The Adams Center and Charis (the Center for Heritage and Renewal in Spirituality) will be conducting a reading/discussion lunch group this semester focused on issues of “Race and ACU.”
Some of you were involved in the reading group last semester that examined two books that looked historically and theologically at how we have handled issues of race in Churches of Christ. At the end of that experience, everyone said the conversation about these matters needed to continue, but in a way that could lead to some positive and specific ways of tackling the complex layers of how race functions in our lives as Christians.
Carson Reed and Doug Foster will lead the discussion and supply all participants with key documents before each meeting. These range from speeches and reports from two “Race relations Workshops” in 1968, Optimist articles from the 1970s about events on ACU’s campus, to recent drafts of the “Diversity” section of the Strategic Plan and a document with a proposal for ACU faculty hiring practices. These documents will set the context and help us make proposals for how we might help ACU deal in a constructive and godly way with issues of deep-seated psychological separation of the races–what some call racialization–of church, school and society.
If you would commit to being part of this lunch conversation, please reply and let Lyndi Jo (churchrelations@groupmail.acu.edu ) know asap. If you have questions, don’t hesitate to reach out to Carson or Doug. The dates for the meetings are:
Race and ACU Charis/Adams Center Reading Group
January 29
February 26
March 26
April 23