Atlanta Mennonite Church

Berea Mennonite Church

Folks from AMF and Berea Mennonite Church went on a small group hike led by Anton Flores to explore the Sweet Auburn District of Atlanta and take time to reflect on its connections to our civil rights history.

AMF member, Anton Flores-Maisonet, was invited to a conversation on Georgia Interfaith Power & Light's "Coffee and Something Stronger". Anton doesn't drink coffee but did speak about coffee and the need for something stronger - environmental justice in Guatemala. If you're time is limited and you want to hear a radical interpretation of the biblical story of Jesus and the woman at the well, go to the 19-minute mark.

Regardless of who wins this election, the transfer of power must be free of coercion and must be peaceful and democratic. This Sunday at 2 pm ET, you are invited to attend an online participatory workshop on non-violent action should there be a post-election power grab. This workshop will be co-faciliated by Anton Flores-Maisonet of Atlanta Mennonite Fellowship and Jude & Lee Smithey of Germantown Mennonite Church. A reservation via https://bit.ly/nonviolentdefense is required.

Today our weekly Mennonites for Black Lives vigil shifted its theme to get out the vote. #BringThePeace

An excellent article about the work of Mennonite Central Committee throughout its past 100 years. If you missed the live streamed service celebrating this centennial event, MCC will have the video on its website in a week and can be viewed here: https://mcc.org/get-involved/events/celebration-2020-mcc-100. #BringThePeace

Beginning Sunday, October 18, at 10:00 am, our congregation will begin a biweekly study of Widerstand Consulting's Dismantling Institutional Racism in Your Congregation: From Theory to Practice. Please pray for us as we work together to discover ways we have individually and institutionally expressed our racism and how we can work together for true racial justice in the world.

AMFers have been on the frontline of closing Georgia's immigration detention centers for many years. Mennonite Central Committee - MCC recognizes the atrociousness of forced sterilizations that have been reported at Irwin County Detention Center (Ocilla, GA). These allegations must be investigated and that for-profit detention camp must close. Please take one minute to sign MCC's petition that will be sent directly to your congressional and senate representatives.

Having retired Peach Cobbler Relief sale and not being able to meet in person at Schmeckfest, let's put MCC's 100th year celebration on our calendars. Celebration 2020: MCC at 100 will be livestreamed on Saturday, October 17. Join if you can and please give generously. https://mcc.org/get-involv/events/celebration-2020-mcc-100

A way to serve the children of Decatur.

Apologies to Dolly Parton fans.

John Lewis’ final essay narrated by Morgan Freeman. This essay should be required reading for high school students and could be a great sermon for this Sunday.

"The pursuit of racial justice and honest reconciliation is most of all an act of discipleship. It flows naturally from following Jesus, who called us to bring good news to the poor, release to the captives, recovery of sight to the blind and to let the oppressed go free. For that reason, we cannot opt out of it. We must be found faithful. That calling requires not only our prayers, our words and our hopes but also our actions and our whole selves. We are called to offer ourselves as living sacrifices, as holy interruptions, as signs of grace and demonstrations of justice." https://cbfblog.com//lewis-and-vivian-giving-thanks-and-f/

WE ARE BUILDING UP A NEW WORLD This Sunday (tomorrow) @ 5 pm we gather online and explore what it means to live and follow God beyond the threshold of grace. DM us for the Zoom link.... Courage, don't get weary, though the road be long...

A haunting and timely song of lament.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE June 19, 2020 Beacon Hill Black Alliance for Human Rights Declares Juneteenth Victory In Removal of Monument to White Supremacy in Decatur... City Square Decatur, GA On the eve of Juneteenth, an African-American holiday that honors the announcement and enforcement of the abolition of slavery in Texas in June 1865, the Decatur community celebrated the removal of a monument to those who fought to preserve that same system of slavery and white supremacy in Georgia. After an almost three year struggle to remove this symbol of hate and division, the Beacon Hill Black Alliance for Human Rights declares this action taken by DeKalb County government last night as a people’s victory. Sponsored by the United Daughters of the Confederacy, the monument has stood in the Decatur city square since April 1908. It was placed there the same year the State of Georgia adopted an amendment to the Georgia Constitution written specifically to prevent African-Americans from voting and was strategically placed in front of the courthouse as a form of intimidation. In August 2017, Decatur residents gathered in response to the death of Heather Heyer who was killed in Charlottesville in a deadly car attack shortly after a Unite the Right rally. A petition was started that night to remove the monument and quickly gathered signatures. Led by our youth and students, Hate Free Decatur, the Beacon Hill Black Alliance for Human Rights, and our coalition partners organized a march of hundreds of people through downtown Decatur demanding removal of the monument in September 2017. This was followed by resolutions in support of removal passed by the Decatur City Commission and the DeKalb County Commission, but we were unsuccessful in our attempts to relocate the monument. Students from the Black Student Union at Decatur High School lobbied in support of legislation that would have withdrawn state support and given local communities control over the fate of these objects. In April 2019, Governor Brian Kemp signed into law legislation that protected these monuments even more, denying local communities their right of self-determination. The murders of Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, and George Floyd sparked a wave of rebellion across the country as young people protested against the systemic white supremacy responsible for so much injustice, pain, and death. This wave is still sweeping through Atlanta with the response to the police killing of Rayshard Brooks and can be found here in Decatur with the demand to end the terroristic threats that Black students, in particular, are facing in the school system. Thousands turned out in Decatur for a march and rally on June 7 that heard the voices of students and others directly impacted by white supremacy and police violence. In the context of this unique, historical moment, we renewed our efforts and were encouraged by the courageous ruling by Judge Seeliger on June 12 ordering the monument to be removed by June 26. We continued to pressure city and county leaders and held a final rally on June 17 that heard from clergy, students, historians, business owners, and community leaders all united in their demand that all monuments to white supremacy be removed. Juneteenth is a day to reflect, rejoice, and to remind us that we must not ever forget. The Beacon Hill Alliance for Human Rights is committed to use the momentum and lessons from this victory to continue to root out white supremacy and other forms of oppression wherever they may be found in our community. See more

Just as the clock struck midnight, ushering in another Juneteenth, the monument to the lost cause of the Confederacy was removed from the square of the historic courthouse in Decatur, just a mile from where we normally worship.