Healing Justice and Racial Equity
FPC Dallas is committed to the work of healing justice and racial equity. We follow the way of Jesus where everyone is welcome. Below are some ways that you can share in the conversations we are having. We need you. The transformation of the city is waiting.
Resources:
- Watch our 7 part sermon series Take Up Your Mat: The Healing Justice of Jesus
- This is Crucial is a live conversation and podcast focused on healing justice and racial equity. It’s about the conversations we are afraid to have, the issues we are scared to address, and the stories we have too long overlooked. Hosted by Amos J. Disasa and Charlene Han Powell, This is Crucial invites guests and listeners to come with their questions and observations, hopes and heartache. We all hail from different places but are sojourners headed in the same direction—in search of the truth that’s embodied by beloved community. Come as you are but be prepared to be transformed.
- After the Conversation is an opportunity for you to dive deeper into the topics discussed during each month’s This Is Crucial with a small group of people who are also interested in racial justice, equity, and healing. Each person in a small group is asked to make a commitment to participate in small group discussions twice a month for four months. After the Conversation small groups will create space for discomfort, risk-taking, being brave, accountability, respect, confidentiality, hope, and grace. Connect with, learn from, and share your thoughts with the same group of people, bi-weekly online at a time that works for you.
- FPC Dallas is a Matthew 25 church. Learn more about what it means to be a Matthew 25 church.
- The “Confessional Statement of Purpose” letter from the Session of FPC Dallas, shared with our congregation on July 8, 2020, is reprinted below:
Confessional Statement of Purpose
The undersigned, being all members of the Session of First Presbyterian Church of Dallas, after prayer and deliberation, adopted the following statement:
Our society has splintered under the weight of systematic oppression. Not a day goes by that we don’t see evidence of the pain and suffering caused by the consequences of our country’s unresolved past. For too long we have not done enough to bring justice to the truth that Black lives matter.
The Session of First Presbyterian Church of Dallas is resolute in our commitment to end racism. We will learn the underlying and complex issues that have deprived Black communities of hope, freedom and, too often, life. For guidance, we will engage with leaders and organizations that have confronted these inequities longer than we have. We will look internally and consider intensely.
We will pray with humility and act decisively, clinging to the grace of God in Jesus Christ.
We have long advocated for social justice. We will display the same faithfulness and commitment to racial justice, as we work to end racism and move toward reconciliation.
The statement is a first step - reflecting the Session's desire to seek unity of purpose in the work of the church and in our fellowship. Forthcoming steps involve action, as the statement itself provides. Specific ideas for action, as the Holy Spirit may lead you to form and bring forth, are welcome and appreciated.
Please send ideas to Amy Aamold, Clerk of Session, at clerk@fpcdallas.org.
In Christ,
Amy Aamold
Gail Barron
Kelly Boyington-Voelker
Rebecca Chancellor Sicks
Bill Cobb
Russ Coleman
Amos Disasa
Carol Herriage
Sharon King
David Moore
Will Pryor
Lucy Richards
Matt Soucek
Deanne Teeter
Joe Williams
Julius Zsohar III