Explanation

Racial healing, justice, and reconciliation is at the heart of the way of Jesus. The Episcopal branch of the Jesus Movement seeks to foster Beloved Community, where all people experience dignity and abundant life and see themselves and others as beloved children of God. As reported in the recent Executive Council Committee on Anti-Racism (ECCAR) Blue Book report, there is significant anti-racism work occurring throughout the Church. Furthermore, there are places in the church which have little or no trainings or emphasis on racial healing, justice, and reconciliation. In our current divisive climate, the church must be on the forefront of racial reconciliation. A summit which gathers leaders, practitioners, trainers and those interested in the work would be a catalyst for expanding racial healing and dismantling racism throughout the church and the world. At the last General Convention, there was a call for an Evangelism Summit (Resolution 2015 A173). By all accounts, that summit was a great success. The summit sparked a significant increased interest in evangelism, the sharing of best practices, the creation of new evangelism resources, mutual encouragement amongst evangelists, a newly formed network of evangelism catalysts, as well as two church-wide evangelism conferences. This resolution seeks to hold such a catalytic gathering in the area of racial reconciliation and social justice. We are aware that over the years, many Centers for Anti-Racism and Racial Reconciliation have been established across the Church. These centers are vital resources and places of action. The summit would bring these practitioners together and many others to ignite the whole Church to make a difference in healing our world and growing into beloved community.