Jun 8, 2020
A conversation with Erin Hawkins - General Secretary of The Commission on Religion and Race a Global Agency of The United Methodist Church. Ms. Hawkins during our conversation pertaining to membership stated, “We want people to believe, in order to belong. But what if we started creating places of belonging, in order to bring people to a place of believing?”
This past week on our three part
podcast series of Leading Through Uncharted Territories - Race,
Racism and the Church's Clarion Call to Action. We’ve had “Truth
Talk” and I am grateful for the feedback, the calls, text, email of
our African Americans siblings saying thank you, some of our Anglo
siblings saying we don’t know what to do, others saying I’m ready
to listen and hear the historical and present narratives, while
still others challenge the language of Black Lives Matter, and
inserting ALL lives
Matter, and yet others saying all lives matter
when Black Lives Matter - George Floyd
. Ahmaud
Arbery,
Breonna Taylor, Eric Garner, Mother Emmanuel
AME Church, Tamir Rice, and the list goes on and on. - The risk and
challenges of reconciling, repentance, cultural shifts, trust
issues, because of the historical atrocities of sin.
Where do we go from here? What does it mean to be the church? What does it mean to be a follower of Jesus Christ? Siblings, together we can discover in our diverse world, how we can pivot in our local churches and institutions, so that collaboratively, through the power of the Holy Spirit, we can impact our communities and the world into becoming just and equitable societies for ALL people.
Resources:
General Commission on Religion and Race
Deconstructing White Privilege
Continued Struggle in American Race Relations