First Parish Church on Congress Street chose to act with the national Unitarian Universalist Association 2015 Action of Immediate Witness in support of the Black Lives Matter Movement. To pursue that commitment, First Parish held two services focusing on racial injustice and our responsibility to address it.
A Black Lives Matter Team was formed to develop educational events for exploring race relations. One recent event was “Something’s Wrong Here,” a performance that raised questions about systemic racism in our schools, communities and justice system. Participants were from Long Creek Youth Development Center and the King Fellows, a youth-led program of the NAACP.
A banner was placed in front of the church proclaiming our commitment – a simple yellow banner with the words “Black Lives Matter” and a heart.
During the ceremony placing this banner on our grounds, we read the Action of Immediate Witness and the names of the 64 black people whose lives were lost in confrontations with police. Before doing this, a governing board member and our minister met with Police Chief Michael Sauschuck to discuss our intentions and tell him that we support our Portland Police Department.
Someone recently slashed our banner. This is an open letter to those who did it. We hope that explaining our motives and the actions we have taken with city officials and other groups in town will enable those who slashed our banner to understand our peaceful and humanitarian goals.
We will repair our banner and hang it again. To quote Martin Luther King: “If you can’t fly then run, if you can’t run then walk, if you can’t walk then crawl, but whatever you do you have to keep moving forward.”
John Schaberg
member, Black Lives Matter Team
First Parish Unitarian Universalist
Portland
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