Category: Social Justice

Blog posts from the Social Justice group at Nativity

Social Justice: June Update

Post author By Church of the Nativity
Post date June 22, 2023
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Social Justice at Nativity

Nativity’s Social Justice Committee shares the following announcements, events and recommended resources to the Nativity community as we continue our pursuit of racial justice and reconciliation.

Announcements & Events

This month’s Social Justice listing of opportunities in our area includes the end of Pride month events (although Pride never ends!), African American arts opportunities, our own Episcopal festival with focuses on justice and advocacy, a different way to start off your July 4th holiday, and as always, the Black Farmer’s market that runs through the growing season! Supporting marginalized communities in our day-to-day lives and understanding their experiences really matters. Thanks for reading!

Out! Raleigh Pride Festival | Saturday, June 24 | 11 am-6 pm | Fayetteville Street, downtown Raleigh | Free | Take the family to enjoy this inclusive festival featuring live entertainment, local vendors and artists, food, a KidsZone, and a beer garden in support of the LGBT Center of Raleigh.

2023 Frederick Douglass Community Reading | Tuesday, July 4 | 10-11:30 am | 5925 Jock Road, Bahama, NC 27503 (just north of Durham) | Bring a chair or blanket to sit on the grounds. The event will be outdoors, with some walking over grass and gravel. This free event will last about 1 hour, with the option to tour the original slave dwellings at Horton Grove available afterwards. | Commemorate Independence Day in a different way with a reading of Frederick Douglass’ powerful Fourth of July address, “What to the Slave is the Fourth of July.” This is a participatory community reading. Every year, 60 volunteers sign up to read passages from this speech, in front of the slave dwellings at Horton Grove. You may sign up as a reader when you arrive. Copies of the speech will be provided to all attendees. Douglass delivered this powerful abolitionist speech on July 5, 1852 at an Independence Day celebration in Rochester, New York. Douglass’ speech remains one of the most famous abolitionist texts in U.S. history. The speech resonates today, inviting all to reflect on the history of slavery, freedom, and the United States’ founding ideals.

It’s All About Love: A Festival for the Jesus Movement| Baltimore, MD and Online| July 9-12| July 10 focus – creation care; July 11 focus – racial reconciliation; July 12 – closing Eucharist @ 10:30am-12pm ET | Cost: $255.74 or $128.74 discounted rate for students and seminarians | Register here | Across the church and around the world, we are hungry for revival and renewal. Join us for “It’s All About Love,” a churchwide festival of worship, learning, community, and action for the Episcopal branch of the Jesus Movement. “It’s All About Love” is organized around three Jesus Movement festival “tents”: Evangelism, Racial Reconciliation, and Creation Care. Get ready for evening revival worship and daytime speakers, workshops, panels, and practice opportunities around the big tent themes. Leaders include Brian McClaren, Catherine Meeks, Kelly Brown-Douglas, Scott Gunn and Nancy Frausto.

Black Farmers Market – Raleigh | 2^nd and 4^th Sundays, 1-4 pm | Southeast Raleigh YMCA, 1436 Rock Quarry Rd, Raleigh, NC | Support a community that has historically not received the majority of consumer dollars, leading to a huge generational gap in family wealth . . . plus the produce is great too!

Crowns | Agape Theatre Project | Two locations: June 23 – 25 @ Durham Arts Council; June 30 – July 2 and July 7 – 9 @ Burning Coal Theatre (Raleigh) | Tickets start @ $22.50 | A moving and celebratory musical play in which hats become a springboard for an exploration of history and identity as seen through the eyes of Yolanda, a young African-American woman who has been sent South to stay with her aunt after her brother is killed in a northern city. As strong women tell the stories of their lives through stories of their hats, Yolanda witnesses a tradition tracing back to African rituals and slavery and forward to the New Testament and contemporary fashion.

Michael Richards: Are you Down? | NC Museum of Art | Open until July 23, 2023 | Michael Richards’s visionary sculptures and drawings, created between 1990 and 2001, engage Blackness, flight, diaspora, spirituality, police brutality, and monuments in his largest retrospective to date. Michael Richards: Are You Down? takes its name from one of the last artworks the artist created. In his sculptures and installations, Richards gestures toward both repression and reprieve from social injustices and the simultaneous possibilities of uplift and downfall, often in the context of the historic and ongoing oppression of Black people. Flight and aviation were central themes for Richards as an exploration of freedom and escape, ascendance and descent. These themes are especially evident in Richards’s engagement with the legacy of the Tuskegee Airmen, including his well-known sculpture Tar Baby vs. St. Sebastian (1999)—a version of which has been on continuous display at the NCMA since 2003.

Ruth E. Carter: Afrofuturism in Costume Design | NC Museum of Art | Open until August 6, 2023 | Academy Award–winning costume designer Ruth E. Carter has defined generations through her work in film and TV. Her art adds dimensionality, flair, and culture to the characters she envisions, giving power to the incredible actors who wear her designs. Her vibrancy and attention to detail in costuming is integral to translating stories of race, politics, and culture to the big screen. From humble roots in Massachusetts, Carter has helped style the Afrofuturism movement for almost 40 years. Creating pieces for films such as Black Panther, Malcom X, Selma, and Do the Right Thing, Carter has designed costumes for legends like Oprah Winfrey, Denzel Washington, Chadwick Boseman, Eddie Murphy, Angela Bassett, and Forest Whitaker.

In this exhibition the NCMA displays more than 60 of Carter’s original garments while also showcasing her immersive process, historical research, and the attention to detail that imbues every project she brings to life.

Recommended Resources

Racial Reconciliation and Social Justice (Episcopal Diocese of North Carolina) | This website is updated regularly with social justice resources recommended by the Diocese.

Peace Library Reviews Social Justice

A Day for Rememberin’ (Peace Library Review)

Post author By Church of the Nativity
Post date May 18, 2023
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A Day for Rememberin’
by Leah Henderson
review by Lillis Ward

A Day for Rememberin’ tells the story of the first Memorial Day celebration from the perspective of a young African American boy whose family has recently been freed following the Civil War. In this picture book written for grades 2-5, Henderson describes the little known events of the 1st Decoration Day which was specifically to honor those who died fighting in the Civil War. The African Americans who led the effort wanted to show their gratitude to the fallen Union soldiers who fought to bring freedom to their families and to end slavery once and for all. The beautifully illustrated pages of the book will capture the reader’s interest and help explain the sequence of events. Even though this is a children’s book, there is plenty to be learned for all ages about the origin of Memorial Day and how it came to be as we know it today. At the end of the book, Henderson includes actual photos from 1865 when 28 newly freed men volunteered to make a final resting place for the fallen Union soldiers. She also includes background information and a timeline of this historical era.

For Parents:
The following link gives guidance to parents about discussing the somber topic of Memorial Day with children so that they understand more about this special holiday: How to Explain Memorial Day to Kids, Plus 5 Traditions to Start

Questions to discuss with your child:

Before reading the book, ask your child, “What do you know about the holiday called Memorial Day?”
After reading the book, brainstorm with your child some ways your family can start a tradition for Memorial Day such as flying the flag, visiting a memorial, saying a prayer of thanks, planting flowers, or attending a parade.
Talk with your child about family members who served in the military. Look at their photos if you have them and talk about what parts of the world they served. Look at a world map to find that region of the world.

Create your own Memorial Day Prayer with your child.
God of the nations, we remember before you with grateful hearts the men and women of our country who gave their lives for the protection of our freedoms. We especially remember __________________. In Christ’s love, Amen

Social Justice

Episcopal Farm Workers Ministry

Post author By Church of the Nativity
Post date May 4, 2023
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Hello Friends,

Church of the Nativity has had a rich history of working with the Episcopal Farm Workers Ministry headquartered in Dunn, North Carolina. We collaborate with agricultural workers (farmworkers, meat processing plant workers, and workers from nurseries, packing houses and poultry, swine, or livestock farms) and immigrant families in Eastern rural NC. Much of the people that we serve live in Duplin, Harnett, Johnston, Lenoir, and Sampson counties. Since 1982, we have worked with farmworkers and their families to create a better world for the future generations. At EFWM you will find a place that welcomes immigrants, a place for fellowship, and a place to serve others.

MISSION

Episcopal Farmworker Ministry responds to the physical, emotional, and spiritual needs of farmworkers and actively supports opportunities for them to become self-directive. We seek to minister to farmworkers in three principal ways:

• through direct services;
• through the development and support of programs that work towards the empowerment of farmworkers;
• by encouraging leadership development, advocacy, and education aimed toward a systemic change of agricultural policy.

We will have rich volunteer opportunities coming up in the future and a grand kick off in October. We will also be making a special place for our youth to connect with farming families at these fun events. We currently have a food drive in place through Amazon for anyone that wishes to contribute to this initiative.

Amazon Food Drive Registry

Blessings,
Cuyler+

Each of you should give what you have decided in your heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. And God is able to bless you abundantly, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work.
2 Corinthians 9:6–8

Peace Library Reviews Social Justice

We Are Water Protectors (Peace Library Review)

Post author By Church of the Nativity
Post date March 29, 2023
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by Carole Lindstrom, author; and Michaela Goade, illustrator
review by Becky Showalter

We Are Water Protectors, written by Carole Lindstrom and illustrated by Michaela Goade, is a children’s book inspired by the Indigenous-led environmental protests that have been held across the United States for many years. In particular, it tells the story of a little girl taking part in the Standing Rock protests, which our own Bishop Curry took part in in 2016 and 2017.

With stunning colors and artwork, this book received the Caldecott Medal for its illustrations in 2021 — the first time an Indigenous illustrator has done so. We Are Water Protectors is a reminder that each one of us can be the hero in protecting the earth and the water that is so critical to our lives. It shines a light on environmental protests and also the ancient (and current!) role that Indigenous cultures have played in protecting the environment. For Earth Day, this may be the perfect book to initiate discussions with what it means to be an activist for our world! Keep reading for discussion topics and some craft ideas!

Possible Discussion Topics

What happened at Standing Rock (from kellysclassroomonline.com)

Environmental protests similar to the one led by the Standing Rock Sioux in North Dakota are the inspiration for We Are Water Protectors. In 2016, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers approved a plan to build an oil pipeline (Dakota Access Pipeline… also known as DAPL) from North Dakota, through South Dakota and Iowa, to Illinois. They claimed that building the pipeline would pose no threat to the environment, to communities, or to historical/cultural landmarks.

What the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers failed to mention is that the pipeline would run directly under Lake Oahe… the primary source of water for the people living on the Standing Rock Sioux reservation. They also failed to mention that the construction of the pipeline would damage culturally sacred sites on the reservation… a significant violation of the existing treaties between the people of Standing Rock and the United States government.

Later that year, the citizens of Standing Rock and their supporters gathered in protest of the broken treaties and the potential risk to their drinking water and sacred sites. This protest lasted from April 2016 to February 2017.

The Dakota Access Pipeline was completed in April 2017 and became fully operational two months later. There were at least five documented oil leaks in the pipeline in 2017 alone. More leaks and spills have occurred since then. Use the map again to find North Dakota, South Dakota, Iowa, Illinois, Lake Oahe, and the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation.

What Can We Do?

Talk about the balance between still needing fossil fuels right now and taking care of the environment. Discuss ways that the world is trying to move away from needing fossil fuels. How can our family need less fossil fuels? Have your Kids do this Carbon Footprint Calculator and find out how THEY can make a difference! How can you advocate (talk about what advocate means) for clean energy? Maybe write a letter to your congressman or Senator and ask them to help take care of the earth.

What Happens When Things Don’t Go “Right”?

Even though the Dakota Pipeline was built, do you think the little girl has stopped trying to protect the earth and her tribe? Do we have a responsibility to each other to keep trying to do the right thing? Can you think of examples in your own life?

Craft Ideas and Activities

Peace Library Reviews Social Justice

Sweet Justice (Peace Library Review)

Post author By Church of the Nativity
Post date March 9, 2023
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Sweet Justice: Georgia Gilmore and the Montgomery Bus Boycott

by Mara Rockliff, author; and R.Gregory Christie, illustrator
review by Pete Crow

This tightly-written and well-illustrated book reveals a little-known dimension of the Montgomery Bus Boycott of December, 1955 through December, 1966. No doubt you have heard of the roles played by Rosa Parks and Dr. Martin Luther King. But do you know the fascinating story of Georgia Gilmore? Probably not. That’s why adults will enjoy this book as much as the kids they read it to or who read it themselves. Ms. Gilmore refused to ride the bus before Ms. Parks did, and her kitchen-turned-restaurant became a favorite meeting place and fundraiser for MLK and the boycotters. Warning: Be prepared to yearn for some old-time, home-cooked fried chicken.

Questions to consider

Are there people in your life who do important things, like cooking or cleaning or carrying away our trash, who we don’t appreciate enough? Make a list. How can we show them they matter to us?

Going deeper

What does segregation mean? Is there still racial segregation today? What do you think about that?

Activity

As a family, try making one of Georgia’s recipes, Cold Oven Pound Cake

Biblical Reflections

Luke 22:7-12

The Last Supper

7 Then came the day of Unleavened Bread on which the Passover lamb had to be sacrificed. 8 Jesus sent Peter and John, saying, “Go and make preparations for us to eat the Passover.”

9 “Where do you want us to prepare for it?” they asked.

10 He replied, “As you enter the city, a man carrying a jar of water will meet you. Follow him to the house that he enters, 11 and say to the owner of the house, ‘The Teacher asks: Where is the guest room, where I may eat the Passover with my disciples?’ 12 He will show you a large room upstairs, all furnished. Make preparations there.’’

Once you have read this scripture about the Last Supper with your child, ask who they think prepared the meal for the last supper. How might this scripture reading be like the story of Georgia Gilmore?

Learn more about Georgia Gilmore

Outreach Social Justice Uncategorized

Nativity Peace Library: Privileging God’s Narrative

Post author By Church of the Nativity
Post date February 23, 2023
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by Ryan and Keri Parker

—

We both grew up in homes with lots of books. Ryan’s parents were avid readers who, during college, sold encyclopedias for Southwestern Book Company to afford tuition. Keri’s parents were school teachers, and the family made regular trips to the public library. We both had favorite children’s series: Ryan’s was The Hardy Boys, and Keri’s was the Judy Blume stories.

As we progressed through school, our love of reading similarly matured and evolved. Ryan got into the writings of Southern authors (especially William Faulkner and Eudora Welty), as well as the novels and essays of C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien. Keri enjoyed reading historical fiction, especially the works of Kristen Hannah, Nicholas Sparks, and Elin Hilderbrand. However, it wasn’t until our later twenties to early thirties that we started thinking more critically about who was — and who wasn’t — included in the books of our formative years, and the characters we’d later gravitated toward.

The heroes and heroines of our childhood stories were overwhelmingly White, Western, and representative of the dominant culture. This representation was similarly mirrored in the dolls and toys we’d had in our homes. As we became first-time parents to Hannah in 2014, and especially after Maddie was born in 2017, we started thinking more intentionally about the toys and books we brought into our home. If only White, Western, dominant culture characters and stories were around, what messages did this unconsciously teach our kiddos? What were we communicating about who and which stories mattered?

African-American pastoral theologian Edward Wimberly reminds us that “social narratives circumscribe the possibilities from which we choose,” but as Christians “we believe that God is the author of the overarching narrative.”¹. God offers us the freedom to examine “the negative conversations that we have internalized,”² including privileging the dominant culture in our bookshelves and toy bins. Choosing to privilege God’s narrative, which encompasses all our particular narratives, is participating with God’s response-empowering grace!³ The point is not to feel guilty about our past myopia and lack of inclusivity, but to make small but significant steps toward including the grander narrative of ALL God’s people.

So, when we heard about the idea of building a Peace Library at Nativity, we were excited! We knew that this would be an opportunity for not only our kiddos, but all the younger members of Nativity to be exposed to images, stories, and themes likely absent in other areas of their daily formation at school and home. We’ve donated several books to the collection, and so far have probably checked out more books than any other family. (But you can still catch up!)

We are excited about the prominence of the Peace Library situated in the entry to the sanctuary. By entering into the conversations of the people of God at Church of the Nativity, each of us has the opportunity to be more fully transformed into the image and likeness of the One who is all in all. The One who welcomes each of us home, together.

—

Edward P. Wimberly, Claiming God, Reclaiming Dignity: African American Pastoral Care (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 2003), 25.
Wimberly, 26.
Wimberly, 78.

Outreach Social Justice Uncategorized

Farm to Church CSA Update

Post author By Church of the Nativity
Post date February 16, 2023
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Since Nativity’s earliest days, one of the cornerstones of our mission has been to explore how we grow, eat, and share food.

In 2021, Nativity partnered with nine other Raleigh congregations in a program to support our local Black farmers. The program — called Farm to Church Community Supported Agriculture (or CSA) — was launched by the Rural Advancement Foundation International-USA (RAFI-USA). CSAs have become a popular way for consumers — CSA members — to buy local, seasonal food directly from a farmer and to build a caring relationship with that farmer. CSA members buy a share of a farmer’s production up-front, which helps the farm’s cash flow and allows the farmer to plan crop production in a way that limits food waste and farm expenses. The members benefit by receiving fresh and nutritious farm products weekly.

Share prices for the spring season will remain the same as in the past: $250 per share; $125 per half-share. The CSA will be selling spring shares online from February 27 to March 27. Deliveries will be on Saturday mornings with the first of 8 deliveries on April 22. NOTE: There will not be a delivery on May 27, as it is Memorial Day weekend. Individuals or families do not need to be Nativity members to join — they just need to be willing to pick up their produce at Nativity.

For more information: Email Carl Sigel.

Spring 2023 News

The CSA has a new farm, Fairport Farms, and a new church member, Hayes Barton UMC
LaKay Farms is expanding operations and will provide free range eggs as shares in scheduled deliveries to churches

Glad Tidings Social Justice Uncategorized

Social Justice BHM 2023 Update

Post author By Church of the Nativity
Post date February 9, 2023
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Nativity’s Social Justice Committee shares the following announcements, events and recommended resources to the Nativity community as we continue our pursuit of racial justice and reconciliation.

Lists of Events

Below are links to information about the many events honoring Black History Month that are happening in the Triangle.

Featured Events

Best of Enemies

BEST OF ENEMIES, A Justice Theater Project Production

Umstead Park UCC, 8208 Brownleigh Drive, Raleigh, NC 27617

Cost/Ticket Information: $23 Adults. $20 Senior 60+, $20 Military, $18 Groups 10+, $5 Students and Educators. Tickets can be purchased online. (Note: Ages14 and up for adult language and content.)

When: Various weekend dates in February. If interested, purchase tickets soon as tickets are selling fast and some dates are already sold out.

Description: THE BEST OF ENEMIES by Osha Gray Davidson is a true story of the unlikely relationship between two low-income community activists, Ann Atwater, an outspoken civil rights activist, and C.P. Ellis, a local Ku Klux Klan leader. The story takes place in Durham, North Carolina, during the turbulent 1960s and 70’s when the Civil Rights Movement was at its peak. After having several public racially-charged confrontations and developing an intense disdain for each other, in the racially charged summer of 1971, Atwater and Ellis came together to co-chair a community summit on the desegregation of public schools in Durham, N.C. The ensuing debate and battle soon lead to surprising revelations forever changing both of their lives. In Durham and throughout the United States, Ellis and Atwater exemplify how blacks and whites can overcome centuries of racial barriers by focusing on their commonalities and humanity. Through this process, they gradually learn to see this in each other and develop an understanding of the class structure in the South that oppresses both of them as they move from THE BEST OF ENEMIES to friends.

We Build This

We Built This: Profiles of Black Architects and Builders in North Carolina

Where: Oak View County Park (Farm History Center), 4028 Carya Dr., Raleigh, NC 27610

Cost: Free, no registration required.

What: This traveling exhibit, presented by Preservation North Carolina, highlights the stories of those who constructed and designed many of North Carolina’s most treasured historic sites. Spanning more than three centuries, We Built This provides more than two dozen personal profiles and historic context on key topics including slavery and Reconstruction; the founding of Historically Black Colleges and Universities and Black churches; Jim Crow and segregation; and the rise of Black politicians and professionals.

When: Running now through March 27^th, stop by the Farm History Center at Historic Oak View County Park any time during building hours (8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Saturday; 1 to 5 p.m., Sunday).

Oberlin Village Guided Walking Tour

Where: 1023 Oberlin Rd., Wilson Temple UMC, Raleigh, NC 27605

Cost/Registration: Free, but registration is required by completing this contact form.

What/When: Walking tours of Oberlin Village, an antebellum village of freedmen, are available the third Saturday of each month at 1:30 pm October through April. (Time changes to 10 am May through September.) This 1 to 1½-hour tour includes the Oberlin cemetery, historical structures and the Latta Park Historic Park.

Triangle Friends of African American Arts

Please explore the Triangle Friends of African American Arts website for many African American theater productions in the Triangle:

Recommended Resources

The Diocese of NC’s Racial Reconciliation and Social Justice website is updated regularly with social justice resources recommended by the Diocese of NC.