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 Office of Indigenous Ministries of The Episcopal Church celebrates the longstanding presence and influence of Native Americans throughout the history of The Episcopal Church, and is committed to the vital work of remembrance, recognition and reconciliation in connection with our Indigenous siblings.

The Office of Indigenous Ministries works for the full inclusion of Indigenous people in the life and leadership of the church. In seeking to fulfill this goal, the church welcomes partners who will:

• guarantee that Indigenous people are fully recognized and welcomed into congregational life through education, advocacy, and leadership development;
• create influential leadership roles in the church for Indigenous people;
• develop a national support system for continued remembrance, recognition and reconciliation of all Indigenous people within the church and world;
• develop a network of leadership and educational resources to empower Indigenous people to prepare for mission and ministry in The Episcopal Church and the world; and
• provide resources, advocacy, and support to Indigenous theology students, those in the ordination process, and lay congregational leaders.

Learn more about Native American/Indigenous Ministries of the Episcopal Church on their Facebook page.

As an institution, The Episcopal Church recognizes and repents of its harmful treatment of Native Americans:

• In 1997, the church signed a new covenant of faith and reconciliation almost 400 years after Jamestown colonization, apologizing for its past actions and launching a decade of “remembrance, recognition and reconciliation.”
• In 2009, the church’s General Convention passed a resolution repudiating the 15th century-based Doctrine of Discovery, which “held that Christian sovereigns and their representative explorers could assert dominion and title over non-Christian lands with the full blessing and sanction of the Church.”
• In 2021, Presiding Bishop Michael B. Curry and House of Deputies President Gay Jennings issued a statement in response to the discoveries of mass graves of Indigenous children on the grounds of former boarding schools in Canada, condemning such practices and committing to “the work of truth and reconciliation with Indigenous communities in our church.”
• The 80th General Convention included further discussion and action about the legacy of Indigenous schools associated with The Episcopal Church during the 19th and 20th centuries.

Videos from the Office of Indigenous Ministries

Native Voices: Speaking to the Church and the World (37 mins)

Indigenous clergy and lay leaders in The Episcopal Church share how their lives have been affected - historically and currently - by the Doctrine of Discovery and the colonization process of the Western Hemisphere.

Native Voices: A Response to The Episcopal Church’s History with Indian Boarding Schools (94 mins)

On October 11, 2021, Indigenous People’s Day, The Episcopal Church hosted a panel discussion with Indigenous Episcopalians as they responded to a statement on Indigenous boarding schools issued by Presiding Bishop Michael Curry and House of Deputies President Gay Jennings.

The Episcopal Church Exposes the Doctrine of Discovery (14 mins)

Learn about the impact of the Doctrine of Discovery and about the unjust way the Americas were settled, and the on-going consequences of those events.

"The end is reconciliation; the end is redemption; the end is the creation of the Beloved Community. It is this type of spirit and this type of love that can transform opponents into friends... It is this love which will bring about miracles in the hearts of men." - The Rev. Dr. Martin L. King, Jr. 

Precious God, every day you set us in reality. We see so many things, yet pretend we do not see.

Guide us to see all people, even when they are different from us.

We live our lives of survival, self-preservation, and hard work. We grow tired.

Direct our living so that we might live for you first, and for your will and purpose.

In our churches we seek refuge from our toils. We seek comfort, reassurance, and affirmation. We want to be at peace.

Stretch us when we feel uncomfortable or challenged when people come to worship with us who are not like us. Guide us in our journey to grow each day in our understanding of ourselves, of others, and the messages that shape us.

If we have failed in the past to see all people as your children and our equal sisters and brothers in you, help us to see that this can be a new beginning.

Grant us the gift of your courage that we might confront and overcome our fears and our prejudices. As Jesus died for us, let us die a little each day, to ourselves, that we may know new life in you and with one another.

Without pain there is no reconciliation, for we live in a world of sin.

May we live in your grace, knowing that it may take discomfort, pain, sacrifice, repentance, forgiveness, and healing. Guide us to acknowledge ugliness within us and strengthen us to trust your grace to live as your redeemed children in one church, by one faith and in one Baptism.

The old satanic foe of racism is still woven into the fabric of our lives.

Although, without you, we are not equal to this foe, through your grace, empower us to overcome the forces that break community.

You have created us as your own family. You have called us together. The time is now for new beginnings.

May we do the work we must do in your church and world, while it is still day, before it is too late. May we never tire, nor turn our back, nor believe our work is ever done. For each day we must begin anew. We have tried, O God, to make an offering to you. Walk beside us in our journeying and leave us not alone even to the devices of our minds and spirits, but be in us and about us forever and ever. Brood over us, cleansing and renewing and restoring, to the end that we may face the responsibilities that await us beyond this moment, with strength, with confidence, and with courage.

Amen.

From Seeing the Face of God in Each Other: Antiracism Training Manual. More prayers for racial justice can be found on our blog THE ARC. 

• A Brief History of the Age of Exploration by Amanda Briney
• Manifest Destiny: What It Meant for American Expansion by Robert McNamara
• The History White People Need to Learn by Mary-Alice Daniel
• The Mexican War and Manifest Destiny by Martin Kelly
• What Is the Doctrine of Discovery? by Dina Gilio-Whitaker
• What Was Jim Crow by David Pilgrim

• Our Problem, Our Path: Collective Antiracism for White People by Ali Michael and Eleonora Bartoli
• The Sweetness of Water by Nathan Harris
• No Turning Back: The Black Presence at Virginia Theological Seminary by Rev. Joseph M. Constant
• Preaching Black Lives (Matter) edited by Gayle Fisher-Stewart

The Diocese's anti-racism training series is 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 workshop 3 times a year. Anti-racism trainings are mandatory for clergy and open to all. Completion of all 5 workshops over 2 years meets the initial clergy requirement for anti-racism education.

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.