Following the Bishop’s Lead
In early January of this year Mother Sarah read a letter from Bishop Rodman directed to all congregations in the Dioceses of North Carolina. In the letter he asked us to… “engage in the work of racial reparations and restitution, beginning with an intentional process of truth-telling and reckoning. This engagement is an essential expression of our commitment to Christ and to his call for justice and love, and thus to the mission, health, and well-being of each congregation.” In other words, we must face our past and its ongoing legacy on our present if we hope to build a Beloved Community now and in the future.
St. John’s has already begun this process. In 2018-2019 I had the opportunity of working with Joy Shillingsburg in leading the Adult Formation class “Building Beloved Community”. Members of the congregation increased their knowledge and awareness of harmful racially based practices and policies that continue to have negative effects on people of color. More importantly, members shared their personal experiences and how it impacted their lives. Eyes and hearts were opened, and racial awareness and sensitivity increased. Currently St. John’s is exploring our history and development. What impact did it have on the community, how did it impact the various groups in Wake Forest? It’s an exciting and brave journey that we are undertaking.
This past February, I had the opportunity to participate with 4 other Vestry members in a training provided by REI (Racial Equity Institute) and funded by the Diocese. It was an intense 2 days of historical documentation outlining the basis of systemic institutional racism in our culture. No one can escape its impact. Some of the information I already knew but other information left me feeling like I had just been punched in the stomach. It was a very emotional experience for most of the participants. People get a better feel for the impact of racism when history is tied to personal experiences, you can’t study this as a theoretical construct. It is a lived reality for all of us, whether or not it is acknowledged.
The training provided us with a framework to assess our attempts to lessen the impact of racial disparity. It can be approached from the individual or systemic level. Think of the analogy of a lake filled with fish. Fish begin to die in the lake. You can try to treat each individual fish (individual intervention) or you can investigate what is causing the die-off in the lake (systemic intervention). History has shown that most intervention strategies are focused on the individual level, while the forces that created the woes for that individual continue to playout in our society. There is a need for both types of intervention but particularly of the systemic nature, the hardest type of change.
Exploring our complicated relationship with race in America requires honesty, vulnerability, compassion, knowledge, awareness, and sensitivity. It’s not easy. It takes a lot of emotional and psychic energy, and we don’t like to face things that put us in a negative light, but when we pull back the curtain and expose our demons, we all benefit. Each child who grows up to be a productive member of our society benefits everyone and the converse is also unfortunately true.
I thank the Diocese for making Racial Reconciliation and Social Justice one of its pillars. There are many resources available on the Diocesan website under this ministry. I encourage you to explore them. The process can be rewarding as well as painful, but I think in the long run, it will make every one of us better followers of Christ and architects in building the Beloved Community. Thank you, St. John’s, for being so open and receptive to this process.