Welcome to Beloved Journey
an antiracism project aligned with Sacred Ground and tailored for the Episcopal Diocese of Long Island.
The Diocese of Long Island has one of the most diverse populations in the country and yet, we are divided by race, culture, and ethnicity.
Beloved Journey continues the transformation begun with Sacred Ground, in our context, with all our people.
Based on the Beloved Community process of the Episcopal Church, this anti-racism project takes us onward.
Join us as we continue the antiracism journey of healing and discovery begun in Sacred Ground to come together to truly embody the Beloved Community of Jesus Christ.
The work of antiracism is a holy work in our Diocese.
The Right Rev. Lawrence C. Provenzano, Bishop of Long Island
“ ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the greatest and first commandment. And a second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.”
— Matthew 22:37-40
Practicing Antiracism is a journey well represented by the quadrants of the labyrinth where each step along the path will lead you to acknowledge, listen, learn, or act. It is a journey through time and space, through conversations and listening to others, and through experiences and recollections.
WHY A LABYRINTH?
“In the ministry of racial healing and justice, none of us walks a straight line. We enter the labyrinth wherever God has provided an opening…We keep moving from one quadrant to another and back. No one is ever really finished. That is the way of ongoing spiritual formation.” (Preparing to Become the Beloved Community Resources)
Jesus said, “Follow me.”
Your antiracism journey begins where you start.
As a labyrinth turns and winds, so will the different areas and actions of antiracism work lead in and out of one another. It is not a linear process. We are proceeding with the hope of revelation and transformation, knitting us closer together in the bonds of understanding, affection and action. We have brought together many ways of traveling together in truth telling, healing, taking brave actions, and deepening the joy of what it means to be Christian.
Begin the journey.
“This work is not comfortable. Nor should it be…Any pain and discomfort you feel is temporary and pales into comparison to what Black people and People of Colour often have to experience on a daily basis. On the other side of some of the most difficult realisations and exchanges with others, is huge transformation - that is where the work and change happens.”
― Nova Reid, The Good Ally
The four quadrants of the labyrinth are named Acknowledge, Listen, Learn, and Act. Each one is an action. Each quadrant may be their own journey. Throughout this program, we encourage you to acknowledge, to listen, to learn, and to act.
Every journey requires preparation. Begin your antiracism journey with our introduction page.
ACKNOWLEDGE
In order to fully acknowledge our complicity with, and our indoctrination into systemic racism, we must expose the truth of our history. The full extent of the subjugation, extermination, and cultural erasure of indigenous and people of color is not taught in schools. The Diocese of Long Island is committed to uncovering the extent of racist and discriminatory actions in order to heal and rebuild our community.
LISTEN
We need to understand how brokenness exists among us. Listening to each other and our stories may illustrate how and where systemic racism functions in cities and towns of the parishes of our Diocese. To become beloved community, we must see and know the visible and invisible breaches that live between us and then move towards repair.
LEARN
Christ calls upon us to love our neighbors as we love ourselves. In order to become Beloved, we must learn how to become antiracist and shed the insidious growth of internal racism, discrimination, and white supremacy within ourselves and our community.
ACT
When and how do we act? Christianity calls for faith, prayer, and action. Explore ways and experiences that can make our world more equal, and more Christ-like.
