news article
CCORR outlines three goals in their upcoming work
October 7, 2022 / By Shannon Hodson / .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
The Conference Commission on Religion and Race (CCORR) report was presented during the Oct. 6 afternoon plenary at the 2022 Upper New York (UNY) Annual Conference, held virtually.
The Rev. Dr. Scott Johnson, co-convener of CCORR, started the report by reminding people of CCORR’s purpose, which he said, is to “challenge, lead, and equip the people to ensure institutional equity and to facilitate vital conversations about religion, race, and culture.”
The Rev. Ruth Rosa Warner explained how the CCORR team revised the Imagine No Racism (INR) curriculum, which is referred to as INR 2.0. She elaborated that the new curriculum provides more tools for congregations to have honest conversations about racism.
Charles Syms discussed the anti-racism reports that members of UNY are asked to fill out each year as part of their charge conferences. He said, “The information gathered from these reports has offered valuable insights about the life of this ministry in our Conference.”
Charles explained that this year’s anti-racism report for charge conferences will be completed in an online-only format to simplify the data collection. “This will help us, help you do the work of this vital ministry,” he said. You will find the link in your charge conference packet.
Georgia Whitney, co-convener of CCORR, mentioned that the team has three goals that they will focus their efforts on and described the first goal.
“We feel the Spirit calling us to focus on new directions, broadening our work in three specific areas,” she said.
“First, we want to express the harms experienced by all People of Color in the UNY Conference; we will do this by continuing to strengthen our relationship with Hispanic, Asian, African American, and Pan-African pastors, congregations, and lay leadership. We’ll determine our impact with a survey that measures the fruitfulness of our collaborative efforts.
We also want to support the Conference’s cross-cultural, cross-racial appointment process by providing resources to prepare churches and pastors for these situations.
Finally, we’ll develop and equip an incidence response team that’s available to the Cabinet and the Conference.”
Natalie Bowerman explained that the second goal is to create a plan for younger adults. She said, “Our work has always skewed toward baby boomers. We will actively seek input from Generation X, millennials, and Generation. Z.”
Camp & Retreat Ministries will be a key resource in this work, as they already took the INR 2.0 training and their ministry’s primary focus is on younger generations.
Holly Strickland explained the third goal is to increase the number of churches that are active in anti-racism work.
Scott Johnson shared the vow that CCORR has and that we all need to “interrupt racism wherever we see it.”
He continued, “This is my work to do, your work to do, our work to do.”
After the presentation of the CCORR report, Upper New York Area Resident Bishop, Mark J. Webb, said, “CCORR is here to come along side us and help us not only to imagine no racism but work toward eliminating racism.”
Click here to watch the video of the CCORR report.