A043 Clarify and Update Mandate
Resolved, the House of Deputies concurring,
That the mandate for the Executive Council Committee on Anti-Racism be amended, clarify its charge and to update terminology to include the term “Reconciliation” and hereby read as follows:
“This Committee is charged with guiding and monitoring the Church’s work in response to General Convention resolutions directed at eliminating the sin of racism from the life of the Church by:
Recognizing and developing its anti-racism and racial reconciliation work as a fundamental and requisite part of Christian formation; monitoring and evaluating anti-racism and anti-racism racial reconciliation related ministries and activities of national Church staff and, when feasible, contributing to the oversight and coordination of said ministries and programming; recommending best practices for eliminating racism and promoting racial reconciliation; collecting data on provincial anti-racism and racial reconciliation activities to be submitted to Executive Council on an annual basis; developing criteria for the credentialing of certified anti-racism trainers ordained and lay people as having completed “anti-racism/racial reconciliation training in fulfilment of the Canons and General Convention Resolution 2000-B049; and monitoring compliance of anti-racism/racial reconciliation legislation passed by General Convention.”
Explanation
The Presiding officers have moved away from using the term “anti-racism” and have begun using the term “racial reconciliation” as to be a more expanded scope of effort. The committee appreciates and wants to support that change. Our members who visited the New Community Conference confirm that people of color are hungry for this change and expanded scope. Some people have expressed the opinion that anti-racism work includes the work of reconciliation. Looking up the definition of "Anti-Racism" in the Oxford dictionary results in the definition "The policy or practice of opposing racism and promoting racial tolerance." The committee feels that opposition of racism and promotion of tolerance is not quite the same as God's call to reconciliation - returning to a right relationship with God calls our neighbor. The committee’s sense is that the work of anti-racism is advocating for people not to behave in a racist manner whereas the work of reconciliation goes further - seeking to actively change relationships. The end goal of reconciliation is being in a state of reconciliation or reconciled, not just a world where people tolerate one another or behave politely/respectfully. The Committee, also, feels that the term “Anti-Racism” has history and value. In an effort to accommodate all the perspectives discussed, the Committee feels a compromise is to add the term “racial reconciliation” to the wording of its charge. Move from credentialing of trainers to credentialing of individuals. Based on our research and the fact that funding has not been provided for a staff member who would be tasked with running a trainer certification program as was done in the past, we believe that a more manageable process should be developed which would focus on certification of individuals managed at the local level. We believe it will be easier and more cost effective to approve and maintain a list of vendor provided training curricula which must follow the rubric defined by this Committee yet allow other training curricula to be used as long as it to follows the rubric defined by this Committee. To prove that learners have gained the knowledge and skills we believe are appropriate, TEC staff (or the Committee) would develop a Certification Exam aligned to this rubric as a way of conferring certification on ordained and lay people. It, too, would be placed on the church web site.