Opportunities for Faith Communities

Sponsor a Reparative Grant Cycle

"Reparations is the midpoint between truth and reconciliation" - Dr. David Ragland

Is your faith community ready to engage in direct repair? Reparations Circle Denver and our partner Denver Black Reparations Council offer a powerful way to deepen your congregation's commitment to racial justice by providing a bridge to beloved community and a way to fund reparative change in Colorado. Many faith communities would like to deepen their commitment to racial justice but are unsure how to proceed. Consider joining the growing number of faith communities who are engaging in direct repair across the country.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is our faith community ready to engage in repair?

If your faith community has been actively working toward racial justice for some time, and members of the congregation, board of directors and the faith leader are willing to explore deepening this commitment, this may be a good time to begin discussion on reparations. Most faith communities begin an exploratory or discovery phase before making the leap, to be assured that their congregation is truly ready to commit.

How have other faith communities prepared themselves to engage in direct repair?

Each faith community is unique in its makeup and history. Some recommended first steps in preparation include:

Studying the movement for racial justice - this is a critical first step that must be taken before engaging the topic of reparations.
Scheduling regular (monthly) meetings to study the movement for reparations using well designed curricula (for example from https://reparations4slavery.com/ or https://m4bl.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/Reparations-Now-Toolkit-FINAL.pdf)
Studying your faith lineage's history and any connection to slavery, Jim Crow, or other links to institutional racism
Evaluating your faith community's neighborhood footprint/imprint and any connection to incidents of racism
Studying other faith communities efforts toward repair; clarifying which methods would be most appropriate for your own congregation
Seeking the counsel of local African American faith leaders
Setting aside a budget to remunerate African Americans brought in to speak to the congreagation.

What are the challenges our congregation may face?

The idea of engaging in direct repair may raise difficult conversations in your congregation.

Consensus may be hard to reach
There may be different definitions of repair, or how to proceed, or how to engage the African American community.
There may be resistance to efforts in being accountable for past race-related problems in the congregation.

Faith communities who have persevered and taken slow, deliberate steps to begin these discussions will be less likely to stall and more likely to succeed in creating a meaningful path to repair.

How will engaging in direct repair affect our congregation?

Can you connect us with another congregation that has engaged in repair?

Our Offerings

Speakers bureau

If your faith community wishes to learn more about reparations and is ready to engage in direct repair, we have several options for lectures and sermons.

Here are two reparations sermons given by members of Denver Black Reparations Council and Reparations Circle Denver

Sermon given by Arthur McFarlane at First Unitarian Society of Denver

Sermon given by Lotte Lieb Dula at First Unitarian Society of Denver

Mutual Aid Circle

Reparations education programs

Local Reparations Education Program

We currently convene our reparations education program in parallel with our spring and fall reparative grant cycles. Your congregants are welcome to attend any of our sessions free of charge; we may be able to customize one of our sessions specifically for your congregation as well, for a nominal fee.

Faith Community Plan of Repair

In addition, one of our alliance members Reparations4slavery, has a Faith Community Guide to Repair that may be helpful during your planning stages.

Self Study Reparations Curriculum

Reparations4slavery.com has a massive library and self-study curriculum suitable for congregations who wish to study any aspect of the path to repair.

The Case For Reparations — Reparations 4 Slavery

Reparative Genealogy — Reparations 4 Slavery

The Racial Wealth Gap: Understanding The Economic Basis For Repair — Reparations 4 Slavery

Modern Vectors of Economic Racism — Reparations 4 Slavery

Modern Vectors of Economic Liberation — Reparations 4 Slavery

White Trauma / White Supremacy — Reparations 4 Slavery

Annual Retreat - The Path of Direct Repair

White congregants may take this annual workshop together or individually to deepen their understanding of the nature of repair.

The Path of Direct Repair - Reparations Circle Denver (reparationsdenver.com)

Reparative grant cycle funding

Once your faith community has learned about the path of reparations and has decided to engage in direct repair, we offer several opportunities to fund one or more of our reparative grant cycles.

Partial funding - $25,000 funds half a grant cycle.

This option is ideal for a small congregation or a group of several congregations.

Full Funding - $50,000+ funds a full grant cycle.

Faith communities may fund one or more cycles through their own operating or endowment funds, or may rely on contributions from congregants, or a mix of both.

Benefits of funding a grant cycle:

DBRC will include your faith community logo in all communications regarding the grant cycle
If your faith community has Black congregants who are interested in this program, they may serve on DBRC's grant review & selection panel during the cycle your faith community has funded.
Your faith community will be invited to host a celebration / meet and greet event with us and the selected grantees, once grants are awarded.
Reparations Circle Denver and Denver Black Reparations Council can help your faith community design a plan of engagement that will provide great benefits to both your congregation and to the recipients of your sponsored grants.

Opportunities with our grantees

Participating Faith Communities:

"The moral issue of reparations is crystal clear to me. This is just something that has to happen - we need to take concrete steps toward meaningful reconciliation and reparation." - Rev. Mike Morran, First Unitarian Society of Denver

"A lot of people in our congregation believe that good works are an important part of their faith, including myself. We've come to the place where faith intersects with the moral question of repair." - Patrick Whorton, First Unitarian Society of Denver

The line between good and evil cuts through every human heart. We've been given this opportunity to understand the differences between human flourishing and human suffering. We were able to see how systemically pre-wired things are. Conditions allow people who look like me to flourish, but cause people who do not look like me to endure suffering. - Steve Brainerd, First Unitarian Society of Denver

Meet Our 2023 Grant cycle sponsor

First Unitarian Society of Denver spent many years engaging in racial justice work before its congregation committed to the path of reparations. After the murder of George Floyd in 2020 however, FUSD's racial justice committee began to discuss ways the congregation could deepen its commitment to repair. The congregation began to study the concept of reparations and explore how FUSD might best engage. In late 2022, FUSD launched its reparations fund and chose Denver Black Reparations Council to deploy the funds it raised as reparative grants to Black-led and Black-serving organizations in Colorado. FUSD is sponsor for our spring and fall 2023 reparative grant cycles.