Dear friends,
For the month of June, our worship theme was “A Spirit of Courage.” We celebrated the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, and we reflected on the courage it takes to live faithfully in our complicated world—courage to fight for racial justice, courage to raise loving, compassionate children, courage to claim and celebrate the whole of who we are.
As part of our courage theme, we reflected on the Anti-Racism commitments we made as a congregation in April 2021. The following Sunday, Juneteenth, we invited congregation members to reflect on commitments we will make for our individual lives. We collected those as “An Offering of Commitments” and dedicated them in worship.
The list of commitments remind me that there are many layers to working for racial justice. Some of the commitments reflect the importance of education:
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- I commit to attending the Southern New England Conference’s Justice Summit.
- I commit to working with the Just Peace Players and SNEUCC to offer anti-racism resources to faith communities.
- I commit to watching a Juneteenth documentary.
- I commit to reading the Anti-Racism Daily emails to learn about issues and how to impact related policies. Although offered for free, I will donate something to the work done by people of color to educate me.
- I commit to joining a group that discusses racism and how to make equity more of a reality.
Other commitments had to do with personal relationships and building community:
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- I commit to treating every person as I would like to be treated.
- I commit to spreading kindness and love and understanding even when it is difficult to do so.
- I commit to listening, asking questions, listening again, showing up (saying yes)
- I commit to being an active and contributing member of the Edwards Church community through my active participation, contribution, attendance and giving back all that has been freely given over the past 26 years.
Some involved how we use our resources (especially our money) to promote equity:
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- I commit to trying new restaurants owned by people of color and getting takeout from them regularly.
- I commit to being more diligent in seeking out and frequenting black owned businesses.
- I commit to researching active indigenous groups in any place I vacation and making a financial contribution to them.
Still others focused on ways to advocate for policies, change systems and cultures:
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- I commit to finding a leader of color working on an issue that’s important to me and following their lead for ways to help. (Winona LaDuke for environmental justice, for example).
- I commit to participating in diversity and inclusion activities in my workplace.
- I commit to raising allies.
What a powerful list of commitments. What a rich, multi-layered community, where each of us is inspired and challenged to do what we can. I hope you will trust that the commitments you make matter. I hope you will be inspired and challenged by the commitments others have made to add another “layer” to your own efforts.
Peace, Debbie