Executive Council Meets in Montgomery, Alabama

McKellar with Bryan Stevenson, founder and Executive Director of the Equal Justice Initiative.

Diocesan Ministry Developer and Executive Council Member Andrea McKellar recently returned from a four-day Executive Council meeting in Montgomery. She shares a reflection  below:

At our last Executive Council meeting, held from October 18-21 in Montgomery, Alabama, we spent an entire day on a Pilgrimage of Reconciliation. Montgomery was a fitting location for such an endeavor due to its history of slavery, being the first capital of the Confederacy, and a primary site in the Civil Rights Movement. The Equal Justice Initiative, founded and run by Mr. Bryan Stevenson, "is committed to ending mass incarceration and excessive punishment in the United States, to challenging racial and economic injustice, and to protecting basic human rights for the most vulnerable people in American society." They have built two sites in Montgomery, the Legacy Museum: From Enslavement to Mass Incarceration and the National Memorial for Peace and Justice, to bring national attention to our history and the work still to be done.

On our pilgrimage, we were led by members of the Dioceses of Alabama and the Central Gulf Coast in prayer, conversation, and reflection. The most meaningful part of the day for me was finding the monuments for each of the counties in our diocese. Between 1877 and 1950, over 4400 black people were killed by lynching in the United States. There were at least 74 individuals lynched in our diocese and 185 in all of South Carolina. Seeing the monuments for each county in the country where there had been a lynching was overwhelming. Council took time after this emotional day to process our experience. The continued oppression of people of color over time and continuing today really stuck with me, whether it be slavery, Jim Crow laws, lynching or mass incarceration. Executive Council is committed to continuing our work on Racial Reconciliation and Justice.

The rest of the weekend included the regular business of Council. Grants were approved for church planting, Becoming Beloved Community, and creation care. The 2020 budget was passed and a process has begun for the 2021-2024 budget. Resolutions were passed about a human rights screen, shareholder engagement with gun manufacturers, a construction project at 815 2nd Avenue in New York, and an enhanced Way of Love Campaign.

The Episcopal News Service covers all of our meetings. You can read more including opening remarks by Presiding Bishop Michael Curry and President of the House of Deputies Gay Jennings on their website: https://episcopalnewsservice.org

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