Since beginning at LUC four years ago, I have intentionally invited Black, Indigenous, People of Colour (BIPOC) preachers for Sunday supply. My preaching has touched on the need for an affirming church to be more than “welcoming” and I have preached and written about race or topics related to race.* Our Communications Team regularly discusses our use of language and the need to think about the images we use to represent Biblical character and humanity. Our congregation also organized an event a year ago on “The Language of Diversity.”
As a Commissioner to General Council 43 in 2018, I was present during a time when the Spirit took the meeting in an unexpected direction, and we listened to speaker after speaker name experiences of racism in the church. I came back and talked about racism at a meeting of our council and held viewing and discussion sessions with the congregation.** I was discouraged by the low interest, and found it difficult to figure out how to engage the congregation in conversation around racism from the different location I was on in my own journey of racial awareness. And so, I am sorry I allowed the challenges of staff transitions, the busyness of expanding family life, and other demands on my time and energy to distract me from doing more. Being married to a person of colour, and having mixed children, racism and discrimination is a topic always close to my thoughts. It took me a long time to recognize that I did not spend time reflecting on the difference between anti-Black racism and other forms of racism and discrimination. It was too easy to believe that incremental change – in selections of hymns or Canada Sunday readings and the occasional conversation, writing, or sermon, was enough for now. I was wrong. It wasn’t enough, personally or as a church.
It is not enough to talk about welcome and inclusion. It is not enough to be nice to anyone who walks through our (physical or virtual) doors. It is not enough to look at those of us who are Black or People of Colour and are valued and loved as part of our community and decide the work is done. We must engage in the work of being anti-racist. To do so is one of the most faithful things we can do right now.
Here is some of what we are going to do in the next few months:
· We will hold a summer book study on Robin DiAngelo’s book White Fragility, beginning July 9 and running to August 11.
· This Friday, June 26, and several other times of the summer, we will share more opportunities to listen to BIPOC talks – engaging in a process of listening and learning.
· Our social media accounts will continue to lift up Black voices that should be heard, especially sharing Black voices within the UCC.
· In worship planning, we will increase our focus on anti-racism work. Matt is engaged in conversations on an anti-racism approach in choosing hymns. I am registered for a continuing education event in August, which includes panels on Anti-Racism Work and Indigenous Justice.
· We will continue to share information on ways to educate ourselves on topics related to anti-Black racism including, for instance, defunding the police. We will continue to reflect on the ways this work is an intrinsic part of discipleship – being a people of faith. (If you haven’t read Lauren Hollister’s reflection from our mid-week reflection email Tuesday, June 16 I encourage you to read it.)
Those of us who are White have the privilege of having an ongoing choice to engage in conversation and action that matters or to turn away and turn back to our familiar lives – or can even pretend that this choice even exists. Right now we cannot ignore the choice before our country, our city, and our church, and we are invited to choose to be vulnerable, to get things wrong, acknowledge our mistakes, and then continue to learn more and try to do better. I am asking you to make this choice, both personally and collectively as a congregation and as a part of the larger United Church. Black Lives Matter.
Rev. Emily Gordon
* Written reflections on race and faith from October 2018 and February 2019. Sermons we have recorded include “You Are . . .” Feb. 9, 2020, “Freedom’s Song” Feb. 24, 2019 and “Reel Life: Black Panther” August 12, 2018 and you can find them here.
** Here is what I wrote at the time (see LINK).