Sacred Ground Circles

Sacred Ground Circles is part of Becoming Beloved Community, the Episcopal church’s long-time commitment to racial healing, reconciliation, and justice in our personal lives, parish, and society. The 11 meetings will use materials from the curriculum of Sacred Ground, a film and readings-based dialogue series on race grounded in faith and committed to truth-telling as a means of co-creating an equitable, compassionate, and just future together. The series includes a focus on Indigenous, Black, Latino/a, and Asian Pacific American histories as they intersect with the European American histories across centuries in the United States.

For more information about registering for a group, please contact Carolyne Starek.
For more extensive information about its purposes, see the Episcopal Church website: https://www.episcopalchurch.org/sacred-ground/

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

What is Sacred Ground?
A film and readings-based dialogue series on race, grounded in faith, and with a goal of making the complex and troubled history of a white dominated United States visible so its legacy can be seen and understood more fully from multiple perspectives. Small groups discuss chapters of US history of race and racism, weaving in threads of family story, including economic class and political/regional identity. Each Sacred Ground Circle group typically involves 8-10 people who meet for 11 sessions for two hours every other week to discuss the assigned materials and their own experiences.

Why study these histories now? Don’t we know enough about this already?
Those taking the course learned a lot about history they didn’t previously know. Although more of this history is now included in schools located in states like Maryland and cities like DC, most of our schools did not teach non-European history to those of us now over forty. Often when such topics were included for us older parishioners, our school curriculum presented an inaccurate view of slavery, U.S. treatment of Indigenous peoples, exclusion acts against Asian immigrants, or the subjugation of people of Latin American descent.

We haven’t had a race problem at St C’s. Why are we fixing something that isn’t broken?
Historically, St Columba’s did discriminate against people of color, nested as we are in a predominantly white section of the city carefully designed with segregated schools, exclusionary housing, and racialized jobs. We want to know the full truth of the experience of non-white people—past and present--in our community as we move toward being a more multi-racial, anti-racist church.

I am color blind, and I resent being called a racist. Why do I need to take this course?
Even a loving, fair-minded person can be conditioned by long held beliefs and teaching. Plus, if you believe you don’t notice color, that is rarely the experience of people of color in the United States who are persistently marked by their perceived skin color. Without this awareness of how race operates in our society, white people can’t fully ally with brothers and sisters of color who still experience the effect of racial bias from today’s systemic racialized structures.

I am uncomfortable talking about my racial views with people I don’t know.
We all are, but the advantage of a faith-based group is that the members support each other, and they don’t critique people for their views. We are all on a journey to see more clearly, understand more fully, and listen with our hearts as others speak.

I don’t have time to take a class.
The class does require a commitment of your time. Most things of value do. You will spend a couple of hours reading and watching films prior to each session, plus two hours every other week for your Sacred Ground Circle gathering to discuss the materials together with your group. The overwhelming consensus of former participants is that the time is well worth it. The investment offers a new way of understanding how to repair the breach that keeps us apart and full racial justice elusive.

What do past participants say about the benefits of the classes?
They acquired increased knowledge of our country’s history and how race is embedded in social, political, and economic structures; increased courage in talking about race with other people; greater sensitivity to race-related comments all of us may have made; ideas for initiating dialogue with those who disagree with us; development of new friendships within St Columba’s; and determined energy to work on some of the social justice issues in the city and elsewhere.

I am not yet comfortable about attending group events at the church or in people’s homes. Can I do this by Zoom?
The last three Sacred Ground Circle courses were held by zoom with some of the zoom classes offering opportunities for in-person meetings as well. The facilitators decide what form they will offer their session in: by Zoom or in person—and do their best to involve participants in variations on those choices as much as possible.

Why does it matter to the church if I attend the classes?
If we aspire to be an anti-racist church, we all need to be as deeply informed about the legacies of race that have shaped the country in the past and continue to shape it today. Participation is also a way of living God’s love and bringing us together to create God’s beloved community.