For four years, the cathedral has hosted this special service and reception.  It resulted from the hard work and dedication of a small group of about 15 to 20 Episcopalians who made racial understanding and antiracism education an integral part of their lives and an important force in the diocese.

The Racial Reconciliation group marks a five-year relationship between the congregations of St. Andrew’s and St. Augustine’s -- two very different Episcopal churches in Kansas City.

St. Andrew’s is the diocese's largest church, with more than 1,800 members.  Its rector, the Rev. Frederick Mann, calls the congregation “moderately white collar.” St. Augustine’s has about 125 members. Currently without a priest, it’s the only African-American congregation in Kansas City, which is about 14 percent black. Indeed, it’s the only black Episcopal Church in the diocese, says the Rev. John McCann, cathedral archdeacon.

Half of Kansas City is in Kansas, half in Missouri. “There’s a well-established black community here,” McCann said, “but there are some elements of racism. In fact, Sunday morning is still one of the very segregated times.”

Beyond racial boundaries

St. Augustine’s and St. Andrew’s, despite their demographic dissimilarities, forged a relationship extending beyond racial boundaries. It began in 1998 when Meg Townsend of St. Andrew’s attended antiracism training in Boston.  When she returned, Townsend rallied several members of her parish who were interested in creating a program.  But there was a problem, she explained: the glaring lack of people of color to round out the group.

Recalling that St. Andrew’s men’s group once had formed an alliance with St. Augustine’s, Townsend contacted that church's rector, the Rev. Thomas Shepherd.  During the 1960s, Shepherd had been active in the Civil Rights Movement and later was instrumental in creating antiracism programs in the dioceses of Kentucky, West Tennessee and South East Florida. When Townsend approached him with her idea, he gathered interested members of his parish and became the group’s spiritual leader.
 
“We’re lucky to have a black Episcopal church to do this with,” said Cindy Pitts, a group member from St. Andrew’s.  The group’s first meeting included dinner, which helped create a more relaxed atmosphere among strangers, she recalled. “Then we went around the room and defined racism.  That was a little awkward.”

But now, Pitts said, “I know them all really well.  We all feel the same way about racism.  We come up with ideas and work well together.   ... We care about each other.” The group has read and discussed books including Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes are Watching God, Gregory Harrison’s A Life on the Color Line and Zadie Smith’s White Teeth.  Early on, members watched the film The Color of Fear, which examines race relations in the United States.

Other activities have included visits to a local art gallery, joint worship services, a Lenten study, a multicultural Earth Day celebration and a Sunday school curriculum for churches around the diocese to use during Black History Month, said Shirley Bolden, a long-time St. Augustine’s member and a group charter member.

Antiracism education taken seriously

Drew Brown is one of two African-American members of Christ Church in nearby St. Joseph, Mo.  He grew up attending St. Thomas African Episcopal, the church founded by Absalom Jones in Philadelphia well over two centuries ago.  Brown helps lead the Diocese of West Missouri’s antiracism task force and drives to Kansas City for the Racial Reconciliation group’s monthly meetings. 

He recalled how several members recently engaged in a heated discussion about racial stereotyping.  The topic was an ABC commercial featuring a black professional football player and a member of the Desperate Housewives cast.  Despite the potentially contentious topic, “We were very comfortable with each other,” Brown said. “Reading and discussing books and sharing ideas -- I can’t say enough about the joy of that.”  Alongside the socializing and the friendships, the serious business of antiracism education and greater racial understanding is taking place.

As the African Americans in the group talked about growing up in Kansas City, Brown said, “The white people were just amazed. ‘I was alive at that time,’ they’d say.  ‘Why didn’t I know?’” 

Commented Pitts, “I knew about busing from my education, but to sit with people and hear how they couldn’t go to a friend’s birthday party because it was in the park, and since they are black, they weren’t allowed in the park -- it’s increased my awareness and gave me a much greater understanding of the issues.”

Racism today "is so subtle," she said. "If white people really want to resist it, we have to learn how we perpetuate the power structures that exist in our systems -- our churches, corporations and schools.”

Bolden recalled an example demonstrating that subtlety. When Barry Howe became bishop of West Missouri, a reception was scheduled at a Kansas City country club.  Bolden, who is involved in the church at the local, diocesan and provincial levels, was the only African American in the bishop’s party.  The only other African Americans there were the wait staff. Bolden disguised her discomfort well enough that no one seemed to notice except Howe. He called the next day to apologize for any unpleasantness the situation caused her.

“There’s a new paradigm,” Brown said.  “Racism is not the Klan running down the street.  In a lot of cases it’s done innocently, unconsciously.

“I think a lot of people would like to do the right thing,” he continued.  “They’re simply not aware that what they’re doing is wrong.”

The Rev. Sheryl Kujawa-Holbrook, chair of antiracism for the Executive Council of the Episcopal Church and associate professor of feminist  pastoral theolgy and church history at Episcopal Divinity School in Cambridge, Mass., recently helped launch the pilot for an online antiracism curriculum.  The course will enable people from out-of-the-way places to participate in training. 

The church describes racism as a sin, Kujawa-Holbrook noted, and attempting to solve the problems of race relations is “a faith commitment. "We’ll all be working on getting along for the rest of our lives. I think we just need to get past the fear and get started.”

Shepherd, who retired from St. Augustine’s and moved to Texas, returned to Kansas City to preach at this year’s Absalom Jones service.  “Jones was a doer of the word, and not just a hearer,” said Shepherd. The same could be said of the members of the Racial Reconciliation group.

For information about the Office of Black Ministries Seventh Triennial Black Clergy Conference Oct. 23-26 at the Emory Conference Center Hotel, Atlanta, Ga., contact the Rev. Angela Ifill at 800-334-7626, ext. 5343, or aifill@episcopalchurch.org.