BEGIN:VCALENDAR
VERSION:2.0
METHOD:PUBLISH
CALSCALE:GREGORIAN
PRODID:-//WordPress - MECv7.35.1//EN
X-ORIGINAL-URL:https://newmerciesnow.org/
X-WR-CALNAME:New Mercies Now
X-WR-CALDESC:
X-WR-TIMEZONE:America/Los_Angeles
BEGIN:VTIMEZONE
TZID:America/Los_Angeles
X-LIC-LOCATION:America/Los_Angeles
BEGIN:DAYLIGHT
TZOFFSETFROM:-0800
TZOFFSETTO:-0700
TZNAME:PDT
DTSTART:20260308T030000
RRULE:FREQ=YEARLY;BYMONTH=03;BYDAY=2SU
END:DAYLIGHT
BEGIN:STANDARD
TZOFFSETFROM:-0700
TZOFFSETTO:-0800
TZNAME:PST
DTSTART:20261101T010000
RRULE:FREQ=YEARLY;BYMONTH=11;BYDAY=1SU
END:STANDARD
END:VTIMEZONE
REFRESH-INTERVAL;VALUE=DURATION:PT1H
X-PUBLISHED-TTL:PT1H
X-MS-OLK-FORCEINSPECTOROPEN:TRUE
BEGIN:VEVENT
CLASS:PUBLIC
UID:MEC-aa108f56a10e75c1f20f27723ecac85f@newmerciesnow.org
DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20250619T000000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20250620T000000
DTSTAMP:20241218T192522Z
CREATED:20241218
LAST-MODIFIED:20250706
PRIORITY:5
SEQUENCE:1
TRANSP:OPAQUE
SUMMARY:Juneteenth
DESCRIPTION:Church Office is closed / Observed on Wednesday, June 19, 2025\nThe church office will re-open on Thursday, June 20, 2025\n~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~\nJuneteenth (short for “June Nineteenth”) marks the day when federal troops arrived in Galveston ( https://www.history.com/topics/1900-galveston-hurricane ), Texas ( https://www.history.com/topics/us-states/texas ) in 1865 to take control of the state and ensure that all enslaved people be freed. The troops’ arrival came a full two and a half years after the signing ( https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/lincoln-signs-emancipation-proclamation ) of the Emancipation Proclamation ( https://www.history.com/topics/american-civil-war/emancipation-proclamation ). Juneteenth honors the end to slavery in the United States and is considered the longest-running African American holiday. On June 17, 2021, it officially became a federal holiday.\nConfederate General Robert E. Lee ( https://www.history.com/topics/american-civil-war/robert-e-lee ) had surrendered at Appomattox Court House ( https://www.history.com/topics/american-civil-war/appomattox-court-house ) two months earlier in Virginia, but slavery had remained relatively unaffected in Texas—until U.S. General Gordon Granger stood on Texas soil and read General Orders No. 3: “The people of Texas are informed that, in accordance with a proclamation from the Executive of the United States, all slaves are free.”\nThe Emancipation Proclamation\nThe Emancipation Proclamation issued by President Abraham Lincoln ( https://www.history.com/topics/us-presidents/abraham-lincoln ) on January 1, 1863, had established that all enslaved people in Confederate states ( https://www.history.com/topics/american-civil-war/confederate-states-of-america ) in rebellion against the Union “shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free.”\nBut in reality, the Emancipation Proclamation didn’t instantly free any enslaved people. The proclamation only applied to places under Confederate control and not to slave-holding border states or rebel areas already under Union control. However, as Northern troops advanced into the Confederate South, many enslaved people fled behind Union lines.\n\n\n\n\nJuneteenth and Slavery in Texas\nIn Texas, slavery had continued as the state experienced no large-scale fighting or significant presence of Union troops. Many enslavers from outside the Lone Star State had moved there, as they viewed it as a safe haven for slavery.\nAfter the war came to a close in the spring of 1865, General Granger’s arrival in Galveston that June signaled freedom for Texas’s 250,000 enslaved people. Although emancipation didn’t happen overnight for everyone—in some cases, enslavers withheld the information until after harvest season—celebrations broke out among newly freed Black people, and Juneteenth was born. That December, slavery in America was formally abolished with the adoption of the 13th Amendment ( https://www.history.com/topics/black-history/thirteenth-amendment ).\n\nThe year following 1865, freedmen in Texas organized the first of what became the annual celebration of “Jubilee Day” on June 19. In the ensuing decades, Juneteenth commemorations featured music, barbecues, prayer services and other activities, and as Black people migrated from Texas to other parts of the country the Juneteenth tradition spread.\n\n\n\n\nIn 1979, Texas became the first state ( https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/texas-bill-makes-juneteenth-an-official-state-holiday ) to make Juneteenth an official holiday; several others followed suit over the years. In June 2021, Congress passed a resolution establishing Juneteenth as a national holiday; President Biden signed it into law on June 17, 2021.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
URL:https://newmerciesnow.org/events/juneteenth-25/
END:VEVENT
END:VCALENDAR