(RNS) — The Episcopal Diocese of New York has launched the second phase of its racial reparations efforts, releasing a new report detailing how it plans to invest the nearly $1.2 million the diocesan convention began committing to the effort in 2019.
The document, drafted by the diocese’s racial reparations commission and released publicly on March 17, describes a three-fold reparations process that is focused on: educating congregations about the diocese’s racist history; investing in Black communities in and outside of the Church; and pursuing reparations through a spiritual lens. It also makes recommendations on ways to sustain the reparations fund in the long term.
“The report begins the next chapter of this work in a deepening of our commitment,” the Rt. Rev. Matthew F. Heyd, bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of New York, told RNS. “Our intention/commitment is to weave the recommendations of the report into the fabric of the diocese and into the whole of our ministries.”
Campaigns for racial reparations have gained support among some U.S. religious groups in recent years, including in denominations that historically profited from chattel slavery, with some reparations efforts having more success than others. Efforts to repay Black communities harmed in the past by Episcopalians are underway in other dioceses, including Texas, Maryland and Virginia. The denomination also declared racial equity a priority under the leadership of former Presiding Bishop Michael Curry, its first African American denominational leader.
Last summer in New York, Heyd appointed 12 clergy members to the Moses Commission to pursue the reparations work pioneered by its reparations committee, which was established in 2006.
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The Rev. Marisa Sifontes, of Manhattan’s St. James’ Church and the commission’s chair, said that while it reviewed other dioceses’ reparations models, the group sought input from Black Episcopalians to understand what repair meant to them. “We’re really looking at coming alongside communities that have historically been harmed and trying to create relationships and work towards repair in a physical way, as opposed to just with grant dollars,” she said. The goal was to introduce solutions to the needs of Black communities in the New York area.
The report states that New York Episcopalians profited from the transatlantic slave trade and were “uniquely implicated in the odious institution and in anti-Black policies and practices that extend through generations.” It recommends educating congregations on the diocese’s racist history through video curricula and pilgrimages to historical markers, which it says should be symbolically taken first by Heyd.
It also suggests establishing three “reparative community ministry centers” operating from Black congregations, each choosing which projects to invest in. The commission urges the centers’ leaders to conduct listening sessions with Black communities and congregations to identify projects in education, health care and housing. Projects should include “spiritual nourishment and engagement that weaves local Black culture, voices and leadership,” the report says.
The report also emphasized the need to center Black voices in the effort, noting that the commission’s board should count six Black members at all times and ensure initiatives aren’t being led and shaped by white leadership and majority-white institutions.
Among the reparations models it reviewed, the group cites those of the dioceses of New Jersey, North Carolina, Maryland and Washington. It also looked at efforts led by the Virginia Theological Seminary and Georgetown University.
In 2022, the Diocese of Maryland distributed its inaugural $175,000 grant to organizations supporting Black communities after pledging to invest $1 million in reparations in 2020. In 2021, the Episcopalian Virginia Theological Seminary started giving $2,100 one-time payments to 15 descendants of Black slaves forced to work at the school.
The Episcopal Diocese of Virginia committed $10 million to racial reparations in 2021. However, an RNS investigation published last November found that its reparations process had been marred by internal tensions and difficulties securing funds, leading the diocese to dismantle its first reparations task force before appointing a new one. Shortly after, the diocese announced it had identified initial funding sources.
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Sifontes said New York’s Moses Commission work cemented years of preparations laid by the reparations committee. The report notes New York Episcopalians observed a three-year period of “lamentation, apology and repair for the sin of slavery,” starting in 2017, and adopted a liturgy acknowledging the suffering of Black Americans and apologizing for the diocese’s participation in slavery.
The Moses Commission, in the report, urged the diocese’s trustees to assess how much more it could invest in the reparations fund, which now is at nearly $1.2 million — slightly more than the $1.1 million invested in 2019. It recommends increasing the contribution from the diocese’s budget from 0.5% to 1%. Though it considers receiving funds from congregations and funders outside of the church, the commission noted it shouldn’t substitute the diocese’s “own sacrificial giving.”
The commission now hopes to engage congregations in the effort and said it will work with the existing reparations committee to provide congregations with resources on how to research their own history.
Sifontes said the group will meet with the Black leaders interviewed during the report’s production to oversee the work accomplished and hold the diocese accountable. The group also plans to provide an update on the initiative at the 2026 diocesan convention in November. Rather than being a project simply for the commission, the reverend said, now, “It’s the work of the entire diocese.”
