The United Church of Christ is spending time this late winter looking at racism within the Christian church, working through its "Let's Talk Race" program.
The process started with the virtual showing of the documentary "White Savior: Racism in the American Church" Monday evening. The program returns March 7 for a series of virtual events through April 11.
It's not a new issue, with Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. calling 11 o'clock on Sunday morning the most segregated hour of Christian America. That's what the movie is about, from church involvement in the early days of slavery to racially disparate churches today.
Rev. Dr. Marsha Williams said this is an in-depth look at racism and religion.
"We are going to go on a journey together, looking at issues surrounding issues of race," she said. "We like to try to say, we try to cover from the roota to the toota, but there's just so much, but we're going to start looking from a historical perspective."
There is a lot of history in the movie, going back to well before explorer Christopher Columbus, which is the pillar around which the discussion will revolve.
Rev. Gary Smith said what's needed is far beyond what some would call reconciliation.
"You have an issue with your sister or brother, leave your offering, go be reconciled and then come back. So reconciliation is something in many contexts really good and important," Smith said. "But when it comes to race and racial justice work, we can't have reconciliation until we have justice and we can't have justice until we have equity."
Participant Ginger Comstock, whose husband was a doctor who participated in volunteer medical work in Honduras, said doctors needed training in understanding.
"You don't go in as an American who knows everything. You go in to learn from them and help by doing what they need to be done," Comstock said. "You're not the savior. You're not the teacher. You're the learner and you walk with them, not ahead of them."
Participants said ending racism in the church isn't something that will be completed in the next year or the next decades, but is a generational project.
