Yvonne Adams is Director of Equity and Inclusion at St. Stephen’s Episcopal School in Austin, TX.
Please join Yvonne for a follow-up conversation on Thursday, February 4 at 4:00 pm EST.
Register here.
Episcopal Identity and DEI work should go hand in hand, together 24/7 and every day of the school year. Taking time to develop a relationship between the person(s) responsible for maintaining our Episcopal identity AND the person(s) responsible for ensuring we are equitable and inclusive is the only way towards justice.
The Chaplain and DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) practitioner are two people with similar purposes who oftentimes can be in a push-pull relationship. Frequently this partnership is fraught with both great synergy and great conflict. The synergy comes from alignment in purpose, while the conflict comes from misalignment in responsibility of realization of said purpose. Many question what prevents the two from working in concert. If you look at Episcopal schools across our nation, you will discover that a large majority have in common a shared commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion. Episcopal identity and a commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion seem to go hand in hand seamlessly in some communities; however, it is not uncommon for this partnership to have its challenges. Two people who care deeply about humanity, what could the conflict be?
Misalignment could appear for a variety of reasons. This might happen because many might feel with the voice of the chaplain weighing in, there is an unlikely chance that anyone will refute it; yet the diversity practitioner can say the same thing and then walk around with a huge target on their back. In this case, diversity practitioners feel that the institution is hiding behind the Episcopal Identity because it’s safer. Just as common, the chaplain might feel that they won’t be heard or will be silenced because they have invoked God into the conversation, while the diversity practitioner still remains burdened with the education of the community around the conversation being had. The chaplain becomes the person that prays over the situation while the education of the situation falls on the shoulders of the diversity practitioner. Both individuals walk around encumbered with these perceptions in the community.
In his keynote address at the 2020 NAES Diversity Conference, attended by diversity practitioners and chaplains together, Dr. Rodney Glasgow spoke to this challenge. He asked us to consider our own personal relationship to the work to help with this partnership. He said: “In our Episcopal schools we have used our Episcopal Identity and our reverence for God as THE reason why we do this work and I realized that I was getting angry about that. Because there is something about invoking the name of God when you’re going up against hate, intolerance and injustice that lets the individual off the hook. We’re using it because we know that if someone says that is not Godly we can go toe to toe with them over religion and morally dismiss them. But have we thought about our own human reasons to do the work?” He went on to say, “If your reason to do the work is God, then you haven’t found YOUR reason to do the work. If your school’s reason for doing diversity work is that ‘we are Episcopal and it aligns with our values’ then your school has not found ITS reason for doing the work. Because God asked us to do this work ourselves.”
As a person of faith, I found Dr. Glasgow’s words particularly challenging. My commitment and faith in Jesus is a large part of WHY I feel called to do DEI work; however, Dr. Glasgow challenged me to step from behind my faith and interrogate why I, Yvonne Elise Adams, feel called to do this work.
As I wrestled with this, it came down to the gift of being born black, a woman, and poor in this country. Having these identifiers have more often than not placed me in the category of “other,” in spaces where my voice was not heard or communities where I was less than. Those feelings I would not wish on anyone, so it is my PERSONAL desire to always call folx in, to lift others up, and to amplify unheard voices. I am in the business of mining human potential and giving grace on a daily basis, both of which are not just connected to my faith but are also at the heart of who I am as a person. Dr. Glasgow implored each of us as individuals, and collectively as an Episcopal community, to find our own single and corporate reasons to do the work. Those of us who believe in God find our work with HIS guidance, while others, regardless of the deity that they may serve (or not), find A reason to do the work of diversity, equity and inclusion.
Institutionally, this interrogation needs to happen as well. At St. Stephen’s we recently completed a whole school DEI audit by The Glasgow Group. For us, this certainly illuminated spaces and places where we have hidden behind our Episcopal Identity in doing DEI work.
One clear example is how we often refer to and lean on our founding vision and school history with Bishop John Hines, and what a compelling history it is. However, the audit showed clearly that, while resting on our founding, we have unintentionally neglected to carefully assess the injustices experienced by our students and adults from marginalized communities and other members of our community not in a direct teaching role. With this realization, we will endeavor to use the audit findings to work to close the gap of this misalignment, and help us to not hide behind our Episcopal Identity, but live into our school’s reason for doing justice and thereby reinvigorate our Episcopal Identity anew.
Some institutions value the chaplain and the work that they do differently from the way they value the person doing the diversity work. Conversely, there are institutions (probably less so) that value the diversity work more so than they do the chaplain’s work. These types of situations leave both vital members of the community feeling that they do not have a seat at the table. Episcopal Identity and DEI work should go hand in hand, together 24/7 and every day of the school year. This is YES-AND work. YES, it is important for institutions to have Episcopal Identity statements AND Diversity statements. Taking time to develop a relationship between the person(s) responsible for maintaining our Episcopal identity AND the person(s) responsible for ensuring we are equitable and inclusive is the only way towards justice.
In order to work toward this type of belonging and justice, it is imperative to consider the racial dynamic between the diversity practitioner and the chaplain. For example, when the diversity practitioner is BIPOC and the chaplain is white, there exists a particular tension. Given the differing racial identities, power and privilege certainly play a role in creating unnecessary challenges for the partnership. Each person, chaplain and diversity practitioner alike, should interrogate their own identity and participate in identity development to lessen the impact of the power and privilege inherent in this particular relationship.
In my personal experience with The Rev. Todd FitzGerald, chaplain here at St. Stephen’s, managing the struggles of identity in relation to self and the institution together has helped to grow our relationship personally and professionally. He constantly reminds me, “As we navigate this staircase that is our collective work at St. Stephen’s, it’s encouraging to have a partner to plot the course filled with turns and twists and darkness that we are not able to see ahead; we have to do this together, with Him in the midst.” We do not always agree, but our goals and purpose for our work at our institution are guided by a deep friendship, love of God, and purpose guided by our founding mission.
In advancing any school’s goals and principles, the chaplain and diversity practitioner might even be left out of the conversation completely. In an effort to gain a seat at the table to assist with policies and decisions made by the school, the chaplain and diversity practitioner are battling one another for A SEAT at the table, when in reality they should join hands to create SEATS at the table. When they are both fighting for a seat at the table, it allows our institutions to continue to maintain their inherent white supremacy, racism, sexism, and classism. Working together, they are creating more space for more people.
The diverse composition of our communities as Episcopal schools reveals the importance of interrogating how a commitment to DEI is fundamental to every school’s Episcopal identity. The social unrest being felt in all parts of the country makes it more vital than ever for the relationship between the chaplain and the person(s) tasked with leading DEI efforts be in harmony. As schools’ chaplains and DEI leaders partner together, might they all be guided by the Baptismal Covenant’s questions: “Will you strive for justice and peace among all people and respect the dignity of every human being, and will you seek and serve Christ in all persons, loving your neighbor as yourself?” Such a commitment would be a tangible expression of the words of Micah: “do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with your God. (6:8)” allowing the relationship between the chaplain and diversity practitioner to work together to obtain diversity, equity and inclusion and then move towards true belonging and justice.