Dear Caldwell,
Today is the first day of our church-wide 21 Day Racial Equity Challenge. What a great opportunity for all of us to learn new things. Just so you know – your staff is doing the challenge along with you. Speaking of the staff – we created a brief video to share our excitement with you.
Here it is. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0sCtdb3Vi5U
Click here – Twenty One Day Racial Equity Challenge – to access the wide range of resources you are invited to engage with daily to further your understanding of racial power, privilege, and equity. Read. Watch. Listen. Act. Repeat.
As you learn, know that your Caldwell family is reading, watching, listening, acting, and learning right alongside you. In order for us to meet this challenge together even though we are apart, you are invited to drop in to any of the following sessions to share your experience of the challenge with others or just listen as they share theirs. Participation in the drop-ins is certainly not required to participate in the challenge, but we will be glad to see you if you want to come! The Zoom link for these gatherings was in the email that got you here. The link is the same for all of the drop-ins, so please save and flag that email.
The dates and times are as follows:
Sunday, September 13 – 7:00pm – 8:00pm
Wednesday, September 16 – 5:30pm – 6:30pm
Saturday, September 19 – 10:00am – 11:00am
Tuesday, September 22 – 12:00pm – 1:00pm
Thursday, September 24 – 5:30pm – 6:30pm
Sunday, September 27 – 2:00pm – 3:00pm
Wednesday, September 30 – 5:30pm – 6:30pm
Friends, as we watch and as we mourn repeated acts of injustice, violence, and inequity, let us take advantage of this opportunity to listen, to learn, to be challenged, and to challenge others to be antiracist in our thinking, in our speaking, and in our living. Let’s take advantage of these resources. Some require only three or four minutes of your time. Some will take an hour or more. There are podcasts, blog posts, articles, videos, and books on the list. There are more than 21 options to choose from – so you can peruse and choose what your spirit draws you to engage with.
You and I know that there are many who think that reading and learning are not enough. Those people are right. There is much more for us to do than only read and learn. My prayer is that these 21 days will offer us a time and a place to deepen our understanding, fortify our convictions, and prepare us to continue to do more than read and learn. My prayer is that these 21 days will serve as a springboard for us to dive into deeper waters, venturing far beyond our current location on this journey toward becoming an antiracist church.
May we be changed by this challenge – individually and as a congregation.
May God grant us the desire, wisdom, strength, resolve, and stamina to stay on this path and remain committed to this movement for justice, true justice for all, far beyond these 21 days.
May God guide our feet, our thoughts, our words, and our actions while we run this race.
Grace and peace, Gail
