Pilot Congregation: Learning to Embrace Diversity
A Vision for the Church
- Our lives as members of the body of Christ transcend race, ethnicity, culture, and national boundaries.
- The affliction of intolerance and racism stands in the way of fully living our lives in Christ.
- The struggle against intolerance and racism in one's self and in the church and society serves as a blueprint for the struggle against all oppression.
Workshops
We offer the following workshops. To schedule a workshop for your church or organization, please call the Bishop's Office at 302 656-5441.
- Understanding Racism in the United States and Delaware
- Parish Self-Assessment
- Follow-up Discussions
Five Marks of a Multi-Culturally Competent Person
- Recognizes the difference between race, ethnicity and culture; that culture is more than race and ethnicity.
- Recognizes their own personal issues of prejudice and stereotypes.
- Challenges the myth of color blindness and recognizes the reality of color consciousness.
- Understands that race, gender, class, religion, and other factors are organizing principles for good or ill in everything we do.
- Recognizes that there are multiple centers of truth, whose legitimacy is often determined by the amount of power a give perspective may have in a given context.
Three Steps to Becoming a Fully Multi-Cultural Non-Racist Church
- AWARENESS: We must counteract our patterns of unawareness of oppression, violence, exclusion, and fear of others.
- SELF-EXAMINATION: We go through life unaware that the effects of our actions and of the actions of our institutions perpetuate oppression and continue the marginalization of poor people, people of color, gays and lesbians, children, and women.
- SYSTEMIC CHANGE:
- Develop a vision of what we hope to become.
- Eliminate all our exclusionary practices and policies.
- Develop strategies to overcome the forces that divide us.
Open Meetings of the Pilot Congregation
Come see for yourself at our open meetings on the first Saturday of every month, 9:00 a.m. to Noon, at the Episcopal Church of Saints Andrew & Matthew, 8th and Shipley, Wilmington, DE 19801. All are welcome.
To learn more about the Pilot Congregation, please call the Bishop's Office at 302 656-5441.
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