Forging a New Path
The Absalom Jones Episcopal Center for Racial Healing has been officially operating since October 2017 and happily welcomes its first long term coaching/training arrangement with the Diocese of Iowa. The conveners of the work in that Diocese sought the Center out after they received a grant from the Episcopal Church to develop an ecumenical alternative worship space with the intention of working toward dismantling racism.
The Rev. Meg Wagner and Deacon Susanne Watson-Epting are the co-directors of this exciting work and have begun to build a very solid foundation their Diocese which is designed to bring diverse groups together and to begin to build community across lines of difference that have seemed too difficult to be successfully bridged. Recently they reported during one of the coaching sessions that we have together that it is becoming apparent that they and their work are being respected and that their voices are growing stronger with each passing week of their work.
The Center provides coaching for them which is required by their grant as well as working with them to design to a plan to train ten persons in their Diocese to conduct their dismantling racism workshops. One of the Center's Training Teams went out to work with a group of interested clergy and lay people earlier this year. The group which was comprised of over fifty persons had a great experience in that day and that work will continue to be built upon as they go forward.
This summer Executive Director Catherine Meeks will lead a few days of dismantling racism work at their summer institute. The intention is to identify at least ten persons who will become capable of leading the mandated training in the Diocese of Iowa.
The work with Iowa challenges the Center to continue to imagine the ways in which to prepare to work on creating a curriculum and plan that can be used across the wider church for the purpose of assisting in training others to do the Eucharist Centered Dismantling Racism work that we offer. This is very critical because our model is unique and clearly rooted in spiritual formation which is a model that needs to be accessible to the wider church as it continues to struggle to find its way in this important work.
The Absalom Jones Episcopal Center for Racial Healing has been officially operating since October 2017 and happily welcomes its first long term coaching/training arrangement with the Diocese of Iowa. The conveners of the work in that Diocese sought the Center out after they received a grant from the Episcopal Church to develop an ecumenical alternative worship space with the intention of working toward dismantling racism.
The Rev. Meg Wagner and Deacon Susanne Watson-Epting are the co-directors of this exciting work and have begun to build a very solid foundation their Diocese which is designed to bring diverse groups together and to begin to build community across lines of difference that have seemed too difficult to be successfully bridged. Recently they reported during one of the coaching sessions that we have together that it is becoming apparent that they and their work are being respected and that their voices are growing stronger with each passing week of their work.
The Center provides coaching for them which is required by their grant as well as working with them to design to a plan to train ten persons in their Diocese to conduct their dismantling racism workshops. One of the Center's Training Teams went out to work with a group of interested clergy and lay people earlier this year. The group which was comprised of over fifty persons had a great experience in that day and that work will continue to be built upon as they go forward.
This summer Executive Director Catherine Meeks will lead a few days of dismantling racism work at their summer institute. The intention is to identify at least ten persons who will become capable of leading the mandated training in the Diocese of Iowa.
The work with Iowa challenges the Center to continue to imagine the ways in which to prepare to work on creating a curriculum and plan that can be used across the wider church for the purpose of assisting in training others to do the Eucharist Centered Dismantling Racism work that we offer. This is very critical because our model is unique and clearly rooted in spiritual formation which is a model that needs to be accessible to the wider church as it continues to struggle to find its way in this important work.