The Falls Church releases report on church’s complicity with slavery

The Falls Church (TFC), one of the earliest Episcopal Churches in the US, recently released a study of the church’s complicity in slavery, including a series of recommendations to address the issue in the future. The recommendations in the report comprise:

• Speak the truth about TFC’s ties to slavery
• Seek spiritual penitence
• Make amends with communities we have historically wronged
• Educate the congregation about ongoing racial justice issues
• Implement institutional changes that advance the cause of racial justice
• Create and bolster ties to ecumenical and lay organizations committed to racial justice

Overall, we applaud the move, with the caveat that, as with many such efforts, the devil is in the details.

Specifically, apologies are nice, but far too often Episcopal churches go for what Dietrich Bonhoeffer termed “cheap grace,” in which they apologize, then go right back to whatever they were doing.

So, let’s hope that TFC does this right. Meanwhile, check out the report below and see what you think.