Racial Justice: doing the work.

Becoming the Beloved Community.
Resources for conversation with one another and God.

Prayer for Racial Healing is the video of an evening of prayer for Saint Cecilia's RC Church in Boston, webcast live on June 3rd.  In the context of prayer and song, the pastor and two African-American women who are parish leaders talk about the present moment and the need for racial justice and reconciliation. (The video begins with a silent slide show of images from the history of race relations among us).    I invite you to look and listen, together with your loved ones, then consider the questions found below.  There will be opportunity for us to gather online and discuss together.

1. This service used a text from the Letter to the Hebrews.  Are there texts of Scripture or things you have been taught to believe as a Christian that speak to you at this moment in our history?
2. What might it mean for us to rise up and do something each day for the sake of moving toward the end of racism in individuals and in structures?
3. What might we, at Saint Matthew's Parish, have to offer our area here around Worcester in the conversation and action following the killing of George Floyd and all that has gone before in our history?

Think about this.

“We see race as what people of color have (or are.) If people of color are not present, race is not present. Further, if people of color are not present, not only is race absent, so is that terrible thing: racism. Ironically, this positions racism as something people of color have and bring to whites, rather than a system which whites control and impose on people of color.”
― Robin DiAngelo, What Does It Mean to Be White?: Developing White Racial Literacy

Parish Book Read

Stay tuned for the announcement of a book read parish-wide on the subject of race and racism.