Historically Black South Carolina parishes lament, repent church’s complicity in slavery

[Episcopal News Service] The three historically Black Episcopal churches on South Carolina’s Charleston Peninsula recently gathered together for the first time in history for a worship service of lament and repentance over The Episcopal Church’s complicity in the transatlantic slave trade.

“The Episcopal Church, in many aspects, has been complicit in not standing up for what is just and what is right, and it’s time for the church to do that now,” the Rev. Ricardo Bailey, Calvary’s rector, told Episcopal News Service. “We are called as a church to remember where we came from to embrace and learn from that history and to commit ourselves not to repeat that history.”

The three churches — St. Mark’s Episcopal Church, St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church and Calvary Episcopal Church —  established in the 19th century as parishes for enslaved and freed people of African descent, began planning the service in September. South Carolina Bishop Ruth Woodliff-Stanley presided and preached at the service held at St. Mark’s. She told ENS the service was a “watershed moment” for the Charleston-based diocese.

“The service was a clear inflection point in the arc of our racial justice work,” said Woodliff-Stanley, adding it was a significant moment in diocesan history and “we have much, much to do ahead of us.”

During her sermon, Woodliff-Stanley said that she herself is the descendant of slaveholders who lived in Charleston. 

“I recognize that my ancestors were moving freely about the city and making their wealth and privilege off the backs of those who were enslaved, so, for me, that’s a very clear call that is central to my ministry,” she said. “The sins of the ancestors continue to this day, and we must have humility and acknowledge it.” 

More than 250 Episcopalians, interfaith and ecumenical friends and Charlestonians attended the Nov. 10 worship service. It opened with live music followed by an acclamation of lament and reconciliation read by Woodliff-Stanley, three laypeople and the rectors of St. Mark’s, Calvary and St. Stephens. The Rev. Marionette Bennett, a deacon serving Calvary, read Luke 18:9-14, the parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector. A Litany of Apology followed Woodliff-Stanley’s sermon. Most of the music sung was traditional African American songs, including “Give Me Jesus” and “There’s a Balm in Gilead.” Bernard Powers, director of the Center for the Study of Slavery in Charleston and professor emeritus at the College of Charleston, also spoke during the service.

“The church was packed on Sunday, and when you looked at the congregation, you saw a beautiful mosaic of what the church is and what The Episcopal Church is called to be,” Bailey said. “You saw people from every walk of life, from every sexual expression, from every color pigmentation. …It was a truly communal celebration.”

Established in 1663, South Carolina was the first British North American colony founded as a “slave society.” Charleston was the largest slave trading and auction city in the United States with as many as 260,000 West Africans being sent there between 1670 and 1808. Most – about 40% – disembarked in Gadsden’s Wharf, the largest single point of entry for enslaved Africans, which is now the site of the International African American Museum. By the 18th century, the city had the highest number of enslaved people in the country.

“The sins of the past still need to be reckoned with so that we can move forward and build the kind of beloved community that Martin Luther King [Jr.] talked about,” the Rev. Adam Shoemaker, rector of St. Stephen’s told ENS. “We live in such a polarized and divisive time where people so often head off to their own camps and echo chambers, which I think makes moves towards reconciliation difficult.”

In 2020, the Diocese of South Carolina recommitted to its racial reconciliation work when it formed the Diocesan Racial Justice and Reconciliation Commission – which Shoemaker co-chairs – to increase the awareness of racial history and to promote and enable racial justice and reconciliation throughout the diocese and in wider communities. Part of those racial reconciliation efforts includes maintaining and sustaining the diocese’s historically Black churches and working to hire additional Black clergy.

The commission, which consists of clergy and laity, regularly hosts educational events throughout the diocese, including at Voorhees University in Denmark, one of two historically Black colleges with Episcopal roots. The commission also facilitates the diocese’s Sacred Ground circles. Sacred Ground is the church’s antiracism curriculum that was initially developed as a resource to learn about the history of racism in the United States and how that racism continues to manifest itself today in American social interactions and institutions, including the church.

“If we’re not making this work central in our diocese, then everything else we proclaim about the gospel of Jesus rings hollow,” Woodliff-Stanley said.

The Episcopal Church made a significant step in promoting racial justice in 1994 when the House of Bishops issued the “Pastoral Letter on Sin of Racism.” The letter acknowledges that “racism perpetuates a basic untruth which claims the superiority of one group of people over others because of the color of their skin, their cultural history, their tribal affiliation, or their ethnic identity. This lie distorts the biblical understanding of God’s action in creation, wherein all human beings are made ‘in the image of God.’”

Another notable moment came in 2006 when the 75th General Convention passed Resolution A123, “Study Economic Benefits Derived from Slavery,” which calls on The Episcopal Church to “apologize for its complicity in, and the injury done by the institution of slavery and its aftermath.”

That the service took place the first Sunday after the U.S. presidential election wasn’t intentional, but it ended up being “divine providence,” said the Very Rev. Shaffer, dean and interim director of St. Mark’s. 

“As it turned out, the whole spirit and context of the worship service took on a much deeper meaning because we were not only recognizing or lamenting our past failings, but there was also a renewed energy of sharing disappointment, anxiety and fear in the present day,” he said.

In the lead-up to Election Day, politicians intensified their use of racist, anti-immigrant and anti-LGBTQ+ rhetoric while campaigning.

Following former President Donald Trump’s election to a second term, some Black people – including children and students from at least three historically Black colleges and universities – the next day received anonymous text messages saying they’d been “chosen to be a slave” or “selected to pick cotton at the nearest plantation.” The FBI and other law enforcement agencies continue to investigate the texts’ origins.

Bailey said Calvary, St. Mark’s and St. Stephen’s plan to collaborate on future projects and joint worship services. He also said it’s important for the whole Episcopal Church to unite around racial justice and reconciliation work despite the risk of backlash and retaliation, citing Luke 12:32, when Jesus says, “Do not be afraid.”

“We’re ushered in by the saints who’ve gone before us in faith, and we as the church are called to be saints in the world,” Bailey said. “The threat of backlash is always going to be there, and it comes from a narrative and a place of fear. But we need to continue to persist in the hatred and in the fearful type of expressions that people give out in the world. The church is called not to be afraid.”

-Shireen Korkzan is a reporter and assistant editor for Episcopal News Service. She can be reached at skorkzan@episcopalchurch.org.