Opportunities for Reparative Justice – Partnerships and Action
“Reparation is a process of remembering, restoring, repairing, and redressing injustices for the purpose of reconciliation and human restitution.”
Reparations Task Force, 2006 General Assembly, Presbyterian Church, USA
An invitation from the Reparative Justice Working Group: The recent Mission Study Team survey results reflected the high priority that Westminster members place on the congregation’s social justice mission. Our church membership includes a range of levels of awareness of and commitment to acting on the theological and ethical imperative for reparative justice to repair the harm done to our Black and Indigenous neighbors by historic and entrenched white supremacy. Some of us are open to learning about the history of racism, white supremacy, and racial injustice in our community and nation. Others have studied this history and the current call for reparative justice and are attempting to live out their values and beliefs in their vocational world and as volunteers with community organizations. Still others of us are prepared to acknowledge that taking a public stand and social activism are required. And some of us are considering sacrificial giving and action as priorities for their Christian witness.
The following list of opportunities for partnerships and action provides a variety of ways for members to engage in the church’s mission of reparative justice. Some may be inclined to act individually, others in support of congregational action, and still others as allies with groups in the community. All efforts are important and contribute to the work of repentance, restitution, restoration, repair, and ultimately, reconciliation.
Staff Liaison: Dorothy Piatt-Esguerra,
In Housing
- Habitat for Humanity**
- Casa Alma**
- Mapping Cville Black Deeds project
In Education
- City of Promise***
- Starr Hills Pathway program, Equity Center, UVA
- Hate-free Schools Coalition of Albemarle County*
- Support for teaching truthfully through social studies curricula and culturally responsive teaching*
- Support for diversity, equity, and inclusion programs at UVA*
In Health Care
- Doulas to reduce black maternal mortality – Birth Sisters in Charlottesville
- Westhaven Nursing Clinic**
- Move2HealthEquity Coalition (http://move2healthequity.org)
In Worship and Christian Formation
- Special guest preachers & lectures**
- Royalties for Negro Spirituals program**
- Statement of Apology as a spiritual discipline:
“A Call to Reparative Justice” Adopted by Session (Feb. 2022), and, for example, https://www.fundforreparationsnow.org/statementofapology,
Through Memorialization and Reclaiming History
- Jefferson School African American Heritage Center/Swords into Plowshares*
- Descendants of Enslaved Communities at UVA/Memorial to Enslaved Communities*
- Westminster Presbyterian History Committee** and acknowledgement of earlier stewards of the land WPC now occupies.
- Charlottesville/Albemarle Truth and Transformation Commission*
Through Advocacy for Public Action
- IMPACT** (Interfaith Movement Promoting Action by Congregations Together) addressing community needs such as affordable housing & early childhood education for low-income families.
- Sacred Resistance ministry*** (Foundry United Methodist, Washington, DC model)
- Anti-racism and reparative justice resources list** in WPC e-newsletter and UCARE community updates (email to subscribe)
- NAACP * committees on housing, advocacy, legal redress, health care
Through Giving
- Benevolences allotted through a reparative justice lens.
- Grants from endowments & other gifts to a Local interfaith reparations fund (Justice League of Greater Lansing model, justiceleagueglm.org)
- Contribute to reducing the racial wealth gap (restorativeactions.org, Synod of Lakes and Prairies model)
*WPC members are involved **WPC currently supporting
***Action is under consideration or underway
NATIONAL REPARATIONS ORGANIZATIONS
National African American Reparations Commission (NAARC) https://reparationscomm.org
National Coalition of Blacks for Reparations in America (NCOBRA ) https://www.officialncobraonline.org
Reparations4Slavery http://reparations4slavery.com
Fund for Reparations Now https://www.fundforreparationsnow.org
Presbyterian Church, USA resources:
The Center for Repair of Historic Harms, Presbyterian Church USA