Thoughts and Ideas
The week before Thanksgiving, I was in Birmingham, Alabama for the fall Council of Conference Ministers meeting. For this gathering, in addition to our regular business meeting, we decided to incorporate visits to historical sites of the Civil Rights movement as well as a few museums, which displayed the history of slavery, segregation and subjugation of African Americans in our country.
In many ways, I feel like I did not go on the trip alone as I thought so often of our Conference, our cultural realities, our communities, and our ministry settings. I wondered how we might collectively engage in developing programs, ministries and even honest conversations that address not only the sin of racism, but also how it is our tendency to want to ignore, avoid or deny the pain and trauma it afflicts on all God's beloved people.
I encourage you to read the article about the Council of Conference Ministers' Birmingham experience in this link. Then I invite you to be in prayerful discernment about how we might join in active ministry towards continued racial reconciliation right here in Southern Illinois.
If you have constructive, Christ-centered thoughts and ideas of how we might be a part of continuing to bring about wholeness and healing among the people of God, I would love to hear from you.
Blessings, Rev. Shana Johnson, Conference Minister