Mama O is a wounded healer.
Her moment of greatest need intersected with the critical healing and support services provided by Black Women’s Blueprint, a civil and human rights organization specifically focused on the needs of Black women and girls since 2008. At 65 years of age, she is among the eldest survivors of sexual violence in the organization.
And now, she’s returning the gift.
Engaging with Matthew 25 and the three areas of focus that make up the vision — building congregational vitality, dismantling structural racism and eradicating systemic poverty — is being addressed in a variety of ways by the 765 congregations and 72 mid councils who have signed on since its launch in April 2019. Now there is another way to start those conversations and actively engage in the world around us.
The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)’s Office of Gender, Racial & Intercultural Justice will be offering three virtual anti-racism training sessions in 2021, starting this month.
Nearly a year ago, Doylestown Presbyterian Church in Doylestown, Pennsylvania, accepted the invitation to become a Matthew 25 church. The predominately white congregation chose to concentrate its efforts on dismantling structural racism and its intersectionality with poverty. Members and friends knew they wanted to learn how to be allies with people of color who have been so adversely impacted by these issues, two of the three Matthew 25 foci (the other is building congregational vitality).
Mission co-workers the Rev. Bob and Kristi Rice firmly believe that God has a reason for them to be in the United States at this time.
Forced to leave South Sudan during the early stages of the pandemic, they have used the time not only to continue their work, but to also reflect more deeply on the challenges the U.S. faces around systemic racism, continued brutality against people of color and the need for restoration, reconciliation and peace.
The recently released book, “Fury and Grace: 40 Days of Paintings and Poetry from Prison,” edited by the Rev. Riley Pickett and the Revs. Layne and Crawford Brubaker, is now a podcast, too.
The gift of $22,000, which after legal fees would be worth around $250,000 in today’s dollars, was given to Knox Presbyterian Church in Cincinnati exactly 100 years ago to aid the congregation in constructing a new church. But according to Knox’s pastor, the Rev. Adam Fronczek, there was “some lore” in the congregation about the gift, which came from a woman who wanted to be buried inside the walls of the church.
