The Challenge

In the South, many faith communities have deep, unexamined historical entanglements with race, slavery, and segregation, and seek to reckon with the legacy of systemic racism today.

The Opportunity

In Richmond, VA, between 2015 and 2022, St. Paul’s Episcopal Church undertook a multi-year History and Reconciliation Initiative (HRI). Its HRI identified the roles race, slavery, and segregation played in the history of the church and their ongoing legacies today, and suggested action the church could take to begin to repair.

As a result, St. Paul’s has experienced a physical and spiritual transformation and has begun the work to transform its reputation and relationship with the community.

Exploring Race & Repair in Faith Communities: A Primer

This toolkit outlines steps to inspire and inform faith communities exploring race and repair. It includes a how-to and a case study exploring the steps St. Paul’s took to accomplish its transformation.

“We are part of a living and evolving history, a journey toward becoming a beloved community. Today, we are working on the story we tell about ourselves; we are remembering the forgotten so that we can take the important step of telling the truth.” – Reconciliation Sunday at St. Paul’s, September 27, 2020”

THE PROCESS

Every faith group has a different history, community members, cultures, rites, and resources. This toolkit aims to inspire community groups, organizations, houses of worship, academic institutions, and any other entities or people whose faith guides their work and service.

Researching, discovering, and examining history is hard. It can be messy and painful. Humility, flexibility, and patience will all be key. There will be resistance; listening and reflection are vital.

Self-examination is the foundation of the journey. At every step, return to the most important question: why does this work matter?

The answer will inform the rest of the journey.

Questions to consider:

  1. Why does this work matter?
  2. Why undertake this work now?
  3. What is the purpose of this work?
  4. What do you want to know?
  5. Is there buy-in from leadership?
  6. How can an all- or majority-white congregation go about initial reflection and learning at the start of the process?
  7. Who should be involved?
  8. What does it look like to prepare for the challenge of facing uncomfortable truths?
  9. What does “success” look like?

Bring together a group of people to create a steering committee to guide the process. Larger institutions and organizations may also consider creating smaller working groups dedicated to different pieces of the work.

Steering Committee: A steering committee oversees the breadth of work that will be required to explore race and repair. The committee might include church leadership and representatives from the smaller working groups.

Working Groups: There will be a variety of avenues for research, exploration, and action. Creating individual working groups will help to break up and focus the work. For example, one group might focus on history and research, while a different group tackles physical spaces, community engagement, or faith traditions.

Extend recurring invitations to join a working group to all members of the congregation or organization to foster trust, buy-in, and collaboration. That will also provide an opportunity for members with specialized skills to contribute expertise such as legal knowledge, research experience, or writing ability.

People may want to participate in multiple committees or change committees over time. Allowing some fluidity and informality around the way people engage with the work can keep interest and motivation high over time, as well as attract new group members.

Questions to consider:

  1. Who should be on the steering committee?

  2. What steps can be taken to ensure diverse voices and backgrounds will be represented on the steering committee? In the working groups?
  3. What will be the scope of the steering committee’s work?
  4. What specific working groups make sense for the project?
  5. What skill sets do members have that could support this process?
  6. What skill sets might be missing? How can those gaps be addressed? What outside resources might be available to support the work?

The discovery process asks the questions:

  • What information needs to be researched?
  • How should that research be approached?
  • Where can the information be found?

Discovery can be resource-intensive, time-consuming, and emotionally challenging. Addressing racial equity through the lens of faith often requires learning, understanding, and coming to terms with a troubling history related to race. Faith institutions in the South may uncover connections to the Confederacy, segregation, or slavery. While this process is challenging, it is necessary to understand the history in order to shape a new path forward.

Start by defining specific research questions. Examples of research questions include:

  • Were enslaved people used in the construction of buildings and other facilities on the property?
  • Did antebellum members build and maintain the institution with funds gained through the labor of enslaved people? Did such funds establish a baseline prosperity that benefited subsequent generations?
  • How did the institution engage with the community during the Civil Rights Era?
  • How has the institution responded to key events related to race and equity?
  • Over time, were there differences in views about race among organizational members, leaders, and governing authority?

After defining research questions, start identifying sources for answers. Potential sources include:

  • Institutional records, photographs, physical space including memorials, and artifacts

  • Archives collections and research databases available at museums, libraries, and colleges
  • Institutional records of religious governing authorities (e.g., diocese, synod, council)
  • Oral history archives and recollections of community elders
  • Written histories on religion, culture, or the local community
  • Newspaper archives and databases such as The Chronicling America catalog of the Library of Congress
  • Genealogy archives and databases

It is important to note that most Southern archives were created by white people, representing a majority white perspective. The archives of faith institutions may reflect this same challenge. Additionally, oral history reflects the memories, perspectives, and interests of specific individuals, which likely impacted their choices of facts and experiences to share.

In addition to traditional archives and histories, consult sources that provide information on the perspectives and experiences of non-white populations, particularly in the South. Examples include:

Questions to consider:

  1. What are the major research questions?
  2. What archives and information sources are available?
  3. Are there elders who can share their memories, photos, scrapbooks, institutional artifacts?

There will be both public and private, or external and internal, acknowledgment of the history of the faith institution or group as a part of this process.

Internal acknowledgment refers to the process of the congregation, membership, or group coming to terms with past racial injustices uncovered during the Discovery phase. The steering committee and working groups can take the lead on presenting the findings to the broader membership and creating opportunities to process, reflect upon, and reckon with what has been learned.

External acknowledgment refers to how the institution’s story is shared with the wider community. External acknowledgment can be through formal events, activities, or announcements designed to share the institution’s journey and future commitments. Changes in the way the institution engages with the community and its public responses to instances of racial injustice also tell the story of transformation and new priorities in a less formal way.

Determining an approach and plan for acknowledgment can seem daunting. Seeking support and guidance from facilitators experienced in helping people navigate difficult conversations or advisors who can help craft a plan of action could be beneficial. Acknowledgment will not be a one-time commitment, but an ongoing practice.

Questions to consider:

  1. What risk and/or challenges could there be to acknowledging the discoveries internally?

  2. What risks and/or challenges could there be to acknowledging the discoveries externally?
  3. How can these risks and challenges be addressed?
  4. What type of support could help the membership in understanding and processing the findings?
  5. Who are the facilitators, advisors, and mentors available to support and guide this phase of the process?
  6. What actions can be taken at this stage as part of the process of acknowledgment? (For example, changing language or removing artwork that no longer reflects the values of the institution)

Lamentation is an expression of sorrow, mourning, or regret. This step creates a deliberate pause for lamenting the past and grieving the harm caused. Intentional inclusion of lamentation in the truth-seeking process emphasizes that acknowledgment alone is insufficient for transformation. Lamentation creates the space to call out and grapple with the impact of past actions, honor those who carried the burden of that impact, and commit to conciliation and repair moving forward.

Dedicating time and space to the expression of sorrow, mourning, and regret for past actions lays the groundwork for the transformation of hearts, minds, and behavior. The process of lamentation is both collective and individual. Faith traditions such as repentance, atonement, and forgiveness may provide an opportunity to integrate lamentation naturally into the existing practices of the institution.

Questions to consider:

  1. What does it look like to create space for collective lamentation? A single or recurring special service or event? A dedicated day?

  2. What guidance can be provided for private, individual lamentation?
  3. Which faith traditions of the institution offer a natural opportunity to integrate lamentation, both during this process and moving forward?
  4. Grief is not linear. How can space for ongoing lamentation be created?
  5. What is the role of leadership in this process?

Conciliation, repair, and healing involve creating and strengthening relationships with individuals and communities impacted by the institution’s history. It is an ongoing process and can take many forms. As part of the conciliation and repair work, consider:

  • Concrete actions to demonstrate the commitment to transformation, such as removal from display of artwork and artifacts connected to racial injustice
  • Internal and community-wide gatherings for people to listen, share, and pray together
  • Film viewings, lectures, or reading groups
  • Workshops around truth, healing, and racial equity
  • Trips to local and national history sites

Questions to consider:

  1. With whom should the institution engage and/or consult around approaches to the work of conciliation and repair?
  2. Who are the key stakeholders in the congregation? In the community?

  3. How can equitable participation of stakeholders be ensured?

  4. Which pieces of work can be managed by the institution and which pieces will require expertise from external sources?
  5. What resources will leadership commit to the work of conciliation and repair?
  6. What resources are needed?
  7. What concrete changes can the institution make, both privately and publicly, as part of the commitment to the work of conciliation and repair? What changes might be made in the virtual and physical spaces of the institution?

Ongoing reflection is critical. It is a vital signal of and commitment to the institution’s desire for deep and meaningful change.

As the institution, its relationships, and its reputation transform, so too will the work of race and repair. Intentional planning and preparation to ensure dedicated time and resources for ongoing reflection are key to the success and longevity of the transformation.

Questions to consider:

  1. How will new members of the congregation be made aware of and be invited to engage in the race and repair work of the institution?

  2. How will the communication and collaboration with impacted communities be maintained?
  3. What resources are needed to ensure ongoing reflection around this work?
  4. How can resources be earmarked for this work moving forward?
  5. What do ongoing discussion, reflection, and action around the institution’s involvement in and complicity with harmful narratives and actions look like?

Case Study: St. Paul’s Episcopal Church

Founded in 1845, St. Paul’s Episcopal Church was the chosen church of the Confederate civil and military during the American Civil War. This included acting as the religious home for key Confederate figures, such as Jefferson Davis and Robert E. Lee.

In the postbellum years, St. Paul’s became a favorite site to remember the Lost Cause leaders and soldiers. The church’s windows and plaques memorializing Confederates were installed at the same time colossal Confederate statues were placed along Monument Avenue. St. Paul’s became a favorite stop for Civil War tourists. By the Civil War’s centennial anniversary in the 1960s, the church had proclaimed itself a “shrine of the South.”

St. Paul’s gradually relinquished the practice of venerating the church’s ties to the Confederacy. In late 1969, new rector John Shelby Spong and the vestry decided to end the decades-old tradition of flying a giant battle flag from the church facade on Lee’s birthday and other occasions. From the 1970s through the early decades of the 21st century, the church emerged as a progressive, socially active urban parish engaged with such issues as education, poverty, food insecurity, and social justice. It strove to live up to its new motto: “Proclaiming Christ in the Heart of the City.”

However, St. Paul’s continued to allow groups to book the church’s sanctuary for Confederate-themed commemorations until 2012. That year, as conversations regarding the Civil War and Emancipation Sesquicentennial unfolded alongside growing national acknowledgment of racial injustice, St. Paul’s elected to stop accommodating such events on its property.

The History and Reconciliation Initiative

In 2015, following the murder of nine Black members of Mother Emanuel Church in Charleston, S.C., St. Paul’s began a multi-year program of self-study and prayerful conversations called the History and Reconciliation Initiative (HRI). The HRI goal was to recover, examine, and acknowledge the church’s racial history in order to repair, restore, and seek reconciliation with God, each other, and the broader community.

“In light of our Christian faith, we will trace and acknowledge the racial history of St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in order to repair, restore, and seek reconciliation with God, each other, and the broader community.” – HRI Mission Statement

The HRI established working groups to research the history of St. Paul’s and its congregants as it relates to race; to consider current memorials and future memorials, including music and art; and to develop liturgies.

Over time, the HRI sponsored many activities—described as Prayerful Conversations—around lectures, films, workshops, and examining windows and plaques in the sanctuary. At regular intervals, parishioners learned about and discussed the findings of unfolding research regarding the church’s complicity in systemic racism, from its founding to the present day.

In an act of public acknowledgment, newly uncovered history was shared during the 2018 forum, “Bending Toward the Truth.” It included The Most Rev. Michael Curry, Presiding Bishop of the U.S. Episcopal Church, and ​​panels of clergy, historians, justice activists, and St. Paul’s parishioners. More than 500 people attended. Parishioner and historian Christopher A. Graham later published the history in a book.

In February 2019, the HRI hosted a workshop series,“A Call to Community: Honest Conversations on Racial Healing and Equity.” That fall, the church also sponsored travel to significant Black history sites in Richmond, followed by a pilgrimage to civil rights sites in Montgomery and Selma, Alabama.

On September 27, 2020, the church held Reconciliation Sunday, a special service of remembrance and repentance, as the culmination of its previous four years of work, prayer, and conversations. Since then, St. Paul’s has included Reconciliation Sunday—now a full weekend of related activities—as an annual event.

These varied activities provided St. Paul’s members time to learn, share, listen, and pray together as an act of community discernment. While the official HRI endeavor concluded, the church carries forth an ongoing journey of discovery, acknowledgment, lamentation, repair, and healing through the mission of the church.

Notably, a Racial Justice and Healing initiative is now a central focus of St. Paul’s Community Engagement Ministry. The ministry carries forward the HRI’s mission by focusing on truth-telling and reparative justice through education, exploration, and advocacy. This work represents St. Paul’s ongoing efforts to create a more just, loving, and equitable community in Richmond and beyond.

Church Memorials to the Confederacy

In 1889, following the death of Jefferson Davis, St. Paul’s Vestry passed a resolution to install memorial windows for Confederate leaders Davis and Robert E. Lee. The dedicated windows (two each) picture Biblical scenes. The windows tell stories about St. Paul and Moses that roughly paralleled events in the lives of Lee and Davis.

These storylines fit into the larger Lost Cause narrative that justified the Confederate experience and, by extension, the slave regime of the antebellum decades, and the then-ongoing segregationist agenda of elite white Virginians. As late as the 1960s, St. Paul’s installed other memorials reflecting Lost Cause ideology, including wall plaques, pew plates, and altar kneelers.

Changing Physical Spaces: Plaques and Windows

In accordance with a resolution passed at the General Convention of the Episcopal Church, St. Paul’s removed or modified all plaques and kneelers bearing Confederate battle flag motifs in 2016. As the HRI work proceeded, so did discussions about how St. Paul’s identity as Christians in the cause of justice should be reflected in its physical spaces as well as its actions.

In June 2020, with the surge in the Black Lives Matter movement, Virginia Bishop Susan Goff sent a message reminding the diocese that “symbols are powerful.” The HRI co-chairs presented a proposal to the Vestry, grounded in the initiative’s extensive work over the previous four years, recommending the removal of additional plaques and other items associated with Lost Cause ideology. With Vestry approval, St. Paul’s removed and stored these items.

The Vestry also approved an HRI proposal, first made in 2018, to rededicate the windows originally installed as memorials to Davis and Lee. On Reconciliation Sunday, September 27, 2020, the church rededicated the two pairs of windows. They are now dedicated to the glory of God. In so doing, St. Paul’s reclaimed the biblical messages represented in the windows: liberation from enslavement, speaking truth to power, and fostering mercy and justice.

Rededicating the windows was a commitment to continue addressing issues of race and inequality within St. Paul’s walls and in the larger Richmond community. It also offers an actionable statement that St. Paul’s seeks to tell the truth about its history, even as it aligns with new stories and aspirations, grounded in God’s desire for the liberation and flourishing of all people.

Stations of St. Paul’s

In 2022, St. Paul’s developed a liturgy and commissioned 14 large hand-cut silhouettes by artist Janelle Washington to acknowledge and reflect upon the church’s racial history. The powerful images, which hang banner-like along the sanctuary walls, depict significant events such as the arrival of enslaved Africans to Virginia in 1619, through the church’s antebellum complicity with the slave regime, to 20th-century denouncements of the KKK alongside segregationist advocacy, to this century’s lamentation of racial violence and injustice. 

Modeled after the Stations of the Cross, the Stations of St. Paul’s are displayed annually in the sanctuary during Lent and other special occasions.

​​EPU and St. Paul’s Episcopal Church

St. Paul’s Episcopal Church is a member of EPU’s Unum Alliance, a network of community organizations, academic institutions, faith-based groups, and government-affiliated programs engaged in work around inequity, its causes, and its impact. The Alliance aims to serve as a resource for research, tools, and relationships to support equity work across the American South and beyond.

The EPU team worked closely with St. Paul’s leadership and congregation members to document their stories on film, identify key insights and clear steps in their process, and put their experiences and insights into formats that can be shared with others for encouragement and inspiration.

EPU aims to facilitate the development and dissemination of tools and resources, link organizations engaging in race and equity work, and leverage the power of collaboration to amplify the impact of that work. EPU’s partnership with St. Paul’s Episcopal church facilitates the sharing of promising practices, practical guidance, and real-life examples of healing work for organizations looking to embark on internal processes of reflection and reckoning as part of a larger equity journey.

 

Additional Resources

These additional resources from St. Paul’s work may guide and inspire your journey.

Bending Toward Truth

On March 10, 2018, St. Paul’s presented Bending Toward Truth: A Forum on Race and Religion in Richmond, Virginia. The event, which drew over 500 participants, shared historical findings and presented responses from The Most. Rev. Michael Curry, Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church, and panels of clergy, historians, justice activists, and St. Paul’s parishioners.

Videos from Bending Toward Truth:

Faith, Race, and the Lost Cause

In the spring of 2020, St. Paul’s produced a book-length report from the HRI self-study, written by parishioner and historian Dr. Christopher Alan Graham, called “Blind Spots: Race and Identity in a Southern Church.”

The report presented a synthesis of HRI-sponsored research based on archival documents, governmental reports, diaries, private papers, Diocesan records, news accounts, and oral history interviews. The church provided copies to all parishioners, who met for discussion groups in the following months.

In 2023, the University of Virginia Press published an expanded and revised version, retitled Faith, Race, and the Lost Cause: Confessions of a Southern Church. It’s a deeply contextual history of St. Paul’s within the city, state, and diocese between 1843 and 2000. It features key individuals who shaped that history. The book asks how the people of St. Paul’s understood race relations over time from a Christian perspective. It also asks how they acted upon those beliefs in their church and public lives in Richmond.

In addition to his book, you can also watch Dr. Graham’s lecture at the Virginia Museum of History and Culture on April 27, 2023.

What Comes Next?

EPU serves as a resource to community leaders, policymakers, and advocates across the South to help them take actionable steps to accelerate positive change. These resources include, but are not limited to:

  • Research and analysis
  • Technical assistance
  • Policy development

We would love to connect with you and discuss the change you want to make. Here are ways you can contact us.

E-mail Us

We can be reached at info@unumfund.org

Visit Us

Visit our EPU Policy page for more information.

Additional Resources

See all our policy toolkits and Big Ideas for Racial Equity.