SACRED CONVERSATION ON RACE (SCOR) PROJECT AT FIRST CHURCH SOMERVILLE (FCS)
REPORT

Prepared for the FCS Council by the SCOR Steering Committee
together with Meck Groot, Project Consultant

September 2009

In November 2008, First Church Somerville was given a grant of $7500 from the Barnes Fund to carry out a series of activities and events that would invite reflection, exploration and conversation on race and systemic racism. These activities and events the grant was give to support included:

• A “kick off” worship service on MLK Sunday
• An all-day workshop on systemic racism and spiritual leadership
• A 13 week Study Circle
• A evening panel on racism and whiteness
• An evening of arts and entertainment on themes of race, racism and whiteness
• A game night
• A movie night
• A final celebration

The project design also included the formation of a Steering Committee charged with the task of further developing and executing the demands of the project. The Steering Committee included nine parishioners (Joan Dolamore, Tim Duhamel, LaTayna Purnell,  Rita Rocha, Michelle Scholfield, Pete Shungu, Cindy Stewart), Rev. Laura Ruth Jarrett and the project consultant Meck Groot. Our meetings were held in the spirit of sacred conversation and as we planned, our collective understanding of the dynamics and issues surrounding race and racism deepened and we gained some skills for and familiarity with the conversation.

While the set of activities outlined in the project proposal acted as a framework, as our planning progressed we adapted the framework to accommodate the realities of life at FCS as well as to invite wider participation. In particular, changes were made to the proposed schedule and, the following were added as a way of more fully “anchoring” the project in the life of the congregation and Davis Square community:

1)       We solicited the buy-in from 9 other mainline congregations in the Davis Square community to devote a Sunday service to focusing on race;

2)       We organized the inclusion of brief testimonials into weekly Sunday worship on the question, “Why SCOR is important to me.” Each week a different committee member took their turn to testify;

3)       We invited members of the congregation to engage in conversations on race during coffee hour after services, designating a particular table as the one at which the conversation would be held.

 There were also a few other revisions to the list of plans, including

• Elimination of a games night
• Three movie nights, not just one
• A reduction in the number of weeks for the Study Circle from 13 to 9

Besides careful conceptualization of each event, our work as a committee involved marketing the public events; recruiting participation from the congregation, mission partners, and wider community; networking with other churches in the Davis Square community; and taking care of logistics around registration, refreshments, equipment, space, etc. Members among us also stepped into leadership roles such as MC’ing the arts event and moderating the panel.

Participation in the various activities in terms of numbers broke down roughly as follows:

We recognize that completion of a set of proposed activities and tasks only addresses the rudimentary obligation of a project. Completion indicates a measure of success but it does not indicate whether or not our efforts have been effective in meeting the objectives of the project. As stated in the proposal for funding to the Barnes Fund, FCS’s overall goal is “to become known in our community for our theological and spiritual leadership on behalf of the community regarding the transformation of whiteness and the undoing of racism.” This goal is not about “looking good” so much as demonstrating a level of awareness and experience as a congregation that can be of benefit not just to our own congregation but to the wider communities we are part of.

The objective of this project in furthering our goal was “to examine the role of whiteness in our congregation, neighborhood and wider community.” Determining how effective we have been in meeting this particular objective and thus moving toward our larger goal is not easy and requires more resources than the project has access to at this point. However, surveys designed to solicit basic feedback do indicate a certain level of both success and effectiveness.

As shown in the survey results appended to this report, by far the majority of respondents rank the activities they participated in as “valuable” and “highly valuable.” This means that every activity was considered by most people to have value, even high value.

More particularly, the majority of survey respondents indicated that each of the following was either “true” or “absolutely true” for their participation in this project:

• taught me more about how racism operates in our society (72%)
• gave me greater comfort and/or skills for engaging in conversation on race (56%)
• allowed me to participate in conversations on race that felt respectful of who I am (84%)
• has helped me see the value of engaging in sacred conversation on race as a community (88%)
• supported me to discern my own truth about issues of race and racism (61%)
• helped me to feel more connected to the FCS community (55%)
• made me proud to be a member of First Church Somerville (100%)

Furthermore, the majority of respondents indicated that, from their perspective, engagement in this project by FCS:

• demonstrates the congregation’s commitment to being and becoming an inclusive and welcoming congregation (94%)
• demonstrates the congregation’s commitment to social justice (94%)
• has grown the congregation’s capacity as a community to address difficult issues (67%)
• has helped build community at FCS (83%)

The survey responses also highlight a few weak areas and challenges:

• Not everyone who wanted them found satisfying opportunities to engage in conversations on race among the activities offered
• The pacing of activities was very demanding and caused some strain on people’s time and energy. This combined with so much of the project happening during the busy season of Lent created stress that might have been avoided.
• Limited involvement in the project by Mission Partners seems to indicate the need for stronger relationships between FCS as a community and the membership of the Mission Partners
• Limited participation by the Davis Square community in the project’s public events

At the same time, however, some clergy within the Metro Boston Association of the Mass Conference of the UCC have taken an interest in the unfolding of this project and have asked to know more about what FCS has learned and can offer to other congregations looking to do something similar. This indicates that to some degree, the project has moved FCS further along its path toward its goal of becoming known in its community for its theological and spiritual leadership on behalf of the community regarding the transformation of whiteness and the undoing of racism.