Justice

Celebrate Juneteenth by ACTING toward Equity and Justice for Black and Brown Communities

Tomorrow we commemorate and celebrate Juneteenth becoming a Federally recognized holiday AND the black activists who made it happen.

But we also must ACT toward a more equitable future for the flourishing of ALL people, especially black and brown people.

Here are some ways you can commemorate and celebrate Juneteenth by ACTING:


1. Support Black Owned Businesses and Organizations in your area:
– https://blackownedchicago.com/black-owned-businesses-in-chicago/
– https://blackownedchicago.com/
– https://www.insidehook.com/article/chicago/100-black-owned-businesses-support
– https://do312.com/p/support-black-causes-charities-in-chicago-protests
– https://blockclubchicago.org/2020/06/05/10-black-led-chicago-groups-you-can-donate-to-now-to-make-a-difference-in-black-lives/
– https://ccfd.illinois.edu/agencies/black_united_fund_of_illinois/


2. Call your Senators and Local Officials and demand that they support the passage of HR1: For the People Act AND HR4: Voting Rights Advancement Act. These Bills will ensure equal and fair access to our most fundamental constitutional right: VOTING!
– https://www.congress.gov/bill/117th-congress/house-bill/1
– https://www.congress.gov/bill/116th-congress/house-bill/4


3. Educate yourself. If you don’t know the full history behind Juneteenth, spend some time researching.


4. Attend Juneteenth events in your area.
– https://blockclubchicago.org/2021/06/16/juneteenth-marches-picnics-parades-celebration/
– https://www.timeout.com/chicago/news/10-ways-to-celebrate-juneteenth-in-chicago-this-weekend-061721
– https://www.nytimes.com/article/juneteenth-celebration-history.html


5. Celebrate Black Joy and Excellence!

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Be Still…God is Our Refuge

God, you call me to

act for justice and mercy.

But teach me stillness.

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I like to do. I see following God as action. Faith as a verb. That is true. But what does it also mean to also ‘be still’ in God’s presence? To find stillness in God as my refuge (Psalm 46)?

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God,

I am called to act,

to do:

to advocate

to collaborate

to demand justice

to show mercy

to love profusely.

But what does it mean to be still?

To know that you are my refuge?

To find refuge

and strength

in the stillness

of God’s presence and power:

God’s love.

Lord, hear my prayer.

Amen.

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George Floyd

George Floyd.

Say his name.

Honor his memory.

Murdered

by Officer Derek Chauvin.

Murdered

by a white supremacist

militarized police state.

Murdered

for being black

and living.

But now

some semblance of justice

through accountability.

Chauvin found guilty

on all 3 charges.

2nd Degree Murder:

40 years –

but George Floyd is still dead.

3rd Degree Murder:

25 years –

but black people continue to die.

2nd Degree manslaughter:

10 years –

but a murder each day of the trial.

While we await sentencing,

we sigh a collective exhalation of relief

at this brief respite of accountability.

But we cannot replace George Floyd,

God’s beloved child,

and God’s beloved children,

who have been lost –

past and present.

But the future

is present

and we are all called

to the Christ-modeled work

of dismantling white supremacy

and demanding

imagining

transforming

an alternative to

the death dealing

militarized police state.

Say his name.

Honor his name

And let’s get to work.

Rest in power,

George Floyd.

Amen.

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What is ‘Basebuilding?’

Basebuilding:

Foundations built on faith, conviction, and justice.

Collaboration with community, church,

ancestors, prophets,

and future generations.

Unique in poetic and prophetic imagination

speaking and doing

an alternative narrative and

story into being.

Renouncing and denouncing

the narrative and

story of domination and supremacy

through a communal vision,

achievable and concrete,

grassroots grown,

in our ecclesial spaces

and beyond

for the queering and decolonizing

and expanding

and including

of Beloved Community.

Basebuilding:

Intentional connections and relationships,

with imagination,

as power

and wholistic transformation

for the well-being

of all people and creation.

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Citizenship in Heaven (Response to Philippians 3:20-21)

Our citizenship is in Heaven;

not in the systems and structures

that our societies value:

power maintenance,

economic control,

and resource exploitation,

by which people and creation are

oppressed and marginalized

for the comfort and supremacy

of a few.

Our citizenship is in Heaven;

in the Love and Justice of God

that transforms our hearts, churches, and societies

through the model of our Savior,

Jesus Christ,

and the power of

the Holy Spirit,

by power sharing,

economic jubilee –

equitable resource stewardship –

and communal creation caretaking.

Our citizenship is in Heaven

by co-creating Heaven on Earth –

this Earth –

here and now,

for all people

and creation.

Amen.

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Prayer: January 6, 2021

US Capitol

We need you, oh God.

We are flawed and messed up humans who continue to divide and hurt one another.

We beseech you to intervene in the hearts, minds, and bodies of those angry and violent in Washington, and across the country, with the conviction of truth and love.

Help us to rely on your unwavering presence as we seek justice, not violence, through the power of your Spirit.

In your mysterious and loving name.

Amen.

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