St. Mark's Episcopal Church

St. Mark's is a diverse faith community serving City Heights, an urban community with a dense population of 95,000, living in approximately 6.5 square miles. Unemployment is 20.5%, and the community has some of the highest regional rates of child obesity, asthma, and violence. In its midst stands St. Mark's, offering services and hope to all they encounter by regularly feeding families from a neighborhood food cupboard, recruiting tutors for the ERN Refugee Network, distributing fresh fruits/vegetables to as many as 200 families on the third Sunday of every month and operating a winter shelter.

Sacred Ground is dialogue series on race, grounded in faith. Small groups are invited to walk through chapters of America’s history of race, racism, and whiteness while weaving in threads of family story, economic class, and political and regional identity. The 10-part series is built around a powerful online curriculum of documentary films and readings that focus on Indigenous, Black, Latino, and Asian/Pacific American histories as they intersect with European American histories.

Sacred Ground is a resource coming out of Becoming Beloved Community, The Episcopal Church’s long-term commitment to racial healing, reconciliation, and justice in our personal lives, our ministries, and our society. This series is especially designed to help white people talk with other white people, while being open to all racial/ethnic groups. Participants are invited to peel away the layers that have contributed to the challenges and divides of the present day – all while grounded in our call to faith, hope and love.