Anti-Racism Working Group

Our anti-racism working group (ARWG) coordinates churchwide efforts to live into our anti-racism vision statement:

We strive to become a beloved community that reflects on our own racial identities and recognizes racism and privilege in our church and society; works for justice by building relationships and sustained efforts to heal, reconcile, and seek Christ in each other; and acts to interrupt and dismantle white supremacist structures, transforming ourselves and our church to become a living embodiment of justice and peace.

Most recently, the ARWG has organized its efforts in several areas:  1) programming in the parish, to include offering suggested resources related to Black History Month, Hispanic History Month, and Asian and Pacific Islanders Heritage Month; 2) support for and amplification of other committees in the parish, to include the Arts Committee and the Music program; 3) partnering externally, to include setting up a Faith in Action Team (FIAT) as part of our membership in the Community Renewal Society.  We look forward to resuming our work with our primary external partner, Chicago ROAR (Regional Organizing for Antiracism), including our participation in a pilot program run in conjunction with the Antiracism Commission of the Episcopal Diocese of Chicago (ARC).  We continue to send parishioners to CROAR’s 1-day training, Introduction to Systemic Racism Digital Engagement, and its 2.5 day training, Towards Liberation.

Past ARWG events include attendance at many CRS MLK Day celebrations, working on the End Money Bond Action and Fair Tax amendments with CRS in the run-up to the November 2020 election, running Sacred Ground (Summer 2019), and small-group studies of Drew G.I. Hart’s Trouble I’ve Seen: Changing the Way the Church Views Racism and Austin Channing Brown’s I’m Still Here: Black Dignity in a World Made for Whiteness. The working group grew out of SPR’s involvement in the Black Lives Matter movement. To read a collection of Black Lives Matter stories by SPR members in 2014-15, click here. To learn more about the ARWG’s work, contact Sara Bigger.