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Multicultural Seminar Series
Presented by “It Takes A Village”
Sponsored by The People of Color (POC) Discussion Group
and the Anti-Racist White Caucus (ARWC)
As an open and affirming, reconciling, anti-racist institution we believe that all God’s people are valued and should have equal access and voice at the table of life. To accomplish this it takes the whole village learning and living together. We invite everyone to participate in a series of seminars which address issues that so often surface in multicultural congregations.
When: Select Saturdays from 10 am to 1 pm.
The dialogue will address some of these topics and more:
· Diversity: what is it and how can we get there?
· Defining multiculturalism
· Living inclusivity and radical hospitality
· Anti-racism: keeping everyone at the table
· White privilege: Is it real?
· “isms” — breaking down walls — moving beyond oppressive barriers
· Understanding systemic racism: Who benefits? Who is harmed?
· Confronting racism, sexism, heterosexism and other oppressions
Saturday, February 18, 2012 from 10am to 1pm in the Wesley Room.
Multicultural Series – Welcoming the Stranger continues
“We have no idea who these people are, where they are going, or what they want.” This statement was made by US Representative Gabrielle Gifffords. “The millions of undocumented immigrants living in the United States are at the center of the immigration dilemma. For many Americans, the issue is compounded by a great confusion about who these undocumented immigrants are.” (from Welcoming the Stranger)
In our series this month we will highlight information from chapters 4-7 in the book Welcoming the Stranger and we will hear immigration stories, some from our own community and beyond. In the forward of our book written by Leith Anderson, she states, “…every immigrant story is a personal story. Behind the statistics and politics are stories of mothers and fathers, sons and daughters, husbands and wives. There are millions of stories that vary as much as race, nationality, gender and faith.”
We invite you to join us to share, to listen and to learn.
Saturday, November 19, 2011
The People of Color Discussion Group and Anti-Racist White Caucus present a three workshop series on Welcoming the Stranger: The Immigration Story. We will discuss at length the history and complexity of the immigration debate. What are the ethical, spiritual and social implications? Using the book Welcoming the Stranger by Matthew Soerens and Jenny Hwang to set the context, we begin the dialogue on November 19, 2011 and continue the conversation on February 18, 2012 and May 19, 2012. All workshop will meet from 10 am to 1 pm in the Wesley Room. Hope to see you there.
Please join us — and bring a friend!
We continue our discussion of radical inclusion with part two of the film “The Color of Fear.”
Eight North American men, two African American, two Latinos, two Asian American and two Caucasian, were gathered by director Lee Mun Wah, for a dialog about the state of race relations in America as seen through their eyes. The exchanges are sometimes dramatic, and put in plain light the pain caused by racism in North America.
We hope you can join as the dialogue continues…
In our last workshop we explored similarities and differences; discovering that even in our differences our stories connect. We continue our multi-cultural series and take a deeper look at the intersections of our stories, naming and valuing our diversity. One of the resources we will use for this workshop is Audre Lorde and she states in “Sister Outsider”: Too often, we pour the energy needed for recognizing and exploring difference into pretending those differences are insurmountable barriers, or that they do not exist at all. This results in a voluntary isolation, or false and treacherous connections.