Justice and Reparations in Action

Memorial’s Justice and Reparations Committee is getting back to work. If you would like to be involved please contact Lateya Burrows, Justice & Reparations Coordinator at justice@memorialepiscopal.org

COMMUNITY CHRISTMAS

An end of Year Reparations Update from the Guy T. Hollyday Fund

Thanks to the leadership of our reparations committee and our reparations engagement coordinator, Lateya Burrows, we have completed another round of grants - providing $5,000 stability grants to BMoreGreen and City Weeds, the Harlem Park Green Trail, and Showdown for Sandtown. As part of a developing partnership with BMoreGreen, Memorial was involved this weekend in a Community Christmas Event. Memorial volunteers packed gifts, set up food and drink, led crafts for children, and Father Grey even read a Christmas Story (with a few mild interruptions). 

It is very exciting to see our reparations work continue and expand, if you would like to make an end of year contribution to the fund please click the 'Donate' button below.

Upcoming Events

Reginald F. Lewis Museum

Monday, January 15, 11 am – 8 pm

There will be music, art, storytelling, virtual reality experiences and film screenings. This event is free and open to the public.

Films:

Disruption: Highway to Nowhere

Eroding History

Maryland can remedy serious problems with our correctional system in 2024.

Two priority bills will be featured at this community forum. 

Correctional Ombudsman Bill 

• Maryland prisons are dangerous and unhealthy, but prison administrators’ claims and reports about what goes on inside are not always reliable. For a true picture of the problems of assaults on prisoners, drug smuggling by correctional officers, inadequate medical care, and lack of effective programming and educational opportunities, an independent perspective is needed.

• Other states have made good use of Correctional Ombudsmen to receive confidential tips, conduct investigations, publicly report problems and urge that they be addressed. The Maryland Correctional Ombudsman office will be housed in the Office of the Maryland Attorney General. The bill is supported by Attorney General Anthony Brown. 

Solitary Confinement Bill (Mandela Act) 

• Solitary confinement—known in Maryland as “restrictive housing”—was originally intended to separate the most dangerous prisoners from others, and to keep vulnerable prisoners safe temporarily. In Maryland and elsewhere, solitary is used far more widely. Prisoners who commit minor rule violations, many of whom are mentally ill, are often put in isolation, sometimes for long periods.Incarcerated prisoners in solitary typically live in small cells for up to 22+ hours a day—for weeks, months, or even years. This often causes irreparable physical and mental harm, both to the individual and to others with whom they later have contact. 

• The Mandela Act would limit use of solitary to 15 days with rare exceptions; prohibit it for vulnerable people; severely limit the practice for juveniles; and mandate that those put in restrictive housing be allowed to contest their confinement.

Sponsors:  Homewood Friends Meeting (Quaker)Dismantling Racism Working Group, Maryland Alliance for Justice Reform (MAJR) and Interfaith Action for Human Rights (IAHR).

Parking:  Adjacent, free street parking on Sundays. Allow time to park and walk to Homewood Friends Meetinghouse!! Persons needing wheelchair access can be dropped off in front and use the access ramp. 

Childcare: available upon request.       

Reception: to follow. Refreshments & networking!

Snow:  In case of snow or ice a decision will be made by 11 pm the night before and, if needed, the program will convert to 100% Zoom Webinar. Participants will be notified via email. 

Contact: homewoodfriends@gmail.com

Join us on the 1st Thursday of each month for a discussion led by Justice & Reparations committee at Memorial Episcopal Church.

Congratulations to our own Deacon, the Rev. Deacon Natalie Conway who was recently recognized by The Baltimore Sun as one of “25 Black Marylanders to Watch for 2023”. Her steadfast and open-hearted ministry has guided Memorial Episcopal Church towards transformative justice and reparations work that continues to shape our relationships with each other and with God— healing and strengthening our communal ties.

From The Baltimore Sun article (make the word article a hyperlink to the Sun story), “Not long after becoming the first Black deacon of Memorial Episcopal Church […] the Rev. Natalie Conway made a pair of shocking discoveries — first that the family of the prominent pastor who had founded the church […] were slaveholders at the Hampton Plantation north of Baltimore, and second, that the people they’d enslaved included some of her own ancestors.”  What followed was a time of pain, vulnerability, and deep discernment as Rev. Deacon Natalie shared her story with our congregation. The very walls of Memorial stood as a monument to the deeply seeded racism and violence of its founders but in sharing her story, Rev. Deacon Natalie opened a door for foundational change and healing at Memorial. The congregation responded in kind— opening our minds and hearts to her story, to the racism in our own history, and, finally, opening ourselves up to hope. Hope that Memorial’s story didn’t need to end as it began, hope in a future authored by new voices, marked by continued work, healing, and love. We can’t re-write our past but we can ensure that the change we create in this chapter of our lives is everlasting— that the pages to come are marked by the best of our shared humanity.

In this vein of honest and open-hearted work, Memorial Episcopal Church is continuing to embrace justice work through the leadership of the Director for Reparations and Justice, Anthony Francis, and the Guy T. Hollyday Justice and Reparations fund. Last year we raised over $130k and distributed $92,742 to community based organizations who are addressing systemic racism in Baltimore. As per Rev. Grey Maggiano’s annual Rector’s report, “Significant beneficiaries have been: Building our Nations Daughters, Black Women Build, The Diocesan Reparations Fund, Baltimoreans United for Leadership, St Katherine’s Episcopal Church, Kindred Coaches, Dad’s United, and underwriting the Division and Unity History Display at the Unity Hall produced by Nanny Jack Inc.” We are also hosting a series of Lunch and Learn gatherings that focus on our community partners— both illuminating our previous work and focusing on what’s to come in 2023.

This is the work of a lifetime, which is expressed more easily than it is lived, but let’s take a moment for joy, for hope, and for a future that is being written by our current actions as much as our ancestors. Join us in celebrating the faithful and loving ministry of Rev. Deacon Natalie, and the journey ahead— one we commit ourselves to humbly, lovingly. After all, in the words of Rev. Grey Maggiano, “what else is required of us but to do justice, to love kindness, and to walk humbly with our God?”

We Did It!  

This past Sunday we took five huge steps forward to act on Memorial’s commitment to Justice through reparations! 

We announced the Guy Hollyday Memorial Justice and Reparations Fund - a five year commitment to a minimum $100,000 a year in outward facing justice programs focused on housing inequality, education reform, climate justice and civic engagement. 

We authorized a $50,000 (10%) withdrawal from the Parish's endowed funds to jumpstart the Hollyday Justice and Reparations Fund immediately.

We adopted our 2021 budget that includes an additional $50,000 which, together with the endowment funds, will ensure that we meet our new $100,000 annual commitment to Justice and Reparations ministry this year.

We launched the "Memorial Makes Room" campaign to prepare our sanctuary for a post COVID reality where we are making room in our sanctuary for Faith, Justice and Community by repairing and replacing the floors, adding lights and installing a modern HVAC system. 

Finally, we commemorated the removal, deconsecration and re-installation of the Memorial Plaques in the Rectory Garden; acknowledging that the presence of the plaques memorializing slave owners does continued harm to our African-American members and all who enter our sanctuary.  

I am proud to stand with all of you on such a momentous occasion and it would not have happened without all of your prayers, intentions, and actions over the last few years.  

 The Rev. Grey Maggiano +

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The Guy T. Hollyday Memorial Justice and Reparations Initiative

Since 2018 Memorial Episcopal Church has been invested in uncovering the truth of our past and coming to terms with the legacy of slavery and segregation at Memorial and here in Bolton Hill.  We acknowledge that clergy and laity of this church were instrumental in housing segregation and redlining, disenfranchisement of black voters, and inequity in school and youth programs here in Baltimore. Over the last year of the COVID pandemic we have come to realize how these historical facts have shaped our present reality as that inequity persists around us. This awareness  has helped us as a community to crystalize our core values of Faith, Community and Justice. 

• We share faith in Christ’s love, healing and hope, and we place faith in each other to care for the needy 

• We are a community of love that seeks to break down barriers and make friends of strangers

• We are committed to justice, inspired by the Beatitudes, raising up the lowly, and speaking truth to power, raising our voices, working for just policy and developing deep partnerships.

We recognize Memorial’s own history of not acting out these values for Black residents of Baltimore throughout much of our history. We are intentional about our conversations and actions. We removed plaques and covered the triptych to make a physical demonstration that we do not see the Memorial parish of this century the same way as that of the past.

Now we are focused on our work for the 21st century:

In reparations for our predecessors efforts to segregate, to deny rights and to create and maintain inequality, and because we are one Body in Christ, we each are children of the same God and we are called to work for the least of these:  

• To identify and invest in community partners  that are doing justice-centered work to undo the inequality in Housing, Education, Environmental Justice and Civic Engagement 

• To study as a community the topic of Gospel Centered Justice and to make the transition from ministry that is charity-focused (doing for others) to justice-focused (being with others) 

• To foster a program or partnership to respond to that gap and to demonstrate Christ’s never-failing love for God’s people by working in community. 

Commitments:  

• Initial contribution of $50,000 from the Vestry Fund as an act of reparations

• Budgeted an additional $50,000 in the 2021 budget for Justice and reparations

• Hiring a ‘Minister of Justice’ to lead justice centered programs, identify community needs, and seek out funding from grants, foundations, community supporters and neighbors to fund future efforts of at least $100,000 a year for four years beginning in 2022.  

Guy T. Hollyday was a living embodiment of the work of Justice and Reparations. A short tenure as a city housing inspector after World War II opened his eyes to the gross inequalities and inherent racism in Baltimore.  Guy became a staunch advocate for justice:  working for civil rights, advocating for the LGBT movement, and supporting ex-offenders. Guy taught GED classes in the city jail, and encouraged his students to write and share poetry.  He continued those classes after their release and helped hundreds of returning citizens find their voice.  Guy was also  a tireless advocate for environmental justice; identifying sewage dumps in Baltimore’s waterways and the lack of trees and green space in Baltimore’s poorest communities.