In mid-June, 30+ parishioners gathered to form the Racial Justice Allies (RJA) group with the intention of exploring ways to take action at St. Anne’s to address racial injustice. The group has developed a vision statement to articulate our goals:
Racial Justice Allies Vision Statement
· We acknowledge the white supremacism on which our society and economy are built, rooted in 400 years of violence, indifference, and inaction.
· We believe in love, respect, repentance, and opening our hearts and minds to our fellow human beings.
· We commit to:
Listen, look, and reflect more deeply in order to take responsibility for liberating ourselves from our own biases.
Create opportunities to connect to, learn from and celebrate with communities of color.
Identify, support, and take actions to promote racial justice through social, economic, and environmental policy.
Background: Our vision reflects the input of our team members as we discussed what Black Lives Matter means to each of us. We heard people talk about our national history of systemic racism. We heard people talk about principles we hold dear such as love. We heard people assert that we need to “do,” not just talk. And under the theme of doing, we heard passions for self-educating (starting with the self), connecting (expanding into our community) and policy change (for the state and for the nation). And we heard reflections that this work is a natural extension of St. Anne’s history of connection, through our current St. Stephen’s relationship and as hosts for families in the past.
Actions: a housing subgroup is currently identifying ways that St. Anne’s parishioners can assist Boston-area families facing the risk of eviction. Opportunities for action are being posted in the weekly parish emails.
An education team is being formed to define the “educating/learning” component of our initiative, with a kickoff meeting on Tuesday, September 22, 7-8:30pm (Contact Fiona Stephenson or Jung Sun Oh if interested).
Parishioners are encouraged to consider taking individual actions to address racial injustice, and the reference "97 things White People Can Do for Racial Justice" from www.communitycommons.org can be a good place to start (click here).
We invite you to join us. RJA's next Zoom meeting is Tuesday, September 15 at 8pm. Please contact Dave Gronewold, Al Rossiter, or Garrett to get involved.