A Pastoral Word To And A Plan Action For The Capital Area Region
Rev. Allen V. Harris, Regional Minister
June 7, 2020
Awake! Why are you asleep, O God?
Arise! Cast us not off forever!
Why do you hide your face,
forgetting our woe and our oppression?
For our souls are bowed down to the dust,
our bodies are pressed to the earth. (Psalm 44:24-26)1
My beloved Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) Capital Area Region,
Greetings in the name and by the grace of Jesus Christ. I come to you today to offer what I pray is a faithful word to you in light of the recent, and yet all-too-familiar, events in the life of our nation and our world.
I begin with a word of apology for how long it has taken for me to speak out. There is no good excuse for my delay in responding to injustice in our world. I offer this apology especially to our African American clergy, lay leaders, congregants, and friends as the last few weeks have been particularly traumatic for you and I deeply regret that you have not heard from your Regional Pastor to provide you with the support, advocacy, and guidance that you need and deserve from this office. I hope to offer some of this today. You will be the judge if it is enough.
A very real part of the delay of my remarks is in direct response to listening to People of Color who have heard and read so many statements of outrage and prayers of support but witnessed far too little action. I wanted to be able to offer some tangible and what I pray are effective actions and proposals to address the issues at hand within our Regional Church. I will share those in a moment, but first, let me offer my pastoral word to the church for this moment in our history.
In the past few weeks we have beheld on television, laptop, tablet, and smartphone screen an all-too-familiar scenario: the killing of black people in the name of law and order. Ahmed Arbery in Brunswick, Georgia; Breonna Taylor in Louisville, Kentucky; Dreasjon Reed in Indianapolis, Indiana; and George Floyd in Minneapolis, Minnesota. There are some who would like us to view each of these as a separate death, with distinctive circumstances, completely unrelated to the others. While we certainly should honor each individual killed, know and say their names as the unique children of God they were, it would be horribly unjust to not step back and observe the larger picture, which is a verifiable and painful pattern of the deaths of black and brown people at the hands of law enforcement officers and citizens acting in the name of the law. It isn’t simply a requirement of our Pro-Reconciliation/Anti-Racism training in the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) to take this more comprehensive assessment, it is a fundamental requirement of critical thinking and a cornerstone of any educated individual. There is an undeniable pattern and tragic repetition of the killing of darker skinned people by police and vigilantes in the United States that simply is not true for those who are white like me.
In the months just prior to my arrival as your Regional Minister in 2015 you all gathered with our then General Minister & President, the Rev. Sharon Watkins, to not only mourn the death of Freddie Gray in the back of a police van in Baltimore City, but to lament that even then he was one more African American in a long, long list of Latinx and African American individuals who were killed before they could have a free and fair trial. For the love of God, it was 20 years ago that I was arrested, along with hundreds of other people, in front of the New York City Police Department headquarters protesting the shooting of Amadou Diallo, a 23-year old Guinean immigrant. The police officers fired a combined total of 41 shots, 19 of which struck Diallo’s body while he stood on the stoop outside his own apartment. He committed no crime. He was taking a cell phone out of his pocket. He may not have even known the police were there.
And lest we only go back twenty years, this deep and troubling pattern goes back through the history of the United States and we must intentionally and thoughtfully connect these deaths with the targeting of mostly Black and Hispanic inner city neighborhoods in the so-called “War on Drugs” and “Urban Renewal” in the 1970’s and ‘80’s, with the civil rights movement in the 1950’s and ‘60’s in which activists and citizens alike were callously murdered, with the Jim Crow era with its “strange fruit” spectacles of lynching in the first part of the 20th century, with the wretched inexcusable history of torture, murder, and enslavement of human beings that this country was founded upon. If you don’t think these historical events are interconnected, I urge you to read The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America's Great Migration by Isabel Wilkerson and then immediately read The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness by Michelle Alexander. I did, and the pattern is crystal clear.
To lift up George Floyd as a singular disconnected death is to engage in intellectual fraud and intentional racism. There is a sickening pattern and we must not only acknowledge it but the crisis must be addressed conclusively.
In response to these killings, and the shameful history of the murder of Black and Brown people by those in authority, every facet of our society must be put on notice that things must change before any healing will happen or peace will come. The protests, the violence, and the looting, are a direct result of this nation not taking seriously the gravity and cumulative effect of this situation. I am not going to take a stand against the violence because I have not adequately done my own work to address the root causes of it. And any one of us who stands in judgement of what is happening needs to step back and first assess if we have done the difficult, gut-wrenching, faith-filled, life-changing work of loving our neighbor as we have first loved ourselves. Have you? I haven’t, and I have been committed to our denomination’s Pro-Reconciliation/Anti-Racism commitment for over two decades and have been seeking to be a good person without prejudice my entire life! That is not enough. A complete transformation is required.
So one of the most important lessons about social justice and spiritual transformation that I have learned over my lifetime is that we must begin with ourselves and our own sphere of influence.
As an individual:
• I am recommitting myself to a life of self-examination, personal growth, and demonstrable public action as I work to eradicate racism in my life and in the world in which I live and to expunge white supremacists’ tendencies within my thoughts, words, and actions. I will do this by:
Reading, listening to, and watching the words and work of People of Color more than I do that of white/European-American people. I listen weekly to the podcast Pod Save The People which challenges me to my core2. I have just begun How To Be An Antiracist3 by Ibram X. Kendi and I have a list of books, podcasts, movies, and online trainings that I will be working through in the coming days.
I am now following – and have set smart phone notifications for – social media accounts for organizations for and led by People of Color, including Black Lives Matter, Black Lives Matter DC, Black Lives Matter Cleveland, the NAACP, the DC Chapter of the NAACP, and the Cleveland Chapter of the NAACP, just to name a few.
I have and am seeking additional accountability partners who are Persons of Color who I will ask and allow to challenge me when my words and actions are not consistent with who I seek to be, who I proclaim to be, and what the world needs me to be.
• I will continue to protest the deaths of unarmed People of Color, as I did on May 30 in downtown Cleveland, Ohio. But not only will I participate, I will make sure that I am attending events organized and led by People of Color and that my voice and body is never in the way of those directly affected by the injustices we are protesting.
But I am willing to taking my protests one step further: I pledge to invite others to attend, particularly other white people, and even more particularly other white people who would not usually or who have never protested.
• I will give my money to congregations and organizations that work for peace and justice for People of Color.
I promise by the end of this summer to have given to every one of the organizations in the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) that represent and work directly on behalf of People of Color: including Reconciliation Ministry, the National Convocation, Obra Hispana, the North American/Pacific Asian Disciples, and Yakima Christian Mission for our indigenous/First Nations members.
• I am also committing myself here to seek to have more table fellowship with my Black and Brown friends and colleagues when it is safe to do so following the COVID-19 pandemic, including in my own home. The power of a meal together can never be underestimated.
But it is not enough to seek transformation and to act as an individual. I am patently aware that I am your Regional Minister and I have a profound responsibility to use the power of my office for the good of the Church and for justice for all God’s people. Therefore, I have committed myself to the following actions and ask our African American and Black, Hispanic/Latinx and Brown, Asian American and Pacific Islander, indigenous First Nations, and immigrant Disciples of Christ to hold me accountable to the following.
With The Region:
We have just held a Disciples of Christ Pro-Reconciliation/Anti-Racism Training and over 35 people, lay and clergy, participated. I am committed to setting the course for this training to happen on a more regular basis. To fulfill this commitment two steps have been taken:
The Commission For Ministry has during my tenure with you voted, and the Regional Board has affirmed, that our Region now requires Pro-Reconciliation/Anti-Racism Training every 3-5 years for all clergy to maintain their standing.
We have asked that Reconciliation Ministries include us in the next Train-the-Trainers event so that we have individuals in our Region who can lead this training on a more regular basis. We have the names of five people to submit, and if you have taken the Disciples training before, and believe God is calling you to be a PR/AR Trainer, please let me know as soon as possible.
The Region’s Pro-Reconciliation/Anti-Racism Team had become non-operational before I arrived and I have had a commitment to reengage this Team ever since arriving but have failed to do so. It is an indictment upon my ministry with you that I have not done this before now, but I have now requested from the Region’s Commission For Congregational Life that we renew and recommission the Region’s Pro-Reconciliation/Anti-Racism Team by the Regional Board Meeting next Saturday, June 13.
We have a list of persons from our Training who have committed themselves to being on this team, but we need more, especially more People of Color, women, lay people, and individuals under 40. If you or someone you know might have the gifts and graces and time for this Team, please let me know this week.
I will request that once the Team is in place and properly trained, that one of the first tasks they attend to is to do an audit of the Region’s governing documents and policies and procedures, as has been done by the Office of General Minister & President and other Regions, to insure our fundamental structure is anti-racist and free of unintended white supremacy.
We are in a period of seeking nominations for the Regional Board and, as any organization knows, the nominating process is an essential place for an organization’s health and well-being. The Nominating Committee, under the leadership of Kevin Wiggs, is racially diverse, but they need the nominations of good, quality, faithful individuals for all the positions of our Regional Board, especially People of Color. There is a nomination/self-nomination form on the Region’s website at www.cccadisciples.org under the “Tools” tab. Please be in prayer and if you or someone you know is right for the Regional Board, please fill out that form.
The Regional Board has also named the Call Committee for the next Interim Regional Minister as well as the next settled Regional Minister. It is a requirement for all Regional Minister Search Committee’s to undergo Pro-Reconciliation/Anti-Racism training and I will make sure this committee is no different. I will also propose to the Regional Board at our meeting next Saturday, working with the Rev. April Johnson, Minister of Reconciliation for the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), that the Regional Board also go through a full Pro-Reconciliation/Anti-Racism and Cultural Competency training so that they can be fully prepared to work with the new Interim and settled Regional Ministers.
I pride myself on working diligently to ensure the staffing of our Region, although limited, is still richly diverse and that as Head of Staff that I treat all of our staff with the dignity, respect, and trust they deserve. I pray to God I have done so. I will continue to make sure the hiring practices of this Region are unbiased and fair and will ask the Regional Board to consider adopting as many aspects of the Disciples of Christ Executive Search Process that are applicable to Regional staff positions into our Personnel Manual.
In just two weeks the Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call For Moral Revival will take place virtually. It was to be physically held in our Region and we were going to provide hospitality for it. I will personally participate in it but I call upon all of our Region’s members and friends to sign up for and participate in the June 20th Mass Poor People’s Assembly & Moral March On Washington. Please sign up at: www.poorpeoplescampaign.org/june2020. I would like to be able to say that the Christian Church Capital Area has the largest number of participants in the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)!
Finally, being a Christian Educator at heart, I would like to invite the Region to join me in reading How To Be An Antiracist by Ibram X. Kendi. I will give folks some time to secure a copy of the book, and then will begin a biweekly Zoom book study. If you are interested in joining me for this, please e-mail me at mail@cccadisciples.org
In conclusion, let me say I do not even begin to pretend that these words and these actions will definitively address the systemic racism and rampant white supremacy that is in my own life, our country, or even this Region. What I do hope is that what I have outlined here illustrates to those who are most affected by the trauma and pain caused by recent, and historic, events which have unearthed systemic racism in a new way, that they might be reassured that I and we understand in a way like never before that this moment in history is different and that things must and will change.
I will do what I can to make a difference.
May we soon pray with the psalmist:
“Oh, that we might see better times!”
O God, let the light of your countenance shine upon us!
You put gladness into my heart,
more than when grain and wine abound.
As soon as I lie down, I fall peacefully asleep,
for you alone, O God,
bring security to my dwelling.
(Psalm 4:7-9)
May it be so. God be with us all.
1 For a contemporary Psalm for our day, please read Lamentations 5 For 2020 by Soong-Chan Rah online at: https://sojo.net/articles/lamentations-5-2020
2 Find this podcast at: https://crooked.com/podcast-series/pod-save-the-people/
3 To learn more about this book, go online: https://www.ibramxkendi.com/how-to-be-an-antiracist-1
4 For a good list of books to read and movies to watch and podcasts to listen to, go online to: https://www.npr.org/…/this-list-of-books-films-and-podcasts…
5 Find out more about the June 20th Mass Poor People’s Assembly & Moral March On Washington online at: https://www.poorpeoplescampaign.org/june2020/
