Overview:
In response to Freddie Gray’s killing 11 years ago, the Baltimore Presbytery launched a reparative justice initiative, dedicating millions of dollars and theological study to dismantling racism and to support Black churches and communities.
Five years before the murder of George Floyd on a Minneapolis street corner inspired worldwide demands for justice, a young Black man named Freddie Gray died in the back of a Baltimore police van. His death triggered days of civil unrest, revealing the Black community’s anger about systemic racism and chronic inequality that had been simmering just below the surface.
In the aftermath of the protests, as elected leaders debated the path forward for a fractured city, the local Presbyterian clergy decided to lead the way. It created the Reparative Justice Initiative, an ambitious plan to dismantle deep-seated bias and poverty that had hamstrung generations of Black Baltimoreans.
The effort would later help push the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) toward what the church’s 22nd General Assembly later called “radical atonement and reconciliation.” The proposal, originating in Baltimore, laid groundwork for a broader denominational reckoning with racism.
The Cross and the Lynching Tree
Momentum grew after Dr. J. Herbert Nelson II was elected the church’s stated clerk and elevated the Matthew 25 movement, which calls churches to live out their faith by dismantling structural racism and addressing systemic poverty.
The following year, the denomination launched a study of “The Cross and the Lynching Tree,” a book by Black liberation theologian Dr. James Cone. That theological deep dive led to listening sessions and the formation of a Dismantling Racism Team — with Baltimore among the first presbyteries to sign on.
According to the presbytery’s website, “The Dismantling Racism Team offers at least 2 workshops per year and is open to people of all racial and ethnic backgrounds.”
As a majority-white presbytery, it notes that some sessions may be organized by affinity groups, while others are open to ruling elders and congregational leaders seeking to “strengthen their own antiracist leadership.”
The real job is to train all the ministers and elders
Rev. Hal Bennett, Presbyterian minister
Rev. Hal Bennett, who joined the effort in 2020 after “receiving a call from Grove Presbyterian Church,” says that year also marked the creation of a Reparative Justice Working Group.
Funding to Rebuild
The presbytery went further, “allocating 15% of year-end non-committed funds totaling $2,274,000 for reparative justice, payable in two tranches contingent on standing up a governing board; specified to be composed of African-American members only to serve Black churches and communities in Baltimore.”
But Bennett says the larger challenge is cultural and generational.
“The real job,” he says, “is to train all the ministers and elders.”
With Presbyterian membership in Baltimore hovering around 12,000 and “the average age being somewhere between 50 and 60,” the church is “losing, not gaining,” Bennett says.
“Our young people did not come back to the church,” he says. “They went off and found other non-denominations.”
To address ministry gaps in the city, the presbytery created the LOOP, a group focused on organizing and supporting inner-city churches within the Presbyterian structure.
“It hasn’t been an easy fight,” Bennett says, underscoring that repentance, reparations and racial reconciliation inside historic white denominations remain ongoing work — not settled triumphs.
Word In Black recently interviewed Bennett about the initiative. The interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Word in Black: Are you still pastoring full-time?
Hal Bennett: Right now, I’m serving as a bridge pastor, a transition pastor. I have a couple more years that I can preach before I turn 82. I don’t think I can ever retire. I’ve retired twice and so I don’t think I’m going to retire from God’s job.
WIB: How were the particular churches selected?
Bennett: They did some case studies and Knox Presbyterian was one of those selected. You’re familiar with them? But probably not with their story. So when Knox was started, they were forced to take a dilapidated old building that belonged to a white congregation during the white flight. Not only were they forced to take it, to make repairs, the Presbyterian offered them a higher interest rate, okay? And the church that moved to the county got an interest-free loan.
WIB: So what are the great things that could be done with this money?
Bennett: There are all kinds of possibilities. One would be to invest the money and live on the interest. Invest the principal, use interest for programs and delay large distributions for up to five years to ensure sustainable impact.
WIB: Will you post for prospective board members and hope the right people come along?
Bennett: Once approved by the Dismantling Racism Team, the call for members will go to the Reparative Justice Team for approval. Then it will be put on the website of the Presbytery of Baltimore by May 2026, at which time BIPOC candidates will be invited to apply.