Rise Up for Reparations Campaign
A campaign to engage 100 white majority congregations in sincere reparations work in Philly redistributing land, money, and other resources through the faith community while provoking healing for all.
We are Building a Movement
The group meets monthly and shares spiritual community across congregations to move the work of reparations forward in the greater Philadelphia area. The community of practice has done remarkable work in cultural organizing of their congregations and in moving toward meaningful budgeting for reparations.
The campaign was inspired by Green Street Friends Meeting, which in June of 2021 budgeted $500,000 toward reparations to support Black Germantown neighbors while asking that Black members and attenders be the final authority of how that money would be distributed.
The Mayor's Commission of Faith-based and Interfaith Affairs initiated a campaign in Dec. 2021 to engage these congregations with an online event entitled, Making the Moral Case for Reparations. That event was followed up by a revival, Rise up for Reparations in June, 2022 and then an intensive course in January, 2023 which brought together 87 faith leaders from 15 congregations in teams to learn about and begin to plan work for reparations in their congregations. That group emerged to become a community of practice stewarded by reparationWorks and a newly formed campaign steering committee.
“I've always ‘supported’ reparations, but not explicitly worked on it. I'm on it now. Time to stop waiting for the visionaries: we can be prophetic communities taking collective, sacred action to repair the harm chattel slavery and white supremacy does to us all, most especially to Black people.”
— participant in the Building a Culture of Reparations intensive course
Some of the Participating Congregations:
Green Street Friends Meeting
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Unitarian Society of Germantown
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Central Philadelphia Monthly Meeting
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Green Street Friends Meeting | Unitarian Society of Germantown | Central Philadelphia Monthly Meeting |
Providence Friends Meeting
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Unitarian Universalists of Mt. Airy
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First United Methodist Church Germantown
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Providence Friends Meeting | Unitarian Universalists of Mt. Airy | First United Methodist Church Germantown |
Tabernacle United Church
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Mishkan Shalom Synagogue
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West Philadelphia Mennonite Church
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Tabernacle United Church | Mishkan Shalom Synagogue | West Philadelphia Mennonite Church |