Racial Justice & Reconciliation

July 2020

 

As a religious institution, Trinity Cathedral, a member of the Episcopal Church in the United States, has much to repent of. We acknowledge that white privilege, an attitude of racial superiority, and the denial of true equal access to education, health care, housing, and jobs to nonwhite individuals, have perpetuated our sin and impaired individuals of color from full participation in the rights and life they deserve. We also acknowledge that the Cathedral stands on land previously under the stewardship of the Multnomah and Clackamas peoples.

 

Through the actions and negligences of our forebears, we have directly and indirectly benefited from participating in structural racism, and we have reinforced it on many levels. We have seen but failed to speak out or act in the face of redlining, mass incarceration, and repeated instances of police brutality at the local and national levels. We have failed to examine the implicit biases expressed in our music, liturgy, and ministry programming. Among our own congregation’s early leaders and prominent members were those whose public advocacy and participation in government helped set in place laws, policies, and practices that shaped Oregon’s troubled and troubling racial history. They argued in favor of slavery, supported exclusion laws, held membership in the Ku Klux Klan, and in various ways promoted discrimination. We have inherited this legacy.

 

We cannot forget our history, but we can work to ensure that our future is shaped by our values. We strive to follow Jesus of Nazareth, who began his teaching with these simple words, “Repent, for the Kingdom of God is at hand.” Of all these sins — “things known and unknown, things done and left undone” — we repent.

 

Drawing upon the language of the Book of Common Prayer (1979), we grieve and humbly repent of all that we have done and that which we have left undone. True repentance requires us to set aside our privilege, explore the impact of our sins, engage the demands of our historical moment, take responsibility for the harm we have caused, and, where possible, make amends.

 

In this posture of repentance, we return to the Core Values of Trinity Cathedral, adopted in 2008, to guide us as we strive for a more just community:

 

Respect:  We will respect the dignity of every human being

Compassion:  We will love our neighbor as ourselves

Integrity:  We will proclaim by word and example the Good News of God in Christ

Justice:  We will strive for justice and peace among all people

Inclusion:  We will seek and serve Christ in all persons

Stewardship:  We will sustain the gift of joy and wonders in all Your works

 

With gratitude to the staff for the work they have initiated and will continue, the Vestry offers the following framework for action, praying for the power of the Holy Spirit to lead us, trusting in our values to guide us, and inviting the congregation to active participation in this vital work. This framework will guide us in developing an in-depth and dynamic strategic plan for living into our Baptismal Covenant. We make these commitments across our four dimensions of congregational life.

 

Culture: We commit to examining and reforming the ways in which systemic racism and implicit bias are embodied in our policies, practices, and congregational culture.

 

Campus: We commit to auditing our physical spaces to understand how the Cathedral campus “speaks” of who we have been and who we want to be, and we commit to making necessary changes.

 

Currency: We commit to intentional and deliberate investment in communities that have been underserved.

 

Continuity: We commit to identifying and raising up leadership that reflects the congregation we wish to become.

 

We pray that with God's help, we will be able to take up the profound justice work before us with humility, fortitude, and grace as full and willing participants in the continuing revelation of God's kingdom on earth.