Racial Justice Commission moves forward on key projects and reviews mandates for 2025

Following the Racial Justice Commission's annual work retreat in February, its co-chairs report progress on two key projects adopted at recent Diocesan Conventions, and they commend the commission's five subcommittees for undertaking an evaluation of the mandates that have guided their work since their formation four years ago--with an eye toward updating those mandates to meet the moment.

The Rev. Will Mebane reporting for RJC at 2024 Diocesan Convention Tracy J. Sukraw The Rev. Will Mebane gives the Racial Justice Commission's report at the 2024 Diocesan Convention, with Forming Antiracist Episcopal Communities Subcommittee members the Rev. James Hairston and Deborah Gardner Walker.

"It was a very rich time," the Rev. Carol Morehead said, by Zoom, of the work retreat with Bishop Julia Whitworth that was held on Feb. 22 at Grace Church in Medford, "and time very well spent in that it's invited us to dig deeply into the work we've been called to do and ask what is required for the time that is right now." Morehead is the rector of Grace Church and co-chairs the Racial Justice Commission with the Rev. Will Mebane, the rector of St. Barnabas's Church in Falmouth.

The commission's five subcommittees are currently active, they said, around issues of equity in diocesan structures and systems, finances, supporting BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, People of Color) individuals and communities, forming antiracist Episcopal communities, and reparations. 

Diocesan Convention in November 2024 approved trial use of a new antiracism formation program for the diocese as a whole, developed by the Racial Justice Commission's Subcommittee on Forming Antiracist Episcopal Communities.  Work continues on refinements to that proposed program ahead of a roll-out plan, the co-chairs said, and they expect to be able to report on next steps later this year.

Additionally, they said, the Racial Justice Commission is working with the Commission on Ministry, through a joint task force, to implement the 2022 Diocesan Convention's call to add cross-cultural learning, practice and peer support components to the formation process for postulants and candidates for ordination, toward the goal of better "equipping ordained leaders for the work of becoming Beloved Community," in the words of the resolution.

The task force has solicited and is reviewing proposals from organizations and educators around program development and implementation, with a goal of launching it with an initial cohort by the end of the year.

The co-chairs described the current work as necessarily deliberative in pace, and more relevant than ever before.  

"Given the state of matters in our country at this particular time, it is obvious to me, as a co-chair of the Racial Justice Commission, that the work is needed and has a sense of urgency that perhaps did not exist several months ago," Mebane said.

The Racial Justice Commission invites inquiries and participation.  The co-chairs can be reached by e-mail at RJC@diomass.org.

Coming soon:  Update on the work of the diocese's Reparations Fund Committee, newly formed last fall.