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Day of Awareness/Day of Repentance

Thank you to those who participated in the Day of Repentance Nov. 7, 2009 -  started with about 70, grew to 100 or so by noon, and over 100 at the service. Researchers presented amazing history from Connecticut. All three bishops, as well as retired Bishop of Connecticut Clarence N. Coleridge, took part. A Day of Repentance doesn't stand on its own but is a part of a larger work that includes action and conversation.

Resources for this will be collected and made available on this website.

PHOTO COLLAGE by Leon Rippel:

Full page flyer       Half-sheet (double-sided) for use as a bulletin insert
Morning session: 8 a.m. open, set up for presenters; 8:30 coffee/registration;

PDF of Schedule

9 a.m. start; welcome from Bishop Smith; DVD Traces of the Trade; break and opportunity to visit parish exhibits; special guests and panel; more conversation over lunch
Service of Repentance - 1:30 p.m.

Letter from Bishop Smith, calling parishes to the Day of Awareness and Day of Repentance
Resources links
Church school resource packet
Liturgical, musical, prayer resources
Template for research on slavery (for initiating, conducting, reporting) (Developed by Rowena Kemp and others on a diocesan committee)

Resolution 4, Historic complicity in the Transatlantic slave trade, and Repentance, passed by the 225th annual convention, Oct. 23, 2009.

The Liverpool (U.K.) Slavery Remembrance Initiative has established a Slavery Remembrance Day on Aug. 23. It seeks to do three things that our diocese could also identify as goals for our Day of Awareness, and our ongoing work:

• commemorate the lives and deaths of the millions of enslaved Africans and their descendants who were central to the rise of Britain [and here we could say the U.S.] as an industrial power
• remember that we live with the legacies of transatlantic slavery such as racism and discrimination and ongoing inequalities, injustices and exploitation
• celebrate the resistance, rebellion and revolution that ended slavery, as well as the rise of popular movements for racial justice and social change that said both then and now "never again".