Earthrise.

And Bishop, thank you so very much for that kind welcome.

Reverend Stone as well.

Thank you.

Bishop, I know you have uh many churches under your domain, and this is gonna be your favorite, right?

But I will tell you that on occasions like this, when we come together as a community to recognize that our humanity is a lot better because people stood up and took a chance, and in spite of what they thought they would face and probably did, they continue to persevere and move forward.

You have made us a better humanity.

And it's it is more these days regrettably critical that we should come together as a humanity to do all that we can to preserve true history, to make sure that we do not forget on whose shoulders we stand on.

To not forget that places like the South were immensely, immensely unfriendly for people who just wanted to contribute.

You know, just coincidentally, recently I I saw the movie Men of Honor of a deep-sea diver.

I don't know if you've seen that.

But it just makes you wonder how the good Lord was able to extract that give up DNA.

And I'm glad you did.

But rather I'm glad that you had that give it all DNA.

And so many others like you who were who are a part of why this monument is important, so that we can look to it, and more importantly, so that our children can look to it and remember, or know, know that there are people who did some amazing things for all of us, in spite of the fact that there were some who did not want them to succeed.

There's folks like Ed Dwight, who was not selected for a space flight, but then later became the oldest person to parti to participate in a in a in the 2024 Blue Origin mission.

Robert Henry Lawrence Jr., the first U.S.

Air Force officer and first African American astronaut.

George Robert Gruthers, who helped build the first observatory ever deployed.

And then in 1978, Group A was the first to include women in minority astronauts, and so many other trope blazers, like one that I've had the distinct honor of building a relationship with, and that is Dr.

Bernard Harris.

And then just ironically, that you would mention Dr.

McNair, because as a young cop, if if some of you don't know, I spent 23 years with the Houston Police Department.

Then I decided to do something much more dangerous, like elective office.

But I was actually stationed at the McNair South Central Station and was there during the celebration of naming that station in his honor.

And so, and it it caused curiosity at that time as well.

But I will also say that we all have an obligation, I think, to ensure that places like Precinct II help to honor and welcome and celebrate monuments that recognize that a diversity is valuable, that a diversity brings innovation, that a diversity creates a different level of thinking for new opportunities and for new ways to wonder and explore and think and embrace other ideas.

And for that reason, I'm so I am so, so honored and grateful that this particular monument, Earth Rise, would happen to be in precinct too.

And for that reason, I have a proclamation that will be or is established in this honor, and I'll briefly read through it, but it begins with on August 16th of 2026, community members, honored friends and neighbors, and Bishop Doyle, the United States Marine Major General Charles Bolden, retired but still a Marine, will join in the celebration and ribbon cutting of Earth Rice.

A new public art installation located on the grounds of St.

Thomas, the Apostle Episcopal Church.

And to the artist, let me just say that you are in a way angels, because you can absorb information, you can absorb a conversation, you can absorb emotion, and then you can help to construct it into something that we can feel, see, and touch.

And let's give the artist another round of applause, right?

And so Earth Rise is the only public art installation in this nation that celebrates the many achievements and contributions of people of color, women, and underrepresented backgrounds to the space program.

And that St.

Thomas Episcopal Church has long served as a spiritual home for NASA astronauts, engineers, administrators, directors, educators, support staff, and their families.

And General Bolden, a member of the congregation, carried the church's communion Hayden beyond Earth's atmosphere aboard Space Shuttle Challenger during its final completed mission.

And Earthrise honors seven individuals and one group whose achievements advanced science, exploration, leadership, and opportunity, including Captain Ed White, Major Robert Henry Lawrence Jr., NASA physicist and engineer George Robert Carruthers, the members of NASA Astronaut Group 8, 1978 Administrator and Civil Rights Advocate, Ruth Bates Harris, Astronaut Flight Surgeon, Dr.

Bernard Harris Jr., Captain Sonita Williams, and Major General Charles Frank Bolton.

And each individual contribution, whether in the field of science or in the never-ending movement for civil rights, continues to make NASA the most diverse, admired, and respected aerospace agency in the world and an enduring beacon of American ingenuity.

And through their vision, courage, and perseverance, these trailblazers and the countless others whose contributions, and if I can add lib for a second, the human computers as well.

And contributions remain unseen, have expanded the horizon, the horizons of scientific discovery and open doors of opportunities for future generations of scientists, engineers, explorers, and dreamers, encouraging, encouraging all who aspire to reach beyond the known in service to humanity.

On this day, this day will forever be recognized as Earth Rise Day.

Congratulations.

Okay, you have before you now a liturgy that I'm going to invite you to join into.

And I want to say just a couple of words before we do that.

One is I can't think of another diocese in the Episcopal Church or any other that would designate$116,000 to make a monument aimed at racial reconciliation.

I can't think of another church that would invest in that.

And that Bobby Satcher came to the Episcopal Church in high school because his church was not marching on behalf of civil rights, but the Episcopal Church was.

And that Christopher Kraft Jr., the first chief flight director, whose name's on Mission Control, who not only spoke here on the 50th anniversary of the moon landing and worshipped here for umpteen years, said the week that he died that his proudest contribution was that his children had faith.

So, in order to be faithful to the faithful, I invite you to join me in the earthrise dedication.

The Lord be with you.

Let us pray.

Grant that people everywhere may seek after you and find you.

Bring the nations into your fold, pour out your spirit upon all flesh, hasten the coming of your kingdom, and nourish us to do more together.

Through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Amen.

Reading from the Revelation of St.

John, after this I looked, and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people, and language, standing before the throne and before the Lamb.

They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands.

And they cried out in a loud voice, Salvation belongs to our God, who sits on the throne and to the Lamb.

All the angels were standing around the throne, around the elders, and the four living creatures.

They fell down on their faces before the throne and worshiped God, saying, Amen.

Praise and glory and wisdom and thanks and honor and power and strength be to our God forever and ever.

Amen.

The word of the Lord.

And God is not reliant on the patronage of human hands, as if God needed anything.

Rather, God's very self gives everyone life and breath and everything else.

From one human, God made all the nations, and that they should inhabit the whole earth.

And God marked out their appointed times in history and the boundaries of their lands.

God did this so that they would seek God and perhaps reach out for and find God, though God is not far from any one of us.

For in God we live and move and have our being.

As some of your own classical poets have said, we are God's offspring.

The word of the Lord.

Source of all beauty and creativity, we thank you for the gift of imagination and skill that you have bestowed upon the Genesis Art Collaborative to create this work of art.

May it inspire us as we contemplate the out-of-this worldly acts of NASA and the space program to live into the fullness of your grace and dignity in all people and recognize the ingenuity of getting beyond the world that we settle for.

Guide our remembrance of the ones who push the limits of what we thought possible in this world so that we can live beyond any division that exists within it.

We are grateful for Robert Henry Lawrence Jr., offering his very life to the dream of living out of this world.

Amen.

We praise you for the discipline and creativity of George Robert Cruthers, whose far ultraviolet electrographic detector brought images of a cosmos to Earth.

May we follow the witness of Ruth Bates Harris and Astronaut Group 8, who ultimately sent Guy Bluff, Sally Ride, and a host of other divine image barriers of varied faiths, races, and tongues out of our atmosphere.

Amen.

Grant us the humility to join Bernard Anthony Harris Jr.

in boldly walking through the space that is above our world and developing space rovers to help others follow in his wake and wider now means for exploration.

Inspire us with the peace and adversity that Sunita Panya Williams displayed in over nine months aboard the ISS, that we might also persevere in striving for justice and reconciliation on earth as in the heavens.

Amen.

And grant us the integration of faith, inquiry, daring, and administration you made palpable in Charles Frank Bolden Jr., that we might bring our whole hearts and whole selves to bear in our vocations and ministries.

And let us stay together, and may our awareness of these representatives remind us to celebrate your incarnation in the human race and to work as one body, to love one another on earth.

Amen.

Grant us the grace to work with one another to repair the breaches of our legacies that divide one from another and can mask the recognition of your image and likeness in the world that you created and love.

May the work of the Episcopal Diocese of Texas and the Talbot Grant Committee inform our call to love one another as you love us.

May this arcwork serve as a sign of your presence, sparking conversations, offering comfort, and reminding all who pass by of our shared humanity and the wonder of your creation.

Protect this peace from harm and use it to bring joy, inspiration, and unity to all who view it.

We ask this through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Let us be a blessing to the Lord and to one another.

And don't forget your t shirts and stickers.