Deputies of Color Support Presiding Officers' Working Group Report on Truth-Telling, Reckoning and Healing

On March 23, 2022, the Presiding Officers’ Working Group on Truth-Telling, Reckoning, and Healing released a 39-page report, which contains seven resolutions to be considered by the 80^th General Convention. We, the Deputies of Color (a confederation of 253 deputies from the four ethnic caucuses of The Episcopal Church), wholeheartedly support the 92 recommendations contained within the report and urge that the following resolutions that are also contained within the report be adopted by the General Convention.

1.  A125, A Resolution Extending and Furthering Beloved Community;

2.  A126, A Resolution Supporting a Comprehensive  Review of the Book of Common Prayer, The Hymnal 1982, and other approved liturgical material;

3.  A127, Resolution for Telling the Truth about The Episcopal Church’s History with Indigenous Boarding Schools;

4.  A128, Resolution for Healing Surrounding The Episcopal Church’s History with Indigenous Boarding Schools and Other Forms of Oppression;

5.  A129, Resolution for a Forensic Audit of the Funds of the Domestic and Foreign Missionary Society;

6.  A130, Resolution for the Development of Best Practices in Hiring and Developing Organizational Cultural Competencies; and

7.  A131, Resolution Regarding Language.

The Deputies of Color see the recommendations within the report as a much-needed paradigm shift away from the traditional model of funding The Episcopal Church’s Social Justice Ministry. More specifically, the creation of a perpetual endowment, created from a 10% draw from the Church’s $413 Million Endowment, would ensure that the work of dismantling racism within the Church and the greater secular society would become permanent ministry work. The establishment of such a fund would be a major statement of how the church is reckoning with its “complicity in systemic racism rooted in white supremacy and its commitment to developing healing processes that will become a common part of church life.” Additionally, adoption of the recommendations would serve as an acknowledgement of the need to address the “legacies of colonialism and imperialism in the church and the urgency of reckoning with generational racial trauma created at times when the church was ‘directly the source of suffering and oppression.’ “

We thank you in advance for your support of the above-indicated resolutions.  We urge that you share this statement of support and this important report with your bishop(s) and deputation.  As what the late Senator John Lewis once said, “"If not us, then who? If not now, then when? We may not have chosen the time, but the time has chosen us". You and I can be part of proclaiming God’s dream of becoming the Beloved Community.

Respectfully Yours,

Joe McDaniel, Jr.

Convenor for The Deputies of Color

To the 80th General Convention

Asian/Pacific Islander Caucus:

Ryan Kusumoto, co-chair, Diocese of Hawaii

Alan Murray, co-chair, Diocese of Oregon

Canon Barbara Okamoto Bach, secretary, Diocese of New Jersey

Black Caucus:

The Hon. Rose Sconiers, co-chair, Diocese of Western New York

Louis Glosson, co-chair, Diocese of San Diego

Krisita Jackson, secretary, Diocese Central Florida

Dianne Audrick Smith, Diocese of Ohio

Indigenous Caucus:

The Rev. Br. Simeon Powell, co-chair, Diocese of Northern California

Minnie Steele, co-chair, Diocese of Minnesota

The Rev. Michael Sells, secretary, Navajoland Area Mission

The Rev. Rachel Taber-Hamilton, Diocese of Olympia

Latin Caucus:

Wendy Cañas, co-chair, Diocese of New York

The Rev. Daniel Vélez-Rivera, co-chair, Diocese of Virginia

The Rev. Jose Rodriguez, secretary, Diocese of Central Florida