Last Sunday, during the service, the Community and Care Board’s “Love-in-Action” video was played. We explained how as a Board, we decided to take some of our monthly meeting time to review and discuss each characteristic of the White Supremacy Culture document. It took us a year to complete. This is a little background on how it all started.
In early 2020, the Board recognized that because of the pandemic people were isolated and disconnected. We decided to make calls to everyone in the congregation. As we were sharing how the calls were going, there was a report of a call that included derogatory & racist comments to one of our members. We were hurt, outraged, and disappointed. How could this happen and what could we do about it? We pulled together in support of one another throughout our engagement in such difficult conversations. One of our members wrote an article for the Herald about how this incident affected her. We reached out to our clergy for additional support and direction, which resulted in the White Supremacy Culture document being provided as a tool we could use.
It has been a powerful tool to review, learn and discuss among a small group of trusted folks. We encourage all groups within Plymouth to do the same. We hope this will break open new understandings for yourselves and each other as we all commit to dismantling racism.