Newport Beach church members test their DNA as part of ‘Race Project’ – OCRegister

The Rev. Canon Cindy Voorhees, left, leads a St. James the Great Episcopal Church service inside a community room at the Newport Beach City Hall on Sunday morning, June 4, 2017. (Photo by Drew A. Kelley, Contributing Photographer)

The Rev. Canon Cindy Voorhees leads a St. James the Great Episcopal Church service inside a community room at the Newport Beach City Hall on Sunday morning, June 4, 2017. (Photo by Drew A. Kelley, Contributing Photographer)

Lissa Schairer, right, asks a question during a Q and A regarding DNA testing to determine racial background at the Newport Beach City Hall on Sunday morning, June 4, 2017. (Photo by Drew A. Kelley, Contributing Photographer)

Genealogist Colleen Greene answers questions regarding DNA testing to determine racial background at the Newport Beach City Hall on Sunday morning, June 4, 2017. (Photo by Drew A. Kelley, Contributing Photographer)

The Rev. Canon Cindy Voorhees greets parishioners at the end of church service at the Newport Beach City Hall on Sunday morning, June 4, 2017. (Photo by Drew A. Kelley, Contributing Photographer)

Genealogist Colleen Greene answers questions regarding DNA testing to determine racial background at the Newport Beach City Hall on Sunday morning, June 4, 2017. (Photo by Drew A. Kelley, Contributing Photographer)

Genealogist Colleen Greene speaks about DNA testing to determine racial background at the Newport Beach City Hall on Sunday morning, June 4, 2017. (Photo by Drew A. Kelley, Contributing Photographer)

Genealogist Colleen Greene speaks about DNA testing to determine racial background at the Newport Beach City Hall on Sunday morning, June 4, 2017. (Photo by Drew A. Kelley, Contributing Photographer)

Lissa Schairer says shed rather be white in America because its easier.

The Newport Beach residents sister, who lives in Maryland, adopted two children from Haiti. Schairer says her black niece, a teenager, was recently detained by a police officer on a sidewalk as she was waiting for her mother to pick her up from a mall outing with friends.

The officer let her go only after my sister, who is white, came and vouched for my niece, she said. White privilege is real and Ive seen it in my own family.

Schairer is one of the members of St. James the Great Episcopal Church an overwhelmingly Caucasian congregation in Newport Beach who participated in a Race Project spearheaded by the pastor, the Rev. Canon Cindy Voorhees.

It wasnt just about watching movies such as Moonlight, Fences or Im Not Your Negro.They wanted it to be more than that, Voorhees said.

So in May, several of them, including Schairer, took a trip to The National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, D.C. They also took DNA tests to learn more about their own race and ethnicity.

On a recent Sunday afternoon, a group of church members met with Colleen Greene, genealogist and academic librarian at Cal State Fullerton, who helped them make sense of their test results.

For the purpose of the project, church members took what is known as an autosomal DNA test, which tests DNA from the nucleus of the cell to trace all ancestral lines going back up to about 1,000 years, to provide a percentage breakdown of ethnicities and world regions from where ones ancestors might have come. The test also provides a list of other people who might share common ancestors within the past six generations.

Greene said the tests are pretty accurate.

The only area where they may not be as accurate is in determining the geographic region the ancestors may have come from because it doesnt take migration into account, she said.

Greene said she was intrigued by the church groups eagerness to take the DNA test.

This is something thats extremely rare for a church to do, she said.

Voorhees agreed its not commonly done. But, she said, her congregation wanted to venture into this uncharted territory to better understand how race and ethnicity help shape identities and sensibilities.

We asked ourselves how we could do something as a community, Voorhees said. How do we expose ourselves to what is going on around us in terms of racial tension?

The DNA test results didnt shock members, but there were a few surprises.

Schairers test showed she was mostly of European descent, but that some of her ancestors may have come from the Iberian Peninsula, which encompasses Spain and Portugal.

And she wasnt the only one who came away with unexpected information.

Megan Doherty of Irvine said she found out from her DNA test that she wasnt as Irish as she had thought. The test indicated she was mostly Ulster Irish, from the Ulster province north of Ireland.

Voorhees, herself, was a little surprised when she found out shewas more than 85 percent English and 8 percent Middle Eastern.

My family has always identified itself as German, she said. So, that was interesting.

Greene said it is common for most American families to identify with a certain ethnicity or country. But their DNA may tell a different story.

You inherit differentpieces of your DNA, she said. While you might know for a fact that one of your ancestors was English or German, you may have none of that in you.

David Stockmans test results showed DNA that was mostly European, but the Newport Beach resident said he has always empathized with African-Americans because he lived in Washington, D.C., grew up in Detroit and even lived through a race riot there.

Its heartbreaking that the issue of race is tearing our country apart, he said.

Voorhees said the churchs Race Project was in part a response to several fatal police shootings around the country and the killing of police officers in Dallas, which brought the issue of race relations to the fore.

Schairer said what the DNA test and the project taught her is that human beings have more in common than they realize.

Our genes are 99.5 percent the same the difference is only in that 0.5 percent, she said. I can see how interconnected we all are. So all these tensions and all this hatred it just doesnt make any sense.

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Newport Beach church members test their DNA as part of 'Race Project' - OCRegister