“Superb. . . . The first comprehensive history of modern race relations within the Episcopal Church and, as such, a model of its kind.” —Journal of American History Meeting at an African American college in North Carolina in 1959, a group of black and white Episcopalians organized the Episcopal Society for Cultural and Racial Unity and pledged to oppose all distinctions based on race, ethnicity, and social class. They adopted a motto derived from Psalm 133: “Behold, how good and joyful a thing it is, for brethren to dwell together in unity!” Though the spiritual intentions of these individuals were positive, the reality of the association between blacks and whites in the church was much more complicated. Episcopalians and Race examines the often ambivalent relationship between black communities and the predominantly white leadership of the Episcopal Church since the Civil War. Paying special attention to the 1950s and 60s, Gardiner Shattuck analyzes the impact of the civil rights movement on church life, especially in southern states, offering an insider’s history of Episcopalians’ efforts, both successful and unsuccessful, to come to terms with race and racism since the Civil War. “A model of how good this kind of history can be when it is well researched and centers on the difficult choices faced and made by people who share institutional and faith commitments in settings that call those commitments into question.” —American Historical Review “Will be of considerable benefit to scholars, students, church members of all denominations, and anyone concerned with issues of racial justice in the American context.” —Choice “An essential addition to the history of race and the modern South.” —Journal of Southern History

A personal story of the struggle for authentic inclusion in the church. From a strong voice in the dialogue about what Black lives matter means in relation to faith, a powerful lament and a hopeful message about the future. Historically, to be Episcopal/Anglican, as it was to be American, was to be white. Assimilation to whiteness has been a measure of success and acceptance, yet, assimilation requires that people of color give up something of themselves and deny parts of their heritage including religious practices that sustained their ancestors. Despite the fact that Blackness is on display on Black History Month for example, and Black/African heritage is given primacy in the liturgy, music, and preaching during that time, at other times this doesn't seem to be the case. The author argues that whiteness is embedded in every aspect of religious life, from seminary to Christian education to last rites. Is it possible to be Black and Episcopalian and not feel alien, she asks. In her words we learn that inclusivity, above all, must be authentic.

• A look through a Latinx lens at how the Episcopal/Anglican church can minister to and with the Latinx community Unmasking Latinx Ministry is a unique look at the history of the Episcopal Church in the last fifty years, including a bold and insightful analysis of the institutionalization of Latinx ministries. This history is contextualized within the struggles of the Episcopal Church in terms of race, gender, and sexuality. Through a Latinx lens, the author brings fresh eyes to the challenges faced by the Episcopal Church’s ministry with and among Latinx persons and communities. Along with the historical analysis and insight, the author brings a background and formation in Episcopal churches in Puerto Rico, Texas, California and Central New York, as well as more than fifteen years of experience in a multicultural and multiracial, monolingual and bilingual congregations in New York City. Combining this history and ministry experience, the author explores specific areas where Episcopal/Anglican traditions speak to Latinx ministries and what Latinx persons and communities offer the Episcopal Church today.

Get to know the first five Black women to be elected diocesan bishops within the Episcopal Church. During this moment, with the #metoo movement, Black Lives Matter, and the increased feelings of division in our country, Black women clergy in the Episcopal Church have voiced a need to come together, believing that their experiences and concerns may be very different than those of other clergy. That need is answered here in This Band of Sisterhood. The five Black women bishops featured in this book can provide a compass for how to journey along these new paths. Jennifer Baskerville-Burrows, Carlye J. Hughes, Kimberly Lucas, Shannon MacVean-Brown, and Phoebe A. Roaf offer honest, vulnerable wisdom from their own lives that speaks to this time in American life. Both women and men will find this book invaluable in discerning how God might be calling them to use their own leadership skills.

This book offers a fresh account of the Episcopal Church's rise to prominence in America.

On a September afternoon in 1853, three African American men from St. Philip's Church walked into the Convention of the Episcopal Diocese of New York and took their seats among five hundred wealthy and powerful white church leaders. Ultimately, and with great reluctance, the Convention had acceded to the men's request: official recognition for St. Philip's, the first African American Episcopal church in New York City. In Faith in Their Own Color, Craig D. Townsend tells the remarkable story of St. Philip's and its struggle to create an autonomous and independent church. His work unearths a forgotten chapter in the history of New York City and African Americans and sheds new light on the ways religious faith can both reinforce and overcome racial boundaries. Founded in 1809, St. Philip's had endured a fire; a riot by anti-abolitionists that nearly destroyed the church; and more than forty years of discrimination by the Episcopalian hierarchy. In contrast to the majority of African Americans, who were flocking to evangelical denominations, the congregation of St. Philip's sought to define itself within an overwhelmingly white hierarchical structure. Their efforts reflected the tension between their desire for self-determination, on the one hand, and acceptance by a white denomination, on the other. The history of St. Philip's Church also illustrates the racism and extraordinary difficulties African Americans confronted in antebellum New York City, where full abolition did not occur until 1827. Townsend describes the constant and complex negotiation of the divide between black and white New Yorkers. He also recounts the fascinating stories of historically overlooked individuals who built and fought for St. Philip's, including Rev. Peter Williams, the second African American ordained in the Episcopal Church; Dr. James McCune Smith, the first African American to earn an M.D.; pickling magnate Henry Scott; the combative priest Alexander Crummell; and John Jay II, the grandson of the first chief justice of the Supreme Court and an ardent abolitionist, who helped secure acceptance of St. Philip's.

“If reconciliation is the takeaway point for the civil rights story we usually tell, then the takeaway point for the more complex, more truthful civil rights story contained in Dear White Christians is reparations.” — from the preface to the second edition With the troubling and painful events of the last several years—from the killing of numerous unarmed Black men and women at the hands of police to the rallying of white supremacists in Charlottesville—it is clearer than ever that the reconciliation paradigm, long favored by white Christians, has failed to heal the deep racial wounds in the church and American society. In this provocative book, originally published in 2014, Jennifer Harvey argues for a radical shift away from the well-meaning but feeble longing for reconciliation toward a robustly biblical call for reparations. Now in its second edition—with a new preface addressing the explosive changes in American culture and politics since 2014, as well as an appendix that explores what a reparations paradigm can actually look like—Dear White Christians calls justice-committed Christians to do the gospel-inspired work of opposing racist social structures around them. Harvey’s message is historically and scripturally rooted, making it ideal for facilitating the difficult but important discussions about race that are so desperately needed in churches and faith-centered classrooms across the country.

"This book will make a profound difference for the church in this moment in history." — The Most Reverend Michael B. Curry Sometimes it takes disruption and loss to break us open and call us home to God. It’s not surprising that a global pandemic and once-in-a-generation reckoning with white supremacy—on top of decades of systemic decline—have spurred Christians everywhere to ask who we are, why God placed us here and what difference that makes to the world. In this critical yet loving book, the author explores the American story and the Episcopal story in order to find out how communities steeped in racism, establishment, and privilege can at last fall in love with Jesus, walk humbly with the most vulnerable and embody beloved community in our own broken but beautiful way. The Church Cracked Open invites us to surrender privilege and redefine church, not just for the sake of others, but for our own salvation and liberation.

The history of the Episcopal Church is intimately bound up with the history of empire. The two grew in tandem in the modern era, and as they grew they developed particular ideologies and practices around race. As slavery was carried over into the new political formations of the United States, so too were racially based exclusions carried over in the Episcopal Church. Mission, Race, and Empire presents a new history of the Episcopal Church from its origins in the early British Empire up to the present, told through the lenses of empire and race. The book demonstrates the dramatic shifts within the Episcopal Church, from initial colonial violence to reflective self-critique. Jennifer Snow centers the stories of groups and individuals that have often been sidelined, including Native Americans, Black Americans, Asian Americans, women, and LGBTQ people, as well as the institutional leaders who sought to create, or fought against, a church that desired to be a house of prayer for all people.