Category: Social Justice

Many of us within the congregation have entered into a journey – a journey to understand the history of our country and our church when it comes to race, a journey to understand how that affects our current landscape politically, culturally, and faithfully.  For many of us, what keeps coming up again and again and again are the questions:  What do we do?  How can we be a part of creating something better?

While there are many, many things that can be done, and need to be done, Nativity’s Social Justice Committee would like to offer up the opportunity to give back and “do something” through the support of a newly created scholarship fund.  In partnership with the Raleigh-Apex NAACP (who will administer the program), the Nativity / Raleigh-Apex NAACP Scholarship will be open to students from historically marginalized communities who are active in the area of social justice and in need of financial help to go to college.  These are exactly the youth voices that need to be heard, and we are proud that we might be a part of that!

During the months of February, March, and April, we will be collecting donations for this Fall 2021 scholarship.  Last year, the NAACP was able to grant $1000 scholarships to seven students. Our new scholarship partnership will help them increase these amounts.  We hope you will join us in making this first year a success, but understand that many of us are under strain and won’t be able to donate.  Either way, pray for us, pray for these students, pray for our community – it all matters.

Donations can be made on the Church of the Nativity: Donate page; be sure to go to the Select the Fund drop-down menu and select Nativity / Raleigh-Apex NAACP Scholarship. If you prefer to send a check to the church, be sure to write “Scholarship Fund” in the memo line. God bless.

Scholarship Committee Members:

Beth Crow: bcrow2@gmail.com  

Pete Crow: peter.crow@me.com  

George Douglas: Gbdouglas3@gmail.com  

Becky Showalter: jbshow@bellsouth.net  

We have all been outraged by the senseless murder of George Floyd on May 25 in Minnesota.  Members of the Racial Justice Committee have compiled a list of recommended resources to help white people navigate through the healing processes of confronting racism and its long history in our country, recognizing our own prejudices and our advantages gained through our 400 years of systemic racism. We are also offering a monthly platform for conversation focused on these topics, beginning next week.

For those seeking more in-depth education and conversation about the history of racism in American, we highly recommend you sign up for the next Sacred Ground, a 10-session program that will be offered online very soon. Please email the Parish Coordinator at coordinator@nativityonline.org for more information and to sign up for Sacred Ground at Nativity.

Those wishing to participate in these bi-monthly calls will need to register using this link, Nativity Sacred Conversations. A link to the Zoom will be sent out prior to our first call, scheduled for 7 pm on June 8. In response to the racial unrest in our country since the murder of George Floyd and as a follow up with our first series of Sacred Ground, the Church of the Nativity will be offering a monthly visual platform for discussions related to how we, especially white people, can become more pro-active in ending systemic racism.

RESPONSES FROM THE EPISCOPAL CHURCH

Responding to Racist Violence
Trump Does Not Speak for These Christians
Curry: ‘He Didn’t Say a Prayer,’ It Was ‘A Photo Op’

WHITE AMERICA AND RACISM JUSTICE

75 Things White People Can Do for Racial Justice
Dear White People, This is What We Want You to Do

NORTH CAROLINA AND RACIAL JUSTICE

Anti-Racism Resources (recommended from the NC Council of Churches)
How Do We Hold Police Officers Accountable In NC?
In NC and the US, stifling civil rights lawsuits fuels black Americans’ despair and anger

LISTENING TO THE VOICES OF BLACK AMERICANS

One method of educating oneself about the feelings and fears of black America is to read materials posted by trusted individuals. Here are two black members of our North Carolina community whom I encourage you to follow on Facebook as they have shared very powerful and useful insights.

Jaki Sheldon Green (North Carolina Poet Laureate) https://www.facebook.com/jaki.s.green

Mike Wiley (North Carolina-based actor, playwright, and director) https://www.facebook.com/mike.wiley.77

Beth Crow

8/31/19

By Beth Crow

August 24th marked the 400th anniversary of when 20-30 enslaved Africans, the first Africans to be brought into slavery in America, were sold to the English colony of Jamestown, VA. In commemoration of this anniversary, The New York Times has produced a deeply moving and inspiring collection of writings, “1619,” on the history of black America.

While listening to the NYT Podcast of Nikole Hannah-Jones retelling the story of slavery and its impact on her own life, I was reminded of the Episcopal Church’s Sacred Ground.  Both of these collections of storytelling through video, audio and written language reflect on race in America, and how the issues of race impact all of us.

If you are interested in being a part of Nativity’s Sacred Ground series, which Nativity will be hosting starting September 9^th, please send an email to Beth Crow at bcrow2@gmail.com.

6/19/2019

By Dee Wallis

One recent lovely Saturday morning a group from Nativity joined a walking tour of downtown Durham to explore Pauli Murray’s home, family and history. Pauli Murray, the first black, woman, lesbian Episcopal priest, grew up in a house built by her grandfather that was full of family, expectations, work, and achievements. That house is now the center of a history project that aims to protect her legacy of civil rights activism and promote the justice that she worked for during her life. The Pauli Murray Project is an active effort to preserve her home and legacy, and to involve the community in understanding this important history. The Project presents animated walking tours beginning at the house and meandering around other important sites, as young actors, dancers and historians bring this all to life.

I found the presentations to be unexpectedly vivid and moving. The young, black actors who portrayed Pauli and members of her family in their neighborhood brought to life an experience that we can only imagine.  Pauli came from an interracial family when that was scandalous. They achieved prosperity when prosperous blacks were severely repressed.  She achieved education, accomplishment and respect when those were routinely denied to women, blacks and gays. We saw for our own eyes a bit of how that might have looked and felt. We walked, we sang, we saw details, and our imaginations were engaged.

Next year, the Pauli Murray Project hopes to open her home as a historic monument and as a resource for social justice. You can learn more about this at https://paulimurrayproject.org. You can also learn more about this historic home at https://savingplaces.org/places/pauli-murray-house. And you can learn more about the walking tours, and perhaps book one of your own by clicking here.

In addition, all are invited to the Annual Pauli Murray Service at St. Titus Episcopal Church in Durham on July 1st at 7PM. This is a community wide gathering to lift up the life and legacy of the Rev. Dr. Pauli Murray at 400 S. Moline Street, Durham.  Bishop Sam Rodman will celebrate and preach. The purpose of the service is to honor Pauli Murray as a saint, since the Episcopal Church voted in 2012 to include her in Holy Women, Holy Men: Celebrating the Saints. She will be honored every July 1 on the church calendar. St. Titus’ Episcopal Church is the church Rev. Dr. Murray attended while growing up in Durham.

05/29/2019

By Pete Crow

What do you do when you find yourself living in the midst of a grievous wrong that you did not commit? A wrong that, against all that you may wish, has become part of the foundation of who you are? Not just your own house of being but many other houses as well? Your school, your office, your government, your church.

Beginning in the fall, Church of the Nativity will offer an opportunity of prayerful learning and small-group dialogue around our nation’s long record of racial and ethnic injustice, a record some of us are privileged to ignore, but none of us is privileged to escape. The ten-part series examines ideas such as whiteness, melting pot, racism, and the American Dream. It looks again at American history, but through the lens of indigenous Americans, African-Americans, Asian-Americans, Latinos. Throughout, the series emphasizes personal story-sharing and deepening relationships among the participants. Most importantly, the series is a journey, one that begins with “Stepping Onto Sacred Ground” and ends with “Becoming Beloved Community.”

The series was developed by the Episcopal Church as part of Presiding Bishop Michael Curry’s focus on Becoming Beloved Community. The lead researcher and organizer is acclaimed documentarian Katrina Browne, producer of Traces of the Trade: A Story from the Deep North.

If you are interested in participating in this series at Nativity or have questions, contact Beth Crow <mary.crow@me.com> or Becky Showalter <jbshow@bellsouth.net>. We anticipate the group will meet twice a month on a weekday evening. More information will be forthcoming in the fall. For now, we are alerting the parish of the opportunity and gauging interest.

05/20/2019

By Becky Showalter

Two years ago, I was out of town in a hotel room that actually had cable (gasp!) . . . and flipping through the channels, I happened to find the season premiere of Black-ish on ABC.  It’s a super funny show and honestly, I hear something new every time I watch it.  But to the point, that episode they talked about choosing to celebrate Juneteenth.  Huh?  I had never heard of Juneteenth. . . so what do you do these days when you don’t know something?  Google – it’s is a wonderful thing!

Juneteenth (a mash up of June and Nineteenth – Juneteenth) is the oldest nationally commemorated celebration of the Emancipation Proclamation and the freeing of all enslaved people in the United States.  Although Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Declaration January 1, 1863, it was not the law of the land in the south until the Confederacy surrendered to the Union Army in April 1865.  During those two years, as the war raged in the Southeastern states, many slaveholders took asylum with their slaves in the state of Texas in hopes that the momentum of the war would turn.  At the time of the Confederate surrender, there were an estimated 250,000 enslaved people in Texas.

Stories vary as to why the slaves of Texas did not learn of their freedom for another two and a half months (April to June).  One says there was a murder of the messenger, another that sympathetic Union soldiers allowed Texas plantation owners to get one last harvest in before the announcement, and another attributes the delay to  a simple fear that there would not be enough Union soldiers to enforce the decree if it was announced immediately.Whatever happened, on the morning of June 19, 1865, Union Army General Gordon Granger stood on a balcony in Galveston, Texas and announced to the world the total emancipation of those held as slaves.  First hand stories described dancing in the streets and as you can imagine great joy and great hope!  The next year, in 1866, freedman organized their first Juneteenth celebration to remember the day they became free, and they have continued!

Juneteenth celebrations remained relatively local to Texas and the Southwest US until the late 1960s when the celebrations began to grow in number across the country.  Juneteenth celebrations are usually anchored by a reading of the Emancipation Proclamation, a celebration of black accomplishment, and any combination of food, games, and remembrances.  Today, 43 of the 50 U.S. states and the District of Columbia have recognized Juneteenth as either a state holiday, ceremonial holiday, or a day of observance.

Historically, the knowledge of Juneteenth, and the participation in these celebrations, have almost exclusively been limited to African American communities, and I guess that’s understandable.  But doesn’t this seem like something that ALL of us should celebrate?  Slavery was a dark chapter in our national history, and celebrating its end, celebrating a moment in time where a wrong was tried to be made right, would be worthwhile for ALL of us.  To promote healing and unity, and with God’s grace, a chance for us all to move forward together – understanding where we’ve been and finding the will to create the world God has waiting for us . . . and more specifically, just celebrating that one day where we got something right!  I was glad I got introduced to Juneteenth, and for the first time this year, my family and I are going to make a point to honor it.  It just seems right.

For those of you who are interested in celebrating Juneteenth this year, Stagville Historic Site (and former plantation) in Durham is hosting “Juneteenth at Historic Stagville” on June 8 from 12-5pm.  Come out for reenactments, guided tours, children’s activities.  If anyone would like to go as a group, please contact me, Becky Showalter, at jbshow@bellsouth.net and maybe we can make an afternoon of it together!  See the links below for details.

https://www.discoverdurham.com/includes/calendar-of-events/Juneteenth-at-Historic-Stagville/95846/

https://www.facebook.com/Stagville/photos/gm.1923885047718243/10161695966945162/?type=3&theater

Also, Durham will be hosting its 15^th Annual Juneteenth Celebration in downtown Durham the next Saturday, June 15^th from 1-10pm.  Come on out for a “fun filled, educational and uplifting event, with entertainment throughout day featuring national recording artists & local performers, food & merchandise vendors, health fair, kids’ zone, exhibitors & more!”

https://www.discoverdurham.com/includes/calendar-of-events/NC-Juneteenth-Celebration/97195/