slow to speak

Renée Antrosio – May 16, 2023 1 Comment

In my mind, I have been composing a Reparations letter to all past and present Black members of New Covenant… for months. There is so much in need of repair in our world, our community, our church, our relationships, our history, and our present lives. I am daunted by the task. 

Know this, my dear brothers and sisters: everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak…. James 1:19a (CEB)

Admitting our failures- owning the ways we have fallen short of our ideals, good intentions, Jesus’ teaching, and God’s commandment to love our neighbors as ourselves- is difficult. Meanwhile, I don’t want to get mired down in white tears or guilt that keeps us from moving forward. I wrote a rough draft. Writing is always vulnerable, sharing it more so, opening ourselves to critique. 

We realize that financial compensation for the unfathomable loss of generational wealth needs to be addressed at national, state, and systemic levels. Meanwhile, as a small congregation, we are beginning with our community in Champaign-Urbana and our extended family of current and former members of our fellowship and their descendants, one family at a time. 

Your family’s longtime investment in New Covenant Fellowship was a gift to our congregation that we did not fully acknowledge or appreciate. Nor did we understand, then or now, the cost involved. As a step toward repair, we would now like to invest in your family’s future.

We also recognize that the need for repair goes far beyond financial Reparations. We desire to listen, learn, repent, act in solidarity, and use our privilege to advocate for change. We want to humbly make ourselves available to listen and engage with you in whatever ways that would address the need for repair from your experience of New Covenant Fellowship. We also do not want to add to the emotional and physical labor of your daily life by making this more complicated than a simple gift of investing for your children. 

As a Reparations Committee, we realize that we do not yet have “best practices.” And we believe that we are called to move forward with creating better practices. Even to lead the way, knowing that we will stumble. As we read about Reparations efforts in other towns, states, and organizations- the lack of consensus about the best approach is the only clear thing. Some of us get tripped up on the why. Others on the how. Sometimes on the to whom or the how much– both what is due and what seems practically possible. 

Therefore, with humility, set aside all moral filth and the growth of wickedness, and welcome the word planted deep inside you—the very word that is able to save you. You must be doers of the word and not only hearers who mislead themselves. James 1:21-22 (CEB)

And so we keep moving forward- slow to speak, quick to listen, and committed to being doers of the word. As Rabbi Tarfon is quoted: “It is not your duty to finish the work, but neither are you at liberty to neglect it.” The work of repair is not easy. May our hands and our hearts be strengthened to the task. And may God give us wisdom and grant us grace as we stumble forward. –Renée