Healing & Justice Ministry

Tell the Truth; Proclaim the Dream; Follow Jesus’ Way of Love; Repair the Breach

Church of the Ascension Seattle rests on the traditional homelands of the Duwamish people. We acknowledge the ancestors of this place and understand that we are here because of the sacrifices forced upon them. By recognizing these communities, we honor their legacy, their lives, and their descendants.

What is the Healing & Justice Ministry?

Healing and Justice Ministry. What is it? It’s a ministry whose premise is that the worship of God calls us into a servanthood that works to build a beloved community. That is a future world transformed by non-violence, healing relationships and justice. Many of you are familiar with Becoming Beloved Community presentations given by Laurie, Kristine, Linda and Don on Civil Rights Pilgrimages, city initiatives around houselessness and affordable housing and Book Clubs on anti-racism. You may have participated in the 2020-2021 Sacred Ground anti-racism curriculum with us. Yet, something new is happening among us. A new ministry that doesn’t exactly fit under Outreach Ministries or Adult Formation Ministries. Rather

a new ministry that explores the interaction of our own faith and justice.

The Healing and Justice Ministry will be creating events for our community, as well as advertising other local opportunities, so that we may continue to learn, engage in discussions, and to be a part of creating a more just society.

A calendar will be shared with you here, and be sure to check our updates in Ascension’s weekly e-News as well.

Contact: Laurie Weckel, laweckel@gmail.com

Social Justice Themes

We have curated a collection of prayers, books, films, events and websites that focus on a topic that changes monthly. Please visit these links to dive deeper into the history and issues of social justice in these different communities. Below you will find the current month’s Healing and Justice resources.

Asian American Heritage

Our Prayer

In the effort to dismantle racism, I understand that I struggle not merely against flesh and blood but against powers and principalities – those institutions and systems that keep racism alive by perpetuating the lie that some members of our family are inferior and others superior. Create in me a new mind and heart that will enable me to see brothers and sisters in the faces of those divided by racial categories. Give me the grace and strength to rid myself of racial stereotypes that oppress some in my family while providing entitlements to others. Help me to create a nation that embraces the hopes and fears of oppressed people of color where we live, as well as those around the world. Help me to heal your family, making me one with you and empowered by your Holy Spirit. Amen.

(Adapted by Debra Mooney, PhD from Pax Christi)

Resources & Action

Anti-Asian violence: The history of anti-Asian racism in the US (today.com)

https://www.today.com/news/anti-asian-violence-history-anti-asian-racism-us-t210645

"The Making of Asian America"

Written by Erika Lee

The Making of Asian America by Erika Lee shows how generations of Asian immigrants and their American-born descendants have made and remade Asian American life, from sailors who came on the first trans-Pacific ships in the 1500 to the Japanese Americans incarcerated during World War II. Over the past fifty years, a new Asian America has emerged out of community activism and the arrival of new immigrants and refugees. But as Lee shows, Asian Americans have continued to struggle as both “despised minorities” and “model minorities,” revealing all the ways that racism has persisted in their lives and in the life of the country. (Amazon.com: The Making of Asian America: A History (Printing may vary): 9781476739410: Lee, Erika: Books)

"Sixteen Years in Sixteen Seconds"

Paula Yoo's Sixteen Years in Sixteen Seconds is a biographical story which evokes human endurance, resilience and triumph over justice. Her story recounts the amazing journey of a young Korean American boy growing up in 1930s California, which, at that time in history, enacted racist policies in reaction to immigrants from Asian countries. (amazon.com)

The Mission to Seafarers

Seafarers of all ages and nationalities work an average of 80 hours a week (plus overtime) to bring us these necessary goods and as an international population, are often exploited. Work on board ships can be isolating, and seafarers are at a much higher risk for depression, divorce, and suicide. The Mission to Seafarer serves those workers with essential human services and little gifts.
More Info: dstockert@theideamachine.biz

Wing Luke Museum

Visit the Wing Luke Museum and take part in one of their immersive neighborhood Chinatown Discovery Tours. From seasonal food tours like the Fall’s Twilight Noodle Slurp Tour to special neighborhood tours like the upcoming Redlining Heritage Trail tour, the Museum offers an experience for all the senses and brings the history of the Chinatown-International District (C-ID) neighborhood to life. (www.wingluke.org)

Nisei Veterans Committee Hall

Visit the Nisei Veterans Committee Hall and explore their exhibits with a guided tour through the personal stories, displays honoring WWII Nisei Veterans, and experience the history of Japanese American incarceration.

"The American Revolutionary"

Film

What does it mean to be an American revolutionary today? Grace Lee Boggs is a 98-year-old Chinese American woman in Detroit whose vision of revolution will surprise you. A writer, activist, and philosopher rooted for more than 70 years in the African American movement, she has devoted her life to an evolving revolution that encompasses the contradictions of America’s past and its potentially radical future. (About The Film | American Revolutionary (americanrevolutionaryfilm.com))

Of Race & Reconciliation

https://video.kbtc.org/video/kbtc-documentaries-race-and-reconciliation/

A powerful documentary about the 1885 expulsion of Chinese immigrants in the city of Tacoma. (www.video.kbtc.org)

Racial Harassment

If you see an act of racial harassment, there is something you can do. Safely intervene as a bystander using the 5 D’s: distract, delegate, delay, direct and document.We believe every person can safely take action against incidents of anti-Asian hate. (youtube.com)

A new website is available for graduates of the “Sacred Ground” program with additional resources for learning and action.

CLICK HERE FOR MORE INFORMATION

Sacred Ground

This is a race dialogue series designed for these times. It is an attempt to be responsive to the profound challenges that currently exist in our society. It is focused on the challenges that swirl around issues of race and racism, as well as the difficult but respectful and transformative dialogue we need to have with each other about them. It invites participants to walk back through history in order to peel away the layers that brought us to today, and to do so in a personal way, reflecting on family histories and stories, as well as important narratives that shape the collective American story. It holds the vision of beloved community as a guiding star – where all people are honored and protected and nurtured as beloved children of God, where we weep at one another’s pain and seek one another’s flourishing.