Congregation-wide Conversation Tuesday April 23 It has been so heartening to know that so many of you have taken part in our common read White Fragility; Why it’s So Hard for White People to Talk About Race these last few months. So far, more than 60 of you have joined or are scheduled to take part in one of the several small-group facilitated conversations and many more of you are reading this important book.

It is my hope that regardless of where you are in the process – whether you have been part of a small group or not – whether you have finished the book or not — that you will join members of the MMI and me for a larger extended conversation about the book, where we are as a congregation and what next steps we will take together.

As I said in my sermon introducing our common read in January, “We need to trust one another and ourselves to have the difficult conversations — to listen — to know that regardless of where we are on our journeys we will be heard — to allow each other to not be perfect — or graceful — to make mistakes — to keep on going — to allow each other the chance to learn and grow together.

By choosing to lean-in to the conversation about white supremacy culture and white fragility we are actively resisting the familiar patterns of complacency, inertia and socialization. By leaning-in we are accepting the invitation to real relationship — to building the world we dream about.

While we might not like how those words make us feel — the even harsher reality is that others are literally dying because we refuse to address white supremacy culture and white fragility in our world and here at FUUSN.”

I’m looking forward to our continuing conversation.