Remember and Repair: Expanding Racial Justice and Equity In Church and Society

Beginning January 9 through February 27, the Riverside Church Ministry of Faith Formation in collaboration with the Mission and Social Justice Commission and its Antiracism Taskforce, the Education Commission, and the TRC Archives will offer a speaker series on Remember and Repair (RAR): Expanding racial justice and equity in church and society.

RAR is designed as a prep course for a longer research project on Riverside’s historic role on matters of race. Broadly speaking, we seek to examine our report card on racial justice. We ask, “What is Riverside’s role in remembering U.S. history and its own, and what repair is ours to do?” Our aim is to foster increased racial justice and equity in church and society.

Series Speakers:  
1/9 – The Rev. Michael Livingston, Riverside Church Interim Senior Minister, sets the series tone noting, “We are nothing without our history.” He asks, “What must we remember in order to successfully repair? What do the Bible and our history have to say about remembering and repairing?”

1/16 – No R&R Session – (Martin Luther King, Jr. Weekend)

1/23 – Dr. Gary Dorrien, American Social Ethicist & Theologian, Union Theological Seminary, an expert on Riverside Church’s founding pastor, the Rev. Dr. Harry Emerson Fosdick, will lead this session on Riverside Church’s founding and early years.

1/30 – A roundtable conversation of four seminary presidents, moderated by a seminary dean, on preparing future pastors and resourcing today’s church leaders to address issues related to “Remember and Repair.”

·       President Serene Jones, Union Theological Seminary
·       President Emma Jordan-Simpson, Auburn Theological Seminary
·       Chancellor Shuly Rubin Schwartz, Jewish Theological Seminary
·       President LaKeesha Walrond, New York Theological Seminary

·       Moderator The Very Rev. Dr. Kelly Brown Douglas, Dean of the Episcopal Divinity School at Union Theological Seminary

2/6 – Rev. Jim Keat, Digital Minister, The Riverside Church, asks, “What is Truth?” or “How Do We Know What We Know, or Think We Know?” He will focus on the Media’s role in perpetuating, understanding, and combatting racial inequity.

2/13 – No RAR Session (Break)

2/20 – Diane Russo and Vincent Kelly, Riverside Church Archivists, will share archival findings relevant to “Remember and Repair” and ways researchers can use those resources.

2/27 – Roundtable discussion among Riverside Church’s lay leaders on “what’s next.”  What specific actions could Riverside Church take to make positive changes in itself, its neighborhood, New York City, and the nation to contribute to repair?