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Racial Injustice: From Complicity to Commitment – Oct. 2-4 Online

Dear Friends,

We are writing to you today in hopes that you, along with members of your congregation, will participate in the Christians for Racial Justice Conference on Zoom October 2-4, a weekend of listening to voices of Christians of color who are on the front lines of combating racial injustice.  We’ve asked our exceptional conference speakers to speak to those of us in predominantly white churches with loving candor and honesty about the church’s complicity in racial injustice. We hope they will help us move from that complicity to overcome racial injustice in our own hearts and minds, so we may be able to commit, with energy and compassion, to the collective work of change in the church and in our communities. Our desire for this conference is that it will be a time of honest discovery, deepened understanding, calls to action, and hope.

Our six speakers are well known, dedicated Christians leaders who are involved in issues of racial justice and the church:

  • Jemar Tisby, author of The Color of Compromise: The Truth about the American Church’s Complicity in Racism

  • Michael McBride, Pastor at The Way Christian Center in Berkeley, Director for the LIVE FREE Campaign, national faith leader activist

  • Alexia Salvatierra, Assistant Professor at Fuller Theological Seminary, Lutheran pastor, and co-author of Faith-Rooted Organizing: Mobilizing the Church in Service to the World

  • Dominique DuBois Gilliard, Director of Racial Righteousness and Reconciliation for the Evangelical Covenant Church and author of Rethinking Incarceration: Advocating for Justice that Restores

  • Raymond Chang, President and Co-founder of the Asian American Christian Collaborative and Campus Minister at Wheaton College

  • Kamal Hassan, Pastor of Sojourner Truth Presbyterian Church in Richmond, CA and leader in the SF Presbytery Anti-Racism and Justice Response

Conversations will be facilitated by:

  • Mark Labberton, Former Senior Pastor at First Presbyterian Church of Berkeley, President of Fuller Theological Seminary, and former Pastor at First Presbyterian Church of Berkeley

  • Charlene Han Powell, Senior Pastor at First Presbyterian Church of Berkeley and former Executive Pastor at Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church

Our hope is to bring together delegations from Bay Area faith communities who are interested in exploring how to move forward as people of faith — individually and as a collective — to “love our neighbor,” across racial lines in both interpersonal and systemic ways. Perhaps our congregations can partner and learn from each other! Would you please consider attending and letting your congregation know about the event? I would love to speak with you personally about this opportunity and learn more about your congregation. Please contact me, maechanx2@gmail.com or call/text (510) 220-7419.

Visit the conference website to read more about our speakers and topics, the conference schedule, and to register. Please note that if you register before September 21 the conference is free, after that date the cost is $25.

On behalf of the conference organizers,

Mae Chan

First Presbyterian Church of Berkeley congregant and volunteer
maechanx2@gmail.com
(510) 220-7419 cell

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