St. Richard's Episcopal Church

Beloved Community

The mission of the Beloved Community is to serve St. Richard’s as its primary resource and catalyst for the work of social justice.

Operating Principles:

We will plan activities that align with our Baptismal Covenant to “strive for justice and peace among all people and respect the dignity of every human being”.
We will pursue issues which address the dignity and rights of people who are socially, politically, or economically disadvantaged.
We will maximize opportunities to assist and work with organizations, coalitions, and neighborhood groups to promote our common interests.
We will operate from and promote social action that includes both the private, personal commitments to justice and also public, communal, and institutional commitments to social justice.

Sacred Ground

Sacred Ground is a film- and readings-based dialogue series on race, grounded in faith. Small groups are invited to walk through chapters of America’s history of race and racism, while weaving in threads of family story, economic class, and political and regional identity.

The 10-part series is built around a powerful online curriculum of documentary films and readings that focus on Indigenous, Black, Latino, and Asian/Pacific American histories as they intersect with European American histories.

Sacred Ground is part of Becoming Beloved Community, The Episcopal Church’s long-term commitment to racial healing, reconciliation, and justice in our personal lives, our ministries, and our society. This series is open to all, and especially designed to help white people talk with other white people. Participants are invited to peel away the layers that have contributed to the challenges and divides of the present day – all while grounded in our call to faith, hope and love.

https://www.episcopalchurch.org/sacred-ground/

If you are interested in taking a class in the near future please contact Kathy at katestockman61@gmail.com.

Sacred Ground Resources

https://www.episcopalchurch.org/michaelcurry/gathering-on-sacred-ground/

Beloved Book Club

All are welcome to join this book club where we will be reading both nonfiction and fiction books related to issues of justice. Selections will be made by the group and discussion leaders may rotate, depending on the composition and size of the group.

Dates for Next Book Club: to Be Announced

Choice #1: The Church Cracked Open

"This book will make a profound difference for the church in this moment in history."
The Most Reverend Michael B. Curry

Sometimes it takes disruption and loss to break us open and call us home to God. It’s not surprising that a global pandemic and once-in-a-generation reckoning with white supremacy on top of decades of systemic decline have spurred Christians everywhere to ask who we are, why God placed us here and what difference that makes to the world.

In this critical yet loving book, the author explores the American story and the Episcopal story in order to find out how communities steeped in racism, establishment, and privilege can at last fall in love with Jesus, walk humbly with the most vulnerable and embody beloved community in our own broken but beautiful way.

The Church Cracked Open invites us to surrender privilege and redefine church, not just for the sake of others, but for our own salvation and liberation.

Choice #2: The Hidden Wound

An impassioned, thoughtful, and fearless essay on the effects of racism on the American identity by one of our country’s most humane literary voices.

Acclaimed as “one of the most humane, honest, liberating works of our time” (The Village Voice), The Hidden Wound is a book-length essay about racism and the damage it has done to the identity of our country. Through Berry’s personal experience, he explains how remaining passive in the face of the struggle of racism further corrodes America’s great potential. In a quiet and observant manner, Berry opens up about how his attempt to discuss racism is rooted in the hope that someday the historical wound will begin to heal. Pulitzer prize-winning author Larry McMurtry calls this “a profound, passionate, crucial piece of writing . . . Few readers, and I think, no writers will be able to read it without a small pulse of triumph at the temples: the strange, almost communal sense of triumph one feels when someone has written truly well . . . The statement it makes is intricate and beautiful, sad but strong.”

Resources from the Episcopal Church

The National Episcopal Church’s Main Website

www.episcopalchurch.org

“The work of Your Church: A conversation with Presiding Bishop Michael Curry and his Canons”

https://www.episcopalchurch.org/development/work-of-your-church-webinar/

Race & Reconciliation Dr. Ray Arsenault

Critical Race Theory Origins and Applications with Dr. Ray Arsenault

The Race and Reconciliation Committee invites you to watch Dr. Raymond Arsenault and learn more about Critical Race Theory, its origins, and its applications. Dr. Arsenault is an American historian and academic. He is the John Hope Franklin Professor of Southern History and co-director of the Florida Studies Program at the University of South Florida.

https://vimeo.com/710408862