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[PCUSANEWS] Voice at 'Sophia' breakfast speaks about racism


From PCUSA NEWS <PCUSA.NEWS@ecunet.org>
Date 28 May 2003 20:32:23 -0400

Note #7748 from PCUSA NEWS to PRESBYNEWS:

Voice at 'Sophia' breakfast speaks about racism
GA03059

Voice at 'Sophia' breakfast speaks about racism

by Emily Enders Odom

DENVER, May 27 - Beginning with a prayer to "leave behind the foolishness of
the world," Voices of Sophia hosted a lively breakfast meeting Tuesday
morning during the 215th General Assembly.

	The mission statement of the Brooklyn, NY-based organization, says it
works "toward the reformation of the church into a discipleship of equals,"
focusing on "challenges to the full participation of women in the life of the
Presbyterian Church (USA)."

	Emily Wigger, a member of the General Assembly Council, introduced
the guest speaker, the Rev. Nancy Ramsay, the Harrison Ray Anderson Professor
of Pastoral Theology at Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary.  

	Ramsay, whom Wigger characterized as a "true voice of wisdom," spoke
on "Re-Imagining Racism Through the Lens of Privilege." With a combination of
humor, intelligence, insight and gravity, she outlined her thesis for a
capacity crowd of both men and women at the Adams Mark Hotel.

	"Racism poses life-threatening challenges to the very fabric of our
national life, to the integrity of our religious institutions - like this
denomination - and to our own salvation," she began.

	Speaking to a predominantly European-American audience, Ramsay
emphasized the roles of "intentional education and concurrent conversation
and action on the part of people of all racial identities and cultural
heritages" in battling racism.

	Ramsay told the story of her own awakening to the sin of racism while
she was a college student working as a teacher's aide in a rural summer
school in eastern North Carolina. In witnessing first-hand the futures that
already had been "stolen" from her students because of their race and
poverty, she realized that what she was seeing was not God's vision for them
as reflected in scripture.

	"I've come to believe that the most important factor in moving
persons toward involvement in the struggle for racial justice and
reconciliation lies in how racism is defined," she said. That definition
determines how people deal with it, she said, adding that her own definition
emerged through the study of privilege. 

	"The veil of racism lifted for me when I came to understand racism as
an interlocking system of advantage based on race," she said.

	Citing research data and the words of numerous writers, Ramsay
asserted that people are created for life in relationship. "The sin of
racism," she said, "lies in the negation of relation."

	She said Christians must play a role in "deconstructing the lie and
the sin of racism," adding, "I hope the European-Americans in this room will
use the experience of sexism as an empathic bridge."  

	Quoting Gandhi, she concluded: "Let us be the change we seek."

	Voices of Sophia presented its annual Sister of the Year Award to
Ginny Copenheffer of Central Presbyterian Church in Louisville, KY.
Copenheffer, an elder, is secretary of the Presbyterian Health Education and
Welfare Association and a member of the advisory committee of Presbyterians
Affirming Reproductive Options.   

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