Weekly Greeting - June 23rd, 2023

Annual Conference was held at the Renasant Convention Center in downtown Memphis this year.

Karen Ward, our alternate member who replaced Dianne Holland as one of our lay members, participated by Zoom, as did Rev. Felicia Kumar.  Rebecca Little represented the conference as a committee member.  Stephanie Goff attended as an at-large Harpeth River District member.  Jim Allen served as our other lay member from Bethlehem.  I represented Bethlehem as one of our clergy members.  Steve Lefebvre was commissioned at the Service of Licensing, Commissioning, and Ordination. The service was awesome!

During lunch breaks on Monday and Tuesday conference organizers scheduled immersion experiences and optional studies.

Stephanie and I took part in a presentation and walking tour that ended at the site of the lynching of an unnamed runaway slave on January 1, 1851.  Our leaders for the event included a United Methodist pastor, a professor from the University of Memphis, an Episcopalian priest and a retired military officer who are all members of the Lynching Sites Project.

The Lynching Sites Project of Memphis is part of a growing network of people who want the whole and accurate truth to be told about the history of Shelby County.  In their mission statement they explain their motivation for organizing:  We believe that we can heal and grow in understanding when we face openly the history of racial violence in our community. In this work we join with the national effort of Bryan Stevenson, and the equal justice initiative to memorialize over 4,000 known lynchings in our country between 1877 and 1950.

I love Memphis and I love visiting fun locations like the Peabody Hotel and enjoying great barbecue, but I also believe it’s important to remember where we’ve been so that healing can occur and the future can be better than the past.

I’m honored and grateful for the opportunity I had to attend annual conference and for my experience on the presentation and tour led by the Lynching Sites Project. It was a deeply moving experience to join with blacks and whites and people of other races at that historical site to remember where we’ve been and to pray that such things never happen again.

Peace and blessings,

Craig