Faith In Action
- Serving Others
- Faith In Action
Faith in Action Ministry
Connecting Faith, Building Community
Saint Peter’s Faith in Action Ministry provides opportunities for loving service to those in need in Cambridge, Boston, and the world. The ministry supports the following shelters and aid agencies:
East End House
Casa Myrna
Transition House
Episcopal City Mission
Cooperative Metropolitan Ministries
East End House
East End House provides a wide range of support services for Cambridge children, youth, families, and seniors.
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Casa Myrna
Casa Myrna works to end domestic and and dating violence via residential programs, counseling services, literacy and job readiness training, advocacy, and a statewide 24/7 domestic violence hotline.
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Transition House
Transition House is Cambridge’s only domestic violence agency. They provide an emergency shelter, long-term housing, free legal support, and counseling and training that helps women to become independent.
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Episcopal City Mission
Episcopal City Mission works for social and economic justice, particularly for the poor and the oppressed, through partnerships with congregations, community organizations, and people in the Diocese of Massachusetts.
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Cooperative Metropolitan Ministries
Cooperative Metropolitan Ministries, Boston’s oldest interfaith organization, addresses poverty, housing, and racial justice in Boston and develops partnerships between urban and suburban parishes.
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Faith-Rooted Justice
Faith-Rooted Justice : Our Calling
God is calling us to love one another, live justly, and practice mercy. There is no place and no excuse for racism, ageism, homophobia, sexism, or environmental injustice within our religious and secular institutions. We, the people of Saint Peter’s, have come together boldly to confront racism and disrupt white supremacy in the church and the community.
Following in the footsteps of Jesus, we will turn away from hate and embrace love, that we may help create the just world Jesus commanded us to establish. We consciously repent for white supremacy and vow to collaborate with community and church organizations to dismantle the systems of oppression that continue to marginalize our siblings within and without the Episcopal church.
Our Faith-Rooted Justice ministry provides opportunities for the Saint Peter’s family to come together, learn from each other’s stories, and engage in uncomfortable conversations in a safe space. We strive to know one another deeply and work collectively and collaboratively.
As one body made up of many parts we can inspire prophetic leaders to help us strengthen Christ’s beloved community by carrying out the work of social, racial, gender, and environmental justice in the church and the world.
Following in the footsteps of Jesus, we will turn away from hate and embrace love, that we may help create the just world Jesus commanded us to establish. We consciously repent for white supremacy and vow to collaborate with community and church organizations to dismantle the systems of oppression that continue to marginalize our siblings within and without the Episcopal church.
Our Faith-Rooted Justice ministry provides opportunities for the Saint Peter’s family to come together, learn from each other’s stories, and engage in uncomfortable conversations in a safe space. We strive to know one another deeply and work collectively and collaboratively.
As one body made up of many parts we can inspire prophetic leaders to help us strengthen Christ’s beloved community by carrying out the work of social, racial, gender, and environmental justice in the church and the world.
Background
The events of 2020 led many Americans to a renewed focus on issues of racism, inequity, and white supremacy. New conversations are heard almost everywhere—from college campuses to coffee shops, the halls of Congress to rural town halls, and
living rooms to houses of worship. The conversations are often difficult as we grapple with how best to understand each other and heal past hurts and wrongs.
The Episcopal Church has been at the forefront of raising awareness about racism both in our own denomination and within the larger community. Our Diocesan Bishops created a Racial Justice Commission to examine and make recommendations to acknowledge and address white supremacy and systemic racism.
The Episcopal Diocese of Massachusetts leans heavily on their social justice organization, the Episcopal City Mission, to teach parishes how to confront and dismantle the systems that harm and marginalize God’s children. ECM began a partnership with Saint Peter’s in February 2020 to build prophetic leaders who may guide us in the work of faith-rooted justice.
During these tumultuous years of tragedy, anger, and resilience, we learned that Saint Peter’s is a place where people can ask tough questions, cultivate deeply rooted relationships, and overcome their desire to avoid discomfort. We must work together toward unity. If we learn to understand and accept one another we will make possible the commandment that Jesus gave us—to love and care for one another and creation.
Bishop’s June 1, 2020, statement on violence and the sin of racism
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Revitalized Racial Justice Commission: an invitation and challenge
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We encourage you to engage with these Resources
Empire: The House We Live In
Episcopal City Mission joins with Brockton Interfaith Community in a conversation of what it means for the United States to be an Empire and the four cornerstones that form the foundation of that Empire.
The Characteristics of White Supremacy Culture
Culture is powerful precisely because it is so present and at the same time so very difficult to name or identify. The characteristics listed below are damaging because they are used as norms and standards without being pro-actively named or chosen by the group. They are damaging because they promote white supremacy thinking.
"White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack" by Peggy McIntosh, from The National SEED Project
Peggy McIntosh is the founder of The National SEED (Seeking Educational Equity and Diversity) Project, which partners with communities, institutions, and schools to develop leaders who guide their peers in conversational communities to drive personal, institutional, and societal change toward social justice.
Further Reading
And You Will Know the Truth, and the Truth Will Make You Free”: A Historical Framework (1620-1840) for Understanding How the Episcopal Diocese of Massachusetts Benefits Today from Chattel Slavery and its Legacy” (Fossett is a postulant for ordination to the priesthood and a Master of Divinity student at Berkeley Divinity School at Yale.)
In 1641 Massachusetts became the first North American colony to legally sanction slavery, enshrining it in the Body of Liberties. Many New England coastal communities profited profittedgreatly from their engagement in the transatlantic slave trade.
Fosset’s report explicitly details how wealth from the slave trade built churches in the Diocese of MassachusettesMassachusetts from the 1600s to the 20th century.
To quote the report: “These 12 Church of England parishes were each connected to the labor of enslaved Africans: first of all, through direct enslavement of African people, an unexceptional aspect of the lives of many founding parishioners and clergymen; secondly, through direct financial support to congregations from individuals who directly profited from the slave trade; thirdly, through ties to individual wealth from the slave trade that can be documented and from which financial support of these congregations can be inferred through their membership in the community.”
“Racial Justice Audit of Episcopal Leadership,” The Episcopal Church
“From 2018 to 2020, the Racial Justice Audit of Episcopal Leadership surveyed and interviewed more than 1,300 members of the church’s key leadership bodies about their experiences of racism, racial identity, and power in the life of the church.” Includes links to full report and other resources.
Report for the House of Bishops from its Theology Committee: White Supremacy, the Beloved Community, and Learning to Listen
The charge of this committee was to support the Presiding Bishop’s call to advance the cause of the beloved community. When we began our work, we quickly realized that in our context, the biggest barrier to becoming beloved community is the sin of white supremacy. White supremacy is not the only grave sin that the church must address, but as our deliberations clearly indicated, at this moment in our history, it is the most salient and pressing issue we face, and a deeply entrenched and pervasive obstacle in our common life. Thus, confronting it is the first step to building beloved community.”