Five young people from the Diocese of Massachusetts are traveling on an Episcopal Church-sponsored pilgrimage to Ferguson, Mo., Oct. 8-12. The aim of the pilgrimage is to gather young people to engage in the work of racial justice and reconciliation in a place that has recently been deeply affected by racial tension.
Twenty-five young people from a
Ellen Stuart Kittle
L-R: Adiel Pollydore, Jacqueline Clark, Eliza Marth, Ashton Murray, Dominique Bocanegra
round the U.S. will be gathering in Ferguson for the pilgrimage, which will include a visit to the site where 18-year-old Michael Brown was shot and killed in August 2014, as well as engagement with local clergy and community leaders, workshops and shared worship.
The pilgrims from the Diocese of Massachusetts are Dominique Bocanegra, a Life Together fellow at the Church of the Holy Spirit, Mattapan, Jacqueline Clark, Assistant Rector at St. Elizabeth’s Church, Sudbury, Eliza Marth, Life Together fellow at St. Paul’s Church, Brookline, Adiel Pollydore, a Life Together fellow at the Youth Jobs Coalition, and Ashton Murray, a Life Together fellow at Episcopal City Mission.
Life Together is a young adult fellowship program in the Diocese of Massachusetts whose mission is to cultivate the next generation of prayerful and prophetic leaders through spiritual practice, leadership training, intentional community and social justice internships.
Before undertaking this journey, the young people gathered with Bishop Alan M. Gates, Bishop Bud Cederholm, who is serving as the interim director of Episcopal City Mission, and the Rev. Arrington Chambliss, Director of Life Together, to share their hopes and motivations for the pilgrimage.
“My hope is to learn from the people of Ferguson and the people on this trip with me,” said Adiel Pollydore. “It’s a deeply personal thing for me, being in Ferguson as a way to continue to reconcile what has been going on in the last two years, to think about issues of police brutality and racial injustice….I’m nervous and also excited about what might come out of that for me personally, and what I might be able to bring back to the communities I am part of.”
Ashton Murray, who is working with Episcopal City Mission on Beloved Community, a collaboration of Episcopal churches and organizations dedicated to conversation and activism surrounding issues of racism and injustice, was also looking forward to bringing the lessons of Ferguson home.
“To bring this back to the community, to be grounded in that lived experience, is exciting to me,” he said.
To continue the process of racial reconciliation, pilgrims will be expected to undertake a community project that demonstrates engagement on issues of racial justice and reconciliation, according to an Episcopal Church news release.
Eliza Marth expressed her hope that the pilgrimage would be a jumping off point for a sustainable movement.
“Looking around this room, we make a nice picture, and I don’t want to be just a picture, without sustaining something deeper,” she said.
All of the young adults spoke movingly about the personal experiences that had led them to apply for the Ferguson pilgrimage, many pointing to the death of Trayvon Martin as a turning point. Martin was shot and killed in Sanford, Fla., in 2012 by George Zimmerman, a neighborhood watch volunteer. Zimmerman was acquitted of the charges. Martin's death and Zimmerman's acquittal sparked marches and protests across the country.
“I remember sitting in my grandmother’s kitchen [after Martin’s death], as we looked at the television, right after New Year’s, the family gathering together and talking in a very real way about our black bodies in America and what that means,” Pollydore said. “There’s nothing you can do to feel safe. There is one high profile death after another, without seeing the justice that I really longed for. For a long time I felt very isolated in that, very scared, and I came to find strength in community, on campus and with Life Together. I take all of that with me [on the pilgrimage], my family, my dad, all of the men in my family.”
Murray also recalled Trayvon Martin’s death as a catalyst.
“When the verdict came back that [George Zimmerman] would not be convicted, I was working at a basically all-white church while in divinity school. I realized that every black church in America would be talking about this, the injustice of it. And I also realized that I would not hear a thing about it at church the next day, and I felt so hurt and alone and angry and frustrated,” Murray said. “I knew there would be people at church who would say it was Trayvon Martin’s fault. I was feeling alienated in my blackness while feeling that I had a duty as a minister and as a black person to highlight it. I ended up tying it in as part of my prayers of the people, but it made me realize that I had to learn some skills about how to talk to white people about racism in a way that doesn’t make people feel bad or awkward.”
Jacqueline Clark was galvanized by her work with communities affected by gun violence in inner-city Chicago.
“In 2012, over the course of five years, over 800 children and youth had been killed by gun violence [in Chicago],” Clark said. “It was largely confined to neighborhoods on the south and west sides of the city--it’s one of the most segregated cities in the country. It didn’t directly affect the lives of people in more white middle and upper class areas. Getting to know people who had lost children, and now carrying them with me, is one of the things that brings me here,” Clark said.
The young adults all expressed a hope to learn more about how the church can contribute constructively and compassionately to the national conversation about race.
“[I have] dreams and hopes of seeing how the church is part of this discussion, how it can play a role in discussions about racial injustice,” said Dominique Bocanegra. “I don’t want to have too many expectations, I want to learn from the community and the leaders down there, and the fellow young adults on the pilgrimage. I don’t want it to be sugarcoated, I hope it’s as raw and real as the problems that are facing a lot of communities in our nation. And I hope that church can be a place where we can be vulnerable to have these conversations.”
“I really want to be able to bear witness in the most full and authentic way to the community I’m working in about what’s happening, both the trauma and tragedy as well as the hope,” said Clark. “I’m deeply interested in seeing what the church is doing [in Ferguson] and how I and we can be part of that, and I’m excited about being with the other young leaders who are going.”
Program fees for all five of the pilgrims are being covered in full by Episcopal City Mission (ECM).
“Episcopal City Mission has a long history of supporting the work of racial reconciliation and working for racial justice, both in the Episcopal Church and the wider community,” said the Rev. Noah Evans, who is chair of the board of ECM and rector at Grace Church in Medford. “We’re excited to be able to sponsor these young adults to continue that conversation as our nation grapples with our history of racism and inequality, especially at this moment in time when there’s a renewed passion, especially among young adults, for moving to the next level in our conversations about equality in our nation.”
Bishop Bud Cederholm urged the entire diocesan community to hold the pilgrims in prayer for their time in Ferguson.
“ECM is proud to sponsor these pilgrims to Ferguson, and we ask for lots of prayers for them,” said Cederholm. “We are humbled by their passion for and commitment to racial justice. They will make a difference!”
--Ellen Stuart Kittle