The Anti-Racism Commission's monthly newsletter goes out to all ARC supporters and training participants. Please forward it to others who might benefit from our resources and workshops. And check out our blog site for past articles, training information and ongoing resources.

The Anti-Racism Commission's new Telling Our Stories series invites participants to listen and reflect on the impact of racism in the lives of real people in our diocese. Personal storytelling has the ability to connect, heal, and transform, and taps into a deep need for people to been seen, validated, and part of a community.

In 3 interactive sessions of theater and discussion, participants see themselves in one another’s stories of race and racism as they are reinterpreted for the stage by members of Playback for Change, a Philadelphia-based company that facilitates racial understanding using the improvisational theater form Playback Theatre. Audience members’ real stories become the source material. The performance is spontaneous - it is theater created through a unique collaboration between performers and audience. Each session will use the practice of race-specific affinity spaces to prepare participants to have a deeper, braver and more honest conversation.

Tickets cost $15 per person or $50 for a group of 5 or more. Tickets for each session are sold separately. Financial assistance is available. Email arc@diopa.org. Please specify the names of each attendee when buying multiple tickets or group tickets. Tickets will be available at the door on the day of the event.

For any questions about the Telling Our Stories series, Playback for Change, or Playback Theatre, please email The Rev. Barbara Ballenger (barbballenger@gmail.com).

Sat. Oct. 14, 2023 from 2 to 4 pm at St. George St. Barnabas

520 S 61st St, Philadelphia



Telling the Whole Story is designed for an audience of people who self-identify as Black, Brown, or a Person of Color to share stories of healing, community building, and honoring unique racial identities.

Sat. Nov. 18, 2023 from 2 to 4 pm at Church of St. Martin-in-the-Fields

8000 St. Martin's Lane, Philadelphia

Creating Common Cause is designed for an audience of all racial identities to share their stories of resisting and healing from racism. The goal: to work together in solidarity to dismantle systemic racism.

Exploring Our Whiteness on Sat. Sep. 23 was attended by more than 40 people, including racial justice advocates from a number of parishes within the Episcopal Diocese of Pennsylvania, and from other denominations, religions, and social justice organizations, including:

• Church of Our Saviour & St. John's
• Claudia Listens, LLC
• Essential Experience
• Gloria Dei (Old Swedes')
• Havertown Seventh-Day Adventist Church
• Holy Apostles, Penn Wynne
• Philadelphia Episcopal Cathedral
• St. Anne's Abington
• St. Augustine of Hippo
• St. Martin-in-the-Fields
• St. Mary's Ardmore
• St. Peter's Glenside
• St. Vincent de Paul Catholic Church in Germantown
• White People Confronting Racism

Thank you for spreading the word, and engaging with ARC and Playback for Change's unique approach to examining the way racism has manifested in our lives.

We encourage everyone to attend the final session, Creating Common Cause, to see Christ in one another, and to listen to the ways God is calling us to build Beloved Community together.

Sat. Oct. 28, 2023 from 9 am to noon on Zoom

Fee: $15. Scholarships are available, especially for postulants and

candidates for ordination. Email arc@diopa.org.

This training will challenge us to think about the ways in which we can be actively accountable for identifying, resisting, and responding to the racism that shows up in our lives and the institutions in which we participate. We will explore various ways to act, resist and transform systemic racism to create anti-racist environments.

The Anti-Racism Commission's anti-racism training series is facilitated by Lailah Dunbar-Keeys and designed to help participants understand the historic creation, preservation, and personal and institutional effects of a society built upon ideas of racial difference, which in turn support an unjust, racially based hierarchy. The series repeats annually, and offers the Introduction to Systemic Racism training 3 times a year. The 2024 anti-racism training schedule will be announced soon. Anti-racism trainings are mandatory for clergy and open to all. Completion of all 5 trainings over 2 years meets the initial clergy requirement for anti-racism education. Email arc@diopa.org to obtain a certificate of completion.

Sat. Oct. 14, 2023 from 10 am to 12:30 pm at St. Paul's Episcopal Church

22 East Chestnut Hill Ave, Philadelphia

Free and open to all

The diocesan History Committee’s 7th Annual Fall Forum will explore, through an historical lens, how music contributes to and enriches our liturgy.

Presenting speakers include The Rev. Dr. Hillary Raining, Rector of St. Christopher’s Episcopal Church, Gladwyne; Michael Smith, Minister of Music at St. Thomas’ Episcopal Church, Whitemarsh; and Dr. Derrick Thompson, Interim Director of Music at St. Peter’s Episcopal Church, Philadelphia.

Dr. Thompson's lecture will be about the history and significance of the hymn “Lift Every Voice and Sing,” the importance of the hymn as the Black National Anthem, the LEVAS hymnbook, and their impact on the church and choir.

The forum will also feature Andy Kotylo, Director of Music and Organist at St. Paul's Episcopal Church, Chestnut Hill, performances by the parish’s critically-acclaimed choir, and the Stephen Russell renovated Aeolian-Skinner organ.

The forum will be live-streamed on YouTube starting on Sat. Oct. 14 at 4:30 pm. For more information, email Clark Groome (clark@groome.org).

Anti-racism training attendees who complete the online program evaluation can select a highly-recommended book on anti-racism for further study. This year, instead of shopping on Amazon, ARC decided to purchase and ship books through Bookshop.org.

Bookshop.org believes local bookstores are essential community hubs that foster culture, curiosity, and a love of reading, and they're committed to helping them thrive. The full profit from purchases on Bookshop.org will be donated directly to the designated bookstore - or added to a profit sharing pool that helps all of the 1,600+ independent bookstores in the Bookshop.org network.

Between February and June 2023, ARC raised $243.41 for local Black-owned bookstores Harriett's Bookshop (258 E Girard Ave, Philadelphia) and Uncle Bobbie's Books and Coffee (5445 Germantown Ave, Philadelphia).

Email arc@diopa.org and let us know what resources would help you in your anti-racism work. 

Resistance, Transformation, and Progress

• Sacred Ground Evaluation Report 2022 prepared for The Episcopal Church by Christina M. Pacheco, JD, MPH (Indígena Consulting, LLC)
• Different names, but the same agenda: Precursors to the Union of Black Episcopalians. by The Reverend J. Carlton Hayden, Ph.D
• Sermon Preached Before the Society for the Promotion of Church Work Among the Colored People by The Rt. Rev. H. B. Whipple, D. D., Bishop of Minnesota, Transcribed by Wayne Kempton
• A History of the African-American Spiritual: How the African-American Spiritual Has Maintained Its Integrity in the Face of Major Social and Musical Challenges by Thomas Lloyd
• Abolition And Reparations: Histories of Resistance, Transformative Justice, And Accountability by Patrisse Cullors
• The Church Cracked Open by Stephanie Spellers
• Reparations: A Plan for Churches by Peter Jarrett-Schell
• Implicit Association Test (IAT) by Harvard University

The Anti-Racism Commission was created by diocesan convention resolution in 2005 with the mandate “to affect the systemic and institutional transformation in the diocese away from the sin of racism and toward the fulfillment of the Gospel and the baptismal mandate to strive for justice and respect the dignity of all persons.”

Consisting of 12 members, a mix of clergy and lay and persons of various ethnic and cultural backgrounds, the commission aims to increase awareness of the history and legacy of racism in our country and to engage members of the diocese in dismantling its effects.

To learn more about how ARC can help your parish engage in the work of racial justice and repair, contact The Rev. Barbara Ballenger (barbballenger@gmail.com) or The Rev. Ernie Galaz (frernie@christchurchmedia.org), ARC co-chairs.

LOMBARD STREET RIOT: Here on August 1, 1842 an angry mob of whites attacked a parade celebrating Jamaican Emancipation Day. A riot ensued. African Americans were beaten and their homes looted. The rioting lasted for 3 days. A local church and abolition meeting place were destroyed by fire.