Minute for Mission: Black History Month begins

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Samantha and her Nana (provided)

Western society has used two great tools to oppress Black people. One, the Bible, spewing oppressive theology to justify first the acts of enslavement, and still to safeguard harmful laws and practices that disproportionately impact Black people. Two, the erasure of Black stories, Black history and the stripping of Black culture. I will not spend the next 600 words declaring what I hope you already know; that we serve a JUST GOD.

So, instead, I will challenge us to take heed to these Scriptures, breathe them, live them, allow them to guide you whenever you have doubt. Consider this piece my attempt to model one small way we can combat systemic racism this Black History Month through telling, celebrating, and honoring Black stories, Black history and Black culture.

My Nana painted the walls of her two-bedroom townhome on the Southside of Pittsburgh the color of Pepto Bismol. She covered every inch with images of Black people from all over the world and called it beautiful. It was. Black people, 140 million in the diaspora, 1.2 billion on the continent, connected by water, land, history and culture. I see them, I feel them. And while we were taught that they should bring us shame, it brings me immense pleasure ... so let us honor it.

Honor our dance. It is both our rebellion and our freedom, connecting us across the diaspora to the souls of our ancestors. Connected by Bomba of Puerto Rico, as our bare feet repel from the land and our bodies move with the vibrations of the drums. Connected by Second Line of Louisiana, as the sound of brass instruments pair with our footwork and we parade down the streets of our homes. Let us honor it.

Honor our hair. Hair, like our melanin, both envied and adored. Our coils, locs and kinks that rise with the sun, act as a reminder of who our people are. We are the people of the Zulu tribe in South Africa rocking our Bantu Knots, the Mbalantu women of Namibia with our box braids and we are every Black girl across the diaspora today. Let us honor it.

Honor our food. The very nourishment of Black people, sustaining us in the darkest of hours and aiding in our joy in the daylight. Recipes, many never written, but inherently known, ingredients derived from the land our ancestors freely farmed. Let us honor it.

Honor our creativity. The holder of culture, embodying the authentic, diverse and unapologetic expression of our people. The hands, the voices, the words, the music, the eye, the rhythm, the style — Augusta Savage. Nina Simone. Raoul Peck. Josephine Baker. Creativity is the pathway to our liberation. Let us honor it.

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Samantha and her Nana (provided)

Honor our spirituality. It connects us to what has passed, what is and what is yet to come, reminding us of our innate power, reminding us of our divinity. It links us in practice through the pouring out of libations in memory of our ancestors from the ocean shores of Ghana to the street corners of Chicago. It grounds us in collective care and community as the Black churches create safe havens from Selma, through Louisville, to Delaware. It is our knowing that we will win. Let us honor it.

My Nana painted the walls of her two-bedroom townhome on the Southside of Pittsburgh the color of Pepto Bismol. She covered every inch with images of Black people from all over the world and called it beautiful. It was.

Let us honor it today, tomorrow, and all of our tomorrows by telling, celebrating and honoring our stories, Black stories, Black history, Black culture. AND you don’t have to stop there.

1. Proclaim your commitment to inclusion clearly and often. Concede nothing at the expense of inclusion, at the expense of the safety for the “other.”
2. Challenge oppressive interpretations of the Word.
3. Speak out against injustices. Ask how you can stand in solidarity with those that are oppressed. How can you be an ally?
4. Intentionally seek opportunities for yourself and others to learn and unlearn.
5. Acknowledge impact. Take/hold each other accountable.
6. When all else fails, lead with love. Do no harm.

Samantha Davis, Associate for Gender & Racial Justice, Racial Equity & Women’s Intercultural Ministries, Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)

Let us join in prayer for:

PC(USA) Agencies’ Staff:

Beth Zornick, Vice President, Customer Business Systems, Plan Operations, The Board of Pensions
Princeton Abarahoa,  Associate, African Immigrant Congregational Support, Interim Unified Agency

Let us pray:

To the Most High, Creator of this Universe, Olodumare, Olorun, Mawu, Nzambi Mpungu, Unkulu Unkulu, Chukwu and the many other names by which African peoples have acknowledged you across the stage of human history, we humbly ask that you continue to be with us. Empower us, as you always have, even when we may have been ignorant of your presence. Remind us to honor our spirituality, creativity, food, hair and bodies as the Divine gifts that they are. Be with us this month and every month, from now until the end of time. Ase’ and Ase’-O

Mission Yearbook: Creation Justice Ministries, partners call for protecting planet

Interfaith leaders gathered in Washington, D.C.’s Upper Senate Park last fall to mark the World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation and to promote September as the Season of Creation, a time of reflection, witness and action for the protection of the planet and those who live on it.

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Avery Davis Lamb, executive director of Creation Justice Ministries (Photo courtesy of CJM)

The outdoor service filled with song, prayers and calls for climate action was organized by Creation Justice Ministries, a partner of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), along with Interfaith Power & Light DMV and 14 national faith-based organizations with a desire to protect God’s Creation.

“We are here because Creation is a gift, because Creation is sacred, because Creation is crying out, and we are here because too often, especially these days, our leaders have failed to protect the Earth and its people, leaving us to face the disastrous consequences in the places and the communities that we love,” CJM Executive Director Avery Davis Lamb said to those gathered in person and online for the service. “We come together to pray with (the prophet) Isaiah, with the global church, and with the whole community of Creation underneath the witness of these trees, that justice will dwell in the wilderness, the righteousness will bring peace, and that all of Creation will be reconciled and made whole.”

The service was part of a series of public witness events and faith gatherings that were held throughout September in key cities, such as Phoenix and Atlanta. The theme was “Peace with Creation” and the biblical text was Isaiah 32:14–18.

Lamb was joined by an array of representatives from faith-based organizations and advocacy groups calling for urgent action to address climate change and to safeguard environmental protections.

“Friends, we don’t have time to debate what science and seeing with our own eyes and feeling with our own bodies has already proven,” said Bishop Julius C. Trimble, general secretary of the General Board of Church and Society of the United Methodist Church. “We have an urgent ecological crisis that is an insult before God, and we need, right now, spiritual and moral courage, a spiritual and moral response.”

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Bishop Julius C. Trimble, General Secretary of the General Board of Church and Society of the United Methodist Church (Photo courtesy of Creation Justice Ministries)

Trimble bemoaned that children are suffering in schools, sometimes without air conditioning, books and meal assistance, and that crucial agencies, such as the Federal Emergency Management Agency, are under fire.

“We have an emergency when FEMA is handicapped, and the EPA proposes rolling back regulatory standards that promote public health, protect our neighbors and our communities,” Trimble said, then prayed: “Help all of us today to be like the prophet Isaiah, refusing to fall victim of despair or apathy, instead to proclaim your vision for a secure, peaceful and sustainable world.”

The Rev. Ginger E. Gaines-Cirelli, lead pastor of Foundry United Methodist Church, spoke of overlapping crises for people in the D.C. area who are grappling with lack of voting representation in Congress and increased militarization due to federal intervention.

“What is being done to the people of D.C. is wrong,” she said. “It is sin against God’s Creation and against the dignity of all God’s children and as people of faith, we must resist. We must resist the silencing of a city’s voice. We must resist the stripping away of resources needed to protect Creation and to care for our neighbors. We must resist policies that criminalize poverty and militarize our streets. We must resist the denial of dignity to Black and brown communities, immigrants, the unhoused and all who are vulnerable, and we must resist every system that places profit and power above people and planet.”

The relentless march of climate change and the fierceness of the disasters that have lashed so many states, regions and countries was brought home during a participatory rendition of the song “Don’t Negotiate” by Alice M-A, a performer and music educator from the Melting Virgo project. Asking the crowd to repeat after her, she sang, “The rain don’t negotiate. The wind don’t negotiate. The fire don’t negotiate. Oh no, the climate don’t negotiate.”

Further urging the crowd along, the Rev. Adam Russell Taylor, president of Sojourners, declared that it’s time to restore, redeem and renew, and urged people to use their voices as a game-changing renewable resource.

“Rather than be despondent, today, let’s press forward in faith,” he said. It’s time “to push relentlessly for a sea change in policy and political priorities.”

The Rev. Christina Cosby of the Presbyterian Office of Public Witness and Jessica Maudlin of the Presbyterian Hunger Program are both on CJM's board.

(Click here to read original PNS Story)

Let us join in prayer for:

Lydia Yost, Director, Operations & Compliance, Investments, The Board of Pensions
Ezra Young, Operations Gift Administrator, Operations, The Presbyterian Foundation

Let us pray:

Gracious God, as siblings come together, we pray that you will wrap your loving arms around each of them as they worship, work and share with one another. In Christ’s name. Amen.