Mid-Conference Dispatch

As you likely know, we are currently one week in to our 2021 Annual Conference, Creating Room to Breathe.  A courageous and visionary team of our colleagues have been working hard for over two years to develop this conference to give us the tools to have difficult conversations about race and our own racism and the space in which to have them.         

The Anti-Bias Task Force, appointed by the ACPE Board of Directors, is comprised of Danielle Buhuro, Malu Fairley-Collins, Tammerie Day, Melissa Lemons, Mary Martha Thiel, and Michael Washington. These folks have led with their heart and their wisdom, their stories and their commitments.  And they are showing us that what we need is already here.  We have the tools for deep reflection, prophetic witness, and transformative practice.  We have heard from leaders among us who crafted the 8:46 series.  Designed to be used with CPE students and in spiritual care departments, 8:46 gives us tools to talk about and teach about racism and other forms of oppression and is available to ACPE members on the Members’ SharePoint site.

We have heard laments about ACPE’s certification process, and the ways that racism lives in our institutions.  We have heard stories of colleagues who have worked to forge cross-racial alliances.  And through it all, Certified Educator Danielle Buhuro has challenged us to transform our conversation to action, asking commitments of each of us to embody the work of anti-racism.

And while there is a wealth of resources among us, the task force has also brought in experts whose perspectives have challenged and inspired us.  Consultants from Crossroads have given us a framework to understand the pervasiveness of racism in our country and in our stories, and its particular expression in the lives of institutions.  We have been challenged to consider the ways that white-dominant institutional values might be shaping our lives together.  And we were called to transform these values, so that we might all be liberated.

There is more to come in the next two weeks.  We’ll hear from the inimitable Rev. Dr. Emilie M. Townes, Dean of Vanderbilt Divinity School, and continue to learn from colleagues in workshops and small group discussions.  If you have registered, I hope that you will join us for as much as you can.  If you have not registered, rest assured that you will be invited to the conversation again and again over the coming months.  Stay tuned.

This work is hard.  Fighting to connect and transform when we can’t be together in the same room takes energy and imagination.  As Theresa Jefferson-Snorton reminded us, we may be tired, but we are not weary.  We have heard the promise of transformation, of liberation, and we are on our way.

Katherine Higgins is the Director of Communities of Practice. She may be contacted at katherine.higgins@acpe.edu