Church launches revised curriculum for Sacred Ground circles engaging with legacy of racism

[Episcopal News Service] Sacred Ground, one of The Episcopal Church’s most popular racial reconciliation initiatives in recent years, just got a significant refresh.

The 11-session, video-based curriculum for small group discussion examines the United States’ history of white supremacy and racism, as well as the church’s legacy of complicity in racist systems that still influence American society today. An estimated 30,000 or more people have participated in Sacred Ground circles since 2019.

The Rev. Valerie Mayo, Sacred Ground strategic consultant, speaks at a regional gathering about the curriculum. Photo: Diocese of North Carolina

Now, in response to feedback from Sacred Ground group facilitators and participants, church leaders have revised the curriculum’s reading lists while improving its flexibility for potential use in ecumenical and interfaith circles. The new curriculum is now available for download from the church’s website, and Presiding Bishop Sean Rowe will join an online event at 1 p.m. Eastern on Sept. 15 to launch the new program year.

One of the significant changes is a new opening documentary during the curriculum’s first session. The church has added “Traces of the Trade” from 2008. It was produced by one of Sacred Ground’s original developers, Katrina Browne, who researched her own family’s involvement in the slave trade for the film.

Andrea Lauerman is the church’s Sacred Ground coordinator. In an interview with Episcopal News Service, she said Browne’s film seemed an obvious new way to start the discussion series, which uses readings and documentaries to weave together stories of family experiences, economic class and political and regional identity.

“The hope is that this [‘Traces of the Trade’] will get people entering into the program with a really clear sense of purpose and direction,” said Lauerman, a white lay leader from the Diocese of Maine.

Another big change was to the core reading materials. Participants will still be expected to read Howard Thurman’s “Jesus and the Disinherited.” In addition, Sacred Ground circles now will have the option of either continuing to incorporate Debby Irving’s “Waking Up White” into their discussions or substituting “White Awake” by Daniel Hill.

Other parts of the curriculum have been updated to reflect contemporary political and social developments since Sacred Ground was first launched. “So much of the world has changed,” said the Rev. Valerie Mayo, a Black priest from the Diocese of North Carolina who served the church as a Sacred Ground strategic consultant.

The curriculum initially was developed for white Episcopalians to learn about the history of racism and the way racism continues to manifest itself in today’s interpersonal interactions and institutions, even when the people involved are not themselves racist. Sacred Ground’s documentary films and readings focus on Indigenous, Black, Latino and Asian/Pacific American histories as they intersect with European American histories. Circle participants also examine examples of systemic racism in today’s America, such as mass incarceration and its disproportionate effect on people of color.

The church also welcomes people of color to participate in Sacred Ground circles, but it cautions that they shouldn’t feel obligated to explain the experience of racism to white participants. The new curriculum was revised to make it more accommodating for people of color who choose to participate, Mayo said.

The curriculum, though still rooted in the Episcopal tradition, also now provides resources with additional context for Christians from other denominations.

Participation in Sacred Ground first surged 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. Since then, the church completed one other revision to the curriculum before this new launch.

Throughout the revision process, church leaders have tried to incorporate more action items into the discussion guides, so that participants will keep possible next steps in the forefront of their thoughts while engaging with the materials.

Charlease Elzenga is among the Sacred Ground circle leaders already engaging with those revised materials. She is an Episcopalian who lives in Colorado Springs, Colorado, but remains active in her home diocese of Wyoming. She led an online Sacred Ground circle earlier this year to help test the new curriculum.

As a Black woman, she told ENS that she thought the curriculum needed to go beyond addressing people’s feelings about racism and move toward encouraging them to confront racist systems.

“If you don’t change the structures, the laws that we have in place, the culture that we have in place, nothing will happen,” Elzenga said.

The materials for the final session of Sacred Ground include “Becoming Beloved Community: Where You Are,” a resource developed by the church that suggests a series of possible next steps, from researching a congregation’s history to engaging in public witness on racial justice issues.

“Notice the synergy between these commitments and the baptismal covenant,” the resource says. “Rooted in these promises, we are called to take up the work of the loving, liberating, and life-giving way of Jesus.”

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