A Report from The Committee on Becoming an Antiracist Congregation

Dear Pullen family, 

As we approach the end of 2024 and the start of a new year, the Committee on Becoming an Antiracist Congregation wanted to express our sincere gratitude to you, the congregation. Your support and participation was essential to all we accomplished this year, and we don’t take lightly the trust placed in us by the Pullen people. Becoming antiracist is a huge, radical undertaking that requires a willingness to learn, an openness to change and, sometimes, difficult conversations and new experiences. We’re grateful to you for wading through the discomfort with us.

We wanted to give you an update on the progress we’ve made this year and our goals for 2025. Based on the feedback we received from the House Meetings in 2022-2023, our primary goal for 2024 was education, specifically ensuring that Pullenites know what antiracism is and believe in the work we’re doing. Our second goal was that antiracism would be part of Pullen’s budgetary discussions for 2025. So, in case you haven’t seen it yet, let me take the opportunity to share with you the mission statement for ARCC: 

The mission of the ARCC is to engage the Pullen community in striving to become an anti-racist congregation. We understand anti-racist to mean implementing practices and policies that support racial justice and equity and challenging systems that perpetuate racial inequity.

In other words, antiracism is about taking discrete, intentional action to eradicate white supremacy and systemic racism. We as a committee feel that Pullen made great progress this year, so in the following paragraphs I’d like to tell you about the programming and initiatives we put on this year in pursuit of our stated goals. 

2024 Actions and Accomplishments

In January, I presented to the THRIVE cohort about our antiracism initiatives at Pullen. THRIVE is an Alliance of Baptists project connecting 26 partner churches working to become antiracist. The other churches in attendance were very positive about our progress so far, particularly the idea of soliciting feedback from small groups of Pullenites.

In February, we received a new commission from the Deacons allowing our committee to add members and therefore put on more programming. I gave a focus in worship in March to share what antiracism is and to ask anyone interested to join in our work. We then added those new members in April. 

In March and April, we planned a 6-week Sunday series focused on issues which intersect with race: environment, education, criminal justice, gender and sexuality, healthcare, and disability. Also in April, we held a Wednesday night program to discuss a video from Robin DiAngelo, author of White Fragility. 

Beginning in July, we have included a discussion question or thought-provoking quote in the monthly Pullen newsletter, in the hopes that these would spark conversations inside and outside of Pullen’s walls about race and racism. 

In August, we were accepted into a program through the St. Charles Avenue Center for Faith and Justice called InDeed and Truth (IDAT). This 18-month cohort program joins together churches across the country who are interested in researching their church’s history with regard to race. A team from Pullen attends IDAT meetings once a month via Zoom and will do so through the end of next year, with periodic updates planned to keep the congregation informed about our progress.  

Also in August, we held a 1-day planning retreat in place of our monthly meeting. As a result of the retreat, we wrote a letter to the Councils with reflection questions to assist them in incorporating antiracist values into their respective budgets. We also put together a packet of centerings for Councils and Committees to use to open their meetings, which was distributed at the end of the year, and wrote discussion questions for a Pullen book club meeting to discuss Angela Davis’ Freedom is a Constant Struggle: Ferguson, Palestine, and the Foundations of a Movement. 

In October, ARCC member Jill Hinton wrote on the Pullen blog about getting comfortable with being uncomfortable, inspired by Chalice’s sermon on the same topic and exploring how our worship practices could become more expansive and inclusive in the future. 

Finally, in November and December, we led a 4 week Sunday series about what we do and do not want to change about our church life in order to align with our antiracist values. Topics discussed included: policies and procedures, education, worship, and outreach. These conversations made clear that antiracism is already well integrated into much of what we do at Pullen, such as a wonderful antiracist curriculum that the Children’s Committee has adapted for Pullen’s children and collaborative partnerships with many of our outreach groups. A number of specific proposals emerged from these discussions as well, which we have sent to the relevant Councils and Committees for their feedback and implementation. Those Councils and Committees will keep you updated on any decisions they make, but the big ideas we’ve shared with them are: intentional spending of church money, implementing racial bias training, and increasing the number of BIPOC job applicants at Pullen. 

It’s been a big year for ARCC! And, we still have a lot of work to do. We’ve known all along that antiracism is a goal we will never fully achieve, but rather a process in which we will continually engage. We must always continue moving forward, learning more, and challenging ourselves to do better. 

Moving Forward/Appreciations

So, where do we go from here? In addition to more programming on Wednesdays and Sundays, in 2025 we are planning: a site visit from the InDeed and Truth leadership and continuing that work by examining our church history through an anti-racist lens; working in collaboration with Larry to bring musicians and vocalists of color to Pullen on a guest basis; and looking into developing a partnership with a local Black church, to include joint worship services as well as meals and fellowship together. I am honored to continue serving as ARCC chair in 2025, with Mary Moore assisting as vice chair. 

I’d like to thank the members of ARCC for their dedication to our antiracist work this year: Mary Moore, Jill Hinton, Grace Evans, Chris Schwertman, Alyssa Rockenbach, Pam Knight, JT Crook, Artie Khine, and Judy Williams. We are also grateful to everyone who has volunteered their expertise to help lead our programming in 2024: Cathy Tamsberg, Gail Powell, Jeremy Mani, Nancy Jones, Lynn Jarrard, and Kristen Anderson. And of course, Revs. Nancy, Chalice, and Ian have all been essential to our work by helping lead programming, advising us on our initiatives, and connecting us with resources inside and outside of Pullen. 

If you’d like to be involved in our work, we’d love to have you. One of the best ways you can contribute is by coming to our programming and bringing a friend. If you have an idea for an event that you’d like to plan in collaboration with ARCC, please reach out to me and we’ll get to work. We would also love your help with diving into Pullen’s historical archives for our work with IDAT, so contact me if you have an interest in historical research. 

Finally, we invite you to bring an antiracist framework to everything you do at Pullen. On your councils and committees, in your foyer groups and at lunch with Pullen friends, keep digging into these big questions: How can the Pullen community dismantle white supremacy? How can we work together to confront our own biases and resist systems of oppression? And how will our experience of the Divine be enriched by that effort? 

It is my honor to do this work with you. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you and yours!

Blessings,

Maggie Zeillmann

Chair, Committee on Becoming an Antiracist Congregation