Pictured: St. Michael’s Church (L) & St. Jude’s Chapel (R)
Reparations
at St. Michael’s
St. Michael’s Reparations Mission Statement
Honoring that part of the Baptismal Covenant in which we promise “to strive for justice and peace among all people, and respect the dignity of every human being,” St. Michael’s Church commits every effort possible to repair the sin of slavery and its legacies in our church. Our reparations commitments extend beyond allocation of financial resources for new programs and include continued discernment about our church community’s spiritual purpose and identity.
The Context for Reparations
at St. Michael’s
Founded in 1807 by wealthy families, some of whom owned slaves, St. Michael’s Church grew over its first century from a small rural parish into an influential institutional urban church. St. Michael’s prosperity emerged in a society whose economic structure depended on slavery and, after the Civil War, on racist inhumanity and exploitation.
In its second century, St. Michael’s explicitly preserved slavery’s legacies – the cruelties of segregation and disenfranchisement – in the maintenance of a segregated mission-chapel, St. Jude’s Chapel, and in subsequent patterns of spiritual exclusion. Though St. Michael’s Church has made progress recently in confronting social injustices and in offering inclusive welcome, it has only just begun a deep discernment of its own complicity in slavery’s legacies and in racism.
Begun in 2019, the work of the Reparations Committee unfolds from deep discernment processes.
Our Reparations Committee
Ned Boyajian, Gregory Bryant, Carole O’Connor Edwards, Rev. Julie Hoplamazian, Jeff Jeffreys, Juanita Pratt, Jean Ballard Terepka,
Meg Parsons (not pictured)
Pictured with the Rev. Canon Terence A. Lee
For more information about reparations at St. Michael’s, contact us
at reparations@saintmichaelschurch.org
Reparations News
2025 Goddard Riverside Option Award
The St. Michael’s Reparations Committee, in partnership with Goddard Riverside Option, has awarded two exceptional students with four-year scholarships of $1,500 per year. The deserving recipients of this support are Boubacar Balde and Ndeye “Awa” Ndiaye.
With these scholarships, St. Michael’s is proud to now empower three African American young individuals in their pursuit of higher education. This initiative not only enhances their educational journey but also reinforces St. Michael’s commitment to address past ills caused by the impact of slavery on African Americans in this city, state, and country.
Reparations Work Archive
Visit our Reparations Archive to learn more about more Reparations work at St. Michael’s.
“We are not satisfied, and we will not be satisfied
until justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream”
— Martin Luther King, Jr.