Times-Herald (Vallejo)

More US churches commit to reparation­s

- By David Crary

The Episcopal Diocese of Texas acknowledg­es that its first bishop in 1859 was a slaveholde­r. An Episcopal church erects a plaque noting the building’s creation in New York City in 1810 was made possible by wealth resulting from slavery.

And the Minnesota Council of Churches cites a host of injustices, from mid-19th century atrocities against Native Americans to police killings of Black people, in launching a first-of-its kind “truth and reparation­s” initiative engaging its 25 member denominati­ons.

These efforts ref lect a widespread surge of interest among many U. S. religious groups in the area of reparation­s, particular­ly among long- establishe­d Protestant churches that were active in the era of slavery. Many are weighing how to make amends through financial investment­s and long-term programs benefiting African Americans.

Some major denominati­ons, including the Roman

Catholic Church and the Southern Baptist Convention, have not embraced reparation­s as official policy. The Episcopal Church has been the most active major denominati­on thus far, and others, including the United Methodist Church and the Evangelica­l Lutheran Church of America, are urging congrega

tions to consider similar steps.

The Minnesota Council of Churches initiative was announced in October.

“Minnesota has some of the highest racial disparitie­s in the country — in health, wealth, housing, how police treat folks,” said the council’s CEO, the Rev. Curtiss DeYoung. “Those disparitie­s all come from a deep history of racism.”

The initiative, envisioned as a 10-year undertakin­g, is distinctiv­e in several ways:

It engages a diverse collection of Christian denominati­ons, including some that are predominan­tly Black; it will model some of its efforts on the Truth and Reconcilia­tion Commission created in South Africa after the end of apartheid; and it is based in Minneapoli­s, where the police killing of George Floyd in May sparked global protests over racial injustice.

“This particular event, because it was right here where we live, was a call to action,” DeYoung said. “The first thing that we did, of course, like everyone else, was get into the streets and march ... but there are deep, historic issues that require more than marching.”

The Minnesota initiative also seeks to address social justice concerns of African Americans and Native Americans in a unified way.

“For so long these have been two separate camps — Indigenous people and African Americans felt they are competing against each other for the same limited resources,” said the Rev. Jim Bear Jacobs, a Native American who is the church council’s director of racial justice.

Jacobs belongs to a Wisconsin- ba sed Mohican tribe but was born in Minnesota and is well-versed in the latter’s grim history about Native Americans. He cited the U. S.-Dakota War of 1862, which ended with the internment of hundreds of Dakota people and the hanging of 38 Dakota men in Mankato — the largest mass execution in U.S. history. After the war, many of the Dakota were expelled from Minnesota.

The Rev. Stacey Smith, presiding elder of the African Methodist Episcopal Church in Minnesota and a Council of Churches board member, said the reparation­s initiative places the state “at the epicenter of being transforme­d with racial justice.”

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 ?? BEBETO MATTHEWS — THE ASSOCIATED PRESS FILE ?? A plaque sits at the steps of St. James Episcopal Church in New York’s Upper East Side neighborho­od, acknowledg­ing the church’s wealth created with slave labor.
BEBETO MATTHEWS — THE ASSOCIATED PRESS FILE A plaque sits at the steps of St. James Episcopal Church in New York’s Upper East Side neighborho­od, acknowledg­ing the church’s wealth created with slave labor.

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