Racial Justice and Healing
Racial Justice and Healing
Seeking and serving Christ in all people, loving our neighbors as ourselves, striving for justice and peace among all people, and respecting the dignity of every human being: these are some of the promises we make in our baptismal covenant. To live into these promises, we apprentice ourselves to Jesus, learning to see as he saw and love as he loved, speaking out against injustice and modeling right relationship, and seeking the peace of true reconciliation where prejudice, colonialism, and systemic racism have caused deep wounds in the fabric of our Body.
ECMN RACIAL JUSTICE AND HEALING COMMISSION
The ECMN Racial Justice and Healing Commission is made up of Episcopalians representing Minnesota's beautiful diversity—racially, geographically, culturally, linguistically, and in many other ways. The Commission was formed in the shadow of the murder of George Floyd and the unrest that followed. As many of our well-intended faith communities, mostly Anglo in heritage, rushed to learn, to shout, to express outrage, to "do something," it quickly began to feel that we were called collectively to something more, to something deeper, that it was not the time to get bigger and louder, but time to be humble and listen. Following the lead of Black clergy and the community creating and stewarding the sacred space of George Floyd Square, it became clear that this was the time to listen, pay attention, do the deeper work, to transform hearts and minds—starting with our own.
OUR APPROACH
The ECMN Racial Justice and Healing Commission began its work together in early 2022, meeting monthly to do the initial, and most important, work of building relationships across our many differences. Part of what the group discerned was what it didn’t want: a “one-and-done” or “check-the-box” anti-racism training that people would tolerate and then never want to do again, or that would make anyone believe that they were “finished.” As Dr. Catherine Meeks has taught us, the work of racial healing is the hard work of self-interrogation, taking seriously Jesus’ question, ‘Do you want to be healed?’ In her words, “The work requires a willingness to commit to the process of interrogating ourselves.” It’s faith formation work that takes exactly one lifetime to accomplish.
The team began to envision an in-person retreat experience that could focus on four interwoven areas that propel us into the work of self-interrogation and racial healing and justice-making: liturgy, history, advocacy, and somatic/body awareness. The team believed that if it could bring these four focus areas to bear and stay grounded in ourr inter-connectedness, it might have some opportunities for engaging racial healing in a way that is fully immersed in our Episcopal theology and charism.
Our inaugural retreat was September 2023 at St. John the Evangelist, St. Paul. Many of the resources from that retreat can be found in the tabs below. Our current dream and work is to adapt this retreat so that it can travel around the state. Although the framework will remain grounded in faith and liturgy, with each new place we go, we will focus on history and advocacy topics relevant to the community we are in.
Read on below to learn more about these four areas of focus, and find practices and resources to further explore the lifelong disciple work of pursuing your own healing in each of those four areas.
Liturgy
As we face the need for racial justice and healing, where do we begin? Our liturgy is at the heart of Episcopal identity. One need not be a theologian or biblical scholar to experience the beauty and mystery of our common worship of the Divine. It binds us together, professes our faith, teaches and instructs, heals, challenges, and reminds us who we are, and Whose we are. Through praise and thanksgiving, confession and breaking bread we acknowledge that we need each other to live most fully and responsibly into our Baptismal promises.
History
As Christians we are expected to dwell deeply into Scripture, which is a history of our relationship with God. “When we don’t learn from history, we are bound to repeat it”. How many times have we heard this phrase and nodded our agreement? And yet, how many times have we simply skimmed the surface of history from the perspective of those who conquered, oppressed or marginalized others, without digging deeper into cultural, societal, and generational consequences upon those whom trauma was imposed? For us to become a people walking in God’s Way of Love with Jesus, whose mission was ministering to and healing those who were conquered, oppressed, and marginalized, we must understand a deeper and broader historical perspective, in order to bring about justice and healing for all who have been created in God’s image and likeness.
Advocacy
Advocacy is using one’s gifts to raise awareness about issues that will benefit those in need. Spiritual advocacy is more expansive, as it involves praying for specific situations or people or setting aside a time for discernment, contemplation, and spiritual renewal to build a beloved community. The Bible teaches us that as Christians, we are obligated to build a beloved community, and at the heart of this community is love. In a 1957 speech at the NAACP Emancipation Day Rally, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr, spoke of this kind of love when he said, “But the end is reconciliation; the end is redemption; the end is the creation of the beloved community. It is this type of spirit and this type of love that can transform opposers into friends. It is this type of understanding goodwill that will transform the deep gloom of the old age into the exuberant gladness of the new age. It is this love which will bring about miracles in the hearts of [humans].”
Read a further meditation on the work of spiritual advocacy here.
Soma/Embodiment
“To heal is to touch with love that which we previously touched with fear” - Stephen Levine
“Trauma does not burrow its way into our bodies. The body develops trauma and then holds it tightly inside its tissues. This is why trauma always involves a sense of stuckness. In order to heal trauma, the body needs to metabolize that stuck, urgent energy.” - Dr. Resmaa Menakem
As we accept the invitation to walk the path of our baptismal covenant and God’s call to work for justice and peace in the world it starts with us. Such work requires us to heal the stored effects of racism in our individual bodies so we have more room to be the body of Christ in the world.
The trauma of racism, no matter who we are, is stored in the body. Our path to healing comes from forging a relationship with the wisdom of our body. We know that the sensations of the body inform our future actions and behaviors. Embodiment and somatic practices are lifelong ways to explore a deeper relationship with ourselves to stop the perpetuation of passing racialized trauma to others. Soma means relating to the body as opposed to the mind. Embodiment is about being in the body so that we feel connected and whole with what we are experiencing. Embodiment practices help us get in touch with our mind-body relationship and open us to how our body, thoughts and actions interact; whereas somatic movements help us metabolize what's stored in the body which is required for healing.
The resources on this page are for you to begin to explore healing from racism and white supremacy from a somatic lens as individuals and congregations. You will find resources to develop a deeper capacity to stay present with the body while you build awareness of your sensations, emotions, feelings, and behaviors when engaged in the anti-racism work of creating a beloved community.
Stories of Racial Justice and Healing
