The image of Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin kneeling on the neck of George Floyd for almost 9 minutes until Floyd stopped breathing and died on May 25 is seared in my memory.

With his hand tucked nonchalantly in his pocket and sunglasses perched atop his head, Chauvin was the picture of cold oppression, and it was this coolness that repulsed me in a visceral way that other White-cop-on-Black-victim murders hadn’t.

That video sickened millions of people across the Great Racial Divide and sparked protests throughout the United States. It’s as if many of us shouted in unison: Enough! Enough. We could no longer look away.

As our co-pastors wrote recently, “The racial protests this Summer were born of tragedy, but they were also an opening. An opportunity, if we’ll take it, to make meaningful steps toward becoming truly anti-racist, as individual Christians and as a church.”

Montview is taking meaningful steps on multiple levels. The program staff is engaged in a six-month course of intensive study. Montview’s supper clubs are following a curriculum set up by the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). Rebecca Gale and Marilynn Ackermann have taught three-week classes followed by on-going meetings led by Marilynn to identify concrete ways to promote equity.

Embarking on yet another path is a baker’s dozen of congregants led by Dianne Briscoe McKenzie and Leah Oliver. The Anti-Racism Trust Team is engaged in 10 weeks of study facilitated by Rev. Shavon Starling-Louis of Charlotte, N.C.

I met with Dianne and Leah over Zoom recently to talk about their work.

Dianne is a retired judge with Denver County Court, choir member and mother of three. Her mother was a noted civil rights activist who instilled in Dianne a sense of justice and equity.

Leah is an active mother of four. She has a professional background in social work and public policy. She and her husband, Scott, are also adoptive parents, and anti-racism work is especially important to them.

“Anti-racism work is absolutely a priority for me in my life and, I believe, in our church right now,” says Leah.

The co-chairs started by interviewing candidates to facilitate the Trust Team’s journey. All encouraged them not to jump into the work with a goal of “fixing” the problem, but to begin with individual study and with developing trust and a common vocabulary as a team.

“Shavon’s spirituality stood out for me,” says Dianne.

Adds Leah, “Shavon talks about anti-racism work being important because we all come from a place of brokenness. [Shavon] emphasizes grace-based work rather than shame-based work.”

In January, the team began meeting on Zoom twice a month, completing five sessions over 10 weeks with deep dives into journaling and reflection in between.

The team members are diverse in terms of racial identification, age, and interests. The other members are Marilynn Ackermann, Sylvia Cordy, Jim Cummings, Allen Harder (youth elder), Suzy King (elder), Marjorie Lewis, Ben Lusz (deacon), Matt McConville, Malcolm Newton, Natalie Palacios and Deb Saint-Phard. Amanda Osenga is the team’s staff liaison.

Dr. Ibram X. Kendi, author and professor, coined or popularized the term “antiracist” in his 2019 book, “How to Be an Antiracist.” Leah and Dianne explained that Kendi’s concept is that it’s not enough to say “I’m not racist, I’m a good person.” Instead, we are called to actively work to dismantle racism.

“Even though Montview has a long, well-known history of working for social justice, an active commitment to becoming an anti-racist church is new territory,” says Leah. “Antiracism is on the hearts of many in our congregation. It’s God’s work. The church needs to respond and not be complicit in a history of racism.”

Both of the co-chairs are open to where the team’s journey will go at the end of its period of intensive study. The co-pastors, who selected the Trust Team, did not prescribe a specific end-product. Instead, they have encouraged the team to commit to deep heart work, discernment and listening for the Spirit to guide them.

“This work is about what Christ calls us to do – love others by demonstrating the love Christ has for all others.”  For Dianne, anti-racism work is a continuation of her mother’s work to dismantle discrimination.

“I think a church can be an anti-racist church with or without the number of people in the congregation including numerous multi-ethnic persons.”

How the work of these 14 disciples will spread to the rest of the congregation is yet to be determined.

Rev. Starling-Louis says she’s helping to create the framework for the team to discern its next steps. She is guided in her work by a decade of facilitating and by three phases described by Jemar Tisby in “The Color of Compromise: The Truth about the American Church’s Complicity in Racism.” The three phases spell A-R-C.

The first is Awareness. “We aren’t really taught the story of race,” says Rev. Starling-Louis. Building awareness with the PBS series and the journal, and grounding those teachings in theology, is the “meat and potatoes of how we ended up where we are.”

Relationship is the R in A-R-C. “We work on understanding the work of the church and, from that awareness, building more relationships,” she says.

The last step is Commitment, or where we are called to be committed in race work.

“We’re looking at who’s in the room uniquely, who they’re related to in the church system (i.e., deacon, elder), and mapping that out in ways that can carry the work forward,” she says. “They can go deeper in the spaces where they have connections.”

She has witnessed deep relationships form within the Trust Team. “I have zero doubt that the commitment will occur,” she says. “It’s really about being faithful in that learning posture.”

Rev. Starling-Louis will bring her message to the wider Montview community when she preaches on March 21.

In the meantime, the Trust Team invites the congregation to check out the series and study guide that have been its primary resources. You can purchase “What Lies Between Us Journal & Guide: Fostering First Steps Toward Racial Healing,” on Amazon for $10 and use it individually or in community with others. The three-part video, “RACE: The Power of an Illusion,” can be rented on Vimeo for $4.99.

Watch Sylvia Cordy’s interview with our Program Staff on their recent anti-racism training with NEXT Church HERE.

– Submitted by Jan Paul