PC(USA) Final Report: Special Committee on Racism Truth and Reconciliation
The Special Committee on Racism Truth and Reconciliation has issued its final report in advance of this summer’s 225th General Assembly, when commissioners and advisory delegates will consider its 11 recommendations.
The full report can be read at the Special Committee’s web page on pcusa.org or PC-Biz.
The work of the committee, which includes 14 members and two staff resource persons, goes back to the creation of a special commission by the 222nd General Assembly (2016) and subsequent reconstitution of the commission as a special committee by the
223rd General Assembly (2018).
The final report urges Presbyterians to build on the denomination’s past efforts to meaningfully address racism. To do that, reparative action by national church agencies, mid councils and congregations is required. “There can be no reconciliation without reparations,” the report’s “Call to Worship” section states.
“Truth + reparations = reconciliation.”
The report also includes recommendations for helping Presbyterians research the shaping role of white supremacy in their local communities. “There is no passive-reading of this report,” the report explains. “You, also, are called as partners in a moral, ethical and divine mandate to end racism in our denomination.”
