*Photo by Clay Banks on Unsplash
Becoming an Anti-racist Church
Through the work of our Evergreen Association of American Baptist Churches, and the American Baptist Churches, USA, Queen Anne Baptist Church has begun the work of becoming an anti-racist church. This is a work in progress.
Queen Anne Baptist Church has roots among the Swedish and German Baptists in Seattle. The congregation's racial and ethnic makeup has changed over the years and is shifting from being a predominantly Euro-American church to having members and leaders who are Asian, Black, Latinx, and of other racial and ethnic backgrounds.
But we are a work in progress. For our white members, we are engaging in ways of becoming an anti-racist church. It is not enough to say we are not racist. We must work to dismantle the sin of racism in our society and culture, and especially in our church.
Currently, our work involves these areas:
Education: we hold a monthly Book Discussion (or Video Discussion) in which we engage authors of color, mainly Black and Indigenous. Our reading and conversations lead us to action, such as providing our Children's Church resources with images of Jesus other than white, and providing curriculum and books with a variety of cultural representation. Education has also led to changes in our worship service.
Representation: besides our Children's Church materials, we are consciously looking at the art in our building, especially art that depicts Jesus, and looking to support Black artists and Black representations of Jesus. We will be unveiling a new picture of Jesus for our parlor soon.
Support for Black and People of Color Businesses: We are currently ordering takeout meals for our monthly meal support for New Horizons Youth Ministries. We are choosing to support restaurants owned by Black and other People of Color. You can help us with purchasing those meals by clicking on Give and choosing the option for New Horizons.
Worship and Liturgy: we are choosing prayers and liturgy written by Black, Indigenous, and other People of Color to use in our worship service.
We are continually looking to grow in our own understanding of how racism and white supremacy have been perpetuated by the church. We are working to actively engage and dismantle it in our church and society.
Queen Anne Baptist Church has roots among the Swedish and German Baptists in Seattle. The congregation's racial and ethnic makeup has changed over the years and is shifting from being a predominantly Euro-American church to having members and leaders who are Asian, Black, Latinx, and of other racial and ethnic backgrounds.
But we are a work in progress. For our white members, we are engaging in ways of becoming an anti-racist church. It is not enough to say we are not racist. We must work to dismantle the sin of racism in our society and culture, and especially in our church.
Currently, our work involves these areas:
Education: we hold a monthly Book Discussion (or Video Discussion) in which we engage authors of color, mainly Black and Indigenous. Our reading and conversations lead us to action, such as providing our Children's Church resources with images of Jesus other than white, and providing curriculum and books with a variety of cultural representation. Education has also led to changes in our worship service.
Representation: besides our Children's Church materials, we are consciously looking at the art in our building, especially art that depicts Jesus, and looking to support Black artists and Black representations of Jesus. We will be unveiling a new picture of Jesus for our parlor soon.
Support for Black and People of Color Businesses: We are currently ordering takeout meals for our monthly meal support for New Horizons Youth Ministries. We are choosing to support restaurants owned by Black and other People of Color. You can help us with purchasing those meals by clicking on Give and choosing the option for New Horizons.
Worship and Liturgy: we are choosing prayers and liturgy written by Black, Indigenous, and other People of Color to use in our worship service.
We are continually looking to grow in our own understanding of how racism and white supremacy have been perpetuated by the church. We are working to actively engage and dismantle it in our church and society.
We are on Duwamish Land
Queen Anne Baptist Church recognizes and honors the cultural, ancestral, and unceded lands of the Duwamish people, who have lived here since time immemorial. We are committed to learning and telling the truth of the Christian Church's history with Indigenous people, including the atrocities of church-run boarding schools in the United States.
Pastor Mindi wrote a letter to the congregation recently. Read on for how you can learn more about the history of church-run boarding schools, and how we can locally learn more and support the Duwamish people.
August 9th, 2021
Dear Church,
You may have heard in the news about the discoveries of mass graves at Indigenous boarding schools in Canada. Sadly, we know all too well that the terrible history of what happened to Indigenous people in North American happened in the United States. Church-run boarding schools ran on the mantra, "Kill the Indian, save the man." Native Americans were not seen as fully human beings. Children were stolen, taken to boarding schools, and raised in harsh, abusive conditions, and many died.
As Christians, when we have sinned, we are called to confess our sins. However, far too often as an institution we have tried to hide our past, to believe that by somehow ignoring it, we won't make the same mistakes and we can move on. We have stated that sin is personal instead of collective and systemic, and allowed such horrible atrocities to be covered up. The first step in any sort of reconciliation or forgiveness process is confession of our sin.
We have been called upon by our Indigenous siblings to tell the truth. Faith Action Network, a multi-faith nonprofit organization here in Washington State, has worked with the Interfaith Network for Indigenous Communities and drafted a statement. Your Leadership Council read and agreed to the statement at our August 1st meeting. As your pastor, I have signed on to the statement.
I am sharing the statement in an attachment for you to read. We are committing ourselves as Queen Anne Baptist Church to tell the truth about our shared history. We are committing ourselves to learning more about what happened and how we can work with other churches to tell the truth. We also repudiate the Doctrine of Discovery, religious decrees which allowed for early European explorers and settlers to claim land that was already inhabited by Indigenous peoples. It shaped much of American law that supported Western Expansion, stealing land from Native Americans and establishing boarding schools. You can read more about the Doctrine of Discovery here: https://upstanderproject.org/firstlight/doctrine
What else can we do?
Here in Seattle, named for Chief Seattle (Sealth) of the Duwamish people, the Duwamish are still not federally recognized as a tribe. The treaty made in 1855 between the Duwamish and the U.S. Government has never been honored. You can learn more about the Duwamish people here: https://www.duwamishtribe.org/ You can sign a petition and/or send your own letters of support for the Duwamish people, on whose land we live, work, and worship. When Covid is over, I propose we visit the Duwamish Longhouse in Sodo to learn more, and attend some of their events.
You can also support the Duwamish people through Real Rent Duwamish. This is an initiative that recognizes and honors the Duwamish people, who are still here, still caring for this land they have cared for since time immemorial. You do not have to give much, but this is a way you can show symbolic and tangible support. JC and I are supporters of Real Rent Duwamish. https://www.realrentduwamish.org/ (this link also shares an abbreviated understanding of what federal recognition means to the Duwamish people).
Our Book Discussion group read the book Native by Kaitlin Curtice last year. Curtice is Potawatomi and a Christian, and she writes about her faith and also the struggles of being Indigenous in a religious tradition that has tried to eliminate Indigenous people and practices. I highly recommend her book if you have not read it. It's part of what has shaped our Wild Church initiative, remembering our connection to creation, to the people who still live here, and how the mindset of settler colonialism has impacted our environment. Wild Church will next meet on Saturday, August 28th, at 10 a.m. at the West Ewing Park.
I encourage you to read the attached statement, learn more about the Duwamish people of Seattle, and if you currently do not live in Seattle, learn about the Indigenous people where you now reside.
Our church has grown to become a wonderfully diverse community of faith. Not all of us are of European descent and may not have the same background. However, our connection as members and friends of Queen Anne Baptist Church, part of the American Baptist Churches, USA, calls us all into accountability, to acknowledge and confess where our institutions failed to share Christ's love and instead perpetuated settler colonialism. We are all called, as faithful children of God and followers of Jesus, to do our part to bring healing and hope in this broken world.
During the month of August I have been preaching on the letter of First John, which uses the imagery of light and darkness. To walk in the light is to walk in the truth--to be vulnerable, to have everything exposed. There is nothing that is hidden. This is part of walking in that light. We learn things about our past we didn't know, or didn't want to know. It was in the past, so why should we take responsibility? Yet the Duwamish people still struggle for recognition. They struggle for rights, right here on their ancestral land that we live and have our church. If we are to walk in the light as Christ walks in the light (1 John 1:5-10), we have to recognize our collective past.
With you on this journey of faith,
Pastor Mindi
Pastor Mindi wrote a letter to the congregation recently. Read on for how you can learn more about the history of church-run boarding schools, and how we can locally learn more and support the Duwamish people.
August 9th, 2021
Dear Church,
You may have heard in the news about the discoveries of mass graves at Indigenous boarding schools in Canada. Sadly, we know all too well that the terrible history of what happened to Indigenous people in North American happened in the United States. Church-run boarding schools ran on the mantra, "Kill the Indian, save the man." Native Americans were not seen as fully human beings. Children were stolen, taken to boarding schools, and raised in harsh, abusive conditions, and many died.
As Christians, when we have sinned, we are called to confess our sins. However, far too often as an institution we have tried to hide our past, to believe that by somehow ignoring it, we won't make the same mistakes and we can move on. We have stated that sin is personal instead of collective and systemic, and allowed such horrible atrocities to be covered up. The first step in any sort of reconciliation or forgiveness process is confession of our sin.
We have been called upon by our Indigenous siblings to tell the truth. Faith Action Network, a multi-faith nonprofit organization here in Washington State, has worked with the Interfaith Network for Indigenous Communities and drafted a statement. Your Leadership Council read and agreed to the statement at our August 1st meeting. As your pastor, I have signed on to the statement.
I am sharing the statement in an attachment for you to read. We are committing ourselves as Queen Anne Baptist Church to tell the truth about our shared history. We are committing ourselves to learning more about what happened and how we can work with other churches to tell the truth. We also repudiate the Doctrine of Discovery, religious decrees which allowed for early European explorers and settlers to claim land that was already inhabited by Indigenous peoples. It shaped much of American law that supported Western Expansion, stealing land from Native Americans and establishing boarding schools. You can read more about the Doctrine of Discovery here: https://upstanderproject.org/firstlight/doctrine
What else can we do?
Here in Seattle, named for Chief Seattle (Sealth) of the Duwamish people, the Duwamish are still not federally recognized as a tribe. The treaty made in 1855 between the Duwamish and the U.S. Government has never been honored. You can learn more about the Duwamish people here: https://www.duwamishtribe.org/ You can sign a petition and/or send your own letters of support for the Duwamish people, on whose land we live, work, and worship. When Covid is over, I propose we visit the Duwamish Longhouse in Sodo to learn more, and attend some of their events.
You can also support the Duwamish people through Real Rent Duwamish. This is an initiative that recognizes and honors the Duwamish people, who are still here, still caring for this land they have cared for since time immemorial. You do not have to give much, but this is a way you can show symbolic and tangible support. JC and I are supporters of Real Rent Duwamish. https://www.realrentduwamish.org/ (this link also shares an abbreviated understanding of what federal recognition means to the Duwamish people).
Our Book Discussion group read the book Native by Kaitlin Curtice last year. Curtice is Potawatomi and a Christian, and she writes about her faith and also the struggles of being Indigenous in a religious tradition that has tried to eliminate Indigenous people and practices. I highly recommend her book if you have not read it. It's part of what has shaped our Wild Church initiative, remembering our connection to creation, to the people who still live here, and how the mindset of settler colonialism has impacted our environment. Wild Church will next meet on Saturday, August 28th, at 10 a.m. at the West Ewing Park.
I encourage you to read the attached statement, learn more about the Duwamish people of Seattle, and if you currently do not live in Seattle, learn about the Indigenous people where you now reside.
Our church has grown to become a wonderfully diverse community of faith. Not all of us are of European descent and may not have the same background. However, our connection as members and friends of Queen Anne Baptist Church, part of the American Baptist Churches, USA, calls us all into accountability, to acknowledge and confess where our institutions failed to share Christ's love and instead perpetuated settler colonialism. We are all called, as faithful children of God and followers of Jesus, to do our part to bring healing and hope in this broken world.
During the month of August I have been preaching on the letter of First John, which uses the imagery of light and darkness. To walk in the light is to walk in the truth--to be vulnerable, to have everything exposed. There is nothing that is hidden. This is part of walking in that light. We learn things about our past we didn't know, or didn't want to know. It was in the past, so why should we take responsibility? Yet the Duwamish people still struggle for recognition. They struggle for rights, right here on their ancestral land that we live and have our church. If we are to walk in the light as Christ walks in the light (1 John 1:5-10), we have to recognize our collective past.
With you on this journey of faith,
Pastor Mindi