The series is part of the Becoming Beloved Community initiative of The Episcopal Church, a long-term commitment to racial healing, reconciliation, and justice in our personal lives, our ministries, and our society.

This is a race dialogue series designed for these times.  It is an attempt to be responsive to the profound challenges that currently exist in our society.  It is focused on the challenges that swirl around issues of race and racism, as well as the difficult but respectful and transformative dialogue we need to have with each other about them.  It invites participants to walk back through history in order to peel away the layers that brought us to today, and to do so in a personal way, reflecting on family histories and stories, as well as important narratives that shape the collective American story.  It holds the vision of beloved community as a guiding star – where all people are honored and protected and nurtured as beloved children of God, where we weep at one another’s pain and seek one another’s flourishing.

Bishop DeDe has made it a priority of her episcopate in Central New York to work for the dismantling of racism, as has the whole church made it priority in recent years.  In fact, the language has shifted from dismantling racism (since so many people can think that they are not racist) to dismantling white supremacy.  The supremacy of the white race was written in to our very constitution, white slave owners being given the vote of 3/5s of a person for every slave they owned.

Many of us are only partially aware of the advantages we have been given in life on the basis of our color.  Sacred Ground is a course designed by Episcopalians for Episcopalians and others to address the question of white privilege (one of the first books assigned is called Waking Up White). 

Eastside Episcopalians (and others in the Syracuse East deanery) will begin this September.  The course entails eleven sessions, usually spaced two weeks apart.  We will break for Advent and Christmas.  The course involves readings or watching a video in preparation for each session, and then some time in a plenary session, and then small group discussion.  We have opted to leave the small group membership constant over the course of the 11 sessions to build a trusting environment among members.  Each small group will have a facilitator who has completed Sacred Ground.

We are offering Sacred Ground in a virtual fashion.  Sessions will begin on Thursday, September 21st, from 6:30 – 8:00 p.m. 

Racism is not a question of attitude; it’s a matter of results. Looking around us, we can see plenty of evidence of the results of government policy, economic inequity, and social pressure and prejudice, leading to the disadvantaging of whole classes of people based on skin color.

African-Americans are tired of being asked to explain racism to white people.  Sacred Ground is designed to help white people do our own work understanding systemic racism and white supremacy.  African-Americans can certainly participate, but best not in small group leadership to avoid tokenism, and being asked to speak on behalf of a whole race.

Those interested should sign-up HERE.

Last day to register is MONDAY, September 11th

You can preview the Sacred Ground syllabus HERE.