Sacred Ground
by Meg Fitch
This summer's Bible Study and exploration of racial injustice stirred in many of us a deep desire to take responsibility. We realized how much we needed to wake up to the reality of being White. So the Adult Ed committee has been planning and arranging. Beginning in January, we will be hosting the 6-part series Sacred Ground. This series is described on the National Church website as "a film and readings based dialogue series on race, grounded in faith." It was designed and written by Katrina Browne who produced and directed the documentary Traces of the Trade: A Story from the Deep North.
It is designed for small dialogue circles of white people talking with white people. From the website: "Ijeoma Oluo, a woman of color, put it this way: 'White people: I don't want you to understand me better; I want you to understand yourselves.'" BIPOC folk (Black, Indigenous + People of Color) have been saying for years that White people need to do their work to understand themselves and their history if our society is going to change for real.
This is both food for the mind and spiritual formation, designed to address the heart and the soul. It includes our personal stories as well as the country's. It is designed to help open us to what hurts in these stories and for us to support each other as we touch those hurts. And to do it in the context of our faith, of the Gospel.
It is because of the deeply spiritual aspect of this approach that we are so excited about it. We knew that as it is such sensitive material we needed to find experienced facilitators. By God's Grace, we found two women who have led this several times. They are friends of Rachel Field, priest working in Brandon and at Mission Farm. They run a retreat house in Maryland, but thanks to Zoom, can easily "come" to Vermont.
Now for the nitty-gritty:
The 6 sessions will be every other Tuesday from 4-6 pm beginning on January 5th
You need to register! Please email me at: mvf@shoreham.net as soon as possible. A circle can include no more than 15 in addition to the facilitators and we have to determine whether we're going to run two sessions. (I'd love to have an evening session for people who can't come in the daytime.)
Take a look at the website https://episcopalchurch.org/sacred-ground. This is a serious commitment. Unlike other Adult Ed programs, we can't dip in and out; we need to commit to all 6 sessions. (You will see on the website, it's described as 10. Francie and Libby, our facilitators have re-worked the material to make it 6)
Thanks to a generous anonymous donation, we will provide the two books. Everything else is online. Once you've registered we can provide you with the pass code to access the online materials. Because of the National Church's license only participants can have that pass code.