Monday Mourning event calls local clergy to repent inherent racism, act against racial injustice

An interdenominational group of faith leaders gathered Monday at Peace Park in downtown Cape Girardeau to answer a specific call to action — to repent for complicit behaviors contributing to social systems of white privilege and renounce any past preclusions to confront systematic oppression.

The Monday Mourning event called by St. James AME Church’s social justice ministry drew representatives from about a dozen local religious centers — many of whom wore stoles and collars in addition to face masks as they stood in a socially-distant circle.

An opening prayer led by Pastor Joe Rowley of Emanuel United Church of Christ in Jackson noted the group gathered themselves to “reorient towards faithfulness” and emphasized a belief all humankind was created in God’s image.

“In this time of pandemic, we asked for not just physical healing and wholeness, but a spiritual wholeness that touches on our deepest illness, especially as white Christians in this time of protest,” Rowley prayed.

Speaking through his face mask, Omar Aziz expressed his perspectives as a member of the Islamic Center of Cape Girardeau by extending condolences to the family of George Floyd in the wake of his “tragic” and “unjust” death May 25 in Minneapolis, after he was pinned to the ground under a white officer’s knee for almost 9 minutes.

Aziz expressed his full support of the Black Lives Matter movement. Focusing specifically on issues of justice and equality as they relate to race, he referenced Chapter 5, Verse 8 of the Quran.

“O you who have believed, be persistently standing firm for Allah, witnesses in justice, and do not let the hatred of a people prevent you from being just,” Aziz said to the group. “Be just; that is nearer to righteousness.”

Next, a message shared by the Rev. Adrian Taylor Jr. of Lighthouse United in Cape Girardeau illustrated his belief the racial diversity of humankind is a testament to God’s infinite creative power over people of all creeds and colors.

“I’m not interested in white power or black power — I’m interested in the Holy Ghost’s power,” Taylor said. “I believe that only the power of God is able to truly give us what is necessary for us not only to find peace and tranquility in this moment, but in order to be able to build a future and a society that all of us can look back on and say, ‘I’m proud of that.’”

Members of the group then took part in a reading to seek reconciliation for historic injustices inflicted upon minority communities including the failure to recognize and take responsibility for the legacy of slavery; the pain, humiliation and suffering imposed on African American peoples through white action and inaction; and the individual and institutional failures to seek an end to segregation and racial profiling.

The repentance culminated with those in attendance committing themselves to “walk forward with healing and reconciliation” by seeking to actively work to dismantle white privilege.

After a breaking of bread and pouring of wine by the Rev. Ellen Gurndon as a symbolic representation of Jesus’ body and blood, the Rev. Renita Green left the group with a call-to-action as they returned to their individual institutions.

“Heart by heart, one by one, we must stop speaking peace where there is no peace. We must stop allowing those who sit on our pews to be comfortable with their -isms. We must call it as God sees it. Not being afraid of our positions, worried about if they will fire us, we need to worry about if God is going to fire us.”

Green’s final message urged the group to show empathy and belief for those who are suffering and “show up” in the spaces where injustices occur and alongside those who protest such injustices.

“We wonder where the church is and why the young folks aren’t in our church? It’s because the church has not been in their lives,” Green said. “We don’t need them in our buildings. They need us in their presence. Will we be there?”

After voicing a pledge to “be there” for local youths, the group united their voices for the hymn “Singing For Our Lives” led by the Rev. Edie Bird of Christ Episcopal Church, with a personalized, final verse to ask for God’s forgiveness of their previous inactions.

The event closed with a prayer led by the Rev. James Muriuki with Redeemer Episcopal Church in Cairo, Illinois.

Editor's note: This story has been updated to accurately quote a reference to the Quran.