St. Luke to present Zoom discussion series on race beginning Sept. 15

Story by Beth Donze; image courtesy of St. Luke the Evangelist Church, Slidell

Beginning Sept. 15, the Multicultural Committee at St. Luke the Evangelist Catholic Church in Slidell will launch a five-week,  Zoom-based series of facilitated, small-group discussions based on “Open Wide Our Hearts: The Enduring Call to Love,” the 2018 pastoral letter on racism written by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB).

All, regardless of their faith and geographical residence, are invited to take part in the online discussions set to roll out over five consecutive Tuesdays: Sept. 15, 22 and 29; and Oct. 6 and 13. Each session will take place from 6:45 to 8:15 p.m. CDT.

“Zoom has a break-out room function that will allow us to have small-group dialogues,” said Bruce Weaver, leader of the St. Luke’s Multi-Cultural Committee and part of a growing ecumenical group of northshore churches that have gathered over the last several years to work on undoing racism.

 Previous gatherings of the northshore racial harmony advocates were inspired by the archdiocesan discussion series “Made in the Image and Likeness of God,” the title of Archbishop Emeritus Alfred Hughes’ 2006 pastoral letter probing racism in the New Orleans area, which invited people of all races to come together to share their personal experiences with race and to implement racial harmony action plans in their families, workplaces and faith communities.

“Archbishop Hughes' letter was written post-Katrina and was all true, but dated,” Weaver said. “With all that is going on since then, especially the Black Lives Matter movement and the seemingly endless disparity between blacks and whites, we wanted to use the latest Church teaching available. The 2018 U.S. bishops’ letter also includes Hispanic and Native American history and current problems. We are really stressing the dialogue format where no one is being confronted or judged, and none of us has the answers or knows all the depth of the issues.”

The series will base each weekly dialogue on one of the four main sections of the pastoral letter: What is Racism? Do Justice; Love Goodness; and Walk Humbly with God.

“There will be a little reading and some short video clips that will be sent out on email to each participant (in advance),” Weaver said. “What is said in the small groups stays in the small groups – so we are hoping trust is developed as people share and work through feelings and can be the person Christ wants us to be.”

The series is free and all materials will be provided. Attendees are asked to register by Sept. 8 by filling out the form at tiny.cc/EndRacism.

Questions can be emailed to Weaver at [email protected].