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.

Sat. Jan. 27, 2024 from 9 am to 12 pm on Zoom

Fee: $20. Scholarships are available, especially for postulants and candidates for ordination. Email arc@diopa.org.

This training explores the multi-layered manifestations of prejudice, privilege, race, and systemic racism. The next training is Racism and History on Mar. 23.

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.

All anti-racism trainings are from 9 am to noon on Zoom. The 2024 Anti-Racism Training Schedule and links to register for each training are also available on our blog The ARC.

The series repeats annually, and offers the Introduction to Systemic Racism training 3 times a year. Completion of Introduction to Systemic Racism is a prerequisite for the other trainings in the series.

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.

For more information, questions or concerns, or if you are interested in being a Zoom breakout room group facilitator, please email arc@diopa.org.

In 2023, 48 people attended at least 1 anti-racism training facilitated by Lailah Dunbar Keeys. 16 people attended 2 or more trainings.

Clergy, candidates for ordination, church administrators, vestry members, and lay leaders from more than 30 parishes within the Episcopal Diocese of Pennsylvania attended an anti-racism training in 2023:

• All Saints' Torresdale (Philadelphia)
• Christ Church and St. Michael's (Philadelphia)
• Christ Church Media
• Church of St. Martin-in-the-Fields (Philadelphia)
• Church of the Advent (Kennett Square)
• Church of the Annunciation (Philadelphia)
• Church of the Epiphany (Royersford)
• Church of the Good Samaritan (Paoli)
• Church of the Holy Trinity Rittenhouse (Philadelphia)
• Church of the Holy Trinity West Chester
• Church of the Redeemer (Bryn Mawr)
• Church of the Resurrection (Rockdale)
• Grace Episcopal Church and the Incarnation (Philadelphia)

• Holy Apostles Penn Wynne (Wynnewood)
• Holy Innocents St. Paul's (Philadelphia)
• Philadelphia Episcopal Cathedral (Philadelphia)
• St. Anne's Abington
• St. David's (Radnor)
• St. James Prospect Park
• St. John's Church at Diocesan Center (Norristown)
• St. John’s Church of Our Saviour (Jenkintown)
• St. John’s Glen Mills
• St. Mary's Ardmore
• St. Paul's Chestnut Hill (Philadelphia)
• St. Paul's Doylestown
• St. Peter's in the Great Valley (Malvern)
• St. Timothy's Roxborough (Philadelphia)
• Trinity Ambler
• Trinity Boothwyn
• Trinity Buckingham

Last year, 16 people who self-identify as African-American participated in one of our Racial Healing Circles, Kusanya: The Gathering, facilitated by Lailah Dunbar Keeys and aimed to address and express the pain that racism causes those who experience it on a daily basis. 

To assist parishes in integrating racial awareness and sensitivity into liturgy, ARC offered Singing the African American Spirituals with Integrity on Mar. 18 at the African Episcopal Church of St. Thomas. The workshop, offered in conjunction with the Philadelphia Cathedral, taught how to introduce the repertoire of the African American Spirituals to area choirs and congregations. More than 32 individuals participated in last year’s workshop.

In collaboration with theater company Playback for Change, ARC offered a series of interactive performances called Telling Our Stories: Healing the Wounds of Racism, Building Beloved Community. Each session used the practice of race-specific affinity spaces. Participants reflected on other audience member’s stories of race and racism as they were brought to life on stage by actors. More than 140 people from more than 20 parishes from all over the Episcopal Diocese of Pennsylvania attended these workshops.

In the last year, 144 new contacts were added to the Anti-Racism Commission's newsletter mailing list, which is now up to 487 subscribers. Thank you for your commitment to racial justice and for staying engaged with ARC.

Applications are open for Becoming Beloved Community Grants to help support The Episcopal Church’s racial justice, healing, reconciliation, and creation care projects: Seed Grants (of up to $7,500) for launching new projects or growing existing projects; and Impact Grants (of up to $15,000) for increasing capacity, impact, and reach, and for a platform for sharing original theories of change, processes, and tools with other healers, justice makers and reconcilers. Grant recipients will be highlighted at the 81st General Convention (Sun. Jun. 23 to Sun. Jun. 28, 2024).

Special priority will be given to applications that demonstrate collaboration of several organizations connected regionally/thematically, projects that center the experience and leadership of communities most impacted by structural racial inequities, and projects that advance any of the quadrants of the Becoming Beloved Community labyrinth: Truth-telling, telling the truth about our churches and race; Proclamation, proclaiming the dream of beloved community; Formation, practicing Jesus’ way of healing love; and Justice, repairing the breach in society and institutions.

Since 2019, approximately 80 projects have been funded by Becoming Beloved Community grants for a total of $808,850. About $200,000 is currently available for distribution.

Read the Grant Overview for details about eligibility, criteria, and background information. Apply online. The deadline to apply is Fri. Mar. 1, 2024.

The Episcopal Church Office of African Descent Ministries (ADM) seeks to inspire, transform and empower the people of the African Diaspora to live fully into the Jesus Movement. The Episcopal Church pays tribute to the legacy of the African Diaspora by supporting and fostering the growth and development of Black communities through partnerships that reach across ethnic and racial boundaries. The ADM's missional priorities include:

• providing an overview of and/or processes for developing congregations’ vitality through investment in people;
• offering resources and support to congregations as they learn the skills to be adaptable and vital through modeling, mentoring, and regional events and academies;
• educating and empowering congregations and leaders to engage in processes for strategic revitalization;
• offering scholarly support and mentoring;
• developing and supporting lay and ordained leadership;
• strengthening communities through partnerships and alliances; and
• connecting congregations to resources that will foster vitality.

The ADM offers Congregational Programs for Revitalization (CPR) designed to equip congregations with tools, training, and coaching to strengthen congregational leadership and ministry for future relevance, growth, and positioning for 21st-century mission and ministry, including:

• Basics of Collaborative Leadership and Ministry;
• Clergy and Lay Leadership Development Training;
• Conflict Management;
• Evangelism through Community Engagement and Ministry;
• Missional Entrepreneurial Ministry; and
• Theology of Stewardship and Planned Giving.

For additional information and to participate in CPR, please reach out to The Rev. Ronald Charles Byrd, Sr., The Episcopal Church Missioner, African Descent Ministries, using this contact form.

Glory for All His Faithful People

• Becoming Beloved Community Where You Are: A Resource for Individuals, Congregations and Communities Seeking Racial Healing, Reconciliation and Justice by The Episcopal Church
• Episcopalians and Race: Civil War to Civil Rights by Gardiner H. Shattuck Jr.
• Stand Your Ground: Black Bodies and the Justice of God by Kelly Brown Douglas
• Ripe Fields: The Promise and Challenge of Latino Ministry by Juan Oliver
• The 1619 Project: A New Origin Story created by Nikole Hannah-Jones
• Native Knowledge 360° Essential Understandings about American Indians by the National Museum of the American Indian
• Covenant for Reckoning with White Supremacy as a House of Bishops and as a Church (2020) by The Episcopal Church House of Bishops
• The surprising reason behind Chinatown's aesthetic by Vox (14 mins)

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.