The writing team from Minnesota gathered to discuss the heart behind their materials, the times they felt challenged—and what brings them hope.
As Rev. Jia Starr Brown, pastor at the First Covenant Church ((Disciples of Christ) in Minneapolis, was sitting through meetings reviewing the materials she helped write for the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, she wasn’t surprised when, sometimes, the process seemed like an uphill battle. “We were asked to create materials for communities that are not us,” she reflected. “The requests to change things really highlighted when we were asked to center the palate of whiteness.”
Simply condensing the material into a readable format was challenging in itself, given how much these Minnesotans had on their minds: the murder of George Floyd, Black Lives Matter, systemic racism, reparations, the Jan. 6 insurrection—and what it might take to sustain hope, or even begin to take a step, on a path to reconciliation.
“We came with vast and different experiences into these conversations,” explained Brown. “We are people of color navigating this pressure cooker hot spot.”
The writers met regularly for more than a year within their own team before releasing their materials to be reviewed by the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity and the World Council of Churches.
“There was work to streamline and also to discern, to decide where we would focus our energy,” recalled Brown.
Lifting voices—or toning it down?
At times, the group knew that people wanted them to “tone it down,” which many of them interpreted as being told to “just be quiet.”
But when you witness daily divisions and inequity—you can’t remain quiet, said Rev. Jose Antonio Machado (Evangelical Lutheran Church in America). “The difficulty is that the white churches do not witness and see that injustice every day—so they view it as political,” said Machado. "When you live it, it’s impossible to ignore.”
Yet as the group carried these feelings, they were still grateful to have taken their work and their hearts into the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity. They have become close friends, sharing each other’s lives.
“What it did was, it really opened my eyes to how the world honestly sees us,” said Dr Kelly Sherman-Conroy, a Native American theologian from the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. “There were challenges to the experience of showing up as a Native person and having these conversations with, as a friend and colleague put it, ‘the original perpetrators of the doctrine of discovery’ who caused the trauma—and now are trying to tell us to write this in a different way so it sounds better.”
In this way, the review process itself was traumatic, said Sherman-Conroy. “I hope that people’s eyes were opened,” she said. “It was traumatic to have somebody, for me as a Native person, to see someone take generations of wisdom and knowledge—and dismiss it, and not take the time to have a conversation with me.”
Sherman-Conroy suggested a change in the process of creating the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity materials. “The system was very flawed in a lot of ways, and I hope we opened their eyes to some changes as to how the process of editing goes when you are asking people to write what we did,” she said. “When you’re inviting us into the space that help people learn and engage, there’s a huge responsibility in that.”
Crying out for justice
Leslie E. Redmond Esq., founder of Don’t Complain Activate and former president of the Minneapolis NAACP, reflected that being part of preparing the materials was a great honor. “I had the opportunity to focus in on the biblical texts and why we selected the verses that we did,” she said. “I got to go to Geneva, Switzerland—another amazing opportunity and my first time over there.”
Redmond further reflected that, at the time at which the drafting committee was working, emotions were very raw in Minnesota. Yet she was surprised not to feel “silenced” during the review process. “I honestly thought I was going to get more pushback,” she said. “I was providing of lot of content to racial injustice, and in Minnesota I am very used to getting pushback on everything. I was really expecting to have to go over there and defend it like a dissertation.”
Instead, she said, she was surprised to see Sherman-Conroy get what both women saw as pushback on some Native traditions. “I was thankful I could be an ally to Kelly,” said Redmond.
Rev. Dr DeWayne Davis, pastor of the Plymouth United Church of Christ in South Minneapolis, pinpointed one of the key questions to ask when a group wants to reach a sense of true solidarity. “How do we be there for one another?”
Sherman-Conroy added a second question: “Who are we to judge—and try and change—how God is seen by others?” she asked. “This is how God has come to us—through the trauma, through the pain, through the celebrations.”
That view didn’t always fit the norms for others, added Sherman-Conroy, causing her to express, more times than she wanted to: “There’s nothing wrong with how God is in our lives.”
The writing group acknowledged that some readers of the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity materials may quickly label them “political”—and they’re not surprised by that.
Machado comes from a context in which religious leaders cry out for justice. “Historically, it’s never been welcomed because it means dismantling racism,” he said. “It means really denouncing it to the point where people wake up.”
Davis said dismissing someone’s point of view as “political” is an act of erasure. “To call this
‘political’ is to signal to a group of people that you don’t want to hear from them,” he said. “This is about erasure, about trying to protect a certain approach.”
In fact, when someone says something is ‘political,’ Davis asks them: “What issue should the church not talk about?”
That’s especially the case if the issue relates to some kind of suffering, some kind of pain, or some kind of sin, added Davis.
“Even if we have different ways of approaching these issues, the word ‘political’ serves no purpose,” he said. “We’ve wrested any meaning out of that word.”
The church should address the issues in people’s lives, Davis said. “If you’re not talking to where people openly are living, you’re wasting my time, and you’re wasting their time,” he said.
Similarly, when people tell Starr Brown to be “peaceful,” it often sounds like they’re telling her “be quiet.”
The role of the church
It comes down to different understandings of the role of the church, she acknowledged. “There’s this expectation that some of us and our experiences should defer to the positions and the preferences of those who consider themselves to be in power,” she said.
However their writings are used, this team doesn’t want a sense of “erasure.” They don’t want the way they describe how they see God to be swept under the rug, said Starr Brown. “I’m glad we are here to have this dialogue.”
Dr Cynthia Bailey Manns—who gave the sermon in a WCC service for the Prayer of Christian Unity—also expressed appreciation for the learning she believed did take place along the way. “As challenging as this was, I’d do it again if I could,” she said.
Davis agreed. “Even in terms of the challenges we went through, I would do it again because it was a way for me to learn and to be ministered to,” he said.
The team hopes that the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity materials will be widely shared.
“This is a timeless document,” said Redmond. “That’s why I’m so thankful to be a part of it. I feel this will be used definitely beyond the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity. It can be used in schools. It can really be a teaching tool.”
Sherman-Conroy believes her voice and others need to be heard. “The work that is there, it’s out there, and it’s still very powerful regardless,” Sherman-Conroy said. “We want to lift up what is there. It’s still our voices. It’s still powerful. It still needs to be heard.”