In mid-June, 30+ parishioners gathered to form the Racial Justice Allies (RJA) group with the intention of exploring ways to take action at St. Anne’s to address racial injustice. Various activities are already underway, and we recently crafted a vision statement to articulate our goals:

We acknowledge the white supremacism on which our society and economy are built, rooted in 400 years of violence, indifference, and inaction.
We believe in love, respect, repentance, and opening our hearts and minds to our fellow human beings.
We commit to:
- Listen, look, and reflect more deeply in order to take responsibility for liberating ourselves from our own biases.
- Create opportunities to connect to, learn from and celebrate with communities of color.
- Identify and support actions to promote racial justice through social, economic, and environmental policy.

Our vision reflects the input of our team members as we discussed what Black Lives Matter means to each of us. We heard people talk about our national history of systemic racism. We heard people talk about principles we hold dear such as love. We heard people assert that we need to “do,” not just talk. And under the theme of doing, we heard passions for self-educating (starting with the self), connecting (expanding into our community) and policy change (for the state and for the nation). And we heard reflections that this work is a natural extension of St. Anne’s history of connection, through our current St. Stephen’s relationship and as hosts for families in the past.

If you want to listen, connect, and/or take action, we invite you to join us. RJA's next Zoom meeting is Tuesday, August 18th at 7pm. Please contact Garrett to get involved.