The FaithX Project

Strategic Missional Consulting

FaithX, Datastory, and Long Island: Displacing Systemic Racism with Love and Understanding

By The Rev. Canon Claire Woodley
The Episcopal Diocese of Long Island

The Episcopal Diocese of Long Island has long been working towards addressing the many layers of racism on Long Island over decades and through several Episcopates.  The current Bishop of Long Island, the Rt. Rev. Lawrence Provenzano, has been seeking ways to increase dialogue and action, and to develop the tools to support it. 

Following a diocese-wide plea for congregations and individuals to engage the Sacred Ground series or the Healing from Systemic Racism program during Lent of 2021, Bishop Provenzano realized that the people of the diocese really needed drill down into the specifics of systemic racism here on Long Island, understanding that out of specificity comes creativity, and that if the Diocese could provide its people with easy access to the specific data for their setting, and that of those they love around the Diocese, understanding and creative common work can bloom. But the problem we ran into was that just giving people statistics didn’t cut it. We hear statistics all the time, in isolated bits and pieces that are difficult to put together, since those statistics often come without context or meaning.

It was at this point that we turned to FaithX and Datastory.

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Do justice. Love kindness. Walk humbly.

Diocese of Long Island Launches Systemic Racism Mapping Project
in Collaboration with FaithX and Datastory

We are happy to announce that the Episcopal Diocese of Long Island just launched “Do justice – Love kindness – Walk humbly” in collaboration with FaithX and Datastory as part of their commitment to displacing systemic racism across the entirety of Long Island. 

The project grew out of action research and a series of webinars conducted by FaithX on mapping and mitigating systemic racism through interactive meaning-story creation. The Rev. Canon Claire Woodley, Canon to the Ordinary for the Diocese of Long Island, attended one of our mapping systemic racism webinars in early 2021, and the rest – as they say – is history.

Canon Woodley then reached out to FaithX with the idea of applying the concepts we outlined in our Mapping Systemic Racism webinars on a much wider scale, covering the whole of Long Island and embedding the results on the diocesan website for access by all of their congregations. We in turn reached out to our affiliate, Datastory, and together the three organizations spent the next six months in collaborative development of product and process.

Needless to say, the diocese is extremely pleased with the results and we all hope to see the idea replicated in other judicatories from other denominations, as well as in individual congregations.

But don’t take our word for it. Click here to watch Canon Woodley’s two short introductory videos or click here to see the completed “Do justice – Love kindness – Walk humbly” Datastory.


For more information, contact us at info@faithx.net.

Mapping Systemic Racism in the Diocese of Long Island

The Episcopal Diocese of Long Island will soon have a new and groundbreaking tool for helping its congregations, leaders, and people grapple with the pernicious issue of systemic racism. This public, data-grounded, map-based platform will reside on the diocesan website and be available for free to all who want to engage systemic racism in their neighborhoods.

The idea for this project was born when the diocese’s Canon for Ministry Support, the Rev. Canon Claire Woodley, attended a FaithX webinar entitled, “I Can’t Breathe: Mapping Systemic Racism in Your Community” last November. According to Canon Woodley, she immediately saw how this would fit perfectly into the diocese’s evolving approach to engaging systemic racism strategically rather than reactively and incrementally. Or as Canon Woodley put it…

“Spurred on by the death of George Floyd, the demonstrations in Brooklyn, throughout Long Island, and around the world, our diocese came to realize that unless and until we can develop a clear understanding of how systemic racism works in daily lived reality in our neighborhoods, we’ll just keep throwing money at it and trying tactical changes. 

This kind of learning, seeing the “red lines” and visually experiencing the specific impacts of underfunded schools, predatory lending, and other embedded structural problems helps us move past the divisions and into relationship. Seeing where our people live, move, and what limits their being, is powerful and can lead us into authentic transformative action as a whole Diocese moving towards wholeness.”

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