As we look towards the future of All Saints Church, it is vital that we understand our past—where relationship has been broken and where we have failed to live up to our own core values of courageous justice, ethical stewardship, radical inclusion, and joyful spirituality. Our central mission is that of reconciliation, bringing together what is broken and healing that which has been wounded. The first step in the sacramental process of reconciliation is self-examination. In the words of Bishop Jennifer Baskerville-Burrows: “You have to tell the whole story, so you can write a new story.”
A key area for which we need to tell the whole story is the land that our church occupies. Acknowledging how land has been acquired and used in the United States is an important step in understanding and addressing the injustices done to groups who have been subject to the trauma of avaricious colonialism. Land ownership is inescapably tied to wealth and power, and we, as members of the All Saints Church community, must acknowledge our own privilege in enjoying meeting on land that has not been equitably acquired. We also note that the Episcopal Church’s General Convention passed a resolution in 2009 repudiating the 15th century-based Doctrine of Discovery, which “held that Christian sovereigns and their representative explorers could assert dominion and title over non-Christian lands with the full blessing and sanction of the Church,” and has since encouraged dioceses and churches to examine the history of the land they occupy and incorporate land acknowledgements into liturgy and worship.
This project, “Telling the Whole Story: The Land We Are On,” was undertaken as the first step in our reconciliation process with respect to the land and all who have lived here. A working group was co-convened by Mike Kinman and Hannah Earnshaw to investigate the history of the land currently occupied by All Saints Church. The result of that investigation is a report, co-authored by Hannah Earnshaw and Becky Nicolaides, which covers the history of the Tongva people, the colonization of California by the Spanish, Mexicans, and Americans, and All Saints Church’s own purchase and use of its land.
Co-Conveners: Hannah Earnshaw and Mike Kinman
Members: Barbara Andrade Dubransky, Gaithri Fernandez, Mike Hernandez, Becky Nicolaides, and Monique Thomas.
You can read the full report here.
You can find source materials and supplementary information here.
See our Land Acknowledgement here.
In conducting this deep dive into the story of the land we occupy, we have realized the following truths:
- All Saints Church has fallen short of our value of Courageous Justice by benefitting from the povertization of indigenous people and people of color in acquiring the land upon which our church stands. During colonization, this land was stolen from the Tongva people who originally lived here. The land was then sold and bought as if the colonizers owned it. This usurping of land was just one aspect of the genocide inflicted upon the Tongva people, with consequences that are still felt today. Courageous Justice will require that we, as the All Saints community, learn how we have participated in this system of dispossession and find our way back to a more just way of relating to the land and its original residents.
- All Saints Church has fallen short of our value of Ethical Stewardship of the land. With the removal of its traditional caretakers, the land has undergone widescale environmental destruction, including the removal of native vegetation and wildlife, widespread urbanization, and the introduction of non-native plants. Additionally, over the years, All Saints Church itself has participated in the unfortunate practice of limiting housing in Pasadena by removing apartments on Euclid Avenue and replacing them with Scott Hall and a parking lot. No housing units have been replaced since.
- All Saints Church has fallen short of our value of Radical Inclusion. All Saints Church has bought and sold residential property for its rectories and clergy residences in racially exclusive neighborhoods, where Black and indigenous people have not had opportunity to purchase land and enjoy the wealth and power that comes with land ownership in wealthy neighborhoods.
- AND, while we engage in repentance over our history, we at All Saints Church will center on our value of Joyful Spirituality, to help us overcome the challenges we have created for our neighbors and for ourselves, and to take and celebrate the steps that will return us towards God’s dream for us becoming Beloved Community.
This report will provide important input into the next steps of our process of reconciliation—to identify and carry out specific actions (including but not limited to the creation of a land acknowledgement) that will begin to repair the broken relationships between All Saints Church and those impacted by the difficult history of the land we are on.
Return to The Telling The Whole Story Project
If you want to learn more about this work or become a part of it, contact Hannah Earnshaw.
As we look towards the future of All Saints Church, it is vital that we understand our past—where relationship has been broken and where we have failed to live up to our own core values of courageous justice, ethical stewardship, radical inclusion, and joyful spirituality. Our central mission is that of reconciliation, bringing together what is broken and healing that which has been wounded. The first step in the sacramental process of reconciliation is self-examination. In the words of Bishop Jennifer Baskerville-Burrows: “You have to tell the whole story, so you can write a new story.”
A key area for which we need to tell the whole story is the land that our church occupies. Acknowledging how land has been acquired and used in the United States is an important step in understanding and addressing the injustices done to groups who have been subject to the trauma of avaricious colonialism. Land ownership is inescapably tied to wealth and power, and we, as members of the All Saints Church community, must acknowledge our own privilege in enjoying meeting on land that has not been equitably acquired. We also note that the Episcopal Church’s General Convention passed a resolution in 2009 repudiating the 15th century-based Doctrine of Discovery, which “held that Christian sovereigns and their representative explorers could assert dominion and title over non-Christian lands with the full blessing and sanction of the Church,” and has since encouraged dioceses and churches to examine the history of the land they occupy and incorporate land acknowledgements into liturgy and worship.
This project, “Telling the Whole Story: The Land We Are On,” was undertaken as the first step in our reconciliation process with respect to the land and all who have lived here. A working group was co-convened by Mike Kinman and Hannah Earnshaw to investigate the history of the land currently occupied by All Saints Church. The result of that investigation is a report, co-authored by Hannah Earnshaw and Becky Nicolaides, which covers the history of the Tongva people, the colonization of California by the Spanish, Mexicans, and Americans, and All Saints Church’s own purchase and use of its land.
Co-Conveners: Hannah Earnshaw and Mike Kinman
Members: Barbara Andrade Dubransky, Gaithri Fernandez, Mike Hernandez, Becky Nicolaides, and Monique Thomas.
You can read the full report here.
You can find source materials and supplementary information here.
See our Land Acknowledgement here.
In conducting this deep dive into the story of the land we occupy, we have realized the following truths:
- All Saints Church has fallen short of our value of Courageous Justice by benefitting from the povertization of indigenous people and people of color in acquiring the land upon which our church stands. During colonization, this land was stolen from the Tongva people who originally lived here. The land was then sold and bought as if the colonizers owned it. This usurping of land was just one aspect of the genocide inflicted upon the Tongva people, with consequences that are still felt today. Courageous Justice will require that we, as the All Saints community, learn how we have participated in this system of dispossession and find our way back to a more just way of relating to the land and its original residents.
- All Saints Church has fallen short of our value of Ethical Stewardship of the land. With the removal of its traditional caretakers, the land has undergone widescale environmental destruction, including the removal of native vegetation and wildlife, widespread urbanization, and the introduction of non-native plants. Additionally, over the years, All Saints Church itself has participated in the unfortunate practice of limiting housing in Pasadena by removing apartments on Euclid Avenue and replacing them with Scott Hall and a parking lot. No housing units have been replaced since.
- All Saints Church has fallen short of our value of Radical Inclusion. All Saints Church has bought and sold residential property for its rectories and clergy residences in racially exclusive neighborhoods, where Black and indigenous people have not had opportunity to purchase land and enjoy the wealth and power that comes with land ownership in wealthy neighborhoods.
- AND, while we engage in repentance over our history, we at All Saints Church will center on our value of Joyful Spirituality, to help us overcome the challenges we have created for our neighbors and for ourselves, and to take and celebrate the steps that will return us towards God’s dream for us becoming Beloved Community.
This report will provide important input into the next steps of our process of reconciliation—to identify and carry out specific actions (including but not limited to the creation of a land acknowledgement) that will begin to repair the broken relationships between All Saints Church and those impacted by the difficult history of the land we are on.
Return to The Telling The Whole Story Project
If you want to learn more about this work or become a part of it, contact Hannah Earnshaw.