Social Ministry Antiracism Initiative plans June events.

 JUNE 15, 7PM: Anti-Racism Discussion with guest speaker: Brian Armstrong
Join us in-person or on our YouTube channel with guest speaker: Brian Armstrong, historian and author of The Franklin Park Tragedy: A Forgotten Story of Racial Injustice in New Jersey. This event is sponsored by our Social Ministry; if you have questions, please email Denise Cole.

Hello everyone and I hope you have been enjoying our spectacular weather as much as me! For the antiracism initiative, there will be a planning session on the first Tuesday of each month and an “event” or discussion the third Tuesday of each month.

Please join in for a discussion and planning future activities and events on June 1. On June 15, we will host Brian Armstrong, a local resident and historian who wrote The Franklin Park Tragedy: A Forgotten Story of Racial Injustice in New Jersey. Brian will discuss his book and there will plenty of time for discussion. I hope we will able to do this in the sanctuary and on YouTube. More to come!

Bishop Bartholomew has issued the Bishop’s Challenge, and I am excited for SMLC to participate, by donating $375 (or more!) and decorate a quilt square to be combined with others from the Synod and made into one Quilt to be presented at the 2022 Synod Assembly.

Further, as fodder for our work, the New Jersey Synod is providing excellent resources to help with this mis- sion. While we wait for more information from the Synod, here are some highlights. Some of the things included will be

  • Goal of having congregations learn the history of Rev. Jehu Jones and well as other parts of the history of underfunding opportunities for economic advancement for black people in the United States (such as the implementation policies of the G.I. Bill)
  • Providing workshops for learning the history of quilt-making as a form of protest in African-American communities
  • A synod-wide book discussion next winter of The Warmth of Other Suns by Isabel Wilkerson
  • A discussion of the film version of Just Mercy.

Please don’t hesitate to reach out to me.

—Denise Cole, chair