Shannon MacVean-Brown Is the First Black Woman to Lead Vermont’s Episcopal Church

From Vermont-

By the time she entered an Episcopal seminary in 2004, Shannon MacVean-Brown thought she knew what sort of priest she wanted to be. In her 30s and pregnant, the seminarian had already run a design business, taught elementary school art and become a preacher at her unconventional childhood church in Detroit. She saw full priesthood as a way to take her creative approach to other congregations. 

MacVean-Brown did not initially see her race as particularly important to her ministry. That began to change when she entered Seabury-Western Theological Seminary in Evanston, Ill., where, as one of the few nonwhite students, she was confronted with a church that wasn't quite living up to its ideals.
During her orientation, one of the professors made disparaging comments about the church's African American hymnal, and several classmates registered their displeasure with a required antiracism training. 

More here-

https://www.sevendaysvt.com/vermont/shannon-macvean-brown-is-the-first-black-woman-to-lead-vermonts-episcopal-church/Content?oid=28391236

Episcopal Bishop Breaks Race, Gender Barriers

From Afro-

“Now, let me get this straight. You are a successful attorney, making a good salary, and you are about to make partner, which will give you even more money,” Phoebe Roaf’s mother said. “But you want to leave all that, go to seminary for three years with no salary, and pay $100,000 because you know it’s got to be paid for. That’s really what you want to do?”

Roaf’s mother was incredulous about Roaf’s next career move.

“My mother was just being a mother,” said Roaf. “But I told her, “Yes, Mom, that’s just what I want to do. It makes me happy. The ministry will make me happy.’ After a while, my mother began to understand and support me in my position.”

Roaf’s life-changing direction culminated when Bishop Elect Phoebe Roaf became the first female and the first African American elected to lead the Episcopal Diocese of West Tennessee. Her Consecration Service was Saturday, May 4th, at Hope Church.

“This is so exciting because I will be consecrated by my boss. Well, God is my boss, but my earthly boss is the Presiding Bishop of The Episcopal Church, The Most Rev. Michael B. Curry,” said Roaf. “You remember, he is the one who preached the sermon at the royal wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle. Bishop Curry is, himself, the first African American to hold the presiding bishop’s office.”

More here-

https://www.afro.com/episcopal-bishop-breaks-race-gender-barriers/

Church of England to create bishop for minority ethnic community

From The Guardian-

The Church of England is creating a new bishop specifically to reach out to black, Asian and minority ethnic people and to drive cultural change in one of the UK’s most diverse cities.

The diocese of Leicester has petitioned the Queen for permission to create a new see, and expects the new suffragan bishop of Loughborough to be in post by the end of the year.

Despite his or her title, the new bishop will be based mainly in Leicester, one of the first majority black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) cities in the UK. In the 2011 census, only 45% of the city’s population identified as white British.

“The diversity of the city is not reflected in our churches,” Martyn Snow, the bishop of Leicester, told the Guardian. “The majority of people going to Anglican churches are white British, while there are more than 100 BAME churches, mostly neo-Pentecostalist.” 

More here-

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/mar/27/church-of-england-to-create-bishop-for-minority-ethnic-community

‘The End of White Christian America’ is meaningless

From RNS-

Robert P. Jones seems to be making a bold claim in his new book, The End of White Christian America. According to the publisher, the book addresses “a new reality—America is no longer a majority white Christian nation.”

If that doesn’t seem right, it’s because it isn’t.

Jones isn’t writing about “Christian” in the normal meaning of the term. This isn’t an America of Catholic or Orthodox Christians. As Jones states clearly between the covers, “I use the term White Christian America to describe the domain of Protestants in America” (emphasis in original).

The book would be better titled,
The End of White Christian Protestant America

(Actually, since “white” is really short for “non-Hispanic white” it should be The End of Non-Hispanic White Christian Protestant America, but I digress).

More here-


http://religionnews.com/2016/07/12/the-end-of-white-christian-america-is-meaningless/

Bruton Parish examines race in three-day event

From Virginia-

Bruton Parish Episcopal Church will host a series of events, "Race and The Church," over Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday weekend. The church invites the community, and other churches, to join in the dialogue.

In reaction to events across the country, particularly the shootings at Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, S.C., Bruton Parish desired to take action on race relations, said parishioner Isabel Burch, who helped plan the program.

"This is our first step," Burch said.

Bruton Parish coordinated with filmmaker Katrina Browne and Williamsburg's First Baptist Church to present three events from Jan. 14-16.
More here-

http://www.vagazette.com/life/va-vg-race-and-church-0109-20160112-story.html

Grace Episcopal Church to host forum on race relations

From Western NC-

Grace Episcopal Church will host a forum on race relations on Jan. 22 and 23 called, “Listen for a Change: Sacred Conversations for Racial Justice.”

The forum will be live-streamed from Trinity Wall Street Episcopal Church in New York City to dozens of locations across 34 states and several provinces in Canada. It will feature twelve keynote speakers with backgrounds in academia, theology, media, grassroots activism and more. All have had a particular focus on race during their careers, according to a press release from Trinity Wall Street.
The press release said that forum topics will provide “life-giving conversations on the racial issues of our time, including structural racism, mass incarceration, and policy change, (for those) interested in a practical, theological perspective on racial equality.”

More here-

http://www.morganton.com/community/grace-episcopal-church-to-host-forum-on-race-relations/article_03a07b44-b096-11e5-8a62-b7bb84e37488.html

The most and least racially diverse U.S. religious groups

From Pew Research-

The nation’s population is growing more racially and ethnically diverse – and so are many of its religious groups, both at the congregational level and among broader Christian traditions.  But a new analysis of data from the 2014 Religious Landscape Study also finds that these levels of diversity vary widely within U.S. religious groups.

We looked at 29 groups – including Protestant denominations, other religious groups and three subsets of people who are religiously unaffiliated – based on a methodology used in our 2014 Pew Research Center report on global religious diversity. This analysis includes five racial and ethnic groups: Hispanics, as well as non-Hispanic whites, blacks, Asians and an umbrella category of other races and mixed-race Americans.

More here-

http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2015/07/27/the-most-and-least-racially-diverse-u-s-religious-groups/