“If anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new! All this is from God, who reconciled us to Godself through Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to the divine self, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting the message of reconciliation to us.”
– 2 Corinthians 5:17-19
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As All Saints Church continues to grow into God’s future, we continue to learn from our past—not only the times and places where we celebrate where we got it right, but owning the times and places where we got it wrong: those times and places where our failure to live up to our core values resulted in ruptured relationships.
That work is not unique to All Saints Church. Saint Paul writes about it as the central mission of Christians when he writes about reconciliation: bringing together what is broken and healing that which has been wounded. And in the church, reconciliation is a sacramental process with five specific steps: self-examination, confession. repentance, amendment of life, and absolution. The first step in the sacramental process of reconciliation is self-examination—learning from the past where we have gone astray and where healing is necessary. In the words of Bishop Jennifer Baskerville-Burrows: “You have to tell the whole story, so you can write a new story.”
Those words inspired the Telling the Whole Story project: a concerted effort to start with three of the stories which need more telling:
- Acknowledging the origins of the land on which All Saints stands;
- Recognizing our congregational complicity in Jim Crow Segregation and the founding of St. Barnabas Church; and
- Exploring both the history behind and the ongoing impact of the whiteness of the iconography in the church.
Three working groups were formed:
- The Land We Are On
The Land Group completed its report to the Vestry, compiled its findings and submitted an extensive written paper. See our Land Acknowledgement here. - All Saints’ History of Jim Crow Segregation and St. Barnabas Church
The St. Barnabas group is working on telling the story of All Saints’ role in necessitating the creation of a separate church rather than welcoming African Americans into its congregation. - Stained Glass and White Iconography
Three new icons have been added to the sanctuary to expand the representation in its iconography. The working group has a report to the Vestry in progress.
What Happens Next?
While no story can ever be fully told, at some point we will have told these stories as fully as we can and the work of these groups will be over. We tell the whole story as best we can so we can write a new story—a story that will carry us into a new and reconciled future of radical inclusion, courageous justice, joyful spirituality and ethical stewardship.
“If anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new! All this is from God, who reconciled us to Godself through Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to the divine self, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting the message of reconciliation to us.”
– 2 Corinthians 5:17-19
++++++++++
As All Saints Church continues to grow into God’s future, we continue to learn from our past—not only the times and places where we celebrate where we got it right, but owning the times and places where we got it wrong: those times and places where our failure to live up to our core values resulted in ruptured relationships.
That work is not unique to All Saints Church. Saint Paul writes about it as the central mission of Christians when he writes about reconciliation: bringing together what is broken and healing that which has been wounded. And in the church, reconciliation is a sacramental process with five specific steps: self-examination, confession. repentance, amendment of life, and absolution. The first step in the sacramental process of reconciliation is self-examination—learning from the past where we have gone astray and where healing is necessary. In the words of Bishop Jennifer Baskerville-Burrows: “You have to tell the whole story, so you can write a new story.”
Those words inspired the Telling the Whole Story project: a concerted effort to start with three of the stories which need more telling:
- Acknowledging the origins of the land on which All Saints stands;
- Recognizing our congregational complicity in Jim Crow Segregation and the founding of St. Barnabas Church; and
- Exploring both the history behind and the ongoing impact of the whiteness of the iconography in the church.
Three working groups were formed:
- The Land We Are On
The Land Group completed its report to the Vestry, compiled its findings and submitted an extensive written paper. See our Land Acknowledgement here. - All Saints’ History of Jim Crow Segregation and St. Barnabas Church
The St. Barnabas group is working on telling the story of All Saints’ role in necessitating the creation of a separate church rather than welcoming African Americans into its congregation. - Stained Glass and White Iconography
Three new icons have been added to the sanctuary to expand the representation in its iconography. The working group has a report to the Vestry in progress.
What Happens Next?
While no story can ever be fully told, at some point we will have told these stories as fully as we can and the work of these groups will be over. We tell the whole story as best we can so we can write a new story—a story that will carry us into a new and reconciled future of radical inclusion, courageous justice, joyful spirituality and ethical stewardship.