As most of you know, I grew up here at Epworth. My mother’s family came here when my grandfather was pastor of Northbrae, one of the churches that merged in 1952 to form this congregation. When my dad’s family moved to Berkeley,they did what everyone did - they joined their neighborhood church, which was this one. My parents met here and were married here and raised their family here. Growing up here in the 50’s, I was aware that almost everyone at my church was white and I wondered why, since I felt that everyone was so welcoming.
It wasn’t until I was in 8th grade that I started to realize why. Our across-the-street neighbor came to our door to get my parents to sign a petition to keep a Chinese family from buying the house up the street. My father stood at the door in silence and finally said “well, if they can afford the house, they should buy it.” I had a very sudden awakening as to why our neighborhood was all white, and why my elementary school had been almost all white, and why my church was almost all white.
I started paying more attention but it wasn’t until about 10 years ago that I started reading a list of anti-racism books that Shan McSpadden recommended and learned about institutional racism and my own white privilege. I learned that the loans my parents had taken out, which were for veterans, probably would not have happened had they not been white. Because they bought a house with those loans which appreciated in value, they were able to help both my brother and me. We are, in turn, helping our own children. Generational wealth in action. And I felt a lot of feelings - sad and angry and privileged and guilty. And I didn’t know what to do with those feelings except acknowledge them.
Epworth is a much more diverse congregation than it was when I was growing up and I was interested when we started to talk about reparations - but it all seemed very abstract. When Kim and Merrie talked about the Black Wealth Builders Fund I felt like I had some concrete thing I could do with all of those feelings. This is a positive way to make a difference for people who have been systematically left out. Every month when I see our online receipt, it gives me hope. And I know that our small contribution can’t solve this issue, but when it’s joined with other small contributions it feels like it might be the start of something larger. I invite you to think about joining this effort.
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