Resolved, the House of _______ concurring, That there should be a study conducted to research and analyze diocesan processes to recruit persons of color to pursue Holy Orders and analyze how persons of color are deployed to parishes; and be it further

Resolved, That the Office of Anti-Racism and Gender Equality design a methodology for collecting data from persons of color who have been in the discernment, seminary, ordination processes within the previous eight years after the passage of this Resolution to determine what their experiences have been, including barriers and facilitating factors; and be it further

Resolved, That this data be gathered and that a report generated along with appropriate Resolutions to the 77th General Convention of The Episcopal Church, which will recommend necessary remedies to alleviate the present situation.

EXPLANATION

The need for priests of color in The Episcopal Church has been documented, and it is important to understand why there is a paucity of persons of color at every stage of the process that leads to ordination and deployment in this church. The Anti-Racism Committee of the Executive Council thinks that gaining an understanding of how discernment/ordination/deployment processes work throughout the dioceses would make a major contribution to The Episcopal Church and its ability to be in full fellowship with all persons.

This research would include surveying Commissions on Ministry to determine how they either facilitate or unwittingly impede persons who desire to enter the process leading to ordination as a priest in The Episcopal Church. It is our hope that this will help to initiate studies conducted by Commissions on Ministry of congregations within their dioceses who have never sponsored persons of color for the ordination process. We expect that one of the ancillary benefits of this study would be the determination of ways in which seminarians can be thoroughly trained to be actively anti-racists.

We are aware that there are dioceses that regularly accept and support persons of color into the discernment and ordination process, and our plan is to request that they serve as resources for other dioceses that do not have persons of all races and ethnicities in their ordination process.

We feel that an integral element of being a part of the ordained leadership of our church is the acknowledgement of the sin of racism and the dynamics of privilege and power within their individual lives. This, we believe, is a precursor to the ability both to recognize and oppose institutional racism within the church.