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20 July 2022
Dear members of the Episcopal Diocese of Central Pennsylvania,
I’ve been home for a week, now, from the 80th General Convention of our Episcopal Church in Baltimore and its lessons and the work that we did is still unfolding for me. The depth of our conversation in the House of Bishops was great as we discussed critical issues of Creation Care, the discord in our country and our responsibility as leaders, and how we continue to worship as a people who care deeply about respecting and honoring all of God’s children while worshipping from our beloved Book of Common Prayer which, in its current state is not fully reflective of our inclusive values. We are not of one mind in the House of Bishops, but we all love God and Jesus, look to the Holy Spirit to inspire us, and find our way together in prayer and mutual respect.
The deputation from our diocese did a wonderful job representing us: Canon Anthony Alexander, The Rev. Veronica Chappell, Ms. Drew Dorgan, The Rev. Canon Kate Harrigan, The Rev. Sr. Jen Mattson, Ms. Nicolette Norris, Ms. Sarah Reid, Ms. Amy Swiernik, The Rev. Ken Wagner-Pizza and The Rev. Shayna Watson. I hope that they will share some of their reflections on our four days at Convention with all of you. We also had several volunteers representing our diocese, and Ms. Rayelenn Casey served as an Interpreter for the Deaf as she has at many other conventions in the past.
One of the important areas of conversation for this Convention was the ongoing work in the Episcopal Church in dismantling racism. We passed several resolutions to direct more resources towards this critical work. The role of the Episcopal Church in its treatment of indigenous people was examined as part of our country and church’s historical story of racism. We passed six resolutions addressing this topic committing resources towards discovering and naming the ancestral and territorial homelands on which our churches sit, developing prayers and liturgies to honor our native predecessors, committing to recognize Indigenous Peoples’ Day, addressing the high rates of missing and murdered Indigenous and all Women and Girls of Color, and telling the truth about the Episcopal Church’s History with Indigenous Boarding Schools. For the details of these resolutions, follow this link and type “indigenous” into the search bar: https://www.vbinder.net/resolutions?house=HD&lang=en
On the day in which we discussed Indigenous Boarding Schools, I rose to speak as the bishop of the diocese in which the first Indian Boarding School (The Carlisle Industrial Indian School) was built, and I urged our continued investigation, discovery and reckoning with our past. (The school- which was not affiliated with the Church- operated between 1879-1918. More than 10,000 children from more than 140 different tribes attended the school. Carlisle became the model for 26 boarding schools in 15 states and territories.) Our local parish of St John’s, Carlisle and neighboring Dickinson College have already done good work in discovering its history- not all of it as beneficent as we might hope or imagine.
Earlier in the year, the Dismantling Racism group of our diocese worked with me to write the pastoral letter and litany which follows, here. The time to address this subject is overdue. It has been a year, now, since the remains of ten children at the Carlisle school were disinterred and returned to their native people. More than 180 students died and were buried at the Carlisle School in its 39-year history, indicating the depth of disease and raising questions about the treatment of the students and the conditions in which these children lived. This was the fourth exhumation at the Carlisle barracks. The ten who were returned to their homelands last summer included nine from the Rosebud Sioux tribe in South Dakota, and an Aleut child from Alaska.
I pray that the work that we do together in these next years learning about the school and its history will allow for our education, reckoning and repentance. I am grateful to the Dismantling Racism Commission for their work on this letter and pray with thanksgiving for the God whose mercies are new each morning (Lamentations 3: 22) and who can make all things new (Revelation 21:5).
In the Way of Love, |
