Please join us on Tuesday, March 7th from 6-8 as St. Paul’s is honored to host the launch of Faith, Race, and the Lost Cause: Confessions of a Southern Church, by Christopher Graham. The book, an updated and expanded version of the HRI report titled Blind Spots, has new introductions and conclusions as well as some new historical material. The heartfelt and often difficult work that resulted in this book reflects St. Paul’s desire to come to terms with its past and chart a course for a more just and equitable future.

With the support of many parishioners, Graham has carefully documented the parish’s journey as it uncovered its 175+ year history and moved through often painful periods of that history. This very readable book offers the reader an opportunity to take this journey with us. Come enjoy light refreshments and a chance to meet the author and hear from Rev. Melanie Mullen who wrote the book forward.

Books will be available for purchase (and get a signed copy for yourself!).

CLICK HERE to RSVP so we can plan accordingly.

Scroll down for the live-stream link.

Join St. Paul’s parishioners Dr. Christine Luckritz Marquis and Dr. David Coogan as they co-facilitate our monthly Faith and Culture Conversations. We invite speakers who have experience with pressing issues in our community and nation, discussing them through the lenses of faith and culture.

November Topic: Faith, Culture, & Gun Violence

Featured Speaker(s): FARRHARD EL-AMIN and STAN CRADDOCK (see bios below).

This will occur in person with a possible live stream option. Conversations will last approximately an hour. Light refreshments are available before and after the conversation. CLICK HERE to RSVP.

OUR CONVERSATION PARTNER(s):

FARRHARD EL-AMIN is a community relations officer for the Richmond City Police Department, a proud father, and a part-time DJ.

STAN CRADDOCK is one of the authors of Writing Our Way Out: Memoirs from Jail, a self-taught Bible scholar, and a master gardener.

Join us online, Wednesday, November 9 @ 7 PM

Join St. Paul’s parishioners Dr. Christine Luckritz Marquis and Dr. David Coogan as they co-facilitate our monthly Faith and Culture Conversations. We invite speakers who have experience with pressing issues in our community and nation, discussing them through the lenses of faith and culture.

October Topic: Faith, Culture, & Racial Reconciliation

Featured Speaker: Danita Rountree Green. Danita Rountree Green, M.A., TLSC is a wordsmith, trauma healer and co-CEO of Coming To The Table-RVA, a nonprofit committed to racial healing in the city known as the former Capital of the Confederacy.

This will occur in person with a possible live stream option. Conversations will last approximately an hour. Light refreshments are available before and after the conversation. CLICK HERE TO RSVP.

CLICK HERE to watch the LIVESTREAM.

OUR CONVERSATION PARTNER(s):

Danita Rountree Green, M.A., TLSC is a wordsmith, trauma healer and co- CEO of Coming To The Table-RVA, a nonprofit committed to racial healing in the city known as the former Capital of the Confederacy. As the only African American in leadership of an inclusivity group in RVA, she facilitates the “courageous yet clumsy” conversation on race, social equity and the legacy of the American Slave Trade for a mixed-race audience with over 1200 online members and 300 active participants seeking to heal the wounds of the past. www.comingtothetable-rva.org

Join Chris Graham on October 15 as he walks with a group of St. Paul’s parishioners on the Slave Trail.  We will meet at 9:00 AM at St. Paul’s. Walk the trail together and then come back to the church for lunch and discussion. We should conclude our time together by 12:30 PM. RSVP Required.

CLICK HERE TO RSVP.

St. Paul’s Community Engagement is partnering with Mom’s Demand Action to host their next organizing meeting. This is an opportunity for you to learn more about what this group is doing to address issues of Gun Violence on a legislative level. You can turn your grief and frustration into positive action! Please join us on Monday, July 11, from 6:30-7:30 p.m. to learn how you can be part of Richmond Moms Demand Action. There is a place for everyone whether you have just a little time to offer or a lot. CLICK HERE to register.

We invite you to join us for this month’s media club (formerly book club, but now we include films!).

Monday, February 28th from 7:00-8:30 p.m. on Zoom.

This month’s film is My Name is Pauli Murray, which you can watch on Amazon Prime. Watch the film prior to our gathering and then join in for an engaging conversation.

Pauli Murray, born in 1910, died in 1985, was an attorney, activist, priest and poet who made a significant impact in civil rights, women’s and LGBTQ movements. Yet many have not heard of Pauli Murray. The documentary “My name is Pauli Murray”, now streaming on Amazon Prime, shows how she helped to shape landmark litigation around race and gender equity; the first person of color to receive a Doctor of Science Law at Yale Law; joined James Baldwin as one of the first Black Writers at the MacDowell Colony; co-founded the National Organization of Women, and became the first Black female priest in the U.S. Pauli Murray was added to the Episcopal Church calendar of saints in 2018.

CLICK HERE to find the film on Amazon Prime.

Please RSVP HERE. We will e-mail the zoom link prior to the meeting.

Contact Lynn Williams, Director of Community Engagement, with any questions.

Save the date for our January Faith and Culture Conversation with Dr. Jatia Wrighten, Assistant Professor of Political Science at VCU. This promises to be an engaging conversation exploring Critical Race Theory and more specifically, Dr. Wrighten’s own reflections on the intersections of faith, culture and race.

Join parishioners Dave Coogan and Christine Luckritz Marquis on Wednesday, January 12th at 7:00 p.m. on Zoom for this important conversation.

Registration is required. CLICK HERE to REGISTER.

After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the webinar. Registration is available through the end of the webinar.

Speaker Bio: Dr. Wrighten conducts research and provides instruction that emphasizes themes of equality, justice, and political effects for the most marginalized groups in the United States as an assistant professor at Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU). Her current research is on black women, state legislatures, and leadership, with an emphasis on intersectionality She was most recently awarded a research grant from the Center for Effective Lawmaking to continue her work on black women, leadership, and intersectionality. Jatia received her B.A. in political science from Virginia Commonwealth University; her M.A. in political science from the University of Maryland, College Park; and received her Ph.D. from the Schar School of Policy and Government at George Mason University, where she defended her dissertation entitled, “Who Runs the World? An Examination of Black Women and Leadership in State Legislatures.” Jatia uses her degree to teach and serve as a mentor to a future generation of scholars. When she is not researching and writing, she enjoys traveling with her family.

More details about this series:

In the Bible, faith “is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” (Hebrews 11:1) Culture, by contrast, is known in what we can see: the customs, arts, institutions and other achievements of a particular group, nation, or people. Clearly, faith and culture intersect. But how? Toward what end? Can multiple faiths and cultures exist side by side in a public life in which everyone can flourish?

These sessions will be in a Zoom webinar format.

Learn more about the co-facilitators:

David Coogan is an associate professor of English at Virginia Commonwealth University specializing in rhetoric, the teaching of writing, and prison literature. He is the author of Writing Our Way Out: Memoirs from Jail, and The Public Work of Rhetoric: Citizen-Scholars and Civic Engagement. And he is the founder and co-director of Open Minds, a program that brings service-learning classes into the Richmond City Justice Center, and the director of Write Your Way Out: A Criminal Justice Diversion Program, which enables low-level offenders in Richmond to avoid incarceration by coming to VCU to write their ways out of the narratives that lead to incarceration. Coogan hosts a podcast, Writing Our Way Out, based on the book by the same name and featuring the co-authors he met in the Richmond City Jail. You can learn more at www.writingourwayout.com.

Dr. Christine Luckritz Marquis, Associate Professor of Church History and Master of Theology Program Director at Union Presbyterian Seminary. She received her M.A.R. from Yale Divinity School, Luckritz Marquis earned her Ph.D. in Early Christian Studies from Duke University. She has been teaching at Union since 2013. Her teaching and research expertise explore early Christian communities and their practices, especially late ancient communities in Egypt, Syria, Ethiopia, and the Arabian Peninsula. Her interests include memory and spatial practices, the role of violence in identity formation, material culture, and Christian interactions with neighboring Christians as well as non-Christians, especially Jews and Muslims. Her first book, Death of the Desert, explores how memory and spatial practices were transformed by acts of violence among Egyptian ascetics (UPenn Press, 2022). When she’s not teaching or writing, she enjoys baking, gardening, and spending time with her family.