AUGUST 13, 2026: Celebrating Jonathan Myrick Daniels

The Holy Spirit Community will celebrate the life and ministry of Episcopal seminarian and martyr Jonathan Myrick Daniels on Thursday, August 13, at 7 p.m. in the Jonathan Daniels room at St. Pauls Commons, 840 Echo Park Avenue.

Our celebration includes a potluck dinner at 7 p.m., and all are invited to contribute, as they are able. The service of Holy Communion begins around 7:30 p.m. Our reflection and discussion will lead with a short video on Jonathan’s life based on “Here Am I, Send Me: The Story of Jonathan Daniels.”

RSVP appreciated here to help us plan for seating at dinner!

Jonathan modeled Christian commitment by personally responding to and confronting injustice, just as we are called to do in America today. He was killed on August 20, 1965, by Tom Coleman, a part-time deputy sheriff, in Hayneville, Alabama, while shielding 17-year-old Ruby Sales from a racist attack, thus saving the life of the young Black civil rights activist. The two were working in the nonviolent civil rights movement in Lowndes County to integrate public places and register Black voters after passage of the Voting Rights Act that summer. His death generated further support for the civil rights movement. 

In 1991, Jonathan was designated as a martyr in the Episcopal Church and is recognized annually in our calendar on August 14. Learn more about him and how our meeting room at St. Paul’s Commons came to be named in his honor here.