Racial Justice Archives

Westminster John Knox Press publication wins prestigious Wilbur Award from the Religion Communicators Council

Posted March 28th, 2023

Tracey Michae’l Lewis-Giggetts’ “Then They Came for Mine: Healing from the Trauma of Racial Balance,” a book published last fall by Westminster John Knox Press, has been awarded the 2023Wilbur Prize, the highest honor given by the Religion Communicators Council.

Presbyterian delegates to the 67th Commission on the Status of Women share what struck them and what they’ve taken home

Posted March 28th, 2023

Young delegates to this month’s 67th Commission on the Status of Women called the opportunity “an awesome privilege” and “memorable” in reflections completed on behalf of the ministry area that supported their time in New York City, Racial Equity & Women’s Intercultural Ministries.

Two Louisville churches, Mid-Kentucky Presbytery offer half-day workshop on implicit bias

Posted March 27th, 2023

For the last 15 years, members and friends of Shawnee Presbyterian Church and Harvey Browne Presbyterian Church in Louisville, Kentucky, have been working together to bridge the racial divide by forming a collaborative they call “The Beloved Community.”

Osage Nation scholar wraps up ‘Just Creation’ conference by retelling his nation’s creation story

Posted March 20th, 2023

By way of introducing the “Just Creation” gathering’s final keynoter, Dr. Tink Tinker, Dr. Mark Douglas of Columbia Theological Seminary said Saturday that the best conferences “deepen what I know and disrupt what I know.” Tinker, an American Indian and citizen of Osage Nation and a professor emeritus at the Iliff School of Theology in Denver, told conference-goers he is “somebody who is working very hard to decolonize my own mind and to speak out of a worldview distinctly different from the Euro-Christian worldview.”

Union Presbyterian Seminary works to expand Katie’s canon

Posted March 15th, 2023

Gone now more than four years, the Rev. Dr. Katie Geneva Cannon, one of the foremost educators in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) and the first Black woman ever ordained by a forebear denomination, lives on in the lives of the scholars whose work relies in no small part on what they learned from her.

‘This is work all Presbyterians can benefit from’

Posted March 3rd, 2023

Dr. William Yoo, whose book “What Kind of Christianity: A History of Slavery and Anti-Black Racism in the Presbyterian Church” was published last year by Westminster John Knox Press and received almost instant acclaim, including from members of the Presbyterian Mission Agency Board and from a local gathering, was the guest of the Rev. Dr. Lee Hinson-Hasty, senior director of theological education and funds development with the Committee on Theological Education and the Presbyterian Foundation Wednesday on the broadcast “Leading Theologically.”

Here’s how Presbyterians can preach about racism

Posted March 2nd, 2023

On Wednesday, the Rev. Dr. Carolyn Helsel helped preachers in and around the Synod of the Covenant to think through preaching about racism in an era of critical race theory bans.

Union Presbyterian Seminary webinar looks at the Bible as a double-edged sword

Posted March 1st, 2023

The Bible has not always been an ally in the struggle for anti-racist work, organizers of a Union Presbyterian Seminary webinar noted in publicity for their Tuesday event, “Double-Edged Sword: Paradigms of (Anti)Racism in Old Testament Scripture.”

Seven-week PC(USA) Black resistance Bible study continues through March 15

Posted February 27th, 2023

A new virtual Bible study, launched on Feb. 1 by Racial Equity and Women’s Intercultural Ministries to celebrate Black History Month, continues through mid-March with an outstanding roster of presenters. The series, called “Models of Black Resistance Past and Present,” will be hosted on Zoom with advance registration required.

Celebrating a late great presbytery

Posted February 16th, 2023

Fresh off his appearance in a 12-minute video explaining the historical importance of Catawba Presbytery, the Rev. Dr. Ed Newberry told “Leading Theologically” host the Rev. Dr. Lee Hinson-Hasty he’s been enjoying his retirement in part “to have the leisure time to explore what I’ve been curious about.”