Response to Racism Team

Dear St. Andrew's family, 

I know not everyone sees the videos Anne, others, and I are doing, so I'd like to make you aware of a new group forming at St. Andrew's that I mentioned in a recent video.  It is the Response to Racism Team.  A group of those who expressed interest met on Zoom for the first time in early July just to get a sense of where folks are in their perspectives on racial matters and how we, not just as a small group, but as a community of faith might respond.  Probably the most salient point taken from that meeting is knowing that we will have to intentionally challenge our comfort zones in order to understand 1. our own (even if unwitting) participation in the dehumanizing systemic racial structures that disproportionally benefit people who look like me while equally disproportionally disenfranchising those whose appearance differs from what is reflected back when I look in a mirror, and 2. how to move forward in dismantling those structures so that "respect[ing] the dignity of every human being" and "striv[ing] for justice and peace" are not just words (of our Baptismal Covenant) printed on a page in a book, but deeply inform how we actually live our faith.

Our next Zoom meeting is scheduled for July 16 at 7:30 pm when we will welcome Sara Wilson, a fairly new member at St. Andrew's, who states: "As the Chief of Integrated Community Services for Air Combat Command, in addition to overseeing resilience, violence prevention, and equal opportunity, I am also an advocate for diversity and inclusion.  My team and I have been the point of contact for what ACC is calling 'courageous conversations' about race/race relations."  Look for a link to this meeting in upcoming announcements and please, please make every effort to become involved in the holy work of reconciling all people, one to another and to our gracious God.

Marc+