WEEK 6: Race and Religion July 5, 2020

We are inspired by how Louise Minks has used beauty and education to fight the ignorance that breeds racism and how Jennifer Hines has written so eloquently of her own experiences as a highly successful black woman who sees racism in her day to day experiences.  Adwoa and Kodwo are leading community efforts to call for justice and equality while Wesley Parents are organizing difficult conversations about racism with our children. We are humbled and motivated by these examples. 

Some good news!  We got all the approvals we needed to post Black Lives Matter signs on Wesley property. Rich and I purchased 10 signs (bulk discount) and we will have two at the Church, we have one, the Harveys and Beth and Bee each have one. The rest will go to any Church member who asks. 

Listening to the conversation last week, we believe we have identified four areas for action (and will leave one as yet not described) 
  1. Creation of a History night in early Fall to collect our Wesley heritage of fighting Racism - not to boast of our accomplishments but to remind us of our obligations to continue the fight.
  2. Organizing a speaker series, in collaboration with community groups - with both a worship service and public lecture component.
  3. A political action group to strategize about some of the racist actions local school boards have undertaken (particularly we hear about Leverett from Allison).
  4. An Art project - I would love to have our church create an installation in which the names of each African American who has been killed in police custody is inscribed on some object (feather, colored bead, ball of crepe paper, swatch of fabric) which can then be assembled into a symbolic whole.
  5. Something Else?
This Sunday, after we gather at 7 PM to share our thoughts and prayers for this Celebration of Independence Week, we will breakout into groups.  We will ask each attendee to pick one of these groups and to help plot, plan, mobilize, organize and strategize (Killer Mike‘s invocation) and actualize these Actions for Wesley Church.

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