Anti-Racism Working Group

Our anti-racism working group (ARWG) coordinates churchwide efforts to live into our anti-racism vision statement:

We strive to become a beloved community that reflects on our own racial identities and recognizes racism and privilege in our church and society; works for justice by building relationships and sustained efforts to heal, reconcile, and seek Christ in each other; and acts to interrupt and dismantle white supremacist structures, transforming ourselves and our church to become a living embodiment of justice and peace.

Most recently, the ARWG has organized its efforts to keep an anti-racist lens present in all parish activity via several foci: 1) partnering externally, including with Chicago ROAR (Regional Organizing for Antiracism) and the Antiracism Commission of the Episcopal Diocese of Chicago (ARC). We continue to send parishioners to CROAR’s 1-day training, Animating Antiracist Ways of Being, and its 3-day training, Towards Liberation; 2) programming in the parish, to include activities related to Black History Month, Hispanic History Month, Asian and Pacific Islanders Heritage Month, and Native American Heritage Month; 3) support for and amplification of anti-racism work by other groups in the parish, to include the Arts Committee, the Music program, the children’s formation programs. To learn more about the ARWG’s work, contact Sara Bigger.

In 2024 thus far, the ARWG supported the Black History Month Committee in hosting Michele Duster on February 18. We organized an outing to see the Faith Ringgold exhibit at the Museum of Contemporary Art on February 4, and an outing to the Chinese American History Museum on May 19. We will organize events for Hispanic History Month and Native American Heritage Month. We are in conversation with CROAR about hosting another anti-racism training(s) at SPR. Stay tuned!

We submitted the following report to the diocese for anti-racism activity parish-wide in 2023: In 2023, the ARWG revived our connection to Chicago ROAR (Regional Organizing for Antiracism), and hosted a three-day Crossroads training, "From White Supremacy Toward Liberation: Building Shared Analysis to Transform Institutions," in June. SPR’s Lenten small groups read and discussed Resurrection Hope by Kelly Brown Douglas. SPR’s Godly Play curriculum included stories from "Tell Me the Truth About Racism" by Will Bouvel and Jen Holt Enriquez. Our music ministry continued to incorporate works by composers of many backgrounds; Director of Music Mark Bilyeu included notes in each week's bulletin. Our Faith in Action Team, formed as a result of our membership in the Community Renewal Society, focused its efforts on the Bring Chicago Home campaign. The ARWG agreed to staff monthly name tag Sundays in 2024 in an effort to welcome all and help parishioners know each other better.

Past ARWG events include attendance at many CRS MLK Day celebrations, working on the End Money Bond Action and Fair Tax amendments with the Community Renewal Society in the run-up to the November 2020 election, running Sacred Ground (Summer 2019), and small-group studies of Drew G.I. Hart’s Trouble I’ve Seen: Changing the Way the Church Views Racism and Austin Channing Brown’s I’m Still Here: Black Dignity in a World Made for Whiteness. The working group grew out of SPR’s involvement in the Black Lives Matter movement. To read a collection of Black Lives Matter stories by SPR members in 2014-15, click here.