D076 Supporting Reparative Investment Vehicles
Resolved, the House of Deputies concurring,
That The 81st General Convention of The Episcopal Church reaffirms our commitments to reparations for slavery, to community development, and to the role of the church in leading the nation towards racial reconciliation; and be it further
Resolved, That this Convention remembers the 1969 Special General Convention, wherein, the Rev. Paul M. Washington, and then lay delegate from Pennsylvania Barbara C. Harris, spoke to The Episcopal Church’s inadequate response to reparations, and called on all Black delegates to walk out in protest, and be it further
Resolved, That this Convention reaffirms our commitment to support, incubate, and explore opportunities that allow the Church to invest its resources in reparative capital vehicles, such as the AGENDA Fund, which has been born of an Episcopal collaboration with the Bishop Barbara C.Harris Center; and be it further;
Resolved, That this Convention calls upon the Church Pension Group and the Executive Council to study investing in the AGENDA Fund and other reparative capital vehicles that fulfill the Church’s reparations commitments; and be it further
Resolved, That this Convention recommends other church-affiliated institutions explore moving Church assets into other reparative capital vehicles.
Explanation
Black communities are under ongoing threat of gentrification, displacement, and continued deteriorating economic health, demonstrated by the growing racial wealth gap. Without reimagining new models for capital, real estate, and economic development, we will continue to repeat harmful models where economic growth will always go hand in hand with displacement, and Black communities will continue to be pushed to the margins.
To fight back, local leaders are turning to the power of collective real estate ownership to ensure their communities can be rooted in place for generations to come. From land trusts to fractional ownership, co-ops, and everything in between, communities are learning from each other and innovating to create their own community ownership models. Combined with mission-aligned capital at scale and comprehensive development strategies that create significant land ownership footprints in neighborhoods, this creates a new road map for preventing displacement as well as a foundation for new types of equitable place-based solidarity economies at scale in Black communities.
The name of the fund, "The AGENDA Fund" was inspired by the words of the Rev. Paul M. Washington, a Civil Rights leader and Episcopal priest. He led a walkout at the Episcopal Church's Special Convention in 1969 to protest the church leadership's inadequate response to a reparations funding plan: "White people cannot set the agenda for this church. Black people must set the agenda for this church and for this nation".
Bishop Barbara C. Harris, then a lay delegate to this special convention, worked with The Rev. Paul Washington and other Black leaders in organizing the effort to ensure the Church was forced to engage this mission-critical conversation at another time of great societal upheaval when, as is always the case, the path of least resistance is often the path of silence and distraction in the face of injustice.
Investment in reparative capital vehicles such as the Agenda Fund is both a financially sound investment of church funds and a prophetic witness to our proclamations of working towards beloved community.
Support Documents:
Espanol - Supporting Reparative Investment Vehicles - Agenda Fund - Executive Summary June 2024
Supporting Reparative Investment Vehicles - Agenda Fund Executive Summary - June 2024