Reparations
Reparations is the spiritual and material process to remember, restore, reconcile and make amends for historical and continuing wrongs against humanity that can never be singularly reducible to monetary terms, but must include a substantial investment and surrender of resources.
— Diocese of Washington’s Working Definition of Reparations
Resolution passed at 2023 Diocesan Convention: Toward Repentance and Reparations in the Episcopal Diocese of Washington
This resolution would make public apology for this shameful history and convene a Reparations Advisory Committee, with Policy and Education working groups to help the Diocese on the road to repair. The Policy working group will research and propose an earnest and significant plan for reparation, to present at Diocesan Convention in two years. While the Policy Working Group drafts a plan, the Education Working Group will strive to educate, encourage and support the Diocese in preparing for, and carrying out, that plan when delivered.
Taking the Next Faithful Step: A Conversation with Bishop Eugene Sutton
A conversation between Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde and Bishop Eugene Taylor Sutton as they explore what it means to take the next faithful step in our own spiritual journeys, and the next faithful steps we might take as a diocese, particularly in areas such as reparations and caring for God’s creation.
Reparations Symposium
Members of St. Luke’s attended EDOW’s Reparations Symposium on October 1st at Calvary Episcopal Church in DC. The day began with a keynote address from the Rev. Dr. Kelly Brown Douglas, Canon Theologian at Washington National Cathedral and Dean of Episcopal Divinity School at Union Theological Seminary in New York City. Rev. Dr. Brown’s address stressed that the legacy of slavery is the archetype for white supremacy as it has expressed itself as racialized economic injustice. While sharing examples of this injustice, including redlining and racial covenants designed to keep black communities in less desirable neighborhoods and from accumulating generational wealth, as well as the ongoing legacy of these past practices, such as the wealth disparity between black and white Americans, Rev. Dr. Brown also discussed the theological implications of white supremacy in the United States.
A Christian Call for Reparations, by The Rev. Dr. Kelly Brown Douglas is dean of Episcopal Divinity School at Union Theological Seminary and Canon Theologian at Washington National Cathedral
For inasmuch as faith is about partnering with God to mend an unjust earth, and thus to move us toward a more just future, then faith communities by definition are accountable to that future.
This means that for them, reparations should be directed toward building a future where all human beings are respected as the sacred creations that they are and thereby free to live into the fullness of their sacred creation. For faith communities, reparations must not be only an effort to compensate for past harms, they must also chart a pathway to a just future. Otherwise, reparations become little more than a salve for white guilt while the sin of white supremacy continues to thrive.
What then must reparations look like? There are at least three key aspects for any form of reparations that emerge from the wider faith community.
Testimonial from archivist at St. John’s in Bethesda
St. Luke’s was formed out of St. John’s in the 1960s. We have common roots & history.
Race and Reckoning
On Jan 29, 2021 The Rt. Rev. Gene Sutton spoke to the Diocese of Washington’s Convention about the Diocese of Maryland’s comprehensive study of its legacy of slavery and racial segregation–a legacy we share. Maryland’s efforts culminated in the decision to establish a Diocesan Reparations Fund.
National Cathedral Sermon by Dr. Catherine Meeks
May 22, 2022 “Do you want to be well?” It was a question asked to a sick man in the gospel, and it’s asked to us today in a larger context. Do we want to be healed? Do we want to see things in a new light? Dr. Catherine Meeks tells us that each time we make the decision to be healed, we in turn help the collective to become stronger