The Isaac Project Committee members:
Mary Beth Stamps, Chairperson; Bradley Daugherty, Vestry Liaison; Christina Callaway; Dan Schafer; Rick Britton; Edwin Josey; Rose Ballard; Joseph Watson; Mary Ellen Pethel; Monica Flynn-Urness; and Ken Vickers.
The purpose of The Isaac Project is to quicken institutional awareness around practices, actions, ministries, and systems that have, either intentionally or implicitly, fostered racism and inhibited the comprehensive pursuit of holiness, righteousness, and the justice of God by the people, Vestry, and clergy of Christ Church Cathedral.
When Christ Church was founded in 1829, it particularly served the gentry of Middle Tennessee and Nashville – in other words, upper-class whites. That was who Christ Church was founded by and for. With that often came a wholesale adoption of local cultural norms, and that included the prevailing anti-Black racism – the white supremacy – of the day.
Today Christ Church Cathedral is intent on serving all four corners of the city of Nashville. We are intent on becoming a spiritual home to the multi-cultural, multi-ethnic population that now resides in middle Tennessee. We say becoming because we know that we are in the process of becoming such a place but we are still on our way. Essential to that process is telling Christ Church’s history in a way that names the prejudices of her past and confesses sins of complicity. This is what the early phases of The Isaac Project have been and continue to be focused on. The ultimate goal, though, is that this work will lead to reformation, reconciliation, and new and renewed ministry at Christ Church Cathedral. That is what The Isaac Project is about.
The plan for The Isaac Project adopted by the Vestry of Christ Church Cathedral laid out five phases:
Origins and parochial development
Public repentance and renewal
Penance
Institutional reform
Renewal by the spirit & refreshment for service
We are currently in Phase II. Our current work is focused on three things:
Continuing historical research into the ways in which Christ Church has benefitted from and been complicit in the prevailing anti-Black racist sentiment of the society and the people it was serving.
Working to engage community partners, including other parishes and congregations, in conversation about the work of The Isaac Project.
Working toward a public Service of Repentance in response to our research and taking into account feedback from conversation partners. This will be the culmination of Phase II.