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UPDATE Mar 2021

“Witness: A Documentary About Racial Justice” second showing, March 24th at 7 PM

UPDATE Feb 20, 2021

“Witness: A Documentary About Racial Justice” premieres February 28th at 6 PM in a joint Zoom gathering between Bethel AME and Pilgrim Church.  See Pilgrim and Bethel members in the film. Underwritten by an anonymous donor from our church as a part of our “Tales from the Stoop” racial justice project, “Witness” examines the challenges of racism through the lens of the relationship between our two churches. See some folks from Bethel and Pilgrim in the film.

Both churches will watch together on ZOOM then discuss their responses to the film.  Appropriate for middle-school youth and above.

UPDATE Nov 2, 2020

Art Installation short service will be Sunday, Nov. 8 at 5pm in front of the church. The original date (Nov. 1) was rained out. Please join us! See more about the service below.

UPDATE Oct 26, 2020

Pilgrim Church presents Tales from the Stoop: A Call to Truth, Reconciliation and Racial justice

By Judy Cranshaw and Kay Dunlap

On Sunday, November 1st at 5 pm, Pilgrim Church invites the community to participate in a short service in front of the church (the “stoop”) as it blesses a public art installation calling the church and the community to racial justice. Mosaic plaques including words such as listen, mend, love, will be installed on the front of the church. The words on each plaque will be read aloud, followed by the ringing of the church bell. The installation will also include “hope scrolls” which express the maker’s hope for a more equitable world. A short film showing the early stages of the project will be projected on the building on a loop from 5-8 pm.

Tales from the Stoop sprang from an earlier project to examine the spiritual history of Congregationalists. “As 2020 is the 400th anniversary of the arrival of the Mayflower, and the Pilgrims were our spiritual ancestors, we wanted to learn more about their quest for spiritual freedom and how they interacted with the Native American peoples in this area,” said Pastor john Hudson. Partnering with Plimoth Pawtuxet, the church planned a year-long series of events and programs on this theme. When the church closed in March due to Covid, several of these programs were postponed but were recently viewed virtually during a recent service.

With the church closed for several months, the Sacred Arts Ministry wrestled with how it might inspire and engage not only the congregation and local community, but also those who drive by the church every day. Seeking inspiration, they hired Michael Dowling, a former artist in residence at the church, and the founder of Medicine Wheel Productions.

Not long after Michael and the committee started working together, the Black Lives Matter protests inspired them to refocus the project on the church’s and member’s personal histories relating to race relations. The artistic team was expanded to include Amir Dixon, a filmmaker, and L’Merchie Frazier, a mixed media artist. Together, the team created Tales from the Stoop.

“We started by doing a ritual cleansing of the front steps of our church. This symbolized a new beginning in our commitment to social and racial justice. We used bowls of water in which we had washed our hands to wash the steps, and then broke them,” says Judy Cranshaw, co-chair of the Sacred Arts Ministry. The shards were then used to make mosaic panels.

The other major component of the project is the creation of a short documentary film based on interviews with members of Pilgrim’s congregation, and its sister church, Bethel A.M.E. in Jamaica Plain. The “tales” (referenced in the title of the project) are stories told by those interviewed about their experiences with people of other races. The film will be shown at the November 8th service at 10am and may be viewed by the community on the church’s web site, www.pilgrimsherborn.org.

September 2020

Tales from the Stoop: A Call to Truth, Reconciliation and Racial justice

The Pilgrim Church Sacred Arts Ministry calls our congregation to embark on a journey to cleanse, heal and commit to justice through a variety of programs and activities. The project includes a collaborative art installation and the creation and showing of a short documentary film based on interviews with members of the Pilgrim Church congregation, and of our sister church, Bethel, A.M.E. (www.bethelame.org)

By engaging in personal reflection, prayer, open dialogue, education, and art making, we hope to reach a deeper understanding of our own and our church’s histories and actions. More importantly, we hope to discern and commit to the changes that Christ calls us to make in our lives and in our world. 

Background

This project sprang from an examination of our spiritual history as Congregationalists. As 2020 is the 400th anniversary of the arrival of the Mayflower, and the Pilgrims were our spiritual ancestors, we wanted to learn more about their quest for spiritual freedom and how they interacted with the Native American peoples in this area. We planned a year-long series of events and programs on this theme.

When the church closed in March because of Covid, and several of our planned programs were postponed, Sacred Arts wrestled with how we might inspire and engage not only the congregation and local community, but also those who drive by the church every day. We hired Michael Dowling, a former artist in residence, and the founder of Medicine Wheel Productions (mwponline.org) to lead a more expansive project.

When protests began around the country against police violence toward people of color, the group felt called to redirect the project to include the church’s and our personal histories relating to race relations. This focus on the broad issue of racial justice was in keeping with what we had been learning about our historic fraught relationships with native people of this area. Michael suggested we expand our artistic team to include Amir Dixon, (www.amirnow.com) a filmmaker, and L’Merchie Frazier (https://tedxbeaconstreet.com/speakers/lmerchie-frazier/), a mixed media artist. Together we created Tales from the Stoop.

What the church has done so far (includes related events)

  • Read and discussed Mayflower (Nathaniel Philbrick) and I Heard the Owl Call My Name (Margaret Craven).
  • Offered a sermon series and book discussion group based on The Hate you Give (Angie Thomas).
  • Held a vigil at the church in response to the Black Lives Matter protests which drew 450 people.
  • Grades 2-6 made rainbow mosaic trivets symbolizing our value of welcoming everyone.
  • Filmed interviews with Pilgrim Church members and members of our sister church, Bethel, A.M.E.
  • L’Merchie Frazier led a ritual washing of our hands and the church steps symbolizing a new beginning in understanding our part in our country’s racist history. The bowls used were broken and will be used to make mosaic plaques for a public art installation. The ritual was filmed and will be used in the documentary film.
  • Started the Love Thy Neighbor book group: Learn about Antiracism through Reading, Discussion and Spiritual Practice – every Wednesday evening this fall with Pastor Diane, 7-8pm on ZOOM. Check our calendar on our website for additional information.

Upcoming Events

  • Sunday, September 27, 11 am: Mozaic Workshop
  • Wednesday, October 7, 5 pm: Hope Scrolls Workshop, on Zoom. Bring your hopeful thoughts and items to recycle that you may have: A pair of scissors, 2 inch to 3 inch tape, old or new newspaper clippings, old or new magazines, fabric or cloth from clothes to be discarded. Learn the art of collage and tell your story of hope and survival.
  • Sunday, October 18, 10 am: Talk by Plimoth Plantation interpreter who portrays Governor William Bradford (via Facebook live) followed by a family workshop on Zoom.
  • Sunday, October 18, 7pm: online showing of the film Praying Town by Zadi Zokou which includes stories of interactions between the Puritans, local Native Americans and African Americans.
  • Sunday, October 25: visit to Plimoth Plantation *POSTPONED* – THIS WILL BE A VIRTUAL PROGRAM closer to Thanksgiving – Stay tuned!
  • Sunday, November 1st, 7 pm: opening of a public art installation featuring mosaic plaques, hope scrolls and projection of the ritual washing of the church steps on the church.
  • Sunday, November 8, 7 pm: premier of documentary film which will be projected on the front of the church and also available on the church website.

What people are saying about the project …

“Yesterday’s ceremony following the beautiful church service was very moving. L’Merchie, you are a gifted leader. Thank you for inviting us to participate in such a thoughtful consecration of our stoop. I am thinking so much about water and its amazing properties of movement and flow and how important it is in Christian and other forms of worship.” ̶̶̶ Linda Zug