Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
Over the last several weeks, the staff has been working on how to create a safe space within our congregation for dialogue around race and reconciliation. Today, we are excited to announce that beginning June 22, we will be launching a month-long, interactive journey we’re calling Learning Together. As we embark on this journey, we’ve identified three goals as our primary focus:
To learn how to talk about difficult topics with love and grace.
To share in dialogue specifically around racism, allowing the light of Christ to illuminate our blind spots.
To grow as disciples of Jesus Christ and be transformed.
What will Learning Together look like? Each week, we will focus on a specific topic related to race and reconciliation. Throughout the week, we will release carefully curated resources across our website and social media accounts that we invite you to read, watch, listen to, or discuss. Each week, we’ll also schedule time to allow participants the space to share what they’ve learned, observations they’ve made, or questions they still seek to answer. Together, we’ll learn and together, we’ll grow.
It is important to share that our purpose is not to make you think a certain way or even fully agree. To be clear, we are not experts but, rather, see ourselves as partners on a shared journey toward greater understanding. We trust the Holy Spirit to be at work in our church and in your life. As long as we listen to each other and seek to follow Jesus, we will end up where we need to be, even when we don’t fully agree. Understanding that difficult conversations are often made more difficult without clear ground rules, I’d like to share the “Guidelines for Presbyterians in Times of Disagreement,” a resource provided by the Presbyterian Church for moments like this one. (Click here for the link.)
Our hope is that we do this as Jesus would have us do this - to treat one another as Christ would want us to, listen to voices Christ would want us to attend to (particularly the voice of “the least of these”), and follow where he leads. This will be a challenging, sometimes uncomfortable journey but one we are called upon as Christians to take.
This Monday, June 22, we hope you’ll join us in our exploration by reading with us, sharing with us, listening with us, and learning together.
In Christ’s service,
RRPC Staff