It is oftentimes an eye-opening, embarrassing, and/or troubling moment when a person realizes they have offended someone with a racist comment or action. Situations like this are often the result of a lack of awareness.
In an effort to address and reduce the number of occurrences of unintentional and intentional racism within the Alabama-West Florida Conference, Bishop Graves is requiring all full-time appointed clergy and those part-time clergy whose schedules will allow to attend one of the three mandatory diversity trainings being offered throughout our Annual Conference in the month of September.
At this training, clergy experts on this subject from outside of our Annual Conference will be equipping our clergy with the tools and knowledge needed to resist all forms of racism in their church and community.
“If we are going to move forward as a Church, in society and in our communities, we must all come to the table not just for conversation, but transformation," stated Bishop David Graves. "Transformation begins with each of us. It has been conversations with people from all walks of life that has changed me. I am still a work in progress and look forward to seeing each of you at one of these trainings.”
Trainings will be 9 am – 3 pm. Dates and locations for the trainings are:
Thursday, September 12, 2019
St. James UMC
9045 Vaughn Rd.
Montgomery, AL 36117
Tuesday, September 24, 2019
Marianna First UMC
2901 Caledonia St.
Marianna, FL 32446
Thursday, September 26, 2019
Christ UMC
6101 Grelot Rd
Mobile, AL 36609
The link to register can be found below. Deadline to register for this required training is Friday, September 6, 2019.
Click Here to Register
For questions and concerns related to registration, please contact Sarah McWilliams at sarah@awfumc.org.
For questions or more information about the training event, contact Celeste Eubanks at celeste@awfumc.org.
.5 continuing education units (CEUs) will be awarded to those who participate fully in the day.