The Northern Province Racial Justice Team recently offered an Advent Series toward Racial Justice and Healing centered on the theme, “I Give You A New Commandment… Love One Another (John 13:34)”. Each session featured scripture, theological reflection, guest speakers or video presentations, and time for conversation in small groups. Below, you will find recordings of each session, which can be used for study both in individual and congregational settings.
Session 1: “Love Through Curiosity” with Pardeep Singh Kaleka
Pardeep Singh Kaleka is a hate and violence prevention senior advisor of Not In Our Town; he is a de-radicalization and trauma specialist with Parents4Peace, a lecturer on Peace Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Pardeep’s work has spanned law enforcement, education, social service, and counseling hate crime survivors and perpetrators. He specializes in understanding the impacts of communal trauma-developing practices to help build safer and more inclusive communities. In 2012, following the murder of his father in the hate killings at the Sikh Temple in Oak Creek, he co-founded Serve2Unite, an organization nationally recognized for bridging school and community groups. He is the author of “The Gifts of Our Wounds” and an award-winning columnist with the Milwaukee Independent.
Session 2: “Love Through Forgiveness” with stories from the Forgiveness Project
The Forgiveness Project provides resources and experiences to help people examine and overcome their own unresolved grievances. We will hear two stories of participants in the Forgiveness Project. The testimonies collected bear witness to the resilience of the human spirit and act as a powerful antidote to narratives of hate and dehumanization, presenting alternatives to cycles of conflict, violence, crime, and injustice. The Forgiveness Project was founded in 2004 by journalist Marina Cantacuzino.
Session 3: “Love Through Partnership” with Georgia McKee from the Baptist Joint Committee
Georgia McKee is the digital communications associate at BJC. She assists BJC’s communications teams with social media and content development, and she manages and runs the TikTok account for Christians Against Christian Nationalism. A former BJC intern, McKee is a graduate student at the Wake Forest University School of Divinity, working toward a Master of Divinity degree. She earned her B.A. in Faith & Social Justice from Belmont University. Previously, she worked for The Dietrich Bonhoeffer Institute and local political campaigns, and she co-founded Christian Athlete Circles.
Session 4: “Love Through Activism” with Destiny Magnett from Churches for Middle East Peace
Destiny Magnett is the Programs and Outreach Manager at Churches for Middle East Peace (CMEP), a coalition of 33 Christian denominations advocating for holistic peace and justice in Israel-Palestine and the broader Middle East. She has previously lived and worked in Jordan and the West Bank, and has experience in government, civil society, and grassroots organizing spaces. Destiny is also a Master of Theological Studies candidate at Harvard Divinity School, where she studies the relationships between religious literacy, international humanitarianism, and the powerful role religious communities play in multi-level peacebuilding and reconciliation processes.
Questions? Contact Sue Koenig, Director of Racial Justice and Healing, [email protected].
