 This Month we have focused on stories of people embracing Pentecost power

 Themes = The Gospel According to Prince, Pentecost Sunday, Pride Sunday, Juneteenth

Sunday and now we tie it all together by recapping the stories chronologically

 Hush Harbors (no exact dates but likely in some form throughout slavery - likely started

with traditional African religious practices and become more Christian)

o Folks were not free to be public and proud so they created spaces of freedom.

o Embraced liberation theology, embodied practice, the power of testimony

o We owe them thanks and should not forget lessons in case repression increases

o After Emancipation (1863/1865) independent Black churches and denominations

grow where folks practice their traditions, though oppression remained

 Azusa Street Revival/ Pentecostalism (1906-1915) in LA, Black preacher William

Seymour dared to ask– If the disciples experienced Pentecost power - why can’t we?

o Small group of Black folx in a home, move to former AME Church on Azusa St,

become a multi-racial, multi-class revival that birthed the Pentecostal

movement.

o Issues of race split COGIC & Assemblies of God. Charismatic communities are

often conservative in terms of the gifts of women and welcome queer folks

 The Ballroom Movement (1890s1980s-present) Black and Latine queer people in New

York and other cities created house families to anchor each other

o Starts 18090s with multiracial groups of gay men but racial tensions cause break

o Reemerge in the 1970s/80s particularly in New York

o Folks created radical family when their birth families abandoned them and they

help each other through deep oppression and trauma incl. the AIDS crisis

 Prince Rogers Nelson in part draws from the strains to create music that asks us to

grapple with what it means to be faithful and how God calls us to love the outcast

 Bishop Yvette Flunders / The Fellowship of Affirming Communities - Where the Edge

Gathers: Building a Community of Radical Inclusion – drawing these together

We draw from all of this to move towards what God is calling us to do and be. We need a

radical move of the Holy Spirit to guide us and we commit to being a community that will not

be divided by race nor will we reject those who society marginalizes but God deeply loves.

Reflections Questions

1. When you hear these stories – do you feel part of this lineage of faith and revolutionary

reimagination? What questions or concerns are holding you back from fully leaning in?

2. Modern Christianity has tended to focus on the individual relationship with Christ but deemphasized the collective aspects that are highlighted in many of these stories.

Where is your faith practice in terms of the relationship between personal and

communal faith? Where do you need to grow your practice?

3. If this faith community is part of the lineage of these movements – what do you see God

doing in us? Tell a story about our future using poetry, music, a drawing or whatever

creative format is emerging within you.