MONTREAT, N.C. — How can the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) address systemic racism in the church? Montreat Conference Center hosted CoInspire Oct. 7-10, a conference designed to examine how Christians can “co-inspire” one another to identify and remove racism in the life of the church.
Here’s a glimpse of some of what happened. (All photos by Jen Jones.)
Jessica Vasquez Torres leads orientation for the CoInspire conference at Montreat.During a breakout session on first day of the CoInspire conference, attendees practiced introducing themselves and including their personal pronouns along with their names.Preparing to dive deeper at CoInspire, participants during the first breakout session practiced meeting new people and the art of mindfully listening and reflecting in conversations. Pictured here: Julia Watkins, Jan Edmiston and Shawna BowmanAmantha Barbee leads the Call to Worship during the first night’s worship service at CoInspire.Denise Anderson, co-moderator of the 222nd General Assembly and coordinator for racial and intercultural justice for the PC(USA), introduces Traci Blackmon, executive minister of justice and local church ministries for The United Church of Christ and senior pastor of Christ the King United Church of Church in Florrisant, Missouri.Traci Blackmon preaches during worship(l to r) Alex McNeill, Jennifer Harvey, Raj Nadella and Lisa Dellinger are panelists in the first installment of ‘Cannon’s Canon’ at CoInspire.Liz Theoharis, Presbyterian minister, director of the Kairos Center for Rights, Religions and Social Justice at Union Theological Seminary and co-chair of the Poor People’s Campaign, is a keynote speaker at Montreat’s CoInspire conference.Rev. Traci Blackmon gives a powerful blessing, asking everyone to look into another’s eyes and see the God in them. “Until we can see God in the other, we will always have the Jericho Road.”
