DIOC E SAN FAM ILY
LOVE
the Focus of Race Reconciliation Events at St. Peter’s After the killing of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police in May, images on newscasts, social media and news websites emphasized one thing: hate. However, after a conversation with a black staff member following the George Floyd incident, The Rev. Jeremy Bergstrom of St. Peter’s Episcopal Church, Lake Mary, who is white, decided on an alternative approach using a different four-letter word: LOVE.
Earlier this month, St. Peter’s hosted a race reconciliation series that brought together members of the congregation and outside pastors to raise awareness of discrimination, neglect and perceptions in the black community. “We love them,” Bergstrom said, referring to the black members of his staff and congregation. “To hear their pain and to think we (the leadership and other parishioners) don’t care – they are wrong. Our toxic society has told them we don’t care. And they have every reason to believe it. In our ignorance, we don’t know they are having such a hard time.” The series of events kicked off with a listening session during a combined Sunday worship service at St. Peter’s. Black members of the congregation spent 60-90 minutes sharing stories, both horrific and heartbreaking, of living in the United States. “Gut-wrenching, all these stories,” said Bergstrom, who heard many of them while preparing for the series of events. “It was a valuable learning experience for me, 16
Nov / Dec 2020 CFE
walking with them and feeling with them. I have not experienced what they have experienced. They have a wide variety of experiences and perspectives on this. “These people are sweet, wonderful people,” he continued. “To hear about children being excluded from birthday parties, that’s horrible. We’re not talking about lynchings here; we’re talking about isolation and the pain of being left out.” The last event featured Célestin Musekura, a Rwandan based in Dallas who does tribal/racial reconciliation ministry in Africa and the U.S. Musekura’s family and friends were murdered while at church during the Rwandan genocide that lasted a little over three months in 1994. Astonishingly, he reconciled with the murderers of his family and village. Today he financially supports the children and grandchildren of the murderers. “Nobody has more credibility than that guy,” said Bergstrom, referring to reconciliation. In the mid-1990s, Musekura, a Baptist minister who earned his Ph.D. from Dallas Theological Seminary,, cfdiocese.org
