Racial Reckoning, Justice & Healing | Episcopal Diocese of North Carolina

PURPOSE:

Research and/or revisit the history of your church from its founding to today, paying special attention to the circumstances, episodes and experiences regarding the participation of Black, Brown and Indigenous peoples in the life of the church and surrounding community. Learn from that history to develop and implement concrete steps towards diversity, equity and inclusion.

I am interested in this work

DIOCESAN GOALS & STRATEGIES:

The purpose listed above is an invitation to the creativity and ingenuity of our churches to help us accomplish our priority objective. We do, however, have diocesan-wide goals set to help guide the work. Your gifts are needed, whether to achieve the diocesan goals or to show us additional ways to fulfill our purpose.

Download the in-depth summary of goals and resources (Coming Soon)

Goal 1: Support, resource and equip three or more historically white congregations in researching their history with race (e.g. political, economic, architectural)

Timeline: 1-2 years

Strategies:

Identify all predominantly white churches in the diocese with a distinct historical developmental/founding/ partnering relationship with a predominantly black church in the same community/city.
Identify and fund an objective professional research team (consisting of scholars and interns) that will review all data provided by sibling congregations as well as conduct interviews with selected individuals at each church and in the diocese to gather additional data for developing a written report of the church’s racial history with each other.
When the Diocese establishes the Diocesan Commission on Historic Racial Justice, Oppression and Restitution, that group will oversee this process in partnership and collaboration with the diocesan historiographer and archivist.

Goal 2: Preserve the essential story of development of Black leadership in North Carolina and the history of justice intertwined with that. Continue the work with All Saints, Warrenton.

Timeline: 1-2 years

Strategies:

Develop a list of historians and storytellers (clergy and lay) from each African-American congregation to capture essential information on video.
Collect pertinent records from the diocesan archives and individual churches, particularly those that intersect race and history.
Revision the future of All Saints, Warrenton and unveil at an appropriate time new usage of that property and its ongoing contribution to the Diocese of North Carolina.
Our diocesan historiographer will write and prepare for publication a comprehensive racial history of the Diocese of North Carolina from the Colonial Period through the year 2000.

Goal 3: Conversation and then action on restitution to redress historic injustice in our diocese toward historically Black congregations and African Americans

Timeline: 1-5 years

Strategies:

Utilize the work of the Restitution Committee to inform the diocese’s next steps regarding historically Black congregations.
Establish and fund the “Historic Slave Burial Grounds Initiative” to restore, maintain and fund perpetual, endowed care for cemeteries owned by churches within the diocese where slaves are resting.

Goal 4: Dismantling Racism: spread the new training and associated opportunities like pilgrimages

Timeline: 1-5 years

Strategies:

Establish, fund and staff the “Pauli Murray Institute for Race, Faith, Healing and Hope” to support congregation-specific and direct diocesan-wide educational programming, service-learning experiences, mission trips, pilgrimages, etc.
Integrate rotational residencies for clergy and diaconate candidates focused on ministering to congregations of privilege and those of targeted oppression that have been plagued with the adverse impact of historic racial trauma.

Goal 5: Look towards establishing two new communities gathering and serving in areas of our diocese where African American and Latino/Hispanic populations are growing

Timeline: 1-1.5 years

Strategies:

Identify geographic areas that are experiencing population growth of African American, Latino/ Hispanic and immigrant persons. Assess if there are unmet needs in these areas that could be addressed by a new service/support community.
Evaluate strengths and areas for improvement in the new communities quarterly and make appropriate changes.

Goal 6: Increase and improve Spanish-English bilingual, bicultural communications, worship resources and important diocesan documents (e.g., canons)

Timeline: 1-2 years

Strategies:

The ultimate goal is to offer all diocesan materials in at least two languages (English and Spanish)
Culturally native materials and cultural sensitivity documents beyond simple translations would be created and distributed throughout the diocese.

WATCH:

Shared at the Special Convention on March 5, 2022, this video provides an overview of what we're trying to accomplish with the priority along with stories of work already happening.

First shared in August 2021, this priority was originally known as "Racial Reconciliation and Social Justice." The goals presented in this video remain the same with one exception; the goal pertaining to accessibility for all is now under the priority of Congregational Vitality.

GET STARTED:

Start in the church. Examine your church baptismal records, deaths and marriages recorded. Look for artifacts of the past and begin to build a picture who was a part of your communities from the earliest days.
Tell your stories. Collect them electronically so they can be preserved going forward. Capture the joys and the tribulations in order to have a complete picture of the congregational communities.
Enroll in anti-racism training, such as Introduction to Dismantling Racism or Sacred Ground.

GO DEEPER:

As you go deeper into the history portion of this work, consult with our diocesan archivist and our historiographer, Lynn Hoke and the Rev. Brooks Graebner are two fountains of information and can assist you with this mammoth project.

RESOURCES:

BE INSPIRED: