Absalom Jones and Us
Though we celebrated the Feast Day for Absalom Jones a few days ago, his indomitable spirit is always near us daily. Since our Center for Racial Healing bears his name, we are challenged each day that we walk through the front door to remember his courage and fortitude. We are reminded about his understanding that being a Christian entail having a higher standard for the way that one travels on life’s journey than is true if no such claim is made.
It is our understanding of the need to strive for that higher standard that challenged us to imagine the Center as a brave space where the truth can be told. While we are careful not to imagine ourselves and this Center as the only source of truth especially when it comes to racial healing, we do want to embody as much truth as possible. Truth telling around race is not an easy experience to create, but it is the only way that sustainable racial healing can occur.
We have moved our conversations on race forward from reconciliation to racial healing because we can clearly see from literature and experience that there has been little to no genuine relationship building between whites and people of color in America. Though we managed a myriad of transactions across lines of race over the past decades, as a rule they did not develop into relationships between equals. Thus, we are working in the present era to develop honest relationships as they emerge out of our efforts to be racially healed. We must do much more than mend past brokenness. Absalom Jones’ tenacity and faith mirror that for us all and calls us to be honest about the nature of the work before us.
We do not have the right to bear his name as a Center if we fail to be a voice for the deep and difficult work that lies ahead of us as we seek to make spaces where change can really emerge. Along with this work we endeavor to make Absalom Jones a more well- known member of our community. This intention has led us to create small bookmarks with a portion of his biography and we offer this newsletter as a part of that information sharing process also. We are committing to making sure that we do not confine our remembrances of him to February.
Though we celebrated the Feast Day for Absalom Jones a few days ago, his indomitable spirit is always near us daily. Since our Center for Racial Healing bears his name, we are challenged each day that we walk through the front door to remember his courage and fortitude. We are reminded about his understanding that being a Christian entail having a higher standard for the way that one travels on life’s journey than is true if no such claim is made.
It is our understanding of the need to strive for that higher standard that challenged us to imagine the Center as a brave space where the truth can be told. While we are careful not to imagine ourselves and this Center as the only source of truth especially when it comes to racial healing, we do want to embody as much truth as possible. Truth telling around race is not an easy experience to create, but it is the only way that sustainable racial healing can occur.
We have moved our conversations on race forward from reconciliation to racial healing because we can clearly see from literature and experience that there has been little to no genuine relationship building between whites and people of color in America. Though we managed a myriad of transactions across lines of race over the past decades, as a rule they did not develop into relationships between equals. Thus, we are working in the present era to develop honest relationships as they emerge out of our efforts to be racially healed. We must do much more than mend past brokenness. Absalom Jones’ tenacity and faith mirror that for us all and calls us to be honest about the nature of the work before us.
We do not have the right to bear his name as a Center if we fail to be a voice for the deep and difficult work that lies ahead of us as we seek to make spaces where change can really emerge. Along with this work we endeavor to make Absalom Jones a more well- known member of our community. This intention has led us to create small bookmarks with a portion of his biography and we offer this newsletter as a part of that information sharing process also. We are committing to making sure that we do not confine our remembrances of him to February.