O God, you made us in your own image and redeemed us through Jesus your Son: Look with compassion on the whole human family; take away the arrogance and hatred which infect our hearts; break down the walls that separate us; unite us in bonds of love; and work through our struggle and confusion to accomplish your purposes on earth; that, in your good time, all nations and races may serve you in harmony
around your heavenly throne; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

– Prayer for the Human Family (Book of Common Prayer, p. 815)

Q: What is the mission of the Church?
A: The mission of the Church is to restore all people to unity with God and each other in Christ.

Q: How does the Church pursue its mission?
A: The Church pursues its mission as it prays and worships, proclaims the Gospel,

and promotes justice, peace, and love.

Q: Through whom does the Church carry out its mission?
A: The Church carries out its mission through the ministry of all its members.

– An Outline of the Faith (Book of Common Prayer, p. 855)

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Introduction

“Last summer, the 78th General Convention of our Church did a remarkable thing: the General Convention invited us as a church to take up this Jesus Movement. We made a commitment to live into being the Jesus Movement by committing to evangelism and the work of reconciliation – beginning with racial reconciliation … across the borders and boundaries that divide the human family of God. This is difficult work. But we can do it. It’s about listening and sharing. It’s about God.”

Presiding Bishop Michael B. Curry
Sermon Preached on November 1, 2015
Installation of the 27th Presiding Bishop of The Episcopal Church

The Apostle Paul reminded the people of first-century Corinth: “All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation” (2 Corinthians 5:18). If we have ever needed a community of Jesus followers to take up the ministry of reconciliation and healing across the racial borders that mark the human family of God, we need it now.

Widespread hostility to immigrants from Latin America has led to the deportation of millions and ripped families apart. Structural poverty in indigenous communities has led to alarming youth suicides. Throughout Latin America, indigenous and Afro-Latino peoples still suffer after centuries of systematic devaluation. Videos regularly detail the detention and killing of unarmed black men, women, and children by the state. Across the United States and into Europe, people from the Middle East are profiled as terrorists and enemies of “Western” values. And human trafficking enslaves the most vulnerable in Asia, the Americas, and Europe.

Given these realities and given the call of the gospel of Jesus Christ, many Episcopal dioceses, seminaries, and networks have discerned a fresh commitment to racial justice, reconciliation, and healing. Perhaps because of this church-wide stirring, the 78th General Convention of The Episcopal Church urged the whole church to take a major stride forward by passing Resolution C019 (Establish Response to Systemic Injustice) and allocating $2 million to fund this ministry. C019 charged the leaders of the House of Bishops and the House of Deputies to “lead, direct, and be present to assure and account for the Church’s work of racial justice and reconciliation.”

In February 2016, Presiding Bishop Michael Curry, House of
Deputies President Gay Clark Jennings, House of Bishops Vice
President Mary Gray-Reeves and (now former Vice President)
Dean Wolfe, and House of Deputies Vice President Byron
Rushing and Secretary Michael Barlowe met in Austin, Texas, to
follow through on that charge. On March 12, 2016, they shared
their initial direction and priorities with the House of Bishops, the
House of Deputies, and the wider church, and updates have come
before Executive Council throughout the process. After a year of
listening, learning, and discerning – in close partnership with the Presiding Bishop’s staff and in conversation with Executive Council, individuals, and networks across and beyond The Episcopal Church – the Church’s Officers approved a comprehensive strategic vision on February 14, 2017, including a program budget detailing the $2 million allocation. That vision – titled “Becoming Beloved Community: The Episcopal Church’s Long-term Commitment to Racial Healing, Reconciliation, and Justice” – is outlined in the coming pages and to be shared with the church in May 2017.

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Along the way, we have learned from and been gifted by many brothers and sisters deeply committed to this work. Here is a partial and growing list:

• –  The General Convention Legislative Committees on Social Justice and U.S. Policy and Ms. Diane Pollard
• –  Executive Council Standing Committee on Advocacy and Networking for Mission and Dr. Anita George
• –  The Beloved Community: Commission on Dismantling Racism in the Diocese of Atlanta and Dr.

  Catherine Meeks and Bishop Robert Wright

• –  The Committees on Antiracism and Reparations in the Diocese of New York and Ms. Cynthia Copeland

  and Brother Reginald Martin

• –  VISIONS, Inc., founder Dr. Valerie Batts, and consultant the Rev. Dr. Bill Kondrath
• –  The Kaleidoscope Institute and the Rev. Dr. Eric Law
• –  The Executive Council Committee on Antiracism
• –  Latin American bishops in the Episcopal Church’s Ninth Province
• –  The network of Episcopal provincial coordinators and officers
• –  Leaders in the Standing Rock Sioux Nation and their allies
• –  Leaders of the House of Bishops’ engagement around racial justice and transformation, including

  Bishops Mark Beckwith, Ian Douglas, Brian Prior, Prince Singh, and Wendell Gibbs

• –  Washington National Cathedral and the Rev. Dr. Canon Kelly Brown Douglas and Ms. Michelle Dibblee
• –  The Anne and Chris Flowers Foundation and the J.C. Flowers Foundation and Ms. Susan Lassen
• –  The Standing Commission on Liturgy and Music Subcommittee on Racial Justice and Mr. Chris Decatur
• –  Trinity Episcopal Church-Wall Street and the Rev. Winnie Varghese
• –  Bert Smith of the Prison Entrepreneurship Program
• –  The Criminal Justice Roundtable in the Diocese of New York
• –  The Organization for Procedural Justice in the Diocese of Southern Ohio and Dr. Merelyn Bates-Mims
• –  Leaders in the Episcopal Church in Minnesota, including Ms. Amanda Ziebell-Finley, Ms. Rachel Babbit,

  and Mr. Steve Mullaney

• –  Ms. Annette Buchanan and the Union of Black Episcopalians
• –  The Rev. Dr. Michael Battle and the Tutu Center for Reconciliation at General Theological Seminary
• –  The Rev. Dr. Phil Groves
• –  The Rev. Hershey Mallette Stephens
• –  Archbishop Desmond Tutu and the Rev. Mpho Tutu

  We also give thanks for the tireless staff who have supported and concretized our work: the Rev. Canon Stephanie Spellers, Ms. Heidi Kim, the Rev. Charles “Chuck” Wynder, and Ms. Tara Holley, along with the Rev. Canon Mark Stevenson, the Rev. Glenda McQueen, Mr. Kirk Hadaway, and Ms. Bronwyn Skov.

  Each of these partners has reinforced what we have learned in our own spiritual journeys: that this work is less about walking a linear path and more about engaging in a reflective, deliberate spiritual practice. Like walking the labyrinth, we engage and reengage the commitments that lead toward reconciliation, healing, and justice: Telling the Truth, Proclaiming the Dream, Practicing the Way of Love, and Repairing the Breach. We never have the sense that we have mastered or completed any one stage, nor are we naïve enough to imagine anyone ever truly “finishes” the work. The commitment is long-term; the formation is lifelong.

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Why Beloved Community?

Jesus laid out the fundamentals for any who would follow him when he said,

The Beloved Community is the body within which we promote the fruits of the spirit and grow to recognize our kinship as people who love God

and love the image of God that we find in our neighbors, in ourselves, and in creation. It provides a positive, theologically and biblically based ideal toward which we can grow in love, rather than framing our justice and reconciliation efforts as fundamentally “against” (as in antiracism, anti-oppression, etc.).

Clarence Skinner describes the vision this way: “Beloved Community is not an organization of individuals; it is a new adventure of consecrated men and women seeking a new world … who forget themselves in their passion to find the common life where the good of all is the quest of each.” Quoting Karl Barth, Charles Marsh writes of the Beloved Community, “[T]he Christian regards the peaceable reign of God as the hidden meaning of all movements for liberation and reconciliation that ‘brings us together for these days as strangers and yet as friends.’”

In other words, Beloved Community is the practical image of the world we pray for when we say, “Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” We dream of communities where all people may experience dignity and abundant life, and see themselves and others as beloved children of God. We pray for communities that labor so that the flourishing of every person (and all creation) is seen as the hope of each. Conceived this way, Beloved Community provides a deeply faithful paradigm for transformation, formation, organizing, advocacy, and witness.

Our Long-term Commitment
Becoming Beloved Community represents not so much a set of programs as a journey, a set of interrelated commitments around which we as Episcopalians may organize our many efforts to respond to racial injustice and grow a community of reconcilers, justice-makers, and healers. As you continue to read about this strategic vision, we encourage you to imagine a labyrinth. 1 On the road toward reconciliation and healing, we move around corners and double back into quadrants we have indeed visited before, each time discovering a fresh revelation or challenge …

of all is, ‘Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God, the Lord is one; you shall love the Lord your God with all

your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.’ The second is this,

‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself’” (Mark 12:29-31).

Telling the Truth

Who are we? What things have we done and left undone regarding racial justice and healing?

Repairing the Breach

What institutions and systems are broken? How will we participate in repair, restoration, and healing of people, institutions, and systems?

Proclaiming the Dream

How can we publicly acknowledge things done and left undone? What does Beloved Community look like in this place? What behaviors and commitments will foster reconciliation, justice, and healing?

Practicing the Way of Love

How will we grow as reconcilers, healers, and justice-bearers? How will we actively grow relationship across dividing walls and seek Christ in the other?

1 We borrow the labyrinth image gratefully from Archbishop Desmond Tutu and the Rev. Mpho Tutu’s work in The Book of Forgiving, although we have surrounded this labyrinth with The Episcopal Church’s long-term commitments.

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“The first [commandment]

the ground and the wisdom of partners who share the work. Timelines notwithstanding, the Officers recognize that structural racism is centuries old, which means our commitment must last for generations, not triennia. We will always be committed to tell the truth, proclaim the dream, practice the way of love, and repair the breach. The only question is how.

In presenting this long-term commitment, we Officers are dedicated to growing circles of engagement, partnership, and prayer across and beyond the Church, understanding that we are participating in a multistage journey toward transformation, justice, and healing.
While General Convention tasked us with providing

leadership and casting a vision, it never said that vision would be the only one, nor did it say all the work of racial reconciliation, justice, and healing should be organized at the church-wide level. We have sought to fulfill our charge as leaders of the Episcopal branch of the Jesus Movement, drawing Episcopalians and neighbors across many lands, languages, and cultures to share stories, practices, and transformative action. Together, we can share the journey and become instruments of the healing and reconciling love of Jesus, whose loving, liberating, and life-giving way we follow.

Back to Our Roots: The Baptismal Covenant

Finally, we have said all along that the goal is not simply to present a unified strategy to be applied similarly in all places. Ours is a commitment, an intentional spiritual practice we take up as individuals and as a body who have been baptized into the life, death and ongoing ministry of Jesus. It seemed fitting that, near the conclusion of our work, members of our team looked back and realized that each element of the journey is itself a response to one of the five queries at the conclusion of the Baptismal Covenant.

•   The desire to form Beloved Community flows from the first of the five promises: Will you continue in the apostles’ teaching and fellowship,

  in the breaking of bread, and in the prayers?

•   Telling the truth about our Church’s historic and present story around race – who we are and what we’ve done – is part of how we fulfill the second promise:

  Will you persevere in resisting evil, and whenever you fall into sin, repent and return to the Lord?

•   Naming the dream of God in a particular place, casting a compelling vision of Beloved Community, and committing to the work necessary to live into it are directly linked to the third promise:

  Will you proclaim by word and example the Good News of God in Christ?

•   As we practice the way of love, listening for the voice of God in the voice of the other and honoring the presence of Christ in all those we meet, we take up the fourth promise:

  Will you seek and serve Christ in all persons, loving your neighbor as yourself?

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 And as we expand the circle of God’s love and take responsibility for repairing the brokenness in our communities, our society, and our world – we also affirm the fifth promise:

Will you strive for justice and peace among all people, and respect the dignity of every human being?

The ministry of reconciliation rests at the heart of God’s mission and belongs to everyone who has been baptized into the body of Christ. We welcome our whole Church to move forward with humility, compassion, and prayer, trusting that God who has reconciled us in Christ will also lead and equip us for this great call.

In the deep love of Christ,
Presiding Bishop Michael Curry House of Deputies President Gay Jennings HouseofBishopsVicePresidentMaryGray-Reeves HouseofDeputiesVicePresidentByronRushing

(former) House of Bishops Vice President Dean Wolfe

House of Deputies Secretary Michael Barlowe