Synod Assembly 2022 | Pre-Assembly Workshop : Bending the Moral Arc: Courageous Conversations on Race as a Matthew 25 Initiative to Dismantle Systemic Racism

Workshop Description

We will present a model that is based on small, mixed-group conversations on race and systemic racism between members of historically Black and historically White churches. The small-group format fosters the growth of trust over time and allows for honest discussion about current and past issues related to systemic racism in this country. While this model has led to individual changes in the views of the participants, it has also created a call to action among participants that has led to outward-facing initiatives to dismantle systemic racism that have emerged from these groups. Current groups have prepared an extensive library of resources to help institute such a model for other congregations and are actively seeking to help and mentor other congregations interested in starting Bending the Moral Arc (BMA) Courageous Conversation (CC) groups. The workshop will share resources, cover topics that have been addressed by our Courageous Conversation groups, discuss how this model differs from others with similar goals, and encourage interactive dialogue covering interest in and potential barriers to expanding this model.

Presenters

Karen S. Brown

Karen Brown grew up in Northern Virginia, spent her college years in Princeton, NJ, and then moved to Berkeley, California for graduate school.  It is there that she met her husband, James Takasugi, and received a solid grounding in theology from the First Presbyterian Church of Berkeley.  After she and her husband graduated, they moved back to the Princeton area to take jobs in the pharmaceutical industry, and have attended Nassau Presbyterian Church in Princeton since 1995.  Karen has served on the Board of Deacons and as a member of the Adult Education and Mission and Outreach Committees for many years.  She now splits her time between Princeton and Cambridge, Massachusetts, where she works in an oncology-focused biotechnology company.

Denyse Leslie

Denyse Leslie grew up in Brooklyn, NY. She spent her college years in Vermont at Middlebury College, including a senior year in Paris. After graduate business studies in New Haven at the Yale Management School, she spent the next 30 years in business development in consulting, banking, educational, and non-profit organizations located in New York and Princeton, NJ. In her retirement, she currently serves as Board Vice President, Managing Director of the Paul Robeson House of Princeton. She has attended Witherspoon Street Presbyterian Church for the last 18 years serving as a ruling elder, clerk of session, and facilitator of the Witherspoon-Nassau Joint Partnership. She has served on the Buildings and Grounds and Finance Committees for many years.