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. Apr. 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 ways in which systemic racism was created over time through laws, policies and practices. We will consider selected laws, policies and practices, while examining the ways in which our society has been continuously shaped by them. The next training is Racism and Institutions on Jun. 22.

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.

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.

Download, print, and share this flyer with anyone you think would be interested in anti-racism training.

Sat. Apr. 13, 2024 from 9 am to 12 pm on Zoom

Free and open to lay and clergy who identify as African American.

Each racial healing circle is limited to 20 participants.

The Anti-Racism Commission is offering racial healing circles facilitated by Lailah Dunbar-Keeys intended to gather African Americans from the Episcopal Diocese of Pennsylvania community to discuss the ways in which systemic racism has affected American culture and has consequently impacted their lives. Racial healing circles provide a safe space for a small group of participants to speak about, listen to, and subsequently heal from stories about race and racism. For any questions about ARC's racial healing circle series, please email The Rev. Barbara Ballenger (barbballenger@gmail.com), ARC co-chair.

Register for upcoming racial healing circles, scheduled for Sep. 14 and Oct. 12, 2024.

Download, print, and share this flyer with anyone you think would be interested in participating in a racial healing circle.

Thu. Apr. 11, 2024 from 10 am to 2 pm at Philadelphia Episcopal Cathedral

19 South 38th Street, Philadelphia

Tickets: Donation or Pay-what-you-can.

Lunch will be provided.

The Philadelphia Episcopal Cathedral will be hosting a workshop that will help equip individuals to talk with children about racism using storytelling through a lens of faith. The new anti-racism Episcopal curriculum for children Tell Me the Truth About Racism is designed to create awareness and healing about the inherited effects of racism in our world using a 6-part story in the style of Godly Play. This curriculum is appropriate for children age 5 through middle school and beyond.

At the workshop, creators/facilitators The Rev. Will Bouvel and Jen Holt Enriquez will share the narrative of how Tell Me the Truth About Racism came about. Then, they will tell one story. Attendees will wonder about the story together, and then engage in a discussion. Will and Jen's approach is inspired by The Lie that Invented Racism, a TEDx Talk by journalist John Biewen. They define racism as “‘the lie in our world that some people are better than others based on the color of their skin.’ It is only because of the Truth we know from God, that all people are equally children of God, that we can clearly frame racism as a lie about our identity. Racism is a distortion from how God made us, even though most of us adults are so used to it that it's hard to notice. Before children absorb the lie that racism tells them about other people and even about themselves, we can expose how wrong it is with the Truth of God.” Visit Tell Me the Truth About Racism’s website or watch this video (25 mins) to learn more about their approach. 

The 3-part Tell Me the Truth About Racism workshop series will continue from 4 to 8 pm at St. Luke, Mt. Joy, and then on Fri. Apr. 12 from 10 am to 2 pm at St. Paul's Harrisburg in the Episcopal Diocese of Central Pennsylvania.

For more information, email Meredith Wiggins, Philadelphia Episcopal Cathedral’s Director of Children, Youth and Family Ministries (mwiggins@philadelphiacathedral.org).

Download, print, and share this flyer/graphic with anyone you think would be interested in this workshop.

Tell Me the Truth About Racism creator and workshop facilitator The Rev. Will Bouvel telling a story to a group of young campers.

Sat. Apr. 20, 2024 from 1-4 pm at Media Borough Hall, Parlor Room

301 North Jackson Street, Media

Free and open to adults (18+). Space is limited to 30 guests.

The first annual community dialogue event Our Stories Connect will bring together Delaware County neighbors to courageously share their unique lived experiences related to a specific aspect of their identity through one-on-one conversations with attendees. Guests will request a conversation with a specific community member "storyteller" who have been chosen based on the titles they provide, reflecting their lived experiences, biases, stereotypes, or stigmas they’ve encountered. Throughout the 3-hour event, guests can expect to engage in four or five 30-minute one-on-one conversations. Learn more about Our Stories Connect and its host Media Fellowship House. If you're interested in sharing your story and being a community member "storyteller" at Our Stories Connect on Sat. Apr. 20 or on Sat. Nov. 9, complete this online form.

Thu. Apr. 25, 2024 at 7:30 pm at Philadelphia Episcopal Cathedral

19 South 38th Street, Philadelphia

Tickets: $42

Featuring Philadelphia’s own sacred jazz vocalist/composer Ruth Naomi Floyd, Are We Yet Somehow Alive? pairs jazz, blues and gospel with fine art projections to share compelling first-person accounts from enslaved Africans in America. At the intersection of despair, endurance and resistance, these narratives explore what it means to be human amidst the struggle for liberation and dehumanization. Praised for her distinctive sound and progressive jazz ensembles, Floyd uses her soaring mezzo-soprano voice to shine light and find defiant joy in our experience.

Tuesdays at 4 pm on Zoom

Free and open to all.

To join, email sperrone21@outlook.com.

The Anti-Racism Book Club at Church of the Holy Comforter in Drexel Hill has been meeting on Zoom every Tuesday at 4 pm for more than 3 years. Through selected readings, experiences, and discussions, and with God’s help, book club members hope to come to terms with their own feelings of complicity and to find a responsible way to respond to what they have learned about the virulence of racism and the experience of other cultures in the United States. All of the book club's current members are avid readers and at least 3 members are life-long educators. If you're looking for regular engagement in discussion, dialogue, in-person activities, and fellowship, and would like to join the Anti-Racism Book Club, contact Stephen Perrone (sperrone21@outlook.com).

Monthly Gathering for Racial Justice Leaders

Wed. Apr. 3, 2024 at 3 pm on Zoom

Free and open to all racial justice leaders in the Episcopal Church.

On the first Wednesday of each month, racial justice leaders from the national offices of the Episcopal Church and Episcopal dioceses across the United States will gather on Zoom to discuss pressing issues, exchange best practices, and illuminate the diverse ministries making an impact across our Church. This platform is not just a meeting, but a sanctuary for ideas, strategies, and mutual support.

This month’s speaker is The Rev. Yamily Bass-Choate, liaison for Global Mission and the formal missioner for Latino/Hispanic Ministries for the Episcopal Diocese of New York.

Save the date for future meetings: May 1, Jun. 5, Jul. 3, Aug. 7, Sep. 4, and Oct. 2.

Renew a Right Spirit Within Me

• A Black Women's History of the United States by Daina Ramey Berry and Kali Nicole Gross
• Beyond Respectability: The Intellectual Thought of Race Women by Brittney Cooper
• I Bring the Voices of My People: A Womanist Vision for Racial Reconciliation by Chanequa Walker-Barnes
• Resurrection Hope: A Future Where Black Lives Matter by Dean Kelly Brown Douglas
• The Church Cracked Open: Disruption, Decline, and New Hope for Beloved Community by Stephanie Spellers
• White Rage: The Unspoken Truth of Our Racial Divide by Carol Anderson
• Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria?: And Other Conversations About Race by Beverly Daniel Tatum

Visit the Anti-Racism Commission's blog site for more Anti-Racism Resources.

Download, print, and share this flyer with anyone you think would be interested in ARC's virtual anti-racism training and racial healing circles, and in-person workshops like Singing the African American Spirituals with Integrity or ARC's playback theatre workshop series Telling Our Stories.

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.