St. Timothy's Participates in the 2023 Racial Equity Summit

What We Learned from the 2023 Racial Equity Summit
 
By The Rev. Meghan Ryan, Leslie Corey, and Tony Corey
 
In early November of 2023, eight members of the Diocese of Missouri attended St. Louis’ 2023 Racial Equity Summit. The summit’s theme was "Together We Rise: The Power of Community." Organizers had three key goals for this event: Awareness of Inequity, Understanding of Why Inequity Exists, and Transforming Towards Equity. The three-day event included speeches from local and national leaders who offered important messages of challenge, accountability, and hope. Multiple curriculum tracks at workshops provided a wide range of engagement opportunities for “participants at all levels, from beginners to seasoned organizers and nonprofit leaders.”
 
The following are perspectives from three of the Diocesan attendees:
 
Leslie Corey
There were about 500 attendees from throughout the St. Louis area. The keynote speaker was poet Nikki Giovanni. Nikki spoke of the predictable endangerment of African-Americans because the environment predicts gun deaths. She spoke of the unspeakable loss of loved ones as a transition, not a death and looking to faith, and family for grounding.

We heard from Dr. Kanika Cunningham, Director of the St. Louis County Health Department, about the disparities in health for African-Americans and on her focus on Phase 1 of the When Shooting Stops campaign. We also heard from Dr. Mati Hiatshuwajo, the Director of the City of St. Louis Health Department.

Breakout sessions for white folks addressed subjects such as white supremacy and cultivating psychological safety by interrupting white supremacy, the four stages of psychological safety (inclusion, learning, contributing, and challenging).  We learned that fear of conflict, either or thinking, right to comfort, individualism, and urgency are all characteristics of white supremacy. Other breakout sessions included grant making to black owned businesses, educational equity, and justice and reparations.

My biggest takeaway from the summit was a new understanding of some of the characteristics of white supremacy including things like black and white thinking, power hoarding, urgency, perfectionism, right to comfort, and individualism. Believing that I can always be neutral is a falsehood. I feel more aware of how I present when I am with people of color because of this understanding.  

The summit brought people from all over the region together and gave people a chance to meet and mingle and walk away with new connections and action plans.
 
 
Tony Corey
This summit offered me valuable new learnings and enriched some familiar concepts at several different levels. The main room speakers offered insightful, high-level perspectives while the workshops dug deeper into specific topics and issues.
 
The Rev. Bethany Johnson-Javois, President and CEO of Deaciness Foundation, invited us to be in covenant relationships, look to the Holy Spirit and not the will of the people. Critique systems and energize people. The future is already here, it’s just unevenly distributed!
 
The event’s keynote speaker, poet, author, and activist Nikki Giovanni took us down paths sacred and not so sacred. Here is one: we should have four things in life: a good friend, a hobby, a second drink, and Faith.
 
Day-one moderator and strategy consultant Rebecca Bennet shared with us a metaphor comparing a prairie fire and racism. If you wish to hear it, invite me for that second beer or coffee. It is worth the time.
 
A workshop entitled “Empowered Anti-Racist Leadership” offered a three-tier model for building a leadership “eco system” that revolves around:

• Individual Learning: Building antiracist and equitable mindsets and practices.

• Interpersonal actions: Linking arms with people in our community to do the work effectively. Finding a “coalition of the willing.” (Great words.)
• Institutional transformation: Collectively creating new systems and structures that center equity and liberation.

 
This workshop offered much more depth beyond this framework. I am praying on how to apply this to my own growth, and that of our communities within the diocese.
 
Another workshop described the white supremacy culture that Leslie mentioned. This dominant culture lives in the white body and requires intentional actions to modify. The facilitators of this workshop used some exercises from Resmaa Menekem’s book, My Grandmother’s Hands, which is featured in a session of the Episcopal Church’s Sacred Ground program.
 
I am most grateful to the diocese for being a sponsor of this event. The facilitator of the white caucus session defined humility as: “I don’t know what I don’t know.” I will not lose sight of that. With God’s help.

 
The Rev. Meghan Ryan
The St. Louis Racial Equity Summit is a "must attend" event for me from now on. The Summit occurs every other year and gathers those involved in racial equity work in our city/county to talk, collaborate, and learn from one another. Each session I attended had something I had never heard before, something I had not been exposed to. While the Summit was certainly educational, the most heartening thing was to see the sheer number of people in our community that are committed to the work of racial justice. Our community is full of people that are marching in the light of God, using their gifts and skills in unique ways. It was a glimpse of the Kingdom. Put it on your calendar for 2025!