Since their formation in 2020 the Savannah Presbytery Racial Justice Team has engaged in study and action

Timeline:

Spring 2021 -The team participated in a study of Be the Bridge; Pursuing God’s Heart for Racial Reconciliation by Latasha Morrison to cultivate a common language and understanding of terms.

Lent 2021 – The team initiated a Lenten Series that provided daily devotionals with personal testimonies and resources to dive into specific topics deeply. In addition, weekly Zoom gatherings were held for participants to unpack what they were learning together. The series culminated in outdoor Stations of the Cross in each of our three districts as well as two online Stations which were created by Rev. Denise Anderson and Sanctified Art centering around educating and lamenting racial injustice.

September of 2021 -Members of the team supported the family of Ahmaud Arbery by coming alongside them and members of the inter-faith clergy group of Glynn County for daily prayer at the courthouse for a just outcome.

October of 2021 – The team developed a three-point focus:

• To prepare the team through Learning & Training Sessions to dismantle individual bias due to the effects of white supremacy and to equip the team to help others do the same.
• Team Members participated in the 8-week Association of Presbyterian Christian Educators program created by Crossroads Anti-Racism Training.
• To help build a multi-racial cohort of people who will act collectively to keep racial justice a priority for our presbytery, we sponsored two Black women from our presbytery to attend a 5-month certification program, the MLK Drum Major for Justice Program, training at Johnson C. Smith Seminary. Hermina Glass-Hill, First Midway, and Roberta Pringle, Butler Memorial, graduated from the program in June 2022.
• A budget was developed to support activities and educational opportunities.
• To provide intentional opportunities to further race conversations & actions for the churches and membership of the Presbytery.
• RJMT centered the Worship service of the 2022 Winter Stated meeting on racial justice using Liturgies from Below by Claudio Carvalhaes and inviting Rev. Paul Timothy Roberts Sr. of Johnson C. Smith Seminary to preach.
• We shared what our congregations were doing within their communities (Interfaith Clergy in Glynn Co, JUST in Savannah, Matthew 25 at First, Statesboro).
• We recommended that members of Savannah Presbytery read Be the Bridge by Latasha Morrison.
• We requested and the Council implemented Land Acknowledgments at our Stated Meetings of the Original Peoples where the host church is located.
• We partnered with the Nobis Project to plan a Pilgrimage to Montgomery, Alabama to immerse ourselves in the true history of the Civil Rights Movement focusing on the women of the movement, slavery and its long reaching ongoing effects on today and the Reconstruction era in both Black excellence and white terror.
• To support local Black, Indigenous and other groups led by People of Color led financially and/or in body- by contacting leadership and asking how we can best support/come alongside them.
• We supported local Black-owned businesses on our Presbytery’s pilgrimage to Montgomery, Alabama by connecting with Community Partners rather than using packaged tour guides.

May of 2022 – The team developed a four-day Pilgrimage to Montgomery, AL which was experienced by 16 participants from across our presbytery. The group was assigned pre-trip reading and videos and attended a Zoom presentation with Heather DuCloux of The Nobis Project and Dr. Howard Robinson who spoke on the Montgomery Bus Boycott and the Civil Rights Movement. During our time in Montgomery, we visited The Legacy Museum, The Peace & Justice Memorial, the Dexter Avenue King Memorial Baptist Church, the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church Parsonage, the Dr. Richard Harris House, The Rosa Parks Museum, the MLK home, and the monument to the Mothers of Gynecology. The team spent sessions together unpacking how this history impacted lives then and now.

Summer of 2022 – the Montgomery Pilgrimage participants planned a workshop for the Presbytery’s annual Faith Enrichment Conference to share their experiences to motivate siblings in Christ to come alongside them on their journey toward justice.

February of 2023 – the Faith Enrichment Conference included various workshops addressing themes of racial justice including Unpacking our Montgomery Pilgrimage, Matthew 25: Introduction, Matthew 25: Justice and Radical Welcome workshops led by Presbyterian Mission Agency leaders, Sy Hughes and Samantha Davis.

Lent of 2023 – The team initiated a book study on What Kind of Christianity: A History of Slavery and Anti-Black Racism in the Presbyterian Church by William Yoo which culminated in a presbytery-wide Zoom gathering to unpack what we read.

Fall of 2023 – The team, working again with The Nobis Project, developed a Day Trip to each of the three districts of Savannah Presbytery focusing on the themes of race, slavery, civil rights, environment, and diaspora on the development of community values and culture.

District I was the urban environment of Savannah, Georgia, where we visited the Owens-Thomas House and Slave Quarters which focused on the experiences of the enslaved Africans who lived and worked there and also the King-Tisdell Cottage, the birthplace of the movement to preserve African American history in Savannah interpreting Black life in the region from slavery to freedom.

District II, took us to Willow Hill Heritage & Renaissance Center located in Bulloch County, Georgia. Near the site in 1874, nine years after the end of the Civil War, a group of former slaves started a school for Black children. Willow Hill Heritage & Renaissance Center shares the history of the school, the teachers and the students from that time to the present where they are currently digitalizing their records through a federal grant. We also followed the Red Summer Memorial Walk where we learned about the lynching of Paul Reed and Will Cato that occurred in Statesboro, Georgia on August 16, 1904. We considered the impact of the lynching era which left thousands dead and – along with other forms of racial terrorism- inflicted deep traumatic and psychological wounds on survivors, witnesses, family members and the entire African American community. It significantly marginalized Black people in the country’s political, economic and social systems; and it fueled a massive migration out of the south.

District III, took us to Sapelo Island where in the early 1800s, Africans were captured and enslaved to work the plantation. We met and were led by three direct descendant of those enslaved Africans, and we learned the history of the Hogg Hammock community and their struggles today to keep their historical homesteads. 

In addition, members of the Team joined with members of Savannah Presbytery’s Mission Committee to form a subcommittee to explore the PCUSA’s Matthew 25 Invitation. After researching the foci and interviewing other presbyteries, the M25 Committee recommended to Council that Savannah Presbytery spend a year “learning & discerning” the Matthew 25 Invitation by focusing each of the next three Stated Meetings on one of the pillars; Vital Congregations, Dismantling Systemic racism and Eradicating Systemic Poverty from October 2023 through May 2024. Additional opportunities to engage in learning about M25 are shared in monthly newsletters and social media.

February of 2024– Our Winter Stated Meeting was hosted by Altama Presbyterian Church. February 23rd, 2024, was the fourth anniversary date of the murder of Ahmaud Arbery in Brunswick, Georgia and the event that brought the work of racial justice to the forefront of Savannah Presbytery. Rev. Dr. Diane Givens Moffett, President and Executive Director of the Presbyterian Mission Agency, shared her sermon Seeing Jesus during worship reflecting on the Disrupting Structural Racism foci. In addition, Rev. Dr. Moffett and others led a variety of workshops on Matthew 25, building relationships and inclusivity at our Annual Faith Enrichment Conference, held at Epworth By the Sea, Saint Simons Island, Georgia that weekend.

October of 2024– Inspired by the Presbyterian Mission Agency, we offered a presbytery-wide book study on Poverty by America, written by Matthew Desmond over the course of four weeks in which participants had opportunity to read the book on their own and discuss their findings together via the Zoom platform.