By CVPost Staff
Racial issues in the Chippewa Valley will again be the focus on Saturday, Nov. 7 for the third program in this year’s community conversation series co-sponsored by Spirit Lutheran Church and JONAH (Joining Our Neighbors, Advancing Hope).
The program will be held from 9 a.m. to noon at the Lutheran Church of the Good Shepherd, 1120 Cedar St. in Eau Claire. An ethnic potluck lunch will conclude the event, and attendees are urged to bring a dish from their own heritage, the story behind it and the recipe for it, which will be incorporated into a JONAH cookbook.
All three programs in this series examine racial, religious or other hatreds and the conditions that allow them to occur. The first program, in April, focused on the Holocaust and attitudes that enabled it to take place. The second one, in July, heard from speakers who had experienced racial or ethnic discrimination in the Chippewa Valley and elsewhere.
The Nov. 7 program will explore ways to sustain conversations on these issues within the Chippewa Valley community. Part of that discussion, focusing on what role JONAH might play in keeping these topics on the public’s agenda, will be coordinated by Pastor Mike Wollman of Good Shepherd who will also lead a session on how JONAH does effective one-on-one conversations.
Others participating in the program will be Robbie Joern, Coordinator of Mission and Outreach at Spirit Lutheran Church, and Zach Schultz, a teacher at North High School and a writer for Volume One along with at least one minority student from the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire. Small group reflections and community action planning for the future are also on the agenda.
One goal of the series is to help – or force – audience members to confront their own reactions to people or groups who are different from themselves and to recognize attitudes that could lead to hatred, prejudice and racism.
Spirit Lutheran Church was formed this year in a merger between First Lutheran Church and Our Savior’s Lutheran Church. JONAH is an Eau Claire area faith-based organization focused on social justice.