– Bescye P Burnett, Harbor District Anti-Racism Team
My expressions from the learning session on the book Wait, Is This Racist? A Guide to Becoming an Anti-racist Church by Kerry Connelly, Bryana Clover and Josh Riddick. There were many times in the reading and studying of the book I had to pause…ponder… pray. I found it difficult to hold what the authors were telling me. Deep inside I knew it was true in the way I held so many of the ideologies around our ministry on anti-racism in the church.
It was in the chapter on “Buildings and Grounds” (can you even imagine) and the section on “The Power of Space and Place”. “Space and place hold power because they define us as much as we define them. Because the spaces we move through define us, they also define the way we act… There are other ways that behavior and power are defined by space. Who has access to a space, who is considered “in charge” of a place, who holds “ownership” are all ways of defining both identity and power. In turn, whoever holds power makes the rules and defines what behavior is accepted within the space”.
Immediately, I found the word to hold “space and place” in my soul. It was with God’ grace. Place and Space and Grace or for me “A place in this space of grace!”
And so to share with the Sisters and Cojourners as part of our recent Covenant Ceremony…
A place in this space of grace….To The Franciscan Cojourners and Sisters of of Assisi Heights, Rochester, Minnesota.
A….. Place
In this place I was given a place…. no mask… no shame… no guilt… no either/or… place of prayer… a place of contemplation… a place of listening to God… a place of openness…. a place of oneness….. a place of letting God hold me… a place of both/and… a place of authenticity…. this place…. a place of peace… where God is God and I can be….
In this… Space of open hearts… open minds… souls…. this community of the Sisters and Cojourner… Like so many of the spaces I hold in and on my soul….. Charles Burnett…. my family…. my friends…. the NC Conference of UMC Harbor District Anti-Racism Team: Living into the Beloved Community….. United Women in Faith… Faith Harbor United Methodist Church… intercultural competency and cultural humility… individual debriefs…. group debriefs… healing and cure. I will commit to you the Sisters and Cojourners as a child of God to do whatever God allows me to hold in this space… my heart… my soul… for this is first for me in this this place… this space
This place… this space
Of….. God’s GRACE…. God’s MERCY…. God’s LOVE…. unconditionally
I Struggle…
To live
To laugh
To care
To hope
To feel
I struggle…
But…
Never to love
You for who you are
For Me for who I am
For Us for who we can be…. together with the Unity that comes from God.
This place… this space… of GRACE
(I use periods to allow the space of and for grace)
Presented to the Franciscan Sisters and Cojourners of the Third Order of St. Francis at Assisi Heights in Rochester, Minnesota on October 2, 2022.