Letter from Lindy March 7

Good Morning Pilgrims,

I don't know about you, but I feel anxious about various states easing health and safety protocols this week, even as the vaccine rollout increases to 2 million shots a day, because the call to stay vigilant from the medical community remains loud and clear.

I am also disheartened, after a year of conversation around COVID-1619, that communities of color, which have borne the brunt of the COVID-19 pandemic in the US, are also receiving a smaller share of available vaccines. The vaccine rate for Black Americans is half that of white people, and the gap for the Latinx community is even larger. Those statistics discourage my hope that we are learning and growing in and from this past (and current) year's experience. I struggle that even now the status quo of white privilege continues unabated despite the many beloved communities like Pilgrim engaged in disrupting the systems of white supremacy. A reminder that this is hard work on a long road without an end in sight, and often markers shadowed along the way.

Pilgrim was invited into a learning experience on this journey towards God's vision of a just world for all. The name may have sounded dreary and dull, Citizen Budget Academy, yet it was anything but. Durham CAN and City officials hosted this pilot initiative to educate the gathered about the city's budget process with the specific intent that we would show up, get involved, lend our voice to how our money is spent.

Kudos to Durham's Budget Office, whose entire staff gifted us with their time and expertise. They joined the City Manager in guiding us through the process--including breakout rooms where we had to make tough decisions about allocating financial resources that did not meet demand, recommending who got what and how much. It was a long, but rewarding night, and I am a better citizen participant for it. Many thanks to Tinu Diver, CAN's lead organizer for creating this opportunity.

In addition to this exercise, Pilgrim's Race & Equity Team met with Mt. Level Partnership for Racial Justice to explore whether we are being called to join in this partnership of conversation, education and action. We were blessed and challenged by the Mt. Level leaders to see if Pilgrim was ready to dive deeper across theological and ecumenical lines.

Within the fellowship of Pilgrim, our second session of our Lenten series: Race and our stories continued to engage in the important internal exploration of whiteness through a racial justice lens--another necessary step in dismantling the structures of white supremacy. I am so grateful for all those who choose to show up to do this hard work. For in so doing, I believe we are responding to our siblings of color who ask us not to lay this responsibility on their desk to lead or guide This many years/decades in, they are exhausted from having to teach us (again & again) how unjust our world is and how far we are from God's vision.

When I look back at this week's work, I find myself grateful. For each reminds me that Pilgrim is taking these necessary and important steps. And even if they feel small, they move us forward.

Shalom,
Pastor Lindy