* FINAL VERSION - Concurred

Resolution C011

Title:   Church Responsibility in Reparations

Topic:   Justice

Committee:   Social and Urban Affairs

House of Initial Action:   Bishops

Proposer:   Diocese of Newark

Resolved, That the 75th General Convention, affirming our commitments to become a transformed, anti-racist church and to work toward healing, reconciliation, and a restoration of wholeness to the family of God, urge the Church at every level to call upon Congress and the American people to support legislation initiating study of and dialogue about the history and legacy of slavery in the United States and of proposals for monetary and non-monetary reparations to the descendants of the victims of slavery.


EXPLANATION

This is an issue of human rights, equity, and justice. African Americans continue to suffer serious damage spiritually, economically, socially, culturally and to their family structures because of the institution slavery. No restitution was made at the time of emancipation; the economy of our new nation was built on unpaid slave labor and generations of wealth were founded upon it.  The African American community has been greatly disadvantaged as a result of not having the opportunity to gain equity from their labor.  

As importantly, the legacy of slavery has been a unique, systemic and institutionalized racism that has resulted in disparities in every area of life for Americans of African ancestry.  The Episcopal Church benefited from the slave trade and the practice of slavery and has a moral and ethical responsibility to acknowledge its role in this injustice, to repent, to offer apology and to "repair the breach" (Isaiah 58:12).

Historically, governments have made restitution for people who were mistreated for grave injustice.  Efforts to gain economic redress for the injustices of slavery in the United States began in the Massachusetts legislature in 1787, but were taken up in earnest in the mid-nineteenth century, accelerated after the Civil War and have continued up until the present.  

The support of H.R. 40, a bill to create a commission for the study of reparations, is an important first step in the process of addressing the sins of slavery and its legacy of racism.  This bill has been introduced in each of the last eight legislative sessions by Representative John Conyers and has failed to make it out of committee.   It is time for us to support addressing this issue as Christians committed to justice for all God's family.



* The final language, as well as the final status of each resolution, is being reviewed by the General Convention office. The Journal of the 75th General Convention and the Constitution and Canons will be published once the review process has been completed.