Episcopalians of African, Asiamerican, Indigenous and Latino/Hispanic heritage gathered on the opening night of the 81st General Convention, June 23, at Cathedral of the Assumption in downtown Louisville, Kentucky, for the New Community Festival hosted by The Episcopal Church’s Department of Ethnic Ministries. Photo: Wilfreddy Alexander Carmona Arias
[Episcopal News Service] As the new Trump administration leads public and private entities to remove calendared holidays and observances commemorating the contributions of people of color, women, LGBTQ+ people and people with disabilities, Episcopal leaders are reflecting on how the wider church can ensure that those Americans are never erased from the public’s consciousness.
“This decision to pause Black History Month celebrations and DEI work puts us in a profound moment to reflect out loud what as a church – as a people – do we choose to remember and choose to forget?” the Rev. Lester V. Mackenzie, The Episcopal Church’s chief of mission program, told Episcopal News Service. He also leads the church’s Department of Ethnic Ministries, which includes the Offices of African Descent Ministries, Asiamerica Ministries, Indigenous Ministries and Latino/Hispanic Ministries.
“Too often, institutions, including our own, have been complicit and slow to act … so how are we adjusting to what is unfolding socially in our dioceses, or in our congregations and local ministries?”
February is Black History Month, the annual acknowledgment of Black Americans’ accomplishments and contributions to the making of the United States. Celebrations are underway in the church, including worship services commemorating the feast of the Rev. Absalom Jones, the first Black Episcopal priest. Jones stands among the Rev. Pauli Murray, Thurgood Marshall, King Kamehameha and Queen Emma of Hawai‘i, Enmegahbowh and many other clergy and activists of color on The Episcopal Church’s calendar of Lesser Feasts and Fasts.
Some parishes, like St. James’ Episcopal Church in Austin, Texas, are hosting Black History Month events throughout February, including workshops and lectures. Washington National Cathedral is also hosting several events, including a special worship service on Feb. 16 honoring historically Black colleges and universities.
Commemorations and events are necessary, and so is the need to educate younger generations about why they are necessary, the Rev. Ellis Clifton, rector of St. Mary the Virgin Episcopal Church in Virgin Gorda, Diocese of the Virgin Islands, told ENS.
“We’ve spent all these years celebrating what our predecessors accomplished, but we forgot to teach what caused the need for these celebrations – their work and struggles – and how the benefits that we have came about,” said Ellis, who sits on the church’s African Descent Ministries’ council of advice and previously served as the Midwest regional director of the Union of Black Episcopalians.
At the federal level, the government’s emphasis on issues of diversity, equity and inclusion dates back at least to 1961, when President John F. Kennedy signed an executive order prohibiting federal contractors from discriminating based on race. And after 15 years of activism following the 1968 assassination of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., President Ronald Reagan signed a law in 1983 designating the third Monday in January as a federal holiday to honor the civil rights leader’s life.
Last month, in his first hours back in office, President Donald Trump signed an executive order banning DEI initiatives, prompting federal agencies and now some private corporations to discontinue commemorating certain holidays and observances: Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday, Black History Month, Women’s History Month, Holocaust Day and Days of Remembrance, Asian American Pacific Islander Heritage Month, Pride Month, Juneteenth, Women’s Equality Day, National Hispanic Heritage Month, National Disability Employment Awareness Month and National American Indian Heritage Month.
The president didn’t officially call for the erasure of cultural observances, though federal agencies interpreted the executive order as such and sent memos calling on staff to pause them. On Feb. 11, Google removed Black History Month and other cultural observances from its calendar, saying that maintaining those references was not “sustainable.”
Last week, Julia Ayala Harris, president of The Episcopal Church’s House of Deputies, released a statement of solidarity and standing up for marginalized groups:
“Like the psalms of lament that turn to praise, Dr. [Pauli] Murray understood that hope is not passive optimism, but an act of holy defiance, a declaration that the struggle for justice is worth enduring,” Ayala Harris said in the Feb. 6 statement. “Their life reminds us that we are called not simply to lament the injustices of the world but to act—to sing our own songs of hope in a weary time, to advocate, to organize, to protect, and to uplift.”
The Deputies of Color also released a statement broadly condemning Trump’s executive orders:
“We must address how these policies impact vulnerable populations and stand against the injustices they face. In doing so, we honor our commitment to serve God through serving our neighbors.”
A nationwide surge in interest in diversity, equity and inclusion, including by employers paralleled the calls for racial justice after the death of George Floyd in May 2020. That year, Episcopal Church leaders encouraged Episcopalians to observe Juneteenth – the anniversary of June 19, 1865, when in Galveston, Texas, the last formerly enslaved people learned they had been freed.
A year later, in 2021, President Joe Biden signed legislation making Juneteenth a federal holiday to commemorate the end of slavery in the United States. Since then, more churches have participated in Juneteenth events every year.
Episcopalians also observe notable events in history that aren’t official U.S. observances. This month, for example, St. Peter’s Episcopal Parish, a historically Japanese church in Seattle, Washington, marked the 83rd anniversary of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s executive order to authorize the incarceration of Japanese Americans in concentration camps during World War II. Some 45 years later, the United States officially apologized for the unjust incarceration, damages and post-war discrimination, and offered restitution to survivors.
There’s a long history of discrimination against Asians in the United States. For people of Asian and Pacific Islander heritage, removing the observances of Asian American Pacific Islander Heritage Month obscure both the accomplishments and the challenges that still exist today, said the Rev. Jo Ann Lagman, the church’s Asiamerica Ministries.
AAPI communities are “incredibly diverse,” Lagman said. For example, the life experiences of the Hmong and the Karen people – many whom are refugees today – are “very different” from first- and second-generation Chinese and Japanese Americans, who face societal pressures to succeed academically and in the work force due to the pervasive “model minority” myth.
“There are many AAPI people who get to the glass ceiling, so to speak, and then others, like those who are refugees and dealing with migration issues that don’t quite reach that glass ceiling, and yet there’s still a difference in that we cannot necessarily self-determine quite as much as our white siblings,” Lagman said. “I don’t understand why so many people stay silent as they watch history repeat itself.”
Three years ago, the Department of Defense credited DEI as a “force multiplier,” and necessary as a recruitment and retention tool, though promoting diversity in the military was not supported only “for diversity’s sake.”
“The armed forces are more diverse than they’ve ever been, and I think they have greatly benefited from [celebrating] the diversity and the gifts that people bring to military service,” the Rt. Rev. Ann Ritonia, The Episcopal Church’s bishop suffragan for armed forces and federal ministries and a U.S. Marine Corps veteran, told ENS.
Attempts at erasure continued in the days following Trump’s executive order on DEI. Native American Heritage Month, commemorated in November, wasn’t initially listed as one of the discontinued observances, but newly appointed Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth removed it for the U.S. military’s calendar a couple days later. He claimed that celebrating Native American Heritage Month and other “identity months” does not promote unity in the armed forces and could detract from the military’s “warfighting mission.”
The government’s attempt to erase Indigenous history and heritage is nothing new, the Rev. Bradley Hauff, the church’s Indigenous Ministries missioner, told ENS.
“What we’re facing right now is just more of the same going all the way back to the days of colonization and assimilation; we’ve been struggling to survive ever since,” Hauff said. “Right now, a number of people in the country are looking at what they’re going to lose – what’s going to be taken away from them and what hardship they’re going to experience. But for Indigenous people, that’s been our life; we haven’t known anything else.
“I don’t know where it’s all going to end, but I think that we [as a church] are in a unique position right now where we have to respond to what’s happening politically in our country from the perspective of Jesus.”
The Rev. Mary Crist, coordinator of Indigenous theological education for The Episcopal Church, agreed with Hauff and noted that the church has been working to increase its transparency and commitment to expanding culturally based theological education in seminaries. Still, she said, no government changes will stop Indigenous people from existing and being their true selves.
“Our voices are not going away,” said Crist, who is a registered member of the Blackfeet Nation in Montana.
The missioners, Mackenzie and Crist all pointed out that many Episcopalians in the pews have been speaking out against myriad policy changes independently. The Rev. Anthony Guillén, the church’s missioner for the Latino/Hispanic Ministries, told ENS that gives him hope.
“This crisis is massive, but what really helps me go to sleep at night is knowing that there are so many people out there who know that what’s happening is wrong and they’re trying to do the best they can in their situation to support those who need it now more than ever,” Guillén said.
–Shireen Korkzan is a reporter and assistant editor for Episcopal News Service. She can be reached at skorkzan@episcopalchurch.org.