The Seattle Times carried a four-part series on a Sankofa Journey that 40 members of the North Pacific Conference took last November. The Connecticut Post ran a front-page feature on a School of Racial Righteousness workshop held over the weekend that involved the Covenant Church of Easton and the Jesus Saves Ministries in Bridgeport.
The Evangelical Covenant Church began organizing the Sankofa trips in 1998. Sankofa is a West African word that means “looking backward to look forward.”
The bus trips through the south are designed to be experiential, incorporating visits to significant civil rights sites, films and group discussions. Sites visited include the Martin Luther King Center in Atlanta, Georgia; the Southern Poverty Law Center in Montgomery, Alabama; and the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama, where four young African American girls were killed in a 1963 bombing. Members of different races room together, eat meals together and share with one another the experiences and the questions that inevitably are raised.
The Times articles feature lengthy reflections from two participants as well as interviews with others. Rhonda Egging of Mount Vernon, Washington, told the newspaper that her “suburban middle-class life” had precluded her from understanding the pervasiveness of racism. “I had not realized how bad it was,” she said. Others noted that African Americans often view the possibility for reconciliation differently depending upon their age.
To learn more about the Times coverage, please visit the following links:
Meanwhile, on the other coast, the Connecticut Post ran a story on the weekend-long racial righteousness workshop that concluded with a joint worship service Sunday evening.
The two ministries have worked together in the past, but wanted their relationship to deepen. That meant understanding each other better.
Atlanta minister Deric Gilliard and North Park Theological Seminary student Mary Putera co-facilitated the event. The Covenant’s Department of Christian Formation designed the workshop.
Putera told the newspaper that the weekend included “some tension and awkward moments during the process,” but also pointing out that “I’ve never seen people work so hard with Jesus’ help.”
Easton is a Bridgeport suburb and the joint worship service was held in the city. “I told them you guys have been busing for years; it’s time we bused from the suburbs,” says Craig Carlson, Easton’s pastor.
Carlson is excited that the event received such good publicity. “I was stunned to open up the paper and see it on the front page. It was a real nice article.” To read the article, please see Looking Ahead.
To learn more about Sankofa Journeys and the School of Racial Righteousness workshop, contact the Department of Christian Formation by telephone at 773-583-0220 or by email at Christian.formation@covchurch.org. The Easton church can be reached by telephone at 203-371-8335.
Copyright © 2011 The Evangelical Covenant Church.
