New Online Series on Local Efforts to Seek Justice
Justice is for everyone and is meant to restore us to whole relationship with one another and to promote the flourishing of our communities. In a new online series "Coming Full Circle: Leaning into Justice Together," the Chapel is exploring how various faith communities and organizations in Durham are responding to justice issues around mass incarceration, housing inequality, and racism with restorative practices, transformational relationships, and truth telling in love. Each of the events in the series, organized by the Chapel's Community Minister Rev. Breana van Velzen, uses a circle-based practice, which is relational, non-hierarchical, and creates space for deep listening. Participants are invited to listen, learn, tell stories, and ask questions. See below for a listing of online events and links for free registration.
Breaking the Cycle, Restoring Community
Tuesday, March 16 from 6:00 to 7:00 p.m.
Letha Muhammad, director of the Education Justice Alliance in Raleigh, and Aviance Brown, case facilitator for Restorative Justice Durham, discuss their work around mass incarceration, young adults, and their faith perspectives on why justice matters. A member of Muslims for Social Justice, Muhammad works with parents, families and community members in local school districts to dismantle the school-to-prison and school-to-deportation pipeline. A defense and civil rights lawyer, Brown sees a biblical mandate for the approach of restorative justice in listening to the oppressed and ensuring that they get justice.
Intercultural Story Circle
Tuesday, March 23, from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m.
The Duke Center for Truth, Racial Healing, and Transformation leads this "story circle" discussion, which is designed to build relationships and break down barriers through mutual understanding. The format aims for connection, learning from one another, and learning how to do circle practices as a form of relational justice. The mission of the center is to dismantle deeply rooted beliefs in racial hierarchies and to disrupt persistent structures and impacts of racism at Duke, in Durham, and beyond.
Racial Healing Circle
Tuesday, April 13, from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m.
Megan Stanley, with the Duke Center for Truth, Racial Healing, and Transformation, presents on the use of traditional circle practice to explore our common humanity and how racial healing can be instrumental in transforming communities for the wholeness of all people. Relationships are transformational, just as justice and our faiths can be transformational. Come and listen, or come and share.
Holistic Framework for Racial Healing
Tuesday, April 27, from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m.
The Duke Center for Truth, Racial Healing, and Transformation presents the “nuts & bolts of racial healing work”—what is does, why it is an important part of reconciliation work, and how it is used as a justice tool for many types of communities, including at Duke and in Durham.