The renovated gravesite of the Rev. Thaddeus Saltus, the Episcopal Diocese of South Carolina’s first Black priest. Saltus died in 1884 and is buried at Brotherly Association Cemetery in Charleston. Photo: Michael Shaffer

[Episcopal News Service] One year after an initial gathering for a solemn worship service of lament and repentance, the three historically Black Episcopal churches in Charleston, South Carolina, gathered again, this time for a weekend celebrating diversity, equity and inclusion, and to honor the diocese’s first Black priest.

“The celebrations will remind us that we’re supposed to help reveal God’s kingdom in the advocacy work that we do,” the Rev. Ricardo Bailey, rector of Calvary Episcopal Church, told Episcopal News Service ahead of the Nov. 22-23 events.

Calvary, St. Mark’s Episcopal Church and St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church have formed a coalition they call Three Churches United. They have hosted and participated in several events as part of the diocese’s commitment to racial reconciliation work through its Diocesan Racial Justice and Reconciliation Commission. Part of those efforts include regularly hosting “learning day” events to teach the history of the Charleston-based Diocese of South Carolina.

On Nov. 22, the diocese held a liturgy to bless and rededicate the gravesite of the Rev. Thaddeus C. Saltus, who was born a free person of African descent in 1850. Upon being ordained a deacon in 1881 and a priest in 1882, Saltus served St. Mark’s and was meant to become rector until he unexpectedly died in 1884 from tuberculosis at 33. He is memorialized at St. Mark’s through his name on its pulpit and on a stained-glass window.

Saltus’ gravesite was largely forgotten and neglected until his name and historical significance were mentioned in a learning day nearly two years ago, which prompted volunteers in the diocese to locate and restore it. Through diocesan documents and a listing on FindAGrave.com, an online cemetery database, Saltus’ grave and monument were found at Brotherly Association Cemetery in Charleston. A diocesan restoration committee worked with a local monument company to clean and repair Saltus’ monument. 

“This kind of work is a part of our ministry of reconciliation and healing the wounds of history,” the Rev. Jennie Clarkson Olbrych, a priest who conducts historical research for St. Mark’s and who served on the restoration committee for Saltus’ gravesite, told ENS.

The liturgy at Saltus’ gravesite included readings from Psalm 16 and John 14, and a reflection from South Carolina Bishop Ruth Woodliff-Stanley. Former Presiding Bishop Michael Curry also participated in the liturgy.

 “Thaddeus Saltus faced many barriers – and the diocese at the time tried to limit his ministry to just African Americans without his consent – but he left an indelible mark in our history in a very short amount of time,” the Rev. Adam Shoemaker, rector of St. Stephen’s, told ENS. “This is why we have worked to lift up and illuminate for our diocese this real pioneer who easily could have been forgotten and lost to time were it not for this kind of collective effort.”

The Episcopal Diocese of South Carolina’s “Gloria DEI” worship service, held Nov. 23 at St. Mark’s Episcopal Church in Charleston, was a celebration of diversity, equity and inclusion. Photo: Courtesy of Michael Shaffer

The next day, Nov. 23, St. Mark’s hosted “Gloria DEI,” a special livestreamed worship service celebrating diversity, equity and inclusion, commonly shortened to DEI. In the service’s context, “Gloria DEI” both means “Glory to God” in Latin and diversity, equity and inclusion. The choir of Voorhees University in Denmark, South Carolina, one of two historically Black Episcopal-affiliated universities, performed during the service. Curry preached and Woodliff-Stanley presided.

In his sermon, Curry said that anyone can “discover” diversity, equity and inclusion when they share “the love of Jesus.” He compared the Diocese of South Carolina’s racial reconciliation work to Moses “coming down to tell the Pharaoh, ‘let my people go’ … and coming down to deliver them from the Egyptians.”

“We need folks like you, like these [Three Churches United], like this diocese, who are not ashamed to call [Jesus’] name, not ashamed to be people of love,” Curry said.

U.S. President Donald Trump has, since taking office in January, signed executive orders banning DEI initiatives intended to prohibit discrimination based on race, gender, sexual orientation and disability. At the service, Bailey, Shoemaker and the Rev. Michael Shaffer, rector of St. Mark’s, all described celebrating diversity, equity and inclusion as “Christian values.” This is why, the priests said, having the “Gloria DEI” service the same weekend as Saltus’ monument rededication, and Curry’s presence as The Episcopal Church’s first Black presiding bishop, was “providential.”

“The accomplishments we’ve made as a diocese and as the Three Churches United in the last year is a furtherance of the kingdom of God, in celebration of diversity, equity, inclusion, fairness, justice that have been eroded in the last year,” Shaffer told ENS. “While we celebrate those, we need to be cognizant of the fact that there’s still work to be done.”

-Shireen Korkzan is a reporter and assistant editor for Episcopal News Service. She can be reached at skorkzan@episcopalchurch.org.

Gospel proclaimed by the Rev. Michael DeVine, Interim Rector, St. Peter’s Episcopal Church in Springfield, MA.

On Friday, November 14, the 124^th Diocesan Convention of the Episcopal Diocese of Western Massachusetts passed the second resolution related to reparations. An act of atonement towards racial healing and reconciliation establishes an initial monetary commitment of $500 thousand dollars. Widespread movement to heal the financial impact of slavery is long overdue and can never make up for centuries of enslavement and racism. It is, however, incumbent on the followers of Jesus to own the truth of this sin and work to repair the real relationships among us that remain impacted by 400 years of White supremacy and racism.

The first atonement resolution in 2022 provided a space to acknowledge the sin of slavery and commit the diocese to truth-telling research and the work of repair. In 2023, the 123^rd Diocesan Convention received an historical accounting of the origins of the endowment. The archival research established a solid line between the slave economy in New England and the foundation of the diocese in 1901. The resolution passed on November 14 represents three years of focused work on atonement and over a decade of becoming beloved community ministry.

This resolution will fund half-time leadership for our last historically Black congregation, St. Peter’s Episcopal Church, Springfield. The people of St. Peter’s were interviewed for a short-form video that was shown at the convention to give context for this ministry today. This priest will also be a half-time Missioner for Racial Reconciliation who will focus particular efforts among the youth of the City of Springfield and support our congregations in their work of repair and reconciliation. The search for this new position will begin in January 2026.

In his address to the 124^th Diocesan Convention, Bishop Fisher traced the arc of this work in our diocese. “Here, we have held over 100 Sacred Ground Circles,” Fisher said. “How this has raised our consciousness of the sin of slavery, the dispossession of Native land. Becoming Beloved Community in this way required study, truth telling, discussion and prayer…It has transformed hearts and minds and has led us to learn our own true story as a diocese. We resolved to engage a historian to walk us through our archives and learn how our founding finances were directly linked to the slave economy in the North. Our decision to tell that important truth has led to the next step in our journey toward racial atonement, which you will be voting on later today.”

Presented by the Social Justice Commission, the resolution is the specific work of an atonement subgroup led by the Rev. Tim Crellin and the Rev. Dr. Harvey Hill. While this first act of repair is specific, the creation of the atonement fund will allow future contributions as the diocese and our congregations continue to make racial reconciliation a missional priority.

“We are working on God’s dream for us,” Fisher said. “Even though it seems far away, our love will make it real someday.”

The latest gift, announced in a Nov. 8 news release, is the largest donation Voorhees has received in its 127-year history. The individual donation to the Denmark, South Carolina, school follows Scott’s $70 million gift in September to the UNCF, of which Voorhees is a member.

Saint Augustine’s University in Raleigh, North Carolina, another historically Black school founded by Episcopalians, also will benefit from the UNCF donation, which will be invested in a pooled endowment for the 37 historically Black universities and colleges, or HBCUs, that are members.

Voorhees University is an Episcopal-affiliated historically Black school in Denmark, South Carolina. Photo: Voorhees University

Scott initially gave $4 million to Voorhees in 2020. Since then, the school has changed its name from Voorhees College to Voorhees University while expanding its academic offerings to include master’s degree and doctoral programs. The new $19 million donation will be used to “support endowment growth, student recruitment and retention, scholarships and deferred maintenance,” the Voorhees release said.

“This generous gift from Ms. MacKenzie Scott is a resounding affirmation of the extraordinary work being done at Voorhees University,” Ronnie Hopkins, president and CEO of Voorhees University, said in the news release. “It strengthens our ability to fulfill our vision as a leading faith-based, career-focused institution that transforms lives and communities. These funds will allow us to build on our momentum — supporting our students, expanding our reach, and securing Voorhees’ future for generations to come.”

Historically Black colleges and universities like Voorhees and Saint Augustine’s were founded in the post-Civil War period to provide educational opportunities to Black men and women who were excluded from white institutions of higher learning. Saint Augustine’s was established in 1867 by The Episcopal Church and opened its doors the following January. The school that later would become Voorhees College was founded in 1897 as the Denmark Industrial School, and The Episcopal Church has supported it since 1924.

Saint Augustine’s touted Scott’s donation to UNCF in September, saying it would allow the university to receive a $5 million stake in the UNCF member endowment. The university also  said it would work to raise a matching $5 million.

“This transformational investment affirms the critical role that SAU plays in higher education and will allow us to expand opportunities for our students, strengthen our academic programs, and build permanent resources for the future,” SAU Interim President Verjanis A. Peoples said in a news release at the time. “We are proud to work alongside UNCF to raise the matching funds that will double this impact on our institution.”

Unlike Voorhees, Saint Augustine’s has scrambled in recent years to shore up its financial position and governance standards in a battle to maintain its accreditation. Its accrediting agency, the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges, or SACSCOC, has attempted to terminate its membership, though Saint Augustine’s remains an accredited school while it contests the matter in court.

Both schools have received several million dollars from The Episcopal Church in recent years while also accepting the church’s guidance on administrative and fundraising matters.

Voorhees, in announcing its latest donation from Scott, described it as an affirmation of the school’s mission and track record.

“This extraordinary contribution validates the collective efforts of our students, faculty, alumni, community, and leadership,” David Miller, chair of Voorhees’ board of trustees, said in the news release. “It also recognizes Voorhees University as a model of innovation and resilience among HBCUs. We are deeply grateful to Ms. Scott for her confidence in our mission and her belief in the power of education to change lives.”

– David Paulsen is a senior reporter and editor for Episcopal News Service based in Wisconsin. He can be reached at dpaulsen@episcopalchurch.org.

St. John the Baptist Episcopal Church in Crow Creek, South Dakota. Photo: Miskopwaaganikwa Leora Tadgerson

[Episcopal News Service] The Crow Creek Sioux Tribe and the Diocese of South Dakota are developing a “beautiful relationship” after South Dakota Bishop Jonathan Folts formally apologized for the diocese’s involvement in operating Indigenous boarding schools.

“[Folts’] apology was one of the most heartfelt, most sincere things I’ve ever listened to coming from another human being. … I had been praying about bringing healing to my people on this level for a long time,” Crow Creek Chairman Peter Lengkeek, the son of a boarding school survivor, told Episcopal News Service in an Oct. 9 telephone interview. “I could actually feel the conviction in every word and every breath. …That was definitely a gateway opportunity to a beautiful relationship and opportunities to heal.”

Hundreds of boarding schools were operated by the government and religious denominations starting in the 19th century as part of a federal policy of forced assimilation of the continent’s native inhabitants. Since then, research has shown that most of the boarding schools with Episcopal ties were in South Dakota, including the Crow Creek Dormitory.

“Our actions have alienated and separated us from you, our Native siblings. Instead of showing ourselves as imitators of Jesus Christ, as our Scriptures call us to be, we instead have acted as divine enforcers of a misguided notion of entitlement and betterment,” Folts said in his apology delivered Aug. 16 to Lengkeek at St. John the Baptist Episcopal Church on the Crow Creek Indian Reservation. The apology was first made public when it was read during South Dakota’s Oct. 3-4 diocesan convention in Pierre.

Read Folts’ apology here.

The bishop told ENS in an Oct. 9 email that it’s important for The Episcopal Church to apologize for its historic role in supporting Indigenous boarding schools because it signifies truth-telling and a desire to build positive relationships with tribes.

“The Episcopal Church’s history of participating in a system that took children from Native and Indigenous families – stripping them of language, story, and identity as sovereign peoples – cannot be undone. But it must be named,” Folts said in his email. “A formal apology is the first way the church can speak this truth aloud. It says to those who were harmed, and to their descendants, that we see the pain our church helped cause and that we are committed to walking a different path.”

During the Diocese of South Dakota’s Oct. 3-4 convention, Crow Creek Chairman Peter Lengkeek presented South Dakota Bishop Jonathan Folts with a handmade Native American star quilt, which symbolizes wisdom, understanding, the four stages of life – infancy, youth, maturity and old age – and the four cardinal directions. Photo: Lauren Stanley

Last year, The Episcopal Church identified church involvement in operating 34 of the 526 known boarding schools in the United States. The church’s fact-finding commission, established by General Convention Resolution A127, has discovered at least a dozen more schools since then, according to Veronica Pasfield, a member of the Bay Mills Indian Community and an Indigenous boarding schools historian who works as an archival consultant for The Episcopal Church. These schools included federally operated schools where Episcopal clergy taught Christian education and government schools that required students to attend nearby Episcopal churches for worship services and classes.

Pasfield told ENS that church-operated boarding schools are often referred to as “mission schools,” but they were, in fact, contract schools. She said specifying the language is important because the signed contracts meant the U.S. Department of the Interior would pay churches to operate schools using funds that had been designated to support Native American tribes. This means that church leaders were motivated not just by opportunities to proselytize, but also by money.

“This notion that it was simply these missionaries who wanted to pull these ‘savages’ into the community of God-fearing humans is only half of the story,” Pasfield said. “This is part of why [The Episcopal Church’s boarding schools research and advocacy groups] have pursued dialogue and relationships with tribal governments.”

Pasfield’s academic background includes a doctorate in American studies, specializing in researching Indigenous boarding schools.

During the small gathering where Folts apologized, Pasfield gave an overview of the records found in government and church archives she and the A127 commission have been analyzing since 2024.

The boarding schools were designed to assimilate Native Americans into the dominant white culture and erase Indigenous languages and practices. Children were forced to learn English and were violently punished for speaking their Native languages. By official records, nearly 1,000 children are known to have died during the 19th and 20th centuries in boarding schools nationwide, according to a July 2024 report by the Department of the Interior. However, some experts estimate the number is closer to 40,000. In many cases, children faced physical, sexual and mental abuse.

Lengkeek said the generational trauma stemming from boarding schools continues to harm Crow Creek Native Americans today through chronic sickness, addiction and violence. Tribal members’ life expectancy is 45 years, well below the national average of 78.4 years. Lengkeek described the mental and physical health issues as consequences of the “boarding school cycle.” The cycle began when toddlers were forcefully removed from their homes and sent to a school – oftentimes hundreds of miles away – without knowing when they would reunite with their families. They usually couldn’t return home for several years; many children never returned home.

“You’re put into that system at a very young age, and you’re raised by nuns and priests who don’t have your best interests at heart and don’t display any love, kindness, welcoming or nurturing – just a roof and a scant meal. And then you become an adult and age out of the system with no nurturing, housekeeping or basic life skills. Then you have children and raise them the way you were raised by the nuns, and they grow up and raise their children the same way,” Lengkeek said. 

“We’re still seeing that cycle playing out in many of our families today. Families who have broken that cycle raised their children with love; love is how you break the cycle.”

Lengkeek explained the “boarding school cycle” to Episcopalians during his speech at South Dakota’s diocesan convention. He also talked about the tribe’s and diocese’s early discussions aimed at co-developing Indigenous-led truth-telling and reconciliation initiatives.

The Crow Creek Sioux mostly descend from the Mdewakanton Dakota of Minnesota. When they were exiled by governmental order from Minnesota following the Dakota War of 1862, the U.S. government initiated a $250 bounty per Dakota Sioux scalps. Those who escaped settled in present-day South Dakota. Many Crow Creek Sioux continue to practice Dakota ceremonial rituals today, such as the burning of red willow bark, that were incorporated into the August gathering where Folts apologized. Lengkeek also prayed and sang in the Dakota language.

“It was great to see a bishop understand the spiritual needs beyond Indigenous ministries from a Christian lens, right into tribal sovereignty and self-determination,” Miskopwaaganikwa Leora Tadgerson, a member of the Bay Mills Indian Community and the Diocese of Northern Michigan’s director of reparations and justice, told ENS. “It established a spiritual, reciprocal sacredness before we officially started the meeting.”

Tadgerson also serves as chair of The Episcopal Church’s boarding schools advocacy committee, which was established by Executive Council through Resolution MW062. She was the keynote speaker for South Dakota’s diocesan convention, where she provided an overview of the advocacy committee’s work. She also brought with her to South Dakota’s diocesan convention the Diocese of Northern Michigan’s traveling exhibit, “Walking Together: Finding Common Ground,” which showcases stories of Indigenous boarding school survivors in Michigan.

Even though the Aug. 16 gathering was small and only a few Crow Creek tribal members were present to hear Folts’ apology, “the land heard it, and it was spoken into existence,” said Lengkeek, who plans to meet regularly with Folts to continue building the tribe’s relationship with the Diocese of South Dakota.

Folts told ENS in his email that the apology is not an end, but a beginning. “It is the first of many steps as we seek to listen again, learn again, and rebuild trust again – with humility, courage and hope.”

-Shireen Korkzan is a reporter and assistant editor for Episcopal News Service. She can be reached at skorkzan@episcopalchurch.org.

Descendants and members of the VTS board break ground for the Reparations Memorial. Photo: VTS

[Episcopal News Service] Virginia Theological Seminary held a groundbreaking ceremony Sept. 25 for a memorial on its campus in Alexandria that will honor African Americans, enslaved and free, who labored at the seminary from 1823 to 1951.

The memorial, to be completed by early 2027, is part of the Episcopal seminary’s ongoing Reparations Program, which has identified more than 200 descendants of those laborers to receive annual payments from the seminary’s $2.8 million reparations endowment.

The Reparations Program’s historical research has identified 557 African American laborers who contributed to the seminary’s growth for more than a century, from its 1823 founding through its desegregation in 1951. The seminary launched the program in 2019 in recognition of the fact that those individuals were not compensated or were not fully compensated for their contributions to the seminary.

“Remembering the past is a Christian obligation. Forgetting is a sin,” the Very Rev. Ian Markham, the seminary’s dean, said in a news release. “This memorial is a recognition that people labored on this seminary in an unjust and cruel environment. We honor their memory. We pray that God will use this memorial as a vehicle that changes the present and creates new options for the future.”

The seminary continues to conduct research in an attempt to identify 234 of the 557 Black laborers whose identities are still unknown. Those and related efforts are overseen by Ebonee Davis-Hays, the seminary’s director of reparations.

“It is the goal of the VTS Reparations Program to acknowledge both the moral and material transgressions of the seminary’s participation in slavery and oppression,” Davis-Hays said in the news release. “Remembering is a vital step in that process, and the memorial is an outward expression of the program’s inner work of bringing forth the memory of a community VTS once ignored.”

An artist’s rendering of the Reparations Memorial.

The memorial was designed by a mother-and-daughter team, Martha Jackson-Jarvis and Njena Surae Jarvis, and will feature stained-glass windows set in ironwork, inspired by features on the seminary’s campus. All of the 557 known laborers, both named and unnamed, will be honored by etchings in the glass, with space remaining for later additions as more are identified.

The memorial will be located prominently near a campus thoroughfare, Quaker Lane.

VTS is one of The Episcopal Church’s oldest seminaries. At least one building, Aspinwall Hall in 1841, was built with slave labor, and three of the four founding faculty were slaveowners. In the early years, white students were permitted to bring enslaved people on campus as servants. Those Black laborers were denied access to dining halls and other campus facilities when not working, and such conditions continued under Reconstruction and Jim Crow segregation. Black students also were excluded from attending the seminary until the 1950s.

VTS began making cash payments, about $2,100 each, to the oldest living descendants of Black campus laborers in 2021. The eligible relatives, whom the seminary calls “shareholders,” also are offered access to on-campus amenities that were off-limits to their ancestors.

In addition to the reparations payments, the seminary also has formalized relationships with two local Black congregations, Meade Memorial Episcopal Church and Oakland Baptist Church, and it has awarded $20,000 in grants to support the ministries of alumni working in Black contexts.

– David Paulsen is a senior reporter and editor for Episcopal News Service based in Wisconsin. He can be reached at dpaulsen@episcopalchurch.org.

An artist’s rendering of the Reparations Memorial.

Virginia Theological Seminary (VTS) has held a groundbreaking ceremony for its Reparations Memorial to honor African Americans who labored at the Seminary between 1823 and 1951. The memorial is part of the Seminary’s Reparations Program.

Created by mother and daughter team Martha Jackson-Jarvis and Njena Surae Jarvis from Jackson-Jarvis Studio, the memorial features a series of stained-glass windows set in ironwork. The design draws inspiration from features of the Seminary’s campus, such as historic windows, arches, ironwork and trees. All known laborers, both named and unnamed, will be etched into the glass windows, with space left for additional names uncovered by future research. The memorial will be located in a prominent position on campus close to Quaker Lane, a busy throughfare, to ensure it is visible and accessible to the local Alexandria community.

VTS launched its Reparations Program in 2019 as part of the Seminary’s commitment to recognizing its participation in oppression in the past and working towards healing and justice in the future. Funded through a $2.8 million Reparations Endowment, the program makes annual cash payments in perpetuity to the descendants of Black people, both enslaved and free, who labored at the seminary during slavery and Jim Crow. While VTS does not believe any amount of money can compensate for the suffering that took place, it does think cash reparations are appropriate in recognition of the fact that those who labored at the Seminary between 1823 and 1951 were either not compensated, or were not compensated fairly, for their labor. To date, more than 200 descendants have received annual payments from the fund.

Descendants and members of the VTS board break ground for the Reparations Memorial.

In the six years since the program was established, the descendant base has grown to more than 1,000 people, with around a quarter actively participating in the program. To date, research has identified 557 laborers (free and enslaved), 311 of whom are known by name. VTS is committed to the ongoing research of uncovering the 234 unnamed enslaved laborers to take the next steps in finding their living descendants.

In addition to making payments to the descendants of those who labored on the campus, the Seminary has also entered into a Reparations Covenant with Meade Memorial Episcopal Church and Oakland Baptist Church, two local Black congregations that have significant historical ties to the Seminary and the Reparations Program’s descendant community. Approximately $20,000 in grants has also been made to support the ministry projects of VTS alumni working in Black contexts.

The Very Rev. Ian S. Markham, Ph.D., Dean and President of Virginia Theological Seminary, said: “Remembering the past is a Christian obligation. Forgetting is a sin. This memorial is a recognition that people labored on this Seminary in an unjust and cruel environment. We honor their memory. We pray that God will use this memorial as a vehicle that changes the present and creates new options for the future.”

Ebonee Davis-Hayes, Director of Reparations at Virginia Theological Seminary, said: “It is the goal of the VTS Reparations Program to acknowledge both the moral and material transgressions of the Seminary’s participation in slavery and oppression. Remembering is a vital step in that process, and the memorial is an outward expression of the Program’s inner work of bringing forth the memory of a community VTS once ignored.”

The Reparations Memorial is scheduled to be completed in early 2027.

Notes to editors:
For media enquiries, please contact Nicky Burridge, Senior Vice President for Communications and Institutional Advancement at VTS.
Tel: (703) 461-1782

Mobile: (703) 300-2876
Email: nburridge@vts.edu

About Virginia Theological Seminary:
Virginia Theological Seminary was founded in 1823 and has a long tradition of shaping faithful women and men, lay and ordained, for leadership in The Episcopal Church and beyond. It is the strongest seminary in the Anglican Communion and provides more than 25 percent of the clergy of The Episcopal Church.

The next year of Sacred Ground, a film- and readings-based dialogue series on race that is grounded in faith, will begin with a Sept. 2 online webinar featuring Presiding Bishop Sean Rowe.

[Episcopal News Service] Presiding Bishop Sean Rowe will be the speaker at a special Sept. 2 online webinar to help mark the start of the next year of Sacred Ground, a film- and readings-based dialogue series on race that is grounded in faith.

People participate in Sacred Ground in local gatherings called circles, where they look at America’s history of race and racism while also bringing in their own experience. While many circles meet in person, some are designed for online participation.

The series has been part of The Episcopal Church’s work on racial reconciliation since it began in 2019.

During the 90-minute webinar, Rowe will explore the spiritual dimensions of Sacred Ground and why it continues to challenge people to work for racial healing, reconciliation and justice. Registration for the webinar, which will begin at 1 p.m. Eastern on Zoom, is available here.

Rowe told Episcopal News Service he was grateful to be part of this year’s Sacred Ground kickoff event, having learned more about it with an online group on bishops during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“It really transformed my understanding of personal and institutional complicity in racism,” he said. “I have also witnessed how Sacred Ground helps dioceses, churches and other communities move toward tangible action and become equipped to have difficult, honest conversations about race as the living members of the Body of Christ.”

Sacred Ground is an 11-part online curriculum of documentary films and readings that focus on Indigenous, Black, Latino and Asian/Pacific American histories as they intersect with European American histories. It is part of Becoming Beloved Community, The Episcopal Church’s long-term commitment to racial healing, reconciliation and justice in our personal lives, our ministries and our society.

Participants also examine examples of systemic racism in today’s America, such as mass incarceration and its disproportionate effect on people of color.

The curriculum was developed primarily for white Episcopalians to learn about the history of racism in the United States and the way racism continues to manifest itself today in American social interactions and institutions, including churches, even when the people involved are not themselves racist.

Most circles take place within Episcopal churches or dioceses, but some are ecumenical and include members of churches that are in full communion with The Episcopal Church.

Andrea Lauerman, part-time Sacred Ground program coordinator, told Episcopal News Service by email that in the past year more than 500 circles have registered with The Episcopal Church, and while the size of circles can vary, they tend to have 8-10 participants, she said. A map shows the circles that were registered during the 2024-2025 year.

She added that by design, the series is run at the local level with minimal centralized oversight. “It is the hope that folks will take it and run with it at the local level – adapting it as they see fit for their local context,” she said.

She and the Rev. Valerie Mayo, Sacred Ground strategic consultant, last year told ENS that the program saw an increase in participants in 2020 during a national reckoning with systemic racism that followed the killing that year of George Floyd and other Black Americans by white police officers and vigilantes.

— Melodie Woerman is an Episcopal News Service freelance reporter based in Kansas.

Former Presiding Bishop Michael Curry preached during the Aug. 9, 2025, pilgrimage in Hayneville, Alabama, marking 60 years since Jonathan Daniels was killed on Aug. 20, 1965, while trying to protect a Black teenager from gunfire during the Civil Rights Movement. Daniels was a 26-year-old white seminarian at the Episcopal Theological School in Cambridge, Massachusetts. His feast day is Aug. 14 in The Episcopal Church. Photo: Shireen Korkzan

[Episcopal News Service — Hayneville, Alabama] This month marks 60 years since Episcopal seminarian Jonathan Myrick Daniels was killed while trying to protect a Black teenager from gunfire during the Civil Rights Movement. Remembering Daniels and his sacrifice has become a focal point of the Diocese of Alabama’s racial justice efforts, and over the weekend, former Presiding Bishop Michael Curry joined the diocese’s annual pilgrimage honoring Daniels.

“We remember the martyrs and Jonathan [Daniels] … what they stood for in our lives and to help change this world,” Curry told hundreds of pilgrims Aug. 9 while preaching inside the Lowndes County Courthouse in Hayneville, Alabama.

Systemic racism today is commonly understood as the often unacknowledged and historically rooted bias and discrimination found in the U.S. criminal justice system, employment, housing, education access, health care and other areas. During the 20th century, activists like Daniels fought against the legacy of racism in those systems and for basic liberties like Black Americans’ right to vote.

“No question, [civil rights] is a long-distance run – it’s a marathon,” Curry said during a press conference ahead of the Alabama pilgrimage.

Since 1998, the Birmingham-based diocese has honored Daniels and the 13 other known Alabama martyrs by organizing an annual pilgrimage to Hayneville with support from the Diocese of the Central Gulf Coast, which includes the southern half of Alabama and the Florida Panhandle. The pilgrimage usually takes place on or around Daniels’ Episcopal feast day, Aug. 14. More than 300 Episcopalians and civil rights activists registered to take part in this year’s pilgrimage, including Episcopal clergy, seminarians and lay people, as well as civil rights activists.

Daniels was a white seminarian at the Episcopal Theological School in Cambridge, Massachusetts – today the New York City-based Episcopal Divinity School – who hailed from Keene, New Hampshire. On Aug. 20, 1965, he was shot and killed by Tom Coleman, a white part-time special deputy sheriff, while Daniels was trying to protect Ruby Sales, a Black teenage civil rights activist, from gunfire. He was 26 years old.

“Jonathan Daniels gave his life to protect another person, but he really, like all of the martyrs in our history, was someone who gave his life for the cause of others to make our nation truly reflect the founding ideals … a new nation conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men – all people – are created equal,” Curry said during the press conference.

The evening before the pilgrimage, on Aug. 8, a group of youth pilgrims gathered at Episcopal Church of the Ascension in Montgomery for fellowship and to learn more about the Civil Rights Movement.

Episcopal Divinity School also hosted the livestreamed “Walk With Me” vigil at St. John’s Episcopal Church in Montgomery.  The Rev. Kelly Brown Douglas, canon theologian of Washington National Cathedral, and Ashley M. Jones, Alabama’s poet laureate, spoke during the vigil, which honored Daniels and other martyrs who were killed in Alabama during the Civil Rights Movement.

“Jonathan Daniels wasn’t afraid of failure. He failed forward, towards the cross,” Douglas said during the vigil.

Daniels was actively involved in civil rights work while in seminary. In the days before his death, while attending the ninth annual Southern Christian Leadership Conference in Birmingham, he met Richard Morrisroe, a white Catholic priest who had marched with the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. in Chicago, Illinois, and Selma, Alabama. After the conference, on Aug. 14, Daniels and Morrisroe joined a group of protesters in Fort Deposit, Alabama, to picket whites-only stores. All of the protesters were arrested and jailed in Hayneville.

When they were released from jail on Aug. 20, Daniels and Morrisroe accompanied two Black teenage protesters, Sales and Joyce Bailey, to nearby Varner’s Cash Store to purchase beverages. As they neared the store, Coleman blocked the doorway and attempted to shoot the teenagers. Daniels shielded Sales from Coleman’s shotgun blast, taking the fatal blow himself. Morrisroe grabbed Bailey and they ran off together. Morrisroe was shot in the back but survived.

Like previous years, this year’s pilgrimage began with prayer at the Lowndes County Courthouse square before the pilgrims marched to the old county jail where Daniels was detained. The procession continued to the site of the old Varner’s Cash Store site – now an insurance agency office – and ended back at the courthouse, where an all-white jury had tried and acquitted Coleman of manslaughter charges. The pilgrims sang, prayed and reflected throughout the march. Some people read passages from Scripture and Charles W. Eagles’ book, “Outside Agitator: Jon Daniels and the Civil Rights Movement in Alabama.”

While in front of the site of the old Varner’s Cash Store – where a memorial marker detailing Daniels’ martyrdom now stands – the pilgrims were invited to kneel while praying and reflecting.

Many of the pilgrims entered the courthouse for worship, while others watched a livestream of the service from outside. Curry preached and celebrated. Alabama Bishop Glenda S. Curry and Central Gulf Coast Bishop Russell Kendrick assisted. During the service, several of the youth pilgrims sat in front of the pews holding large posters with photos and names of the 14 martyrs; they stood during a reading of the martyrs’ names.

The offering received during the service was designated to support the Lowndes County Board of Education Scholarship Fund, which provides scholarship opportunities to graduating students at Lowndes County High School.

Also during the service, Lowndes County District Judge Adrian Johnson welcomed the pilgrims, acknowledging that “this is the site of many injustices.” He noted that most Hayneville residents today are Black, and juries today reflect the demographics.

“But it was only because of the struggles – the efforts of those who had to persevere,” Johnson said. “I hope the experience that you have taken away from here, you take back to your community and understand that … we love one another.”

Michael Curry and Glenda Curry both said Episcopalians need to continue to advocate for civil rights and systemic change in their communities, continuing Daniels’ legacy.

“If all of us could follow [Daniels’] example, maybe we would follow Jesus and then follow something life-giving and then find on the other side of it work we never thought about doing,” Glenda Curry said.

-Shireen Korkzan is a reporter and assistant editor for Episcopal News Service. She can be reached at skorkzan@episcopalchurch.org.

During his time in Alabama, Jonathan Daniels lived with the West family in Selma. The family, Alice West has said, kept their doors open to so-called “outside agitators” working in the civil rights movement. Daniels became a part of her family, she said. Photo: Archives of The Episcopal Church

[Episcopal News Service — Dyer, Indiana] Nearly 60 years after Jonathan Myrick Daniels was killed by a white special deputy sheriff from Lowndes County, Alabama, hundreds of Episcopalians – including clergy, seminarians and lay people – and civil rights activists will gather and march in Hayneville to commemorate the Episcopal seminarian and other martyrs of the Civil Rights Movement in the state.

“Jonathan’s actions were very much an act of faith, there was no doubt about it,” Richard Morrisroe, a white former Catholic priest from Chicago, Illinois, who witnessed Daniels’ martyrdom, told Episcopal News Service during an Aug. 5 in-person interview here. 

Like Daniels, Morrisroe was a civil rights activist. He walked with the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. in Chicago and in Selma. Today, Morrisroe is 86 years old and lives with his wife, Sylvia Morrisroe, in East Chicago, Indiana.

Since 1998, the Diocese of Alabama has honored Daniels by organizing an annual pilgrimage to Hayneville with support from the Pensacola, Florida-based Diocese of the Central Gulf Coast. The pilgrimage usually takes place on or around Daniels’ feast day, Aug. 14 in The Episcopal Church.

“Even before the pilgrimage started, people from the Southern Poverty Law Center’s headquarters in Montgomery and locals did different things to honor Jonathan,” Morrisroe said. “The pilgrimage in the way that it is now is a very good thing.”

This year’s pilgrimage is scheduled for Aug. 9, though a group of youth pilgrims will gather the evening before at the Episcopal Church of the Ascension in Montgomery. Some pilgrims from Episcopal Divinity School also will gather the evening before at St. John’s Episcopal Church in Montgomery for a special dinner; Ruby Sales, the Black teenage girl Daniels shielded from gunfire when he was killed, will be the guest speaker. Morrisroe also was scheduled to speak at the dinner, but he’s unable to travel due to health issues.

After the dinner, Episcopal Divinity School will host the public “Walk With Me” vigil commemorating the 60th anniversary of Daniels’ martyrdom at St. John’s. The Rev. Kelly Brown Douglas, canon theologian of Washington National Cathedral, will speak. Ashley M. Jones, Alabama’s poet laureate, also will speak at the vigil.

On the 9th, the pilgrims will gather at the Lowndes County Courthouse Square and march to the jail where Daniels, Morrisroe and other arrested civil rights activists were held, the site where Daniels was later killed and the courtroom where his killer was acquitted.

After the procession, the pilgrims will gather inside the courthouse for a worship service. Former Presiding Bishop Michael Curry will preach.

Morrisroe – who also was shot by the same man who killed Daniels – said his shooting and Daniels’ martyrdom have greatly shaped his life.

“We knew going in that there was a risk of violence, but I never expected to actually get shot and to witness someone getting killed being part of the Civil Rights Movement,” Morrisroe said.

Richard Morrisroe is a former Catholic priest and civil rights activist. On Aug. 20, 1965, he and Jonathan Myrick Daniels, an Episcopal seminarian, were shot after shielding two Black teenage girls from gunfire outside of Varner’s Cash Store in Hayneville, Alabama. Morrisroe survived, but Daniels died. Daniels is designated as a martyr in The Episcopal Church. Photo: Courtesy of Richard Morrisroe

Daniels, a white 26-year-old originally from Keene, New Hampshire, was a seminarian at the Episcopal Theological School in Cambridge, Massachusetts, which today is Episcopal Divinity School based in New York City. While a seminarian, he was actively involved in civil rights work. In 1965, he met Morrisroe at the ninth annual Southern Christian Leadership Conference in Birmingham, Alabama, which took place Aug. 9-13.

After the conference, on Aug. 14, Daniels and Morrisroe joined a group of protesters in Fort Deposit, Alabama, to picket whites-only stores. All the protesters were arrested and transported in a garbage truck to a jail without air conditioning in Hayneville, less than 25 miles southwest of Montgomery.

When they were released from jail on Aug. 20, Daniels and Morrisroe accompanied two Black teenage protesters, Sales and Joyce Bailey, to nearby Varner’s Cash Store to purchase sodas.

“It was late August in Alabama. I remember it was very, very hot that day,” Morrisroe said.

As the group neared the store, highway worker and part-time deputy sheriff Tom Coleman confronted them and attempted to shoot the teenagers. Daniels shielded Sales from Coleman’s shotgun blast, taking the fatal blow himself. Morrisroe grabbed Bailey and they ran off together. Morrisroe was shot in the back but survived. He spent several years relearning how to walk and coping with post-traumatic stress disorder.

“I remember going to Montgomery Baptist Hospital in a hearse. Jonathan was below me, lying dead, and I was alive in a kind of gurney or something,” Morrisroe said. “They dropped me off at the emergency room, and I waited there for about, maybe an hour and a half in the hearse without much attention. … A Catholic priest from that area came in and anointed me and convinced a military doctor – Dr. Charles Cox – to put together a group of six doctors. They spent 11 hours keeping me alive as they removed the bullet that had landed in my spine.”

Morrisroe eventually transferred to a hospital in Oak Park, Illinois, where he remained until February 1966. While hospitalized, he missed Coleman’s trial at the Lowndes County Courthouse, where an all-white grand jury acquitted him of manslaughter charges.

“The closest I ever got to interacting with Tom Coleman since the shooting was when my daughter went down to Lowndes County with some nuns who had an outreach ministry not too far from Hayneville,” said Morrisroe, who left the priesthood in 1972 after years of therapy recovering from the injuries he suffered from Coleman’s gunshot, and worked in city planning and in academia until he retired. “Some people pointed out his house to her. She was tempted to knock on his door and identify herself, but she never did that. And then he died a couple of years later.”

At the 1991 General Convention in Phoenix, Arizona, Morrisroe testified in favor of Daniels’ sainthood in front of the House of Bishops. Even though feast days are typically observed on the saints’ death anniversaries, Morrisroe said Aug. 14 – the day of Daniels’ arrest – was designated Daniels’ feast day instead of the 20th because Aug. 20 is already observed as the Feast of St. Bernard of Clairvaux.

Morrisroe told ENS that when he met Daniels at the conference, he didn’t expect their lives would be forever changed in the coming days.

“Everything Daniels did was rooted in his faith – I can’t stress it enough,” Morrisroe said.

-Shireen Korkzan is a reporter and assistant editor for Episcopal News Service. She can be reached at skorkzan@episcopalchurch.org.

Some of the regular members of ‘Monday School’ at All Saints in Homewood, Alabama, gather in front of the church. They are (from left) Abby Poole, Tom Richeson, Grace Turner, Carrie Dennis, Magie Logan, Taylor Gerard, Memily Colvin, David Walters, Karen Ammons and Michelle Suttle. Photo: Diocese of Alabama

[Episcopal Diocese of Alabama] Every Monday evening at All Saints Episcopal Church in Homewood, Alabama, a group of people spanning three generations gathers to read, reflect and talk honestly about race, faith and justice. They call it Monday School.

After the Episcopal Diocese of Alabama organized a Sacred Ground group that concluded in 2024, All Saints member Memily Colvin wasn’t ready for the conversation to end. So, as part of another Alabama initiative, “One Diocese, One Book,” she hosted a discussion of a book by Catherine Meeks, “The Night is Long but Light Comes in the Morning: Meditations for Racial Healing.”

To Colvin’s surprise, about a dozen people showed up, including some who weren’t Episcopalians. And they kept meeting, at first during the summer on Sunday mornings, but then switching to Monday evenings during Advent 2024. The week after Thanksgiving, there were 14 people, and Monday School was born.

“It rhymes with Sunday School,” noted Karen Ammons, who also sings in All Saints’ choir and can’t attend traditional classes on Sundays. “Monday School gave us a new way to gather.”

Since then, Monday School has grown into a diverse group of readers and thinkers who aren’t afraid of hard conversations and uncomfortable questions. The books they have chosen include “Jesus and the Disinherited” by Howard Thurman, “Letter from Birmingham Jail” by the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and “The Church Cracked Open” by the Rev. Stephanie Spellers. Each one delves into America’s racial legacy and the church’s role in addressing it.

Monday School is not just about books but also about the conversations they spark and what happens next. Members talk about difficult issues, reflect on their lives and, most importantly, take action.

“Sometimes we come in and talk about things we have done during the week,” group member Abby Poole said, including “hard conversations we have had, moments we are proud of.” She added, “It is a place where different opinions are welcome, and no one gets mad. We just stop and really listen.”

Tom Richeson agreed, saying, “At the end of the day, it is about listening more than talking. We learn best when we open our hearts, not just our minds.”

That spirit of listening has made a lasting impact. For Taylor Gerard, Monday School was her path back to church. “When Abby brought me, it was just such an amazing experience,” she said. “I realized this was a safe space to talk about race, faith and the world. It made me want to come to church again.”

Even in its simplicity, Monday School has become a powerful community. Colvin noted, “I am amazed at how many people here want to have racial conversations.” Members have built relationships across racial and generational lines, she said, and they have become more active in their communities.

“When our diocese’s Commission for Racial Healing and Pilgrimage launched our first ‘One Diocese, One Book’ initiative studying Catherine Meeks’ book, we hoped it would inspire continued engagement in our parishes,” Breanna Carter, the diocese’s missioner for Racial Healing and Pilgrimage, said. “Monday School is the kind of faithful response we prayed for.”

She added, “It is deeply encouraging to see that participants are not only reading and having meaningful conversations but also living out their faith in transformative ways — both within the parish and across the diocese.”

–Nana Afia Tenkoramaa is director of communications for the Episcopal Diocese of Alabama.