On May 25, 2020, George Floyd was an innocent man killed as a result of an interaction with a member of the Minneapolis Police. George Floyd was a black man. What followed were anti-racism protests across the U.S. As Canadians, it is sometimes easy to sit back and feel good that we aren’t our U.S. neighbours. Yet in this season we have been reminded that Canadian Culture is not immune to systemic racism. Over the past few months, we have heard the stories of Canadian brothers and sisters of colour sharing their stories of discrimination and instances like the Mi’kmaw fishery dispute in Nova Scotia remind us that our nation is not exempt from this discriminatory reality.
As followers of Jesus, who believe in the God of love and justice, we want to be a part of bringing healing to a society that has been fractured by systemic racism. But often we aren’t sure where to start. This is why we are excited to direct you to two fantastic sessions that our denomination (Be In Christ) facilitated for all Canadian ministry staff on October 29, 2020.
The theme of this day was Racism & Social Justice. The first presenter was Denley McIntosh who shared his experience as a person of colour, helped us to understand what it means to “other” people and challenged us to be a church that acknowledges and moves past its racism.
The second presenter was Cheryl Bear who shared her experience as an indigenous woman and gave us an introduction to decolonizing the church.
As a staff team, we found both of these sessions to be interesting, challenging, and thought-provoking and we wanted to share it with our Westheights Community Church family.
Here is the link to the Be In Christ page that hosts both sessions.
We hope that you will make some time to watch each of these sessions and to listen for how God is speaking to us in these days.
Blessings,
Pastor Josh