"White Flight" Missiology and Its Result: Racially Segregated Ecclesiology in the Episcopal Diocese of New Jersey

A mid-twentieth century burst of church planting missionary activity in the Diocese of New Jersey aimed at catering to the massive suburban growth in the state. During his period of “white flight,” white families fled urban areas and settled in racially restricted suburban developments in order to avoid proximity to Black neighbors. The Diocese of New Jersey fully cooperated with this pattern of development, funding and building new churches in suburban areas with racially restrictive covenants. The result today is a functionally segregated diocese, with most Black churches located in areas of systemic neglect, and most White churches located in areas that have been comparatively prosperous and fully supported with infrastructure and services. Long diocesan cooperation with the prevailing systemic racism that produced the current, functionally segregated state of New Jersey, has produced ecclesiological segregation and perennial underfunded Black churches and ministries.