October 21-22
A weekend of contemplative programs and services for recommitting ourselves to the ongoing work of truth telling, racial justice, and healing to foster God’s Beloved Community.
October 21
Please register HERE (limit 25) by Monday, October 16th.
Walking with the Enslaved: The Church’s Role in Slavery, a pilgrimage with lunch and reflection
9 AM – 2:00 PM, Gather and return to St. Paul’s
Ms. Nikki Fernandes and Rev. Ben Campbell will lead a walk along the Richmond Enslaved Persons Trail followed by lunch and group reflection. The trail is nearly 3-miles, running from the Manchester Docks, where enslaved Africans both entered and left Virginia, to Robert Lumpkin’s Slave Jail. The 2 ½ hour walk closes with reflection and conversation over lunches at St. Paul’s where we will reflect on the role of the Church in Richmond’s domestic slave trade, the systemic impacts of this on our city today, and how we are called to be co-creators of God’s Beloved Community into the future.
Please register HERE (limit 25) by Monday, October 16th.
A Day with The Warmth: Imagining Beyond
9 AM – 2:00 PM, Parish House
Join us for this special creative writing workshop on racial healing with interns from The Warmth. Founded in 2020, The Warmth is a budding community of young Black thinkers devoted to cultivating critical thinking and creativity for the sake of personal health, self-efficacy, and communal flourishing. Siatta Kaba, Micah White, and M Kamara, Warmth alumni and interns, will be leading you through what a day at The Warmth is like! The workshop will include guided prompts on imagination’s role in racial healing and small group discussions on healing, connection and community through revolutionary and radical love. We will be writing so we invite and encourage you to bring your own journals and favorite pen! Lunch is provided.
October 22
Reconciliation Sunday Holy Eucharist with a liturgy of healing featuring guest preacher Ms. Nikki Fernandes
10 AM, Sanctuary
In September 2020, St. Paul’s instituted its first Reconciliation Sunday. It included the rededication of the Moses and St. Paul’s windows; originally installed as Confederate memorials, they are now dedicated to the glory of God. St. Paul’s has since conducted annual Reconciliation Sundays at the church with a guest preach and a special liturgy of repentance and recommitment to justice and reconciliation. This year, our preacher will be Ms. Nikki Fernades, a doctoral candidate at the University of Pittsburgh in Communication Ethics.
Please register HERE if you are joining us for lunch by Monday, October 16th.
Faith and Action Forum on the Church and Racial Reparations
11:45 AM- 12:45 PM, Scott Hall followed by celebratory luncheon at 12:45 PM
In this forum, we will explore how “racial reparations” is defined and how it applies to The Episcopal Church today. The Rev. Colleen Schiefelbein, Co-Chair of the Diocese of Virginia’s Racial Reparations Task Force, guest preacher Ms. Nikki Fernades, Former Faculty at VCU and Doctoral Student at University of Pittsburgh in Communication Ethics, and Dr. Bill Harris, Former Professor and Chair, Department of Urban and Regional Planning, Jackson State University, are our guest panelists. They will lead us through a conversation about racial reparations that both informs what is happening at the diocesan level and invites us to consider how such activities might translate at congregational and individual levels. Please join us for a celebratory luncheon hosted by the Community Engagement Steering Committee in honor of Reconciliation Sunday and our guests preacher and speakers following Faith & Action at 12:45 p.m.
Choral Evensong for Social Justice
4 PM, Sanctuary
Join us as the St. Paul’s Choir presents the first Choral Evensong service of the program year. This service will feature mostly composers of color, including David Hurd, Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, and Margaret Burk, in part of the Reconciliation weekend here at St. Paul’s. All are welcome and childcare is provided. A festive reception by Matthew Cole will be held after the service.