UCC-hosted conference explores global church's impact in confronting racism

[Worldwide Faith News <wfn@igc.org>]

UCC-hosted conference explores global church's impact in confronting 
racism

> Written by J. Bennett Guess
> August 30, 2010

How can the global church challenge racism when its manifestations
take on such different forms in various places around the world?

That question became central to the conversation at a UCC-hosted World
Council of Churches conference on racism, where 30 participants from
15 countries gathered Aug. 26-29 in Cleveland to discuss rationale and
strategies for a sustained ecumenical engagement in confronting racism
and related forms of prejudice.

?There is a lot of energy that comes from hearing and naming the
issues,? says the Rev. Karen Georgia Thompson, the UCC?s minister for
racial justice. ?In the midst of what you know, you are also intent on
understanding what you don?t know.?

Participants discussed many concerns, ranging from anti-Muslim and
anti-Roma (gypsy) discrimination in Europe to the experiences of First
Nations people in Canada to persistent caste-based discrimination in 
India.

The group also acknowledged the difficulty of owning and sharing
others? issues when it?s tempting to focus solely on one community?s
own experience of exclusion.

?I would name that as a challenge,? Thompson said. ?People are
struggling so hard to get attention for their issue and they become
afraid that naming other issues will somehow supersede their own
issue. There is the need for all us to be uplifting these issues, to
find a common language to share these realities, even as we remain
committed to our community?s issues.?

?Even in discussing the issues of people of African descent, you
realize that the issues important to Afro-Brazilians are different
from those of Afro-Nicaraguans, or the Afro-Peruvians? issues are
different from those of African Americans,? she said.

The group?s next steps include producing comments that will inform a
larger statement to be issued in May 2011 in Jamaica when the WCC
gathers to culminate its decade-long emphasis on overcoming violence.

?Our focus now is on drafting a theological statement that will begin
to name how the church can make in-roads, collectively speaking,?
Thompson said.

As part of a draft summary of the meeting, the group concluded that
the persistence of economic, social and political exclusion demands
that churches must assume an even greater leadership role in battling
racial and caste discrimination.

The Rev. M. Linda Jaramillo, executive minister for the UCC?s Justice
and Witness Ministries and a member of the UCC?s five-person Collegium
of Officers, said she was proud that the UCC stepped forward to host
the gathering and was given the opportunity by the WCC to welcome the
global delegation to the UCC?s Church House in Cleveland.

?The amazing part for me was just sitting around the meal tables and
listening to the stories ­ the experience, the intelligence and the
passion,? Jaramillo said. ?It made me feel really honored to have 
them  here.?

For Jaramillo, the conversations underscored the connecting points of
racism and how many of the issues stem from the lingering effects of
European colonialism around the world, whether in South America, New
Zealand, India, the Caribbean or the United States.

?It?s important that we realize that racism is so much bigger than us
[in the United States], and yet we cannot ignore the racism that
persists in this country,? she said.

Countries represented were Brazil, Canada, Dominican Republic,
Germany, India, Jamaica, Nicaragua, The Netherlands, New Zealand,
Peru, Romania, South Africa, Switzerland, United Kingdom and United
States. A representative from Pakistan was scheduled to attend but was
denied a visa by the U.S. government.