wfn.org | [ENS] 'No time for foolishness': Church Center re-launches

["Matthew Davies" <mdavies@episcopalchurch.org>]

Daybook, from Episcopal News Service

May 23, 2005 - Monday Mission

'No time for foolishness': Church Center re-launches anti-racism
training
program

Riverside Church's senior minister James Forbes delivers invigorating
message to staff, calls for a new 'great awakening' nationwide

by Daphne Mack

[Episcopal News Service] Using prayer, song and personal experiences,
the
Rev. Dr. James A. Forbes, senior minister of New York City's historic
Riverside Church, helped re-launch the Episcopal Church Center's
anti-racism
training program for employees on May 19.

"We have a journey to fuller inclusion, fuller respect and to deeper and
more meaningful dialogue," the Rev. Jayne Oasin, social justice officer
at
the Church Center, told the staff. "It is my hope that as we re-begin
our
journey together we will be better able to discern the roles that we can
play "as citizens, as staff of the Episcopal Church Center and as people
of
integrity."

The journey must continue, said Oasin, who serves on the anti-racism
training planning team with colleagues John Colón, director of human
resources; Vivian Harrison, human resource manager; and Robert Williams,
director of communication.

Presiding Bishop Frank Griswold introduced Forbes as "one of the great
preachers of this era" and said, "I assume we are going to be pierced
through [the heart] by what you have to say and I trust that it finds a
place within us and becomes a living word that we can live out as a
result
of your sharing with us."

Forbes ignited applause when he opened by sharing a personal prayer and
song
he said he has been reciting as his daily devotion each morning since
the
attacks of September 11. He then outlined his agenda as helping to frame
the
issue of racism because "I understand that he who sets the frame,
basically
controls the dialogue and the development of the programmatic response"
and
"I need to road test it as I go around talking about it."

He asked that the consideration of race, class and spiritual
revitalization
be the outcome of his message. He compared the challenge of discussing
one
without the other to separating [conjoined] twins: "You can't talk about
race today without talking about the Siamese twins' of race and class
and
even a skillful surgeon cannot separate them."

Forbes invited the group to review the class considerations present in
Isaiah 6:5-7.

He said that the concept of race can be positive when it has functioned
as a
convenient way of self identification or a way of identifying with
people
you have something in common and with you have a special affinity. But,
acknowledging that race is a "false and arbitrary categorization," he
added
that in a U. S. context, it tends to give white people a belief in their
superiority over people of color.

"We will not effectively address race and class, not even in religious
organizations, apart from a mighty great awakening in this nation,"
Forbes
said. "The value base is not there [because] it has eroded [and] the
contours in the culture prevent responding."

Forbes said he is on a mission to recruit "human race activists."

"I'm spending my time working towards the next great awakening of
spiritual
revitalization which touches the depth of the human spirit and gives
rise to
movements that bring about social transformation," he said. "That's what
its
going to take in our nation to begin to believe that 'We are one in the
Spirit, We are one in the Lord.'"

With respect to class, Forbes said the Church must discover what "ratio
of
privilege" can exist in the church and in society. Fundamentally he does
not
necessarily assume that we have to be levelers but "it's a sin before
God to
have folks hoard vast resources while there are brothers and sisters for
whom bare necessities are not available."

Forbes closed to a standing ovation after performing a self-composed rap
song called "No time for foolishness" and urging those gathered to "do
your
research on God." He said an anti-racism workshop begins with the
kingdom of
God in a contemporary perspective.

Before leaving, Church Center staffers were asked to assist the
committee by
responding to a sheet of four goals and outcomes titled "Goals for
Becoming
Anti-Racist in the Workplace" by May 27.

"We are asking employees to complete this feedback form which the
planning
group will use to help us shape the anti-racism training," said Colón.
"This
work belongs to all of us and the training is to be done by everyone at
the
Church Center and its field offices so the feedback is crucial as we
move
forward in this process."

The mandates of the 1991 General Convention of the Episcopal Church
resolution (D113) called the church to a nine year commitment to address
the
sin of racism within the church, world and our society. Two additional
resolutions (A047 and B049) at the 2000 General Convention recommitted
the
Church to continue its work with particular emphasis on abuse of power
and
privilege and required lay and ordained leadership of the Church to take
anti-racism training.

-- Daphne Mack is staff writer for Episcopal News Service.

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