By now you’ve probably already seen notice of the New Day Rising Conference coming to a EN-US”>virtual EN-US”>screen near you on February 27EN-US”>thEN-US”>. New Day Rising will be a fantastic day, full of worship, workshops and EN-US”>identity-based EN-US”>caucusing to inspire and educate about the work of dismantling white supremacy culture.

The core of New Day Rising, however, are the congregational stories you’ll be able to see on your own time. Congregations from around the country have EN-US”>recordedEN-US”> ten or so minutes to describe the work they’re doing at home and share them with you. Our hope is that these stories will spark your imagination, courage and creativity, so that you can continue your own good work in your congregation.

My hope is that these videos EN-US”>don’t describeEN-US”> shining success stories, because we know that’s not real. What’s real is when a congregation commits to dismantling white supremacy culture within its walls or in the world, decides on EN-US”>itsEN-US”> next faithful step in the work, gets started, runs into messiness and complication, and recommits and tries some more.

This work is hard and the problem we’re tackling is centuries old at least. It won’t be “fixed” in a church year or through a EN-US”>detailed EN-US”>strategic plan. Maybe we’ll never see anything “fixed” in our lifetimes. But we have some experience and we know what will help. The things that will help are our commitment, EN-US”>our tenacity, EN-US”>and our love. These videos will be a testament to the small ways in which those qualities are already at work in our congregations. I bet your congregation has EN-US”>at least EN-US”>a bit of those qualities already, too.

New Day Rising hopes to inspire more and more EN-US”>commitmentEN-US”>, EN-US”>tenacity and love in each of its attendeesEN-US”>, so that we can move towards a world of more equity and more justiceEN-US”>. Please join us for this important day.