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Maryland Episcopal diocese commits $1 million toward reparations for slavery, racial injustice

By JONATHAN M. PITTS

BALTIMORE SUN | SEP 15, 2020 AT 5:00 AM

The Maryland diocese of the Episcopal Church has become the latest religious institution to commit to making reparations for slavery and systemic racism, voting over the weekend to create a $1 million seed fund for programs that would benefit the African American community in Baltimore and beyond.

More than 82% of delegates to the diocese’s annual general convention voted Saturday to establish the fund. Officials said it’s a key step in a long-term campaign to confront — and repent for — the role the church played in fostering and benefiting from systemic racism in the state.

Existing funds in the diocese’s endowment will provide the capital for the initiative, and individual congregations are being asked to consider donating more.

The $1 million represents more than 20% of the diocese’s operating budget, Bishop Eugene Taylor Sutton said.

(https://www.baltimoresun.com/maryland/bs-md-episcopal-reparations-20200915-lijdlw6gtfd6jb2lmpl6axj35m-story.html).

Now, before anyone who reads the above begins to measure me for a tar and feather jacket, I presented this simply to show where things are going among some who name the name of Christ. I am not a member of the Episcopal Church. I am a Confessional Lutheran - although, in truth, there is no other kind of Lutheran; anything else is playing “dress-up.”