”The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me, because the Lord has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners.” (Jesus, in Luke 4:18)
After the tragic murders of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, and Breonna Taylor in May and June of 2020, a racial reckoning swept through our nation. Thousands fled to the streets in demonstrations and marches rightly declaring that “Black Lives Matter.” Dozens of clergy here in the Boston area organized gatherings in support of racial equity. UniteBoston partnered with other local organizations to host “Boston Pray,” a service of prayer and proclamation in the Boston Common that drew a crowd of 1,000 and received widespread media attention.
Yet, the work to uphold Jesus’ call to set the captives free is far from over. Today, I am honored to share a bit about UniteBoston’s journey in our racial equity work and inspire you in steps you can take in your own city.
As the leader of UniteBoston, a grassroots ecumenical organization that I founded in the Boston area, I seek to discern how the Church can come together to join God’s work towards redemption and flourishing in our communities. Last fall, through various conversations, I heard about eleven different local churches who had hosted book groups using the “Be the Bridge:Pursuing God’s Heart for Racial Reconciliation” curriculum from Latasha Morrison. Pastors spoke highly of the value of this curriculum to foster important learning, yet often were frustrated by the lack of racial diversity in groups from their own congregations. Unfortunately, Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s statement that “Sunday morning is the most segregated hour in this nation,” still rings true – which makes UniteBoston’s work to bridge historic divides in the Church all the more necessary.
Thus, last September, UniteBoston’s leadership team decided to host our own “Be the Bridge” groups in order to bring together Christians from many backgrounds to learn about God’s heart for racial reconciliation and justice. 28 people from 20 churches engaged in weekly conversation with Latasha Morrison’s “Be the Bridge” curriculum, which instills a biblically-grounded understanding of the process of restorative reconciliation – including lament, confession, and forgiveness, before moving towards righting wrongs and restoring relationships.
I was impacted deeply by this journey as I began to better understand the pervasive nature of sinful racist policies within our nation’s history and also in the Church. As a white person, it was powerful for me to hear stories about how my brothers and sisters were discriminated against on a daily basis simply because of the color of their skin, and the pervasive inequities that continue to persist preventing persons of color from flourishing. Here is a snapshot into one of our Zoom gatherings:
In the spring, our leadership team sought to build on this internal learning to help people understand various initiatives that are happening in Greater Boston towards systemic racial justice and nurture friendships across churches for accountability and support. UniteBoston coordinated a 5-part speaker series highlighting local Christians who were actively working towards economic justice, housing justice, education justice, and more. 35 individuals in four small groups joined for bimonthly conversations to unpack their learnings and discuss the steps they can take to work towards reconciliation, equity, and justice in their day-to-day lives. Below are a few photos from our in-person BBQ on Juneteenth to conclude our fall and spring groups. You can watch the Zoom recordings from our speaker series here.
While UniteBoston has hosted other collaborative initiatives throughout the last ten years, such as our inter-church events calendar and united prayer gatherings, this was one of the first times that we had hosted weekly learning groups. I began to see that large demonstrations are powerful, but often the most transformative moments happen when we create space for cultivating deep sharing and relationship building across Christians of diverse backgrounds. Morgan Crago, one of the group participants, shared, “I feel now that I have a group of friends and peers living in different parts of the city, from different kinds of churches, who I can reach out to as our churches in the Boston area seek to work together across racial lines and for racial justice.” Similarly, Pradeepan Parthiban, one of our small group leaders, shared that he “gained many new brothers and sisters, white and people of color, to walk with and co-labor with on the complex issue of racial justice.”
Personally, I began to see how much I don’t know, and have been blind to, throughout my life, and how being white shapes how I operate in the world. I realized that this type of work isn’t peripheral, but intrinsic to the gospel, and I have now made a personal commitment to continue learning and working for racial justice as core to my personal mission as a follower of Jesus Christ.
I encourage all ecumenical leaders to consider utilizing the Be the Bridge curriculum in your organizations through hosting inter-racial learning groups. It is a practical way in which the body of Christ can lean into Christ’s mission to set the captives free and liberate the oppressed (Isaiah 61:1; Luke 4:18).I also want to encourage leaders to continue pressing into the work towards racial equity and healing. 15 months after the large “black lives matter” marches, some may be feeling that they need to move on. Yet, many have also been newly awakened to the ongoing struggles and oppression experienced by persons of color. We must continue “fighting the good fight” together to see the real transformative impact that honors the inherent image of God. In coming together to nurture racial healing, we can strengthen our common witness and model the kingdom of God that Jesus declared and that the world is longing to see.
Rev. Kelly Fassett is an ordained minister with the American Baptist Churches of Massachusetts. She has served as the founder and Executive Director of UniteBoston since 2012 and has been the catalyst for UniteBoston’s bridge-building work among Christians in the region.
