The Anti-Racism Commission's monthly newsletter goes out to all ARC supporters and training participants. Please forward it to others who might benefit from our resources and workshops. And check out our blog site for past articles, training information and ongoing resources.

Following the murder of George Floyd and civil unrest in the city of Philadelphia in the summer of 2020, members of the Cathedral congregation began an examination, institutional and individual, of our complicity through our actions and inactions in the sin of systemic racism. As a part of that examination, the Cathedral has sought to understand its historic role within the context of its neighborhood on 38th Street in West Philadelphia in what is also now known as University City. 

This arose in part after a significant portion of the congregation engaged with the outstanding Sacred Ground curriculum and saw US history through a new and painful lens. 

To help us better understand as a congregation how our church community has been an actor within the complex racial history of our city, we have created a timeline that sits on a wall in the Liem-Azar Center. It traces the history of our diocese from its inception, taking a deeper look at our parish, founded in 1850 and formerly known as The Church of the Saviour. The timeline continues until the present day as we serve as the Cathedral church of the Episcopal Diocese of Pennsylvania.

We plan to engage with the timeline over the coming year in our adult and youth formation, reflecting on the story it tells us and adding in both historical and personal dates and events in the life of the Cathedral and our neighborhood. Viewing history in this linear way helps to make connections between events - for example, WWI and the loss of white male workers, the beginning of the Great Migration, and then racial unrest in South Philadelphia in the early part of the last century, all of which led to the gradual loss of our congregation to the Main Line suburbs.

We hope to also juxtapose the story of the timeline with our own personal histories, looking at our lives of faith through the lens of the larger story of race in our city. Images that clearly show the tension between police and the Black community, the destruction of Black neighborhoods for "urban renewal," the abandonment of our inner city churches... as we see these events (which all seemed normative at the time) one after another on the timeline, we hope to see our own lives in a new way. We've seen some spontaneous and informal sharing as people encounter the timeline, sharing about their own lives in the city and how the timeline offers new insights. This structured and unstructured reflection is what the timeline is about. 

By reflecting on our shared history as we strive to become beloved community, we are better able to see ourselves as others see us and reach out in understanding. 

For more information about the Timeline Project, contact Meredith Wiggins, Director of Children and Family Ministries at the Cathedral (mwiggins@philadelphiacathedral.org). Ms. Wiggins teaches the US history component of the Dismantling Racism youth curriculum of our diocese and can show you how to create your own online timeline. 

The Cathedral would like to thank the talented graphic designer Roger Allen from Fresh Artists, who volunteered his time to print the timeline and install it for us - a huge job.

Cathedral Canon for Music and the Arts and ARC member Thomas Lloyd composed a new anthem for choir and organ on text from "A Litany of Thanksgiving" by the great theologian and civil rights visionary Howard Thurman (1899-1981).

The anthem was presented for the first time for the last choir Sunday of the season at the Cathedral, on June 12 (Trinity Sunday) and the day before, at the diaconal ordination of Christopher Schwenk at the Cathedral.

Lloyd thought of the anthem as a special offering of thanks at the end of a year that has been unusually challenging for all churches, and especially church choirs.

At times contemplative, whimsical, and ecstatic, Thurman's inimitable visions range from childhood "fairies and goblins" to "the savior whose blood was shed with recklessness that only a dream could inspire and a God could command."

Watch the Cathedral choir's performance of the anthem on YouTube (8 mins):

• Up South: Civil Rights and Black Power in Philadelphia by Matthew J. Countryman
• Savage Inequalities: Children in America's Schools by Jonathan Kozol
• Racism without Racists: Color-Blind Racism and the Persistence of Racial Inequality in America, Fifth Edition by Eduardo Bonilla-Silva

• Why the term “BIPOC” is so complicated, explained by linguists by Constance Grady
• AP Style’s Racial Capitalization Debate: Not So Black and white by Cody Wiesner
• White Supremacy Culture by Kenneth Jones and Tema Okun

TED Talks about Equity and Identity

• Dena Simmons: How students of color confront impostor syndrome (11 mins)
• Victor Rios: Help for kids the education system ignores (12 mins)
• Rita Pierson: Every kid needs a champion (8 mins)

• Dr. Robin DiAngelo discusses 'White Fragility' (83 mins) 
• The Battle Over Critical Race Theory feat. Kimberlé Crenshaw (67 mins)
• A Public Dialogue Between bell hooks and Cornel West (88 mins) 

Sat. Jul. 30 from 9 am to 12 pm on Zoom

Fee: $15. Scholarships available.

Explores the ways in which racism manifests in America’s educational, employment, entertainment, finance, healthcare, housing, justice, mass media, and religious institutions.

The Anti-Racism Commission is here to connect you to trainings, resources and support that are rooted in our baptismal covenant. The next training will be Introduction to Systemic Racism on Aug. 27.

The Anti-Racism Commission was created by diocesan convention resolution in 2005 with the mandate “to affect the systemic and institutional transformation in the diocese away from the sin of racism and toward the fulfillment of the Gospel and the baptismal mandate to strive for justice and respect the dignity of all persons.”

Consisting of 12 members, a mix of clergy and lay and persons of various ethnic and cultural backgrounds, the commission aims to increase awareness of the history and legacy of racism in our country and to engage members of the diocese in dismantling its effects.

To learn more about how ARC can help your parish engage in the work of racial justice and repair, contact The Rev. Barbara Ballenger (barbballenger@gmail.com) or The Rev. Ernie Galaz (frernie@christchurchmedia.org), ARC co-chairs.