Proclaiming the Dream of Beloved Community
12/23/2023
The Episcopal Church’s work toward racial reconciliation, healing and justice is guided by the long-term commitment to Becoming Beloved Community. We organize our ministries around the four quadrants of the labyrinth. Each quadrant represents a commitment that is vital to lasting change within us, our churches, our communities, and society at large.
- Telling the Truth about Our Churches and Race
- Proclaiming the Dream of Beloved Community
- Practicing Jesus’ Way of Healing Love
- Repairing the Breach in Society and Institutions
As a church we believe that proclaiming the Dream of Beloved Community is best done in community. Therefore we gather to publicly reckon and share about the history and reality of race, and to proclaim our dream of Beloved Community through prayer, preaching, conversation and public witness.
Clearly Sunday morning gatherings are focal points of this proclamation. We hear God’s word. We receive Jesus in the Eucharist. We pray for the needs of ourselves and others. We are sent out to practice what we preach.
For me I have the honor to engage in that work as I preach and teach all over our diocese. I have had the pleasure of standing at altars and in pulpits to speak “in the name of the Beloved Son, for the sake of the Beloved Community.”
But the proclamation happens beyond Sunday mornings. I hear the proclamation all over the place as people speak of the dream in their hearts for their families, friends, workplaces, communities and for the whole world. As 2024 arrives we will be proclaiming the dream in liturgies like Juneteenth (June 22) and in events like The Concert for the Human Family (early February) and in the on-going work of the Circles of Color.
As we work to proclaim the dream of Beloved Community, we ask questions: How have our towns/cities/areas participated in racial healing over time? What is happening today? What do we and our neighbors long for as we dream for Beloved Community? What behaviors and commitments would foster and proclaim Beloved Community?
We take advantages of opportunities and tools we have as a church:
- Becoming Beloved Community Where You Are (p.5)
- Resources: Proclamation and Prayer
- Prophetic Voices: Preaching and Teaching Beloved Community Podcast
- Concerts for the Human Family: A Beloved Community Project
All of these are here for us as a part of our commitment to Proclaiming the Dream of Beloved Community.
Baptismal Promise: Will you proclaim by word and example the Good News of God in Christ?
Our Answer: I will with God’s help.