Loading...Anti-Racism trainers from across Province III met in Harrisburg on November 11th and 12th to discuss the state of Anti-Racism training in the Province, and to help coordinate plans for future training.
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Province III encompasses the states of Delaware, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Virginia and West Virginia, and the District of Columbia. Trainers from many of the Province’s 13 dioceses were in attendance. The Rt. Rev. Nathan Baxter, Bishop of Central PA, and his wife, shared dinner with the attendees before the meetings convened.
The meeting, chaired by Province Anti-Racism Coordinator Nancy Travis Bolden, covered budgetary concerns, news from the various dioceses, and methods and materials for training. Most notable was the diversity of training being carried out in the various dioceses. A 14-hour training excerpt from the Episcopal Church’s program “Seeing the Face of God in Each Other” is the standard for anti-racism education in the church. In one diocese, videos are shown weekly, followed by discussion. In another, a two-and-a-half day long program from a sister denomination is used. In other dioceses, unfortunately, little or no training is taking place. When that is the case, there usually aren’t enough qualified trainers to carry out the training required by the General Convention resolutions. At the 2009 General Convention, it was revealed that only 77 of the 100 dioceses offered anti-racism training, and that there were only 60 certified trainers.
The need for more trainers was a topic of discussion, as well as how best to make use of funds allocated by the General Convention of 2012 for the purpose of anti-racism training. Many of those funds will be used for travel and hotel expenses for multi day “Train the Trainer” workshops and for instructional videos. Trainers also shared free internet videos and book titles.
Another topic for discussion was 2012 General Convention resolution A128, which broadened the scope of a similar resolution made at General Convention 2009 repudiating the Doctrine of Discovery.
Under what was called Manifest Destiny, it was believed throughout the 19th century that the United States, specifically those citizens of Anglo-Saxon descent, was destined to expand across the continent. The Doctrine of Discovery refers to international laws, ecclesiastical documents, and policies that were understood to set forth the ways colonial powers laid claim to newly “discovered” territories, beginning in the early 1500s and continuing through the 1800s. The Doctrine gave the church’s full blessing and sanction to the slave trade in Africa and in the New World, the killing of the indigenous people in the Americas, the taking of native lands, and the overall attempt to destroy indigenous cultures.
The 2012 resolution expanded the wording of the 2009 document to repudiate not only offenses perpetuated against America’s Native population, but against “all people of color who have experienced and continue to experience oppression because of policies and practices grounded [in] the Doctrine of Discovery”.
The trainers exchanged addresses, and agreed to meet by teleconference early next year, with a personal meeting to come later in the year.
