Professor Fredrica Harris Thompsett famously said that one of the reasons we study history is to back up into time and a get a running start on the future. And so as we engage in the daily struggle to dismantle systemic racism and challenge the toxic narrative of white supremacy that permeates our national psyche, we look to our history — and to the work and witness of those who have preceded us in the struggle as sources of both inspiration and mobilization.

One place to look is to The Church Awakens: African Americans and the Struggle for Justice  — an electronic publication and online exhibit of The Archives of the Episcopal Church first created in 2008 and updated periodically. The exhibit arose from an institutional call to examine the impact of racism on the Church, and received impetus from the gift of a generous donor, and the Archives Board’s commitment to uncovering the historical legacy of the Church’s African-American faithful.

It is is brilliant collection and well worth bookmarking and spending time with. Lots of time. Explore how the Episcopal Church has been complicit with racism, segregation and injustice — and learn the story of ESCRU and its history of activism — including boycotts and book burnings — and the 1969 Special Convention called to confront issues of poverty and injustice. The work of the Union of Black Episcopalians, the founding of the Episcopal Urban Caucus and the February 11, 1989 consecration of the first woman bishop in the Anglican Communion — the Right Reverend Barbara Clementine Harris … whose 30th Anniversary as a bishop we celebrate this very day.

Discover — or revisit — the witness of Verna Dozier — biblical scholar and theologian whose work challenged a whole generation of Episcopalians to live into “the dream of God.” 

Discover the voices of leaders — lay and ordained — in both written and audio archives. As true for all collections, it is incomplete and still-in-progress … and it offers an important witness to our history as a community of faith struggling to become all that God would have us be.