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The centerpiece of the 227th Convention is Resolution R-10a, which commits the Diocese to create a $10,000,000 fund for reparations to benefit Black, Indigenous, and peoples of color communities.
The resolution cites that “the Episcopal Church and the Diocese of Virginia have a long history of support for and complicity with chattel slavery, violence against Indigenous peoples and land, segregation and other racist systems.” It further acknowledges that the Diocese “is home to numerous church buildings constructed by enslaved people, and many parishes within the Diocese of Virginia are grappling with their history of support for slavery and white supremacy, and their ongoing complicity in racial injustice.”
R-10a directs the Bishop to create a Reparations Task Force “to identify and propose means by which repair may begin for those areas of our structures, patterns, and common life by which Black, Indigenous, People of Color ….still carry the burden of injustices, exclusions, and biases born out of white supremacy and the legacy of slavery.”
The objective of these reparation grants and loans is to provide direct benefits to BIPOC communities, people, and institutions, with preference for any which may have been specifically harmed by past unjust actions by the Diocese of Virginia, its institutions, or churches.
See here for this and other resolutions from the 227th Annual Convention (2021).