Hello from the Equity and Diversity Committee!
We are a standing committee of the Prairie to Pine Regional Council, created after our Regional Council became officially Two Spirit and LGBTQIA Affirming a year ago. Part of our Action Plan, as agreed to by the Regional Council, commits to:
- Encourage all Communities of Faith, Outreach Ministries, and other Regional members to celebrate diversity and the intercultural membership of our Region by involvement in such areas as truth and reconciliation, racial justice, abilities, and mental health.
- Assist Communities of Faith and other church bodies within the Region to obtain and maintain Affirming Ministry status.
- Assist the Prairie to Pine Regional Council in its worship, work and decision making to use an intercultural lens to include diverse orientations, genders, races, cultures, and other communities that need to be integrated in our lives.
- Conduct two Regional educational events on inclusion topics.
Racial justice training for Prairie to Pine
Lately, we have been discussing opportunities for racial justice training. (Click here for an overview of the current national program.) Currently, the racial justice training sessions 1 and 2 are offered nationally and are mandatory for all active ministry personnel. Others are welcome to join Sessions 1 and 2 (and many do just that.) And Sessions 3 and 4 are focused on planning for action, and open to all who have taken Sessions 1 and 2.
We are looking at offering this training within the context of Prairie to Pine Regional Council as we strive to live into the Anti-Racist Church mandate. Or, maybe we should consider other options.
We would like to open our table to anyone interested and available to join us in this conversation as we discern. We need your help in understanding what might work best for our Regional Council. Even a single conversation or meeting with you would be helpful, if you have ideas to bring.
Please communicate your interest in having this conversation with the committee to our chair, Jamie Miller by mid June, at jd_and_mm@hotmail.com
Please also see a proposed anti racism for communities of faith June series which Northern Spirit Regional Council is opening to Prairie to Pine and Living Skies Regional Councils.