Episcopal Church apologizes for its role in slavery

c. 2008 Religion News Service PHILADELPHIA _ In an unprecedented public act of remorse for centuries of support for slavery, the Episcopal Church on Saturday (Oct. 4) held a dramatic service of repentance at one of the nation’s first black churches. Punctuated with the sound of a gong and the sung refrain of “Lord have […]

c. 2008 Religion News Service

PHILADELPHIA _ In an unprecedented public act of remorse for centuries of support for slavery, the Episcopal Church on Saturday (Oct. 4) held a dramatic service of repentance at one of the nation’s first black churches.

Punctuated with the sound of a gong and the sung refrain of “Lord have mercy, Christ have mercy,” the service began with a “Litany of Offense and Apology” detailing the ways that the denomination participated in human captivity, segregation and discrimination.


More than 500 worshippers, a multicultural sea of faces, spilled over into the aisles of the African Episcopal Church of St. Thomas, founded in 1792 by Absalom Jones, a former slave and the denomination’s first black priest.

“Through it all, people of privilege looked the other way, and too few found the courage to question inhuman ideas, words, practices or laws,” said Episcopal Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori.

“We and they ignored the image of Christ in our neighbors.”

Several of America’s founding fathers _ most notably George Washington _ were Episcopalians and slave owners, and many of the nation’s most historic and prominent steeples were built by wealthy donors who made their fortunes on the back of slave labor.

Yet Episcopalians were one of the few U.S. churches that managed to stay intact as the Civil War split Methodists, Presbyterians and Baptists into northern and southern branches over the issue of slavery.

This year marks the 200th anniversary of the abolition of the slave trade in the United States. Last June, the U.S. House of Representatives issued its own apology for slavery.

“Apology and acknowledgment are an incredibly important part of the process of coming to terms with history,” said Katrina Browne, whose recent film, “Traces of the Trade,” explores the wealth accumulated by her Episcopal ancestors in Rhode Island through the slave trade.

The service, and the day of workshops that preceded it, were the result of a resolution passed at the Episcopalians’ 2006 General Convention that called slavery a “sin” and a betrayal of the “humanity of all persons.”


The 2006 resolution asked dioceses to research instances in which they have been complicit or profited from it, and asked the presiding bishop to hold a “Day of Repentance.” Each diocesan cathedral was also asked to hold its own service of repentance.

A number of African American participants emphasized that however moving the event, it was only one step in an effort to redress denominational and social inequities.

Noting that another General Convention resolution addresses oppression of “all people of color victimized by society over the past 300 years,” Canon Ed Rodman, a professor at Episcopal Divinity School in Cambridge, Mass., added that “until the whole story is told and everybody’s voice has been heard we cannot begin the process of reconciliation.”

“It is one thing to repent of our sin, but another to turn around and go in the right direction,” said Franklin Turner, retired Suffragan Bishop of the Diocese of Pennsylvania.

“I don’t think it’s what the church does inside the church,” added the Rev. Isaac Miller, rector of the historic (Episcopal) Church of the Advocate in North Philadelphia. “It’s about what happens afterwards.”

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Everett Worthington, a professor of psychology at Virginia Commonwealth University and a researcher in forgiveness, said public apologies can help usher in “some manner of justice back into a situation where there has been injustice.”


Such apologies may narrow an individual’s “injustice gap” _ the space between the way someone would like to see an issue resolved, and the way they actually see it being resolved, he added.

The Rev. David Pettee, who oversees ministerial credentialing for the Unitarian Universalist Association, said he has also located slave owners and African and Native American ancestors in his own Rhode Island family tree.

“I was impressed by having the Episcopal Church make this move, and I personally hope that at some point we (the Unitarian Universalists) arrive at an act of redemption and apology,” Pettee said after the service.

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Photos of Jefferts Schori at the Philadelphia service are available via https://religionnews.com

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