St. Vincent’s is an inner city parish, though most parishioners live in white suburban communities. 2019 and 2020 events highlighted the disparate treatment of black citizens across the country. We are not “one body in Christ” when racism divides us. What can we do to dismantle it? We educated ourselves for a year listening to webinars, reading books about racism and praying to God to work through us to change hearts, practices, culture and laws. Our monthly discussions about the racist history of our churches and country, helped us understand how racist policies entered every artery of our society and individual biases perpetuated the injustices. With the Spirit’s help we committed to work for change.
Mission Statement
We Have a Dream: A World Without Racism Group works to eliminate racist biases, structures and systems in our community in order to create an equitable society in our city and state. Through Christian discipleship we commit to
- Educate one another about our biases, the history of racism in our country, and ongoing disparities,
- Advocate for legislation that promotes equity, and
- Grow a racial equity fund to support people and projects in African American neighborhoods.
Acknowledgment
It was horrifying to learn that Hitler modeled his extinction of the Jewish people after how the United States managed its marginalized groups and guarded its ruling white power. We acknowledge that hundreds of years of black oppression led to white comfort.
Meeting Summaries, Recordings and Witness Statements
Donate to St. V’s Racial Equity Fund.
Please make your check payable to “St. Vincent de Paul Church,” and put “Racial Equity Fund” in the memo section. Mail to St. Vincent de Paul Church, 120 N. Front St., Baltimore, MD 21202
Our parish community partners with and supports the work of South Baltimore Community Land Trust (SBCLT), whose mission aligns with ours, to deconstruct barriers of structural racism and oppression, and remedy disinvestment in red lined communities and the enduring after effects. Their vision is to offer quality affordable housing in communities free of environmental injustice. They transform vacant buildings into community owned assets, transitioning them in the process to a regenerative zero waste system in Cherry Hill and Curtis Bay. This focus is a critical element of the causes of disproportionate ill health of people of color. They are developing affordable housing units without displacement and with state of the art environmental qualifications, providing financial literacy and homeownership classes. One critical goal is to support individuals and families as they grow their assets, home investment and build generational wealth through homeownership, so long denied by institutional red lining.
We established St. Vincent’s Racial Equity Fund to help SBCLT fulfill their mission.
Contact Us: To get more involved or for additional information, please contact:
Peggy Meyer, pa.meyer@comcast.net or Skipp Sanders, usualis@aol.com
