Servant of God, Sister Thea Bowman inspires me greatly. She was a peacemaker; throughout her work she was relational and intentionally reached across barriers to build bridges. I see much of who I am and who I want to be as an organizer in her.
Sister Thea had passion for unity and cross-cultural understanding; it was the backbone of her ministry. She was adamant about the need for different races and cultures to be relational and to listen to one another’s experiences. She lived out the gospel call to love your neighbor with the understanding that we need to know our neighbor deeply: not just those within our parishes but everyone we encounter.
From a young age, I understood that injustices were the causes of despair and unrest around me. Things as they were didn’t match up with things as God wanted them to be. Growing up in one of the most diverse cities in the country exposed me to many different people, but it also further highlighted the inequity in my community. As an immigrant and child of immigrants, I learned pretty quickly that being welcome and being welcomed were two different things. For some, that invitation came with conditions.
My parish, St. Rose of Lima, provided me with many opportunities to live out my justice-minded heart in direct service with communities and service in the church. It led me to believe that I and my family could practice stewardship no matter our income, and it allowed me to give my time and talents to the parish and surrounding community. In this work, I found a love of relationality that has stuck with me for many years.
My parish was one of the founding congregations of Action in Montgomery (AIM), a community power organization in Montgomery County, Maryland. One Sunday, during the announcements,
Bridge Builder
BY OGECHI AKALEGBERE
someone from AIM shared about what would be the Maryland DREAM Act. Throughout his presentation, I learned that my peers, immigrants like me, were disproportionately affected by the cost of college tuition simply because of their immigration status. Once again, the world as it was did not match the world as it should be.
I remember being angry and disappointed in myself that I had done all this service but never understood the plight of people with whom I walked the halls, people who shared my same immigrant identity. That anger and fire eventually pointed me toward organizing in college. Years after college, I went to my first AIM meeting, and the rest is history. The common thread in all of this was my parish, which gave me the ability to put my faith into practice and allowed me to provide a sense of power, hope, and accountability to and for my community.
Now, many years later, I am honored to organize alongside parents, teens, and community leaders. Although we might have different faiths, I believe my encounters with these leaders have been nothing short of sacramental. In deep relational encounters, the Holy Spirit is present.
One encounter I hold dear is a meeting with Judy Walser. Judy and I come from different backgrounds. Her parish is less
diverse and significantly wealthier than mine. She has nothing to gain physically from organizing, but I have seen the light of Christ in her love of solidarity and care for others. Over the years, I have cherished our intergenerational friendship. I consider her a fellow bridge builder and co-conspirator for justice. As any true justice worker does, Judy acknowledges who is missing and loves to use her known privilege to enhance our organizing efforts.
As Sr. Thea Bowman stated, “I think when we love one another, when we become friends, then we can walk hand in hand into the house of the Lord and celebrate. But to me, to pray together when our hearts are not one, when we’re not at least trying to bridge the gaps, is sacrilege.”
As organizers, our work is most effective if we are bridge builders. We build bridges between the inequitable world as it is to a more justice-focused reality where those who are ignored in the margins are leaders and have neighbors who are willing to walk in solidarity with them.
Reflection
Ogechi Akalegbere is a youth and young adult minister, community organizer, and speaker based in Gaithersburg, Maryland. Outside of ministry, she enjoys personal training and lifting weights.
Left: Akalegbere, her sister Nneka, and Judy Walser at a county election pre-primary action at a local synagogue (Courtesy of Ogechi Akalegbere). Right: Akalegbere as a panelist at “Prophetic Communities.”
7 A MATTER OF SPIRIT
