Book of the Month

January 18th,2019 Categories: Latest News

“And even though the church I love has been the oppressor as often as it has been the champion of the oppressed I can’t let go of my belief in Church- in a universal body of belonging, in a community that reaches toward love in a world so often filled with hate.” – I’m Still Here: Black Dignity in a world made for whiteness by Austin Channing Brown, Pg 21-22.
Friends,

As you have heard, this year is all about commitment with our theme of COMMIT 2019. This is meant to be a touchstone theme with helpful tools to accompany you on your faith journey each month. January is Commit to Be Seen, and one of those tools this month is a book recommendation, I’m Still Here: Black Dignity in a World Made for Whiteness by Austin Channing Brown. I recommended this book because it challenges the way white communities have allowed (or more often not allowed) people of color to be seen fully as God created them. This book opens up a helpful dialogue around spaces that have been claimed as “traditional” meaning “traditionally white,” and what is our responsibility to seek justice and deconstruct those embedded understandings and practices. I love this book and I hope you have started reading it and taking to heart what it means to “Be Seen” in today’s world. Options to purchase the book are on the author’s website, to get you started and to hopefully invite our leadership into faithful and prayerful conversation about what it means to do the work of deconstructing white supremacy – a task that The Park has been passionate about for as long as we can remember. This is not easy work, but it is holy work, and it is best accomplished together.

I am so thankful for each one of you and look forward to this year of growth and love together.
The Rev. Stephanie Kendell