First Church to Have “Sacred Conversation on Race”

May 18, 2008

The United Church of Christ is calling the country to have a “Sacred Conversation on Race” on Sunday, May 18. This call was partially in response to the controversy surrounding the Rev. Jeremiah Wright and Senator Barack Obama.

First Church is responding to the call by planning a special worship service and “Second Hour” for that day. Current plans by the Worship Planning Committee are to meet in the Large Assembly for worship and create a special place for contemplation and speaking our truth. Watch for more details. You can hear the UCC General Minister and President John Thomas comment on the call to this conversation in the article below.

Gwen Thomas is the Assistant Coordinator of the God is Still Speaking Initiative of the United Church of Christ. She is also the daughter of First Church member Frank Thomas and grew up in First Church. She lives and works in Cleveland. She recently sent out an email with some of her reflections on the sacred conversation about race. Here are her reflections:

As I think about our church’s recent call for a sacred conversation on race, I have been contemplating the concept of the “sacred&dquo;—about the spiritual space it suggests—not the space of stained glass and beams, but of inner awareness, of God within. When I was four, my grandfather gave me a book called “God and a Mouse” written by Sister Mary Angela Toigo and illustrated by Ted De Grazia. A series of prayers from a mouse to God, the first one reads:

Dios Mio,
my home is small. . .
the door, it is always open.
do not knock – You are always welcome
to come in.
Dios mio–
stay
with me…

This prayer places me in the sacred. It opens me to my humility—my smallness in relation to the wider world…it opens me to God… and it opens me to others—to whomever and whatever an unlocked door might bring. As I prepare for this conversation, I know that these qualities—humility and openness in the presence of God— will be essential to maintaining sacred space, to hearing the Stillspeaking God, in what I know will be both a challenging and inspiring discussion.