Nationally, the Episcopal Church has spent years working on racial justice issues.
Locally, Christ and Holy Trinity Church is doing the same.
Recently, parishioners read — and discussed — Debby Irving’s thought-provoking Waking Up White and Finding Myself in the Story of Race.
“It was a soulful venture,” says Rev. John Betit. “People talked openly and honestly about their own ignorance and stuggle.”
But, he adds, some congregants felt dissatisfied. They were unsure how to move forward on thorny issues of race.
They — and anyone else in Westport who wants to come — will take a step in that direction this Sunday (March 18, 11 a.m.). CHT will show “Traces of the Trade,” a true story of producer/director Katrina Browne’s ancestors — the largest slave-trading family in American history.
They were Northerners.
The documentary traces Browne and 9 cousins, as they work to understand the legacy of New England’s “hidden enterprise.” Family members are shaken by visits to Ghanaian slave forts and dungeons, and conversations with African Americans.
After the film, Dain Perry — one of Browne’s cousins — will facilitate a conversation about race, reconciliation and healing.
Perry — whose family are longtime Episcopalians — says the church shares responsibility for the slave trade. It condoned slavery, while the leading denomination in early America.
“Systemic racism is so big and hard-wired,” Betit notes. He hopes for a “softening of the ground,” as people “take a deeper look, and broaden their circle of awareness” about issues like slavery.
(The discussion also includes lunch. For more information call 203-227-0827. Click here for the film’s website.)
