Monthly Archives: July 2026

The Sacred Reckonings Framework

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More recently, the Racial Justice Working Group deepened its understanding of the essence, practices, and spiritual underpinnings of reparations work by attending the May-June 2026 Sacred Reckonings program,  sponsored by Episcopal City Mission and the Reparations Interfaith Coalition.

We were inspired by the leaders of the program who have years of experience in social justice organizing and education for faith communities. We were inspired by the commitment of the participants who represented churches and faith-centered groups at various stages in the journey of repair. We witnessed the power of approaching the work with active listening, humility, curiosity, and good will. Our time together was punctuated by song and silence; by activities that drew upon feeling as well as thinking; and by experiences of remembering the past and dreaming of a better future.

A tangible outcome from the program was our adoption of the Sacred Reckonings framework (more on this soon), a process-oriented way of engaging with reparations work that may be applied in many faith-based organizations and groups.

The framework and our introduction of it took place at our July 19, 2026, Chapel Camp. We will write more soon about the session that day and how Emmanuelites who attended contributed to our growing awareness and knowledge of this sacred work.

–Mary Beth Clack, Joel Anderle, Mary Blocher, Cindy Coldren, Ben Ericson, Pat Krol, Liz Levin

Repairer of the Breach

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Our thanks to the Reverend Dr. Martha Tucker for this meditation which first appeared in this column in 2023.

kintsukuroiIf you remove the yoke from among you, the accusing finger, and malicious speech;
If you lavish your food on the hungry and satisfy the afflicted;
Then your light shall rise in the darkness, and your gloom shall become like midday….
“Repairer of the breach,” they shall call you,
“Restorer of ruined dwellings.”

—Isaiah 58:9–10, 12

So many prophets radically and poetically call us to participate in a sacred restoration of wholeness, to be “restorers of the breach”. I believe that this is a valuable lens through which to gain perspective on the concept of reparations.

It is not about money, at least not principally so. It is about becoming part of a movement of restoration to a sacred wholeness in which all will be One, in which divisions will cease, in which mountains are leveled and valleys raised up, while lions and lambs live in peace.

The above are prophetic images and metaphors for some ultimate harmony in the realm toward which we are progressing, toward which God invites us. And…that realm, that “kingdom”, is here and yet to come, within and without. To jump to a discussion of reparations without the context of the goal of holy wholeness might tempt one to seek quick material fixes and similarly transactional responses. If I write a check, then I can discharge my duty.

The problem is that all that misses the opportunity, the opportunity, to make reparations a mission and ministry, to allow it to change our hearts. It seems to me to begin with a genuine acknowledgement that we are broken and have also been part of the breaking, albeit in some cases unknowingly and unwillingly, is to begin the process of gathering the fragments.

Deep bias and hegemonic power can masquerade as harmless when in fact they are crushing souls and discriminating mightily. Love in all its holy manifestations is what will mend and repair. I wonder whether the focus might be on gathering the fragments in the wake of centuries of oppression and becoming repairers of the breach.

Taking a cue from the Japanese art of kintsukuroi, wherein broken pottery is reassembled with a beautiful golden glue filament so that the seams and brokenness become renewed and even more beautiful and certainly unique, might be the prompt.

Imagine taking this image to God’s creation, where the binding gluey glittering materialis kindness, mercy, justice and humility. Imagine each of us pouring our gluey stuff into and onto the brokenness of the world, especially pouring it into the seam of the racial divide.

Specifically, I feel invited to turn toward the shards of systemic oppression and to offer compassion. I hope to be surprised by the beauty and magnificence of a renewing wholeness of humanity. I hope to become a repairer of the breach.

–Mary Beth Clack, Mary Blocher, Cindy Coldren, Pat Krol, Liz Levin

The Green Book Tour: Some Highlights

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Fern Cunningham’s sculpture Step on Board shows aboltionist Harriet Ross Tubman with a Bible under her arm.

On June 20th, 2026, I joined The Green Book Tour led by Byron Rushing and the Rev. June Cooper.  The Negro Motorist Green Book, published between 1936 and 1966 as a guidebook for African American roadtrippers, became known as simply The Green Book..

On this sunny but windy day we all met outside of the Union United Methodist Church (originally a Congregational Church) on Columbus Avenue in Boston. There were about a dozen of us in addition to the leaders of the tour. Both Byron and June have a depth of knowledge about the South End of Boston and the history of the businesses which were advertised in The Green Book. These businesses, including hotels, were either Black-owned or served Negroes. Charlie’s Sandwich Shoppe on Columbus Ave. is still operating. It was originally owned by a Greek family and was advertised in The Green Book.

The Harriet Tubman House on Holyoke Street offered rooms to Black women who were either in school or working in Boston and would not have been able to rent in the area otherwise. Very near to this location we visited the Harriet Tubman Park with its two sculptures, one of which honors Harriet Tubman herself. The other sculpture sported a traffic cone on its top; evidence of a visit by the Tartan Army, which had visited Boston from Glasgow for the World Cup.

This area attracted many jazz musicians during the height of the Jazz Age. Of the many clubs once open there were two that were Black-owned establishments: Wally’s Café (originally Wally’s Paradise located across the street from its present location) and Estelle’s,  which is now a condominium building at 888 Columbus Ave.. The Hi-Hat at the corner of Mass. Ave. and Columbus Ave., which burned down after the Second World War, was replaced by a settlement house. It is now modern housing (apartments and/or condominiums). The Columbus Avenue African Methodist Episcopal Zion (AMEZ) Church on the corner of Columbus Avenue and Northampton Street was originally a synagogue. Where one would usually see a rose window, it has a Mogen David or Jewish Star.

Our tour ended at Slade’s, where we had lunch and chatted amongst ourselves. It was a beautiful day for a long walk in Boston.

–Mary Beth Clack, Mary Blocher, Cindy Coldren, Pat Krol, Liz Levin