Episcopal Church General Convention Approves Historic Reparations Resolutions

t its 75^th General Convention in June, The Episcopal Church of the United States – which has approximately 2.4 million members – took a giant step forward on the rocky road toward reparations to descendants of slavery. The Convention approved a resolution titled "Slavery and Racial Reconciliation" which declares unequivocally that "the institution of slavery in the United States and anywhere else in the world, based as it is on ‘ownership’ of some persons by other persons, was and is a sin and a fundamental betrayal of the humanity of all persons who were involved, a sin that continues to plague our common life in the Church and our culture."

This is only one of three reparations resolutions that came out of the Church’s Social and Urban Affairs Subcommittee on Slavery. Refreshingly clear and courageous, the resolution acknowledges unflinchingly that 1) the Episcopal Church has a history of participation in slavery, including through using scripture to support and justify it, and 2) even after slavery was formally abolished, the Church continued for at least a century to support de jure and de facto segregation and discrimination.

The resolution goes on to speak of the deep and lasting injury that slavery and its aftermath have inflicted on society and on the Church, and it apologizes for this sin, repents of it, and asks God’s grace and forgiveness.

Then we have the all-important question: How does the Episcopal Church intend to translate this apology into tangible action?

As Nell Gibson, Chair of the New York Diocese's Reparations Committee, explained, all three resolutions are very strong on action. For one thing, this particular resolution lays out specific things that each diocese can and should do around reparations so that the whole Church is involved at every level. It initiates a comprehensive three-year program in which every diocese in the nation is urged to collect detailed information on its own churches’ complicity in the institution of slavery and subsequent segregation and discrimination. It also urges parishioners to look into and document the economic benefits the Episcopal Church derived from slavery. The Committee on Anti-Racism will monitor this program and report to the Executive Council each year on each diocese’s progress.

Another resolution, Gibson stated, entitled "Church Responsibility in Reparations" supports Representative John Conyers’ reparations bill (HR-40) by urging the Church at every level "to call upon Congress and the American people to support legislation initiating study of and dialogue about the history and legacy of slavery in the United States and of proposals for monetary and non-monetary reparations to the descendants of the victims of slavery."

Finally, the "Restorative Justice Resolution" calls upon the Episcopal Church itself, through its Anti-Racism Committee, to design a process "in order to engage church members in storytelling about historical and present-day privilege and under-privilege as well as discernment towards restorative justice and the call to fully live into our baptismal covenant."

As to her own feeling about these historic developments, Nell Gibson stated that she’s excited to be chairing New York’s Reparations Committee, which is long overdue, and she is eager to move forward. "I grew up in the South pre-civil rights," she said. "I felt the sting of segregation personally. And now, because of these resolutions and the actions they call for, I get a chance to examine New York's role in slavery."

Gibson noted that the subject is ripe, as instanced by the New-York Historical Society. It just finished one extremely well received exhibition on slavery, has gone on to mount a second one, and has also installed a permanent exhibit dealing with the issue. "Plus we have Episcopal Churches here in the City that had slave galleries and that were very much involved in the benefits of slavery," Gibson continued. "I am looking forward to digging up that history so we can get at how we in New York can respond to what happened."

Fellow reparationist Diane Pollard, Chair of the New York Deputation to the General Convention, put much time and effort into the reparations resolution that the New York diocese sent to the General Convention. This resolution was one of several that were utilized by the Social and Urban Affairs Committee to formulate the final resolutions. When asked how she felt about the resolutions being approved at convention, Pollard responded, "I felt great. All of the work that was done over the last few years, not only in this diocese but in other dioceses across the country, really paid off."

"I believe the resolutions are only a beginning," Pollard observed, "because the Episcopal Church is saying that it’s now going to enter into dialogue on this issue, and we know that this topic is a difficult one. But we are off to a very good start."