“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
“What is past is prologue.”
– William Shakespeare, The Tempest
“You have to tell the whole story, so you can write a new story.”
– The Rt. Rev. Jennifer Baskerville-Burrows
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As All Saints Church continues to grow into God’s future, it is vital that 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/Reparation
- Amendment of Life
- Absolution/Living a Reconciled Life
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. We have to do this, not out of an act of shame or self-flagellation but because, in the words of Bishop Jennifer Baskerville-Burrows: “You have to tell the whole story, so you can write a new story.”* And so the Telling the Whole Story project was born: a concerted effort to explore three 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 in general and the stained glass in particular.
Three working groups were formed and are in varying stages of continuing/completing their work:
- The Land We Are On The Land Group completed its report to the Vestry, has 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 This group is currently working on its report to the Vestry.
What Happens Next?
While no story can ever be fully told, at some point we will have told the story as fully as we can and the work of these groups will be over. The next steps will be for all of us to listen deeply, and determine where there has been wounding and broken relationship, and—centering the voices of those who have been wounded and marginalized—exploring what repentance and reparation looks like, and how we decide to follow that call. Then together we will, taking all we have learned, make new commitments to live together in a new and reconciled way into the future.
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.
* (You can watch some highlights from her sermon on the story of Christ Church Cathedral in Missouri, and the part slavery and racism played in that story here.)
“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
“What is past is prologue.”
– William Shakespeare, The Tempest
“You have to tell the whole story, so you can write a new story.”
– The Rt. Rev. Jennifer Baskerville-Burrows
++++++++++
As All Saints Church continues to grow into God’s future, it is vital that 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/Reparation
- Amendment of Life
- Absolution/Living a Reconciled Life
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. We have to do this, not out of an act of shame or self-flagellation but because, in the words of Bishop Jennifer Baskerville-Burrows: “You have to tell the whole story, so you can write a new story.”* And so the Telling the Whole Story project was born: a concerted effort to explore three 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 in general and the stained glass in particular.
Three working groups were formed and are in varying stages of continuing/completing their work:
- The Land We Are On The Land Group completed its report to the Vestry, has 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 This group is currently working on its report to the Vestry.
What Happens Next?
While no story can ever be fully told, at some point we will have told the story as fully as we can and the work of these groups will be over. The next steps will be for all of us to listen deeply, and determine where there has been wounding and broken relationship, and—centering the voices of those who have been wounded and marginalized—exploring what repentance and reparation looks like, and how we decide to follow that call. Then together we will, taking all we have learned, make new commitments to live together in a new and reconciled way into the future.
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.
* (You can watch some highlights from her sermon on the story of Christ Church Cathedral in Missouri, and the part slavery and racism played in that story here.)