What Our Action Teams Have Accomplished

Thank you for Your Support

Education and History Team: Telling the Truth

  • Martin Luther King Day Event: Letter from a Birmingham Jail
  • Black History Month Event: Amend Schedule for March 26
  • Sacred Ground (ongoing)
  • - Eighth Circle complete,
  • - 80 people have participated to date
  • - Book Study: The Church Cracked Open by Canon Stephanie Spellers and Webinar with author Stephanie Spellers
  • Research and communicate Old Donation History: 
  • Provided several Bell Ringer articles of Old Donation complicity with slavery, racism, and champions of the beloved community
  • Produced Old Donation Beloved Community Journey video
  • Provided input and support for the Vestry Statement of Enduring Commitment to Reconciliation
  • Featured in Faith & Leadership - A learning resource for Christian leaders and their institutions from leadership Education at Duke Divinity


Worship and Events Team: Proclaiming the Dream

  • Attended Hampton Black History Tour
  • Attended Performing Arts Program with Norfolk State University Theatre Company presentation of “Dream Girls” 
  • Attended Lecture at Virginia Wesleyan University by Dr. John Finn, Chair of Dept of Sociology, Social Work and Anthropology at CNU: Social Murder and the Geography of Injustice and hosted Dr. Finn for a lecture at Old Donation
  • Attended “Social Justice in the Beloved Community” moderated by Barbara Hamm Lee
  • Juneteenth Observance
  • Hosted Dr. Antipas Harris of the Norfolk Urban Renewal Center July 13 at Men’s Breakfast
  • Attended Let Freedom Ring performing arts program presented by the Urban Renewal Center and provided shelter residents with transportation to the event
  • Pilgrimage to Princess Anne County Training School Museum at the Renaissance Academy hosted by Old Donation parishioner Chip Saunders
  • Supported Urban Renewal Center Impact Arts Program at William Farm Recreation Center in Virginia Beach and Trinity Presbyterian Church in Norfolk providing bus transportation of children from young Terrace to Trinity Church
  • Teamed with Healing of the Soul Ministry for Racial Healing Workshop featuring Dr. Antipas Harris founder of Norfolk Urban Renewal Center and Dr. Amelia Ross-Hammond Virginia Beach City Councilperson and founder of the Virginia African American Cultural Center


Diversity and Social Justice Team: 

Practicing the Way / Repairing the Breach

  • Partnered with Faith Works Coalition and diocesan youth on two home improvement projects supporting neighbors facing barriers to completing needed repairs
  • Painted the home of an 87-year-old community member to support safe and dignified living conditions
  • Replaced 120 ft of fencing to help a local resident improve safety and security at her home
  • Built a wheelchair-accessible ramp for a senior couple to improve access and mobility in their home
  • Supported the relocation of Dos Santos Food Pantry, including painting and preparing the new space for continued community service

What are future possibilities?

Pilgrimages

  • Local historical sites of racial history significance
  • First Landing State Park, African American lighthouse keeper, graveyard of Chesapeake Native Americans
  • Jamestown
  • Ft. Monroe
  • Emancipation Oak
  • Hampton History Museum
  •  Virginia historical sites
  • National Museum of African American History, Washington, DC
  • Richmond Slave Trail, Richmond, VA
  • Robert Russa Moton Museum, Farmville, VA
  • National historical sites
  • Selma to Montgomery March, Emond Pettus Bridge, Selma, AL
  • National Memorial for Peace and Justice, Montgomery, AL
  • Mississippi Freedom Trail, Jackson, MS
  • Resources: Transportation, admission fees, food, lodging for pilgrims

Speakers

  • Jennifer Oast, Author of “Institutional Slavery: Slaveholding Churches, Schools, Colleges, and Businesses in Virginia, 1680 – 1860
  • Deirdre Love, founder, and executive director of Teens With a Purpose (TWP) Norfolk
  • Dr. Cassandra Newby-Alexander, Dean of College of Liberal Arts, professor of history, emeritus director Center of African Diaspora Studies at Norfolk State University
  • Resources: Transportation, speaker fees, honorarium

Educational Assistance

  • Rachal Scholarship at Norfolk State University (HBCU)
  • Scholarships at other local Colleges for underrepresented minorities
  • Day School Scholarship of minority children: Yearly tuition: $3,000
  • Resources: Additional Donations for Repairing the Breach Fund

Support for Warm, Safe, Dry Housing

  • Partner with Faith Works Coalition for home repairs to those without the means to fund necessary housing repairs 
  • Resources: Fund warm, safe, dry, building projects for homeowners with limited resources
  • Identify projects to support Mission of the Holy Spirit and Dos Santos families  

Events

  • Martin Luther King Day observance
  • Sankofa International Day of Remembrance commemorating estimated 1.8 million enslaved people that perished during the middle passage 
  • Juneteenth observance