Welcome to the October edition of the Becoming Beloved Community (BBC) newsletter.
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The true measure of our character is how we treat the poor, the disfavored, the accused, the incarcerated and the condemned. ― Brian Stevenson, author of Just Mercy and Founder, Equal Justice Initiative
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What is Becoming Beloved Community at Holy Comforter?
As we reel from the effects of multiple viruses—systemic racism, COVID 19, and environmental devastation—we look to our Church and its understanding of Jesus’ call to us. At Holy Comforter, we seek to build and become a Beloved Community, respecting all people as “made in the image of God.” In alignment with the National Episcopal Church, Holy Comforter’s Becoming Beloved Community ministry is our multi-generational commitment and journey to growing a community of reconcilers, justice makers, and healers. Questions about Becoming Beloved Community? Contact us at: BBC@holycomforter.com.
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BBC Calendar:
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Oct. 10: Sacred Ground Session #3 - 7–8:30 p.m.; Zoom
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Oct. 14: Blood Drive - 10–4 p.m.; Ministry Center
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Oct 17: Book and Movie Club - 7 p.m.; Zoom
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Oct. 24: Sacred Ground Session #4 - 7–8:30 p.m.; Zoom
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Would YOU stand up?
Watch this powerful 47-second YouTube video with anti-racism educator, Jane Elliot.
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DONORS NEEDED!
Upcoming Blood Drive
Friday, October 14; Ministry Center
Appointments Available 10 a..m.–4 p.m. Register to donate blood HERE or by using the Red Cross Blood Donor App. Would you like to welcome donors? Volunteer HERE!
MARK YOUR CALENDAR
Future Blood Drives
- December 12, 2022
- March 30, 2023
- June 7, 2023
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Book and Movie Club
Brown: The Last Discovery of America,
by Richard Rodriquez
Monday, October 17; 7 p.m. on Zoom
Sponsored by Becoming Beloved Community
The author contemplates the many cultural associations of the color brown—toil, decay, impurity, and time—as he considers the meaning of Hispanics in American society. Please read the book in advance and join the discussion HERE.
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The Equal Justice Initiative (EJI) challenges poverty and racial injustice, advocates for equal treatment in the criminal justice system, and creates hope for marginalized communities.
Founded by Brian Stevenson (author of Just Mercy) in 1989, EJI is a private 501(c)(3) non-profit organization located in Birmingham, Alabama. EJI provides legal representation to people who have been illegally convicted, unfairly sentenced, or abused in state jails and prisons. They challenge the death penalty and excessive punishment and provide re-entry assistance for formerly incarcerated people. EJI works with communities marginalized by poverty and discouraged by unequal treatment and is committed to changing the narrative about race in America.
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Check out the BBC Book Collection in the CHC Library
and the new BBC Book Cart in the Narthex!
Including these and other titles for children, youth/young adult, fiction, non-fiction:
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Heather McGhee’s specialty is the American economy and the mystery of why it so often fails the American public. From the financial crisis of 2008 to rising student debt to collapsing public infrastructure, she found a root problem: racism in our politics and policymaking. But not just in the most obvious indignities for people of color. Racism has costs for white people, too. It is the common denominator of our most vexing public problems, the core dysfunction of our democracy and constitutive of the spiritual and moral crises that grip us all.
McGhee embarks on a journey across the country from Maine to Mississippi to California, tallying what we lose when we buy into the zero-sum paradigm—the idea that progress for some of us must come at the expense of others. But in unlikely places of worship and work, McGhee finds proof of what she calls the Solidarity Dividend: the benefits we gain when people come together across race to accomplish what we simply can’t do on our own. The Sum of Us is not only a brilliant analysis of how we arrived here but also a heartfelt message, delivered with startling empathy, from a black woman to a multiracial America. It leaves us with a new vision for a future in which we finally realize that life can be more than a zero-sum game.
New York Times Bestseller; National Book Award Longlist; Winner of Porchlight Business Book Award; One of the Best Books of the Year: Time, The Washington Post, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Ms. Magazine, BookRiot, Library Journal
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In this Caldecott Honor and Coretta Scott King Award winning book, the author offers a reverent tribute to Harriet Tubman, the woman who earned the name Moses for her heroic role in the Underground Railroad.
I set the North Star in the heavens, and I mean for you to be free…
Born into slavery, Harriet Tubman hears these words from God one summer night and decides to leave her husband and family behind and escape. Taking with her only her faith, she must creep through woods with hounds at her feet, sleep for days in a potato hole, and trust people who could have easily turned her in. But she was never alone.
She hears the voice of God guiding her north to freedom on that very first trip to escape the brutal practice of forced servitude. Tubman would make nineteen subsequent trips back south, never being caught, but none as profound as the first one. Courageous, compassionate, and deeply religious, Harriet Tubman, with her bravery and relentless pursuit of freedom, is a testament to the resilience of the human spirit.
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