Tag Archives: reparations

Episcopal Church Summit on Truth-telling and Reparations

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September 24, 2024

The first summary of the Episcopal Church’s recent Summit on Truth-telling and Reparations has been published in the Episcopal News Service: “Church Summit Deeply Explores Truth-telling and Reckoning with an Eye Toward Reparations”.

The meeting included 106 people representing 34 dioceses who gathered “to share strategies, best practices, and resources and to pray for and encourage one another in their work.” These representatives from parishes across the country have done work in three areas; truth-telling, reckoning, and discernment. “In practical terms, truth-telling means identifying theologies and practices to unearth and name historic and systemic racial injustices; reckoning takes the form of publicly owning and naming harms and injustices; and discernment is coming to a collective, agreed-upon definition of what constitutes healing and repair.”

We recommend this article which includes a helpful link to a page with resources gathered by the Episcopal Diocese of Washington, DC. You will “meet” several of the leaders in the Church that our group has learned from in the
past year of our study in the videos linked therein.

–Mary Beth Clack, Mary Blocher, Cindy Coldren, Pat Krol, Liz Levin
–Published in This Week @Emmanuel Church September 25 & October 2, 2024

Old North Church Reckons with its Links to Slavery

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September 4, 2024

Several years ago, the Episcopal News Service reported on Old North Church’s deepening its research into its connections with the slave trade, “Iconic Boston
Church Reckons with its Links to Slavery.”

Our curiosity about what has been learned since, and how the church tells its stories, led to tour Old North, Boston’s oldest surviving church. Guides lead visitors to the gallery where they narrate the history of individuals and families who were not able to purchase pews and who sat in the balcony of the church. Parishioners’ children sat on the right side facing the altar while free blacks, enslaved persons, indentured servants, and Indigenous peoples were assigned to the left side. After combing through pew records and other materials, the church has been able to piece together stories of community support and relationships that developed in the gallery. The stories are incomplete–many with questions remain–yet some patterns of social interactions are discernable. The results of their inquiries are well-presented in signage placed in certain pews, as well as on their web page, “The People in the Pews.” Continue reading →

Remembering Jonathan Myrick Daniels

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August 18, 2024

This week we pause to remember Jonathan Myrick Daniels, civil rights activist and Episcopal seminarian at the Episcopal Divinity School, who sacrificed his life in the service of voting rights marchers in Selma. He defended Ruby Sales, shielding her from death in an altercation with law enforcement on August 20, 1965.

Daniels was responding to Martin Luther King’s call for clergy of all faiths to support voting rights and the integration of churches. He first attended the Selma to Montgomery March and returned to Selma to assist in a voter-registration project in Lowndes County. Daniels explained his return to Selma in this way: “something had happened to me in Selma, which meant I had to come back. I could not stand by in benevolent dispassion any longer without compromising everything I know and love and value. The imperative was too clear, the stakes too high, my own identity was called too nakedly into question…I had been blinded by what I saw here (and elsewhere), and the road to Damascus led, for me, back here.”

The Episcopal Church honors Daniels on August 14th. He is recognized as a martyr and was added to the observances of Lesser Feasts and Fasts in 1999. August 14, 1965, was the day he and the other activists were arrested in Fort Deposit, Alabama for protests calling for the integration of public places and voting rights (six days before his assassination). Continue reading →

“Open Circle: Jewish and Christian Thought and Practice”

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May 27, 2024

A wonderful series of talks,“Jewish and Christian Thought and Practice: Face to Face and Side by Side,” was offered last fall and winter. Sponsored by Hebrew College Open Circle Learning and hosted by Rabbi Michael Shire of Central Reform Temple, the series explored several topics with Christian faith leaders in the Boston area. Session 6 was devoted to reparations. Rabbi Michael Shire introduced the session and moderated the question-and-answer segment. Our Reverend Pam Werntz was also a speaker.

Rabbi Michael explained the difference between two temple offerings in Jewish teaching and practice. The “hatat,” a sin offering, is made by individuals for damage to other individuals. The “asham,” a specific offering, is given when wrong has been done to others and the harm is done to a people. Asham is “more of a national shame that comes upon us by what we have done or not done.” Rabbi Michael’s remarks included salient examples from the Hebrew Bible about the need for both kinds of repair.

Reverend Pam spoke first about personal reparations (her 2023 sabbatical was devoted to discovering the story of her ancestors and their connection to enslavement in Maryland). Pam then focused on Christian notions of reparations, and specific Episcopalian notions and practices of reparations. She gave examples of Church rituals, prayers, and teachings (the “Great Commandment” and scriptural writings in the Second Testament). We seek and serve the spirit of redemption in all persons and we also pray for restoration and social justice, which is a moral obligation for Episcopalians. Pam’s remarks highlighted the importance of learning that repairing and restoring relationships is work related to justice. Lastly, she spoke about the need to engage in material reparations as part of Emmanuel Church’s commitment to the work in all its forms. Continue reading →

Our Diocese’s Report on Slavery and Its Legacy

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May 14, 2024

The Diocese of Massachusetts Toolkit for Reparations has a new resource. As of
March 2024, their list of sources includes “And You Will Know the Truth, and the Truth Will Make You Free: A Historical Framework (1620-1840) for Understanding How the Episcopal Diocese of Massachusetts Benefits Todayfrom Chattel Slavery and Its Legacy.”

This report, written by Alden Fossett, a postulant for ordination to the priesthood and Master of Divinity student at Berkeley Divinity School at Yale, was released by the Subcommittee on Reparations of DioMass’s Racial Justice Commission.

The focus of the report is on the “12 Church of England parishes founded in Massachusetts before the American Revolution and the sources of wealth that funded their construction, as well as industries that funded the expansion of the Diocese of Massachusetts during the 19th century.” It complements the earlier history, “The Episcopal Church and Slavery: A Historical Narrative,” written by the Subcommittee on Reparations in November 2021. Continue reading →

Bearing Witness

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May 6, 2024

“Bearing Witness: Museums and Places Amplifying Black History”

On May 1, 2024 , the Boston Athenaeum invited all to join in a conversation about museums as “trusted spaces of memory and education.” The panel, moderated by historian Byron Rushing, included Kyera Singleton, Director of the Royall House and Slave Quarters, and Christian Walkes, Director of Education at the Museum of African American History.

Hosted at the African Meeting House (Boston), the discussion focused on “the intersection of collective memory and museums, delving into the profound role and responsibility of being stewards of historic sites…[navigating] the intricate dynamics of preserving and presenting history to diverse audiences.” At a time when museums are rethinking their educational roles, we learned about these two local sites, and how they are focused on the “history and legacy of slavery and racial injustice and how we might imagine a more just world.”

In greeting and thanking Byron after the talks, we brought him an artifact from our Emmanuel history, a copy of the article about our 1995 series, “Power Shifts,” in which he spoke about wielding power for the betterment of all concerned. (Emmanuel News 1995: v. 1, no. 1) We had a moment to remember his ongoing engagement with racial justice over the years and it was wonderful to share some time with him.

–Mary Beth Clack, Mary Blocher, Cindy Coldren, Pat Krol, Liz Levin
–Published in This Week @Emmanuel Church May 6, 2024

Boston’s Reparations Efforts

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March 25, 2024

Last week, sixteen clergy and faith leaders gathered in Roxbury to hold a press conference about their open letter to several churches supporting reparations in our city. The event was hosted by a local activist group, the Boston People’s Reparations Commission.

Are you curious about Boston’s reparations efforts? You may have read that the City of Boston appointed two research teams to continue their work (begun in late 2022). One group brings together researchers of the African American Trail Project at Tufts University and historians at the Royall House and Slave Quarters in Medford; they will study the history of enslavement from 1620 to 1940. A second group of scholars from Northeastern University will research the history of inequality within the Boston Public Schools, Boston Police Department, Boston Fire Department, and Boston Housing Authority in the era after 1940.

We found the seven-episode podcast series hosted by the WGBH News Equity and Justice Unit to be an excellent introduction to how reparations were championed, and challenged, in our municipal and state government over the years. Entitled “What is Owed?” the broadcast covers the stories of important advocates of reparations, from freedwoman Belinda Sutton, who successfully petitioned the Massachusetts General Court in 1783, through the work of Senator Bill Owens, the first Black member of the Massachusetts Senate, and ends with the unfolding story of our current times.

–Mary Beth Clack, Cindy Coldren, Mary Blocher, Pat Krol, Liz Levin
–Published in This Week @Emmanuel Church March 27, 2024

Black History Month

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March 10, 2024

“African Americans and the Arts” is the theme of Black History Month 2024. Celebrations of Black History Month at the Washington National Cathedral included its Annual HBCU Welcome Sunday and a spoken word, dance, and music event.

In addition, the Cathedral is highlighting its “Now and Forever Windows” (those replacing the 1953 Lee-Jackson windows), which were dedicated and blessed this past fall. The public event was held on September 23, 2023. The windows, designed by artist Kerry James Marshall, depict the struggle for justice as a religious struggle. It was important for the windows to, in Marshall’s words, “capture both darkness and light, both the pain of yesterday and the promise of tomorrow, as well as the quiet and exemplary dignity of the African American struggle for justice and equality and the indelible and progressive impact it has had on American society.”

As noted by Cathedral staff, the windows project prompted a wider community discussion of “What exactly is sacred art?” For a closer look at the effort to broaden the understanding of history at our nation’s cathedral, and for more about the creation and symbolism of the windows, the following resources are online:

  • Now and Forever: A Story of Freedom on the Move (video, 22 minutes)
  • Smart History’s conversation with artist Kerry James Marshall and poet Elizabeth Alexander (video, 9 minutes)

—Mary Beth Clack, Cindy Coldren, Pat Krol, Liz Levin, Mary Blocher

–Published in This Week @Emmanuel Church February 21, 28 & March 7, 2024

The Church of England and Reparations

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March 10, 2024

In this second week of Women’s History Month, we celebrate The Rev. Canon Kelly Brown Douglas, author, professor, and dedicated advocate of social justice. The Reverend Douglas, one of the first ten Black women to be ordained a priest in the Episcopal Church, was a speaker at Emmanuel’s 2022 Pauli Murray conference. Douglas is currently Canon Theologian at the National Cathedral and Interim President of the Episcopal Divinity School.

Douglas spent the fall of 2023 as Honorary Professor of Global Theology at Emmanuel Theological College, one of the newest Anglican seminaries in the UK. While there, she traveled, spoke at events, met students and faculty at other institutions, and discussed the Church of England’s reparations efforts. Douglas said it was an opportune time to be engaged in discussions about inclusion and reparative social justice with UK colleagues. As reported here in the Episcopal News Service’s Press Release (February 1, 2024), Douglas expressed her hope for the future: “We strive for justice and the full inclusion of the diversity of God’s creation, and then unity follows.” Continue reading →

Celebrating Absalom Jones

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Black History Month begins with commemorations in the Episcopal Church honoring Absalom Jones, the first black Episcopal priest in the U.S. whose feast day is February 13th . The Episcopal News Service gives a full listing of dioceses across the country that are holding special programs.

Our diocese has rescheduled its commemoration of Absalom Jones from February 11th to April 7th, at which time Bishop Alan Gates will preside at St. Cyprian’s, Roxbury, and the Reverend James Hairston will preach. For more about Absalom Jones (1746-1818), see the history page hosted by the African Episcopal Church of St. Thomas, Philadelphia.

Or listen to the sermon preached by The Reverend Yejide Peters Pietersen (Yale Divinity School) at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine on February 4, 2024. The Reverend Pietersen talks about how “saint becomes symbol” of faithful resistance and insistence in a post-Reconstruction era. She also honors Pauli Murray and Barbara Harris.

—Mary Beth Clack, Cindy Coldren, Pat Krol
–Published in This Week @Emmanuel Church February 7 & 14, 2024