Many WRPC members have been reading Cole Arthur Riley’s This Here Flesh: Spirituality, Liberation, and the Stories That Make Us.

This eloquent NY Times bestseller is both personal and communal with intimate stories and spiritual insight, speaking “potently to anyone who suspects that our stories might have something to say to us.”  

In her chapter entitled Belonging Cole poetically creates an image of affirmation that seems fitting for the Church engaging and reengaging welcome and inclusion, especially as we celebrate Pride and Juneteenth.  It is good to BE faith community together!

Church, we have come a long way. We have lived through two years of a global pandemic that required us to change almost everything about the way we do church, then reassemble the changed parts and pieces of ourselves. We have loved well and lost much; we have boldly embraced change that we know will be hard. We made it through Lent and Eastertide, and now, halfway through the calendar year, it is summertime, a natural slowing down in the world of accomplishment.

How many times over the past two years have those of us who are white read books and articles by Black people, listened to podcasts hosted by People of Color, read poems, viewed art, or other exhibits showing their talents and said, “I didn’t know!” or “I wasn’t taught that in school.”? There are so many things we don’t know about our sisters and brothers of color and their American experience, it is clear our journey is one of lifelong learning. The Dismantling Racism Task Force wants to help you to be “in the know.”