Belonging & Inclusion Monthly Forum (2023)

This one hour forum will be highly structured and will present introductory concepts about belonging and inclusion. It will include a short discussion about what is presented and will be facilitated by the St. Andrew’s Inclusion Ministry. The purpose is to build connections to others who are interested in learning more about belonging and inclusion.

FORUM TOPICS

• August 1, 2023 - Main Subject Presentation and Discussion: A YouTube video will be shown "Juneteenth: Faith & Freedom | A Documentary from @ourdailybread Voices Collection". The video will be followed by reflection and discussion.

• September 5, 2023 - Main Subject Presentation and Discussion: A  YouTube video "Stonewall Uprising" will be shown (2010, an American Experience Film by PBS).  When police raided the Stonewall Inn, a popular gay bar in the Greenwich Village section of New York City on June 28, 1969, the street erupted into violent protests that lasted for the next six days.  The Stonewall riots, as they came to be known, marked a major turning point in the modern gay civil rights movement in the United States and around the world.

• October 3, 2023 - Main Subject Presentation and Discussion: In recognition of Hispanic Heritage Month, a PBS video will be shown "La Manplesa:  An Uprising Remembered" (2022 by America Reframed).  On May 5, 1991, people took to the streets of Washington D.C.'s Mount Pleasant neighborhood to protest the police shooting of a young Salvadoran man, Daniel Gomez.  Through testimony, song, poetry and street theater, this film weaves together the collective memory of one of D.C.'s first barrios and dives into the roots of the '91 rebellion.

• November 7, 2023 - Main Subject Presentation and Discussion:  A YouTube video will be shown "The History and Mythology of the "First Thanksgiving"" (2021, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cTE3qCVBQAg&t=1292s).  In advance of Thanksgiving and the holiday season, the United States Capitol Historical Society talked with George Washington University Professor David J. Silverman, the author of one of the most highly cited books on U.S. history: "This Land is Their Land: The Wampanoag Indians, Plymouth Colony, and the Troubled History of Thanksgiving."
  The mythology of the Pilgrims and Thanksgiving continues to be taught in schools and passed down from one generation to the next. But why do some Native people currently hold a Day of Mourning on Thanksgiving? How did the Pilgrims' voyage to the "New World" become a prominent American origin story? When did the United States first celebrate Thanksgiving and how? And should Americans rethink their interpretation of the holiday? This YouTube showing will be an intellectual approach to shed important light on fact vs. fiction as well as the complex relationship between the Wampanoag Indians and Pilgrims, their declared friendship, and the commitment to mutual defense that became a war just one generation after the "First Thanksgiving."
  
  
• December 5, 2023 - Social Justice Readerfest!!! and Discussion:  December's Monthly Forum will be a free-flowing display of all of our Social Justice Mobile Library books.  We will have our books displayed around the Sanctuary Pastor's Family Room and our hope is that this open house style gathering stimulates a hearty discussion of the subjects.  The books will be available for checkout.  Treats will be served.  Please join us for this festive approach to social justice learning.

No RSVP needed! Both in person and on Zoom on every first Tuesday of the month. In person- Pastoral Family Room – Sanctuary – Gather at 6pm for Fellowship before the presentation at 6:30pm.

Meeting ID: 853 9311 9759
Passcode: 778899
Direct Link:  https://saintandrews-org.zoom.us/j/85393119759?pwd=ZGdSdDJ3MmF5NEVQc283aEFTYVltdz09

These forums are an IDI Development opportunity.