IT BEGAN WITH LUNCH
I was a pastor in Winston-Salem, NC for almost thirty years. In 1992, the city of Winston Salem experienced three violent racial incidents in close sequence. The result was a racial tension of high intensity. I had been the pastor of Highland Presbyterian for almost ten years. I invited two Presbyterian African American pastors to lunch to discuss what role the church could play in addressing the racial tension.
The result of that lunch discussion was the formation of the Presbyterian Inter-racial Dialogue that for the next twenty-five years designed programs and engaged in actions that helped all of us better understand the complexity of racism and what we might do as Christians to address it. We studied together, went to social events together, built houses and addressed injustices together, worshipped, and prayed together.
In 2012, I published a book, Let’s Have Lunch: Conversation, Race and Community that celebrated the twenty years of the church’s involvement in bringing peace to our community.
While it is a sad commentary on our humanity that now in 2020, we are still seeking a path to true diversity with peace in our society, but it is testimony to the fact that there are things we can do. The question is, “Will we take on that challenge?”
