The White Church / Black Church Funding Gap

Charting the racial wealth gap in New Jersey in the NJISJ Study.

Study after study[1] has shown that in the United States there is a persistent gap between per-capita White wealth and per-capita Black wealth as a result of the effects of slavery and racism. This gap has existed since the founding of the republic, with the ratio of White to Black per-capita wealth at the time of the Civil War standing at approximately 60:1. By the year 1900 the gap had closed to 10:1, but since then progress in closing the gap has been very slow. In the intervening 120 years the gap has only closed to a 5:1 per-capita discrepancy at the national level.[2]

            However, the picture in New Jersey is markedly worse. As of 2018, the per-capita ratio of White wealth to Black wealth was approximately 21:1, while the gap at the household level was only marginally better at 18:1.[3]

            What does this have to do with churches in the Diocese of New Jersey? The Diocese is home to ten historically Black churches, most of which were founded so that Black Episcopalians in the diocese could have some degree of protection from racism, including known racism in the church. That the ministry of these churches remains necessary is without doubt. The problem lies with the cost of running a parish. 

It costs Black Episcopalians just as much to run a church as it costs White Episcopalians. But if Black household wealth is dramatically and persistently lower in New Jersey due to the effects of slavery and racism, then Black Episcopalians operate under a default expectation to give a dramatically higher percentage of their wealth to ensure the functioning of their parishes than White Episcopalians attending predominantly White Episcopal Churches operate with. There has been ad-hoc funding at the Diocesan level made available to Black churches since their founding, but it has been in no way commensurate to the racial wealth gap.

One form that reparations could take in the Diocese of New Jersey might involve concrete steps at the Diocesan level, and funding at a commensurate scale, to address this persistent funding gap for Historically Black Churches that has resulted from the negative wealth effects to Black Episcopalians of long-standing racist policies and behaviors in the State of New Jersey.

 

Jolyon G. R. Pruszinski, Ph.D.

Reparations Commission Research Historian

Episcopal Diocese of New Jersey

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[1] For several examples see the forthcoming book See also the forthcoming book by Calvin Schermerhorn, The Plunder of Black America: How the Racial Wealth Gap Was Made (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2025).

[2] See Steve Maas, “Exploring 160 Years of the Black-White Wealth Gap,” https://www.nber.org/digest/202208/exploring-160-years-black-white-wealth-gap.

[3] See the New Jersey Institute for Social Justice, “The Two New Jerseys by the Numbers: Racial Wealth Disparities in the Garden State,” https://njisj.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/Two_New_Jerseys_By_the_Numbers_Data_Brief_3.23.23-compressed.pdf.

Rev. W. T. Webbe, Influential Racist Priest at St. Philip’s, Newark (1773-83)

The original building, St. Philip's Episcopal Church, Newark, 
by Kyra N. Pruszinski (used with permission)

The Rev. William T. Webbe was one of the longest serving White rectors of St. Philip’s Church, Newark, the first Black Episcopal Church in New Jersey, which he served from 1873 to 1883.[1] However, he is better known for his editorial work in church publishing. For several years he served as the chief editor of The Standard, an Episcopal Church-oriented periodical first published in 1879 and printed in New York, which according to its own advertising was “designed to furnish information on topics of interest connected with the Church of GOD” and “open to the discussion of such subjects as are calculated to increase the efficiency and to promote the well-being and growth of the Church, with a respectful tolerance of opinions on religious subjects, which are allowed in this Church.”[2] Though it was still in print in 1885,[3] it seems unlikely that it ran much longer than that, though precise records are elusive. It is also exceedingly difficult to find archival material from the periodical, but in spite of its brief run and lack of historical footprint it appears to have made a very significant impression on the community of Black Episcopalians. 

            In his seminal treatment of the History of the Afro-American Group of the Episcopal Church from 1922,[4] the Rev. Dr. George F. Bragg describes Webbe’s influence at the paper. He writes: 

There was a certain sentiment maturing in the North as well as in the South against the ordination of Negroes to the ministry. In the North there was a certain priest by name Rev. W. T. Webbe, who in his paper The Standard, argued earnestly and vigorously against the ordination of Negroes. In the South, there were not a few who maintained that such should not be permitted to go further than the diaconate. Out of this atmosphere a kind of sentiment gradually obtained in favor of the “dependent state,” attaching colored congregations to white parishes, or placing them entirely under the supervision and direction of the Bishop without the status of parishes.[5]

The publication of The Standard began near then end of Webbe’s tenure as the rector of St. Philip’s but continued afterward, including the period during which the church was served by its first Black rectors, starting with the Rev. Joshua B. Massiah, Webbe’s immediate successor.

From Bragg’s description of Webbe’s work at The Standard we can tell several things. Firstly, it is clear that Webbe presided over the congregation at St. Philip’s, Newark while holding racist views of Black people. Secondly, it appears that, in Bragg’s estimation, he was an influential voice in the Episcopal Church, and especially in the North, regarding the ordination of Black priests, and the organization and oversight of Black congregations. Thirdly, this influence helped produce an overall approach on the part of White Episcopal authorities throughout the Church that kept both ordained Black Episcopalians and Black congregations in contrived subordinate, dependent states. Bragg went on to state that “thus… it has long since become a normal habit” that “most of our colored clergy, through long years of submission and dependence, almost unconsciously, are nailed down to such a system.”

 

Jolyon G. R. Pruszinski, Ph.D.

Reparations Commission Research Historian

Episcopal Diocese of New Jersey

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[1] See “St. Philip’s Episcopal Church” at http://newarkreligion.com/episcopal/stphilips.php. St. Philip's was part of the Diocese of New Jersey until 1874 when it became part of the Diocese of Newark.

[2] William G. Farrington, The Church Almanac for the Year of Our Lord 1881 (New York: Pott, Young & Co., 1880), 132.

[3] See listings in William G. Farrington, The Church Almanac for the Year of Our Lord 1885 (New York: Pott & Co., 1884), 97.

[4] George F. Bragg, History of the Afro-American Group of the Episcopal Church (Baltimore: Church Advocate Press, 1922).

[5] Bragg, History of the Afro-American Group of the Episcopal Church, 247.