A Word from Laura: DC Emancipation Day

This Sunday, April 16, marks the coming together of several events related to racial justice here at Western:

·         Sunday is Emancipation Day in the DC, the day in 1862 when President Lincoln endorsed the act of Congress to abolish slavery in the District.  Eight months before the Emancipation Proclamation, more than 3,000 people were freed. (Click here to read the historical overview from DC.gov)

·         We welcome Dr. William Yoo, a seminary professor, church historian and author of What Kind of Christianity – A History of Slavery and Anti-Black Racism in the Presbyterian Church. Dr. Yoo will lead a Free Inquiry class on his work, “The History and Legacy of Slavery and Anti-Black Racism in the Presbyterian Church – Confronting a Haunted Past and Enacting a More Faithful Future” and preach the sermon “To Hunger and Thirst for Justice and Righteousness”. (Click here to download a free chapter of the book.)

·         In worship, we will use the litany of repentance for White Christians, approved by the PC(USA) General Assembly last summer as part of Overture RGJ-08, “On Offering an Apology to African Americans for the Sin of Slavery and Its Legacy.”  (Click here and scroll down to read the full overture.)

·         And at 5 p.m. the book group will discuss The Color of Compromise by Jemar Tisby, looking at the larger scope of White American Christianity’s complicity in racism, from the colonial to the contemporary era.

I’m grateful to many of you who have worked and advocated in different ways to make sure these events come together. The antiracism group, particularly Bill Saint, worked to compile a series of overtures and ensure different groups throughout the church had the opportunity to discuss them. Hosting William Yoo and using the litany of repentance were two desired action steps out of that process.

I hope that this Sunday will get you and your faith thinking about the way racism has been baked in to American Presbyterianism.  In a culture that approaches faith as individual choice rather than embedded in the history of a tradition, I hope you’ll consider both the history and the ways it impacts how we are church. When we use the litany of repentance, what does it mean to repent as a Presbyterian? Even if you don’t personally identify with the racist history, what are we called to do as a church and a tradition that does?

Please don’t expect William Yoo to have all the answers. Based on my own experience and friendship, he’ll bring thoughtful, faithful and well-researched material, helping us understand how we got here in a way that will make us “hunger and thirst” to do the work of racial justice.  In the same way, the litany of repentance won’t give exact action steps. Instead, I hope it will prick the consciences of those of us who are White to help us clarify the work that is ours to do next.

I hope that this Sunday raises more questions than it answers – the kind of questions that allow the Holy Spirit to do the work that needs to be done, the kind of questions that help us take action, whether individually or as a church. 

161 years ago this Sunday, a Black citizen of the District heard the news of emancipation and left the house saying, “let me go and tell my husband that Jesus has done all things well.” May we discover those things Jesus is doing today and join in his work,

Laura