Presiding Bishop Michael Curry looks up at one of the columns hanging at the National Memorial for Peace and Justice in Montgomery, Alabama, during an October 2019 Executive Council meeting in the city. The steel columns memorialize the victims from all American counties where at least one lynching occurred from 1877 to 1950. Photo: David Paulsen/Episcopal News Service
[Episcopal News Service] Sacred Ground, an antiracism curriculum for small-group discussions, has been one of The Episcopal Church’s great Christian formation success stories over the past five years. Thousands of discussion groups have participated, and the church now is working to maintain the initiative’s momentum with expanded staffing and an upcoming fall launch event.
Presiding Bishop Michael Curry, who has helped make racial reconciliation a top churchwide priority during his nine-year term, will speak Sept. 17 at Sacred Ground’s fall online launch event. The 90-minute webinar, set for 1 p.m. Eastern, is intended to share “what makes the program compelling and how the series continues to challenge participants to do the deep work of racial healing, reconciliation, and justice – in their own lives, within their ministries, and in society.”
Online registration for the Zoom session is now available.
Earlier this year, the church’s Office for Racial Reconciliation announced that Andrea Lauerman, a lay leader from the Diocese of Maine, had been hired as part-time Sacred Ground program coordinator, and the Rev. Valeria Mayo, a priest in the Diocese of North Carolina, would assist as Sacred Ground strategic consultant. The hiring of Lauerman and Mayo was funded through a donation by a Sacred Ground alum who wished to remain anonymous.
Since then, Lauerman and Mayo have focused on broadening the reach of the Sacred Ground curriculum to more congregations and individuals while also deepening the connections between people across the church who already have participated in and learned from Sacred Ground circles.
Lauerman, in a joint interview with Mayo, told Episcopal News Service that they bear “tremendous gratitude to the folks that have brought the program to where it is.” Sacred Ground launched in 2019, and participation surged in 2020 during a national reckoning with systemic racism that followed the killing that year of George Floyd and other Black Americans by white police officers and vigilantes. Within two years, more than 2,000 discussion circles had registered to facilitate the Sacred Ground curriculum, and countless more have done so since then.
“The organic spread of Sacred Ground is one of its huge strengths,” said Lauerman, who is white. “The foundational materials in the curriculum are designed to give people the shared understanding [of] the history of race and racism.”
Mayo, who is Black, said she first participated in a Sacred Ground circle while serving at a historically Black congregation in Arlington, Virginia. She has been encouraged by the enthusiasm that Sacred Ground has generated across The Episcopal Church, as well as among some of the church’s ecumenical partners.
“The beauty is in the intimacy of being a part of a Sacred Ground circle, where over time you’re having conversations that many of us have never had before,” Mayo said.
Sacred Ground is an 11-part online curriculum of documentary films and readings that focus on Indigenous, Black, Latino, and Asian/Pacific American histories as they intersect with European American histories. Participants also examine examples of systemic racism in today’s America, such as mass incarceration and its disproportionate effect on people of color.
A statue depicting enslaved Africans is on display at the National Memorial for Peace and Justice in Montgomery, Alabama. Photo: Douglas Sparks
The curriculum was developed primarily for white Episcopalians to learn about the history of racism in the United States and the way racism continues to manifest itself today in contemporary American social interactions and institutions, including churches, even when the people involved are not themselves racist. The church also welcomes people of color to participate in Sacred Ground circles, but it cautions that they shouldn’t feel obligated to explain the experience of racism to their white neighbors.
Interest in the curriculum has remained strong, Mayo said, and many Episcopalians have told her they are encouraging friends in other Christian denominations to give it a try. “This is who we say we are as disciples of Christ, in our baptismal covenant, as our Christian identity, that we are going to strive for justice,” she said.
Sacred Ground isn’t intended as a comprehensive history of racism, but rather a starting point for discussion as participants connect historical narratives with their own life experiences. Unlike other anti-racism programs, it doesn’t require an experienced trainer, only volunteer facilitators.
“Sacred Ground has been a catalyst for profound change, changing the hearts and minds of individuals within the Episcopal Church and beyond,” the Rev. Miguel Bustos, the church’s racial justice and reconciliation manager, told ENS for this story. “We are fortunate that an alum of Sacred Ground was so deeply moved by their experience that they felt compelled to share it with others. This work, and the support we received from the donor, are a testament to the transformative power of Sacred Ground and the Holy Spirit’s presence in its truth-telling and healing.”
One of the first things Lauerman and Mayo did this year when they joined the churchwide program was to create a Facebook group where volunteer Sacred Ground facilitators could share their experiences and discuss best practices. In-person regional gatherings of facilitators are also planned, with the first scheduled for Nov. 9-10 in Durham, North Carolina.
Lauerman and Mayo also are developing new ways of connecting Episcopalians with the materials. As successful as Sacred Ground has been so far, many more people could benefit from forming or joining a discussion circle, they said.
Lauerman said that her own experiences participating in Sacred Ground circles have not only expanded her understanding of the history of racism but also enriched her daily human interactions. One principle emphasized by Sacred Ground circles is to assume the best intentions of those engaging with the materials, which creates an environment where challenging conversations can occur.
“That norm has now carried over into my life and the conversations that I have outside of that space as well,” she said.
– David Paulsen is a senior reporter and editor for Episcopal News Service based in Wisconsin. He can be reached at dpaulsen@episcopalchurch.org.