Dear Members and Friends,
I awoke at 3am this morning, turning over words to write to you. I was conflicted about what to include in my newsletter article yesterday— a note very centered on our worship and togetherness as a faith community, or a note that addressed the tsunami of social justice issues in this moment. Both are of utmost importance, and cannot wait until a Sunday sermon.
We are living in dangerous times. It is a particularly dangerous time to have a Black or Brown body in the United States. We have not, as a whole society, dealt with the systemic racism that is in the many levels of our society and psyches. Generations of people of color have grown up having to teach and learn particular precautions with a hope of always “coming home safe”.
(
Do watch this video by the SALT Projec
t.
)
For many of us with white skin, we can hardly wrap our minds about what it would be like to live daily with such chronic threat simply based on our skin color. The toll of lives lost, trauma inflicted, violence perpetrated on Black and Brown bodies is too much for one to take-in, or chronicle on one page.
The pressures of pandemic and extreme social distancing have us all on edge. That these atrocities are continuing in the midst of desperate times is both unsurprising and deeply disturbing. These weeks and months have been for many of us a reminder that we all are but human— vulnerable, at risk, dependent on one another, and needy, and that we do not all have equal access to health care resources. Even in the midst of recent days of protest, demonstration and vigil, episodes of racial violence persist; several college students were attacked over the weekend.
Peaceful protests have given way to rioting, looting, invitation for counter-groups to come in and incite even more dangerous acts. We are living in dangerous times.
Many of you have received already an invitation to a demonstration this coming Friday night in town. Melissa Lawlor (Director of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion at Brewster Academy) and I collaborated to imagine what a peaceful demonstration in our town might look like. Here are the details and plans for Friday night. From Melissa:
“
This Friday, June 5th at 5pm
, I encourage you to join me on the Main Street sidewalk. Please wear black, the color of mourning, along with masks to keep everyone safe.
We will practice social distancing by standing 6ft apart from the person next to you. We will stretch the line down the sidewalk toward downtown starting at Brewster Academy.
Participants will create their own signs on poster-board, each bearing a Black person's name who has died violently at the hands of white people, with a hashtag underneath:
#nojusticenopeace
or
#blacklivesmatter.
I have created a
google doc of names
so you can write your name and contact info next to the sign you are making, but feel free to add names if I have missed any. I'm sure I have. Also, please feel free to duplicate ones that have been claimed if you feel strongly attached to one name over others.
We will stand peacefully (and socially distanced!!) on the sidewalk on
Friday from 5:00-5:30pm,
where hopefully the traffic coming into Wolfeboro will see us. At 5:30 we will process to DeWolfe/Memorial Field to stand 6ft apart in lines across the field. We will tilt the signs skyward at 5:30 so a drone can fly over and we can capture all the names and honor them, and we can keep the demonstration going on social media.”
As your pastor, I want to say a few more things:
-The list of names
that Melissa has put together
is
not
exhaustive.
She is quick to say that. There are too many names on that list, and they are hardly ALL the people who have suffered violently. But their names are important, as they humanize and personalize the sins of this violence. Remembering that real people, with very real families and friends have suffered and died is a step towards our mutual healing. Every life lost is one too many. Every person harmed needs to be remembered. We should assume we will
never know all of them.
-We are still in the midst of a pandemic.
Our mutual health and well-being has been deeply politicized over the last weeks and months. So much so, that educated, rational people are questioning whether COVID19 is a hoax perpetrated by a liberal left wing agenda. Face-coverings, masks, social distancing, and being outdoors makes it safer for us to gather.
Safer isn’t safe
(to borrow a line from our governor).
Please think carefully and individually about your decision to attend. No one of us should judge another for deciding to attend, or not attend. We must individually assess our health and well-being risks, and make a decision that is best for us, for our own family, and for common good. There are many ways to join in the moment of this movement, and they do not all include having to physically show up on Friday.
In the midst of a pandemic, I cannot conscionably exhort you to attend this event which normally we might have, as a church, planned, sponsored, and publicized. These are not normal times. Yet I know that for some, the feeling of necessity in speaking out will win. If that is the case for you, I encourage you to consider the precautions below.
-The work of justice is slow.
It is long. It will take all of us. It cannot start at 5pm on Friday, or finish when you plant your poster-board in your front lawn, or post the pictures on social media. Peaceful demonstrations are a civil right, protected in the first amendment of the constitution as your right to free-speech.
The work of social justice, that we as people of faith understand as the Social Gospel is deeper, more soul-searching, and more exhausting. It is part of the “cost of discipleship” in following a radical Messiah, Jesus the Christ, who taught us to believe in the dignity and worth of all people.
-Let me offer you
some additional resources
and suggestions for advancing your investment in these justice-seeking issues. Perhaps, you will decide to dive into one or more of these things in lieu of attending Friday, or after you come home. Perhaps, you will share them with friends and family urging them to join you in this passion and work.
We all have spheres of influence—classrooms where we teach, social circles where we have clout, dinner tables where conversations are broached, children and grandchildren who look to us for wisdom, a vote to cast for a ballot. I urge you to prayerfully consider where your energy and heart are best spent to make the most difference. Here are some places to begin/continue the work:
My sermon on Sunday will, of course, continue this reflection, and the email that announces the worship link will have several other resources in it.
However you decide to stand up, speak out, and find your voice in these days— do it with love. Do it with care. Do it with intention.
We are living in dangerous times….
But perhaps, we have been born for "just such a time as this.” (Esther 4: 14)
In the Peace of Christ,
Pastor Gina
