(RNS) — Four years after the Episcopal Diocese of Virginia announced it would commit $10 million to racial reparations, Bishop Mark Stevenson said the diocese identified funding sources for that initial reparations endowment.
“We have identified sufficient assets that we may liquidate and are in the process of doing just that,” Stevenson said in an address at the annual diocesan convention on Nov. 6.
Virginia is the denomination’s largest domestic diocese, which combined with its history of slavery made its reparations quest especially significant when anti-racism efforts were surging across the country after the murder of George Floyd in 2020. In 2021, the diocesan convention, its governing body voted to appoint a Racial Reparations Task Force and raise $10 million toward the initiative.
But the funding announcement earlier this month came after some former task force members expressed doubts over the diocese’s commitment to deliver on its promise and uncertainty about its ability to secure funding before the late 2026 deadline it set for itself, RNS previously reported.
Bishop Mark Stevenson. (Photo courtesy of the Episcopal Diocese of Virginia)
Stevenson didn’t specify which assets would allow the diocese to meet its financial commitment, arguing that revealing commercial real estate details could negatively affect negotiations and jeopardize sales.
“We are now seeing the grace and beauty in this moment reflected knowing that we have funded the ministry called for in R10A, of that I am confident,” the bishop said, referring to the resolution that called for the diocese to begin racial reparations work.
Diocesan representatives declined to answer questions about the newly identified funding source and when the funding would be available.
Virginia’s decision to start reparations work resounded throughout the denomination, which made racial justice one of its priorities under the leadership of former Presiding Bishop Michael Curry, the first African American to lead the denomination. In a diocese that was at the heart of the Confederacy and where the vast majority of clergy owned slaves, the resolution also brought in renewed hope.
But in March, Stevenson dismissed the reparations task force formed in 2022, then appointed a new task force in mid-September, citing a need to “reform and refresh the task force.”
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One former task force member who spoke with RNS on the condition of anony …