THANKS!

Freedom Ride 2010 would not have been possible without the financial support of Province IV, each of the three dioceses of North Carolina, the Swindell Major Speakers Fund, and the Bishop’s Committee on Racial Justice and Reconciliation.

Meals, lodging, showers, or other hospitality were graciously provided by St. James, Holy Cross, and the YMCA (Wilmington); Calvary (Tarboro); St. Ambrose, St. Augustine’s College Chapel, and Christ Church (Raleigh); St. Titus (Durham); St. Cyprian’s and St. Stephen’s (Oxford); Chapel of the Cross (Chapel Hill); Holy Trinity, The Beloved Community, and the YMCA (Greensboro). In addition, North Carolina Historic Sites provided site support and speaker leads--thank you, Michelle Lanier. All this help made a potentially prohibitively expensive pilgrimage easily affordable.

We pray for a few days of relaxation for an extremely dedicated, talented, and now exhausted leadership team: ADULTS: Lisa Aycock, Cookie Cantwell, Beth Crow, Pete Crow, the Rev. Canon Michael Hunn, the Rev. Kym Lucas, Osondu McPeters, and Barbara Whitesides. YOUTH: Parker Bailes, David Brown, Sarah Clark, Chris Harris, Elyse Head, Sequoia Howard, and Keva Miller. The goals were ambitious and the challenges daunting. But with God's help and a busload of eager, receptive pilgrims, as William Faulkner once said, they "not only endured, they prevailed."

Retreat Photos

Freedom Ride 2010: A Journey of Reconciliation spent the last two days at Haw River State Park, near Greensboro, processing a mountain of information and feelings. As you can imagine, some of this was very painful. Moving out of pain into reconciliation and creativity involved a number of structured activities such as meditation, dialog, brainstorming, discussion, and expressing oneself through music, writing, and a group art project.
Through these activities as well as playing basketball and Frisbee, dancing, and just being together, participants and leaders made lasting friendships sealed by an evening healing service.

View more photos!

Still More!

General Reflection

Okay, so, I have been intentionally avoiding this whole blogging experience for some time now, but I feel like maybe I should give it a try and just see what happens. The trip is really coming together and these past couple of days have been the best yet, both in terms of the activities and in terms of the bonds between us. I have been feeling closer to the other 40 some odd people on this trip and getting more out of the activities everyday, I guess you could say we're getting into the swing of things. We were interviewed by the press today and the whole experience of being interviewed on camera (which was aired in all its awkwardness on the 6 o'clock Raleigh-Durham news) and on paper gave me the sense that we were finally getting out message out there. And that is what this trip is really about: coming together for the sake of spreading our message to the communities we visit.

Our message is one I think we as a country, and even as a church, need to hear. It isn't necessarily a black/white issue, though that's what we are focusing on. The issue is in fact much larger, much more difficult to tackle, but our goal is that the message we spread here this week will spark the discussions, spark the realizations in the hearts of those who hear it, which will ultimately change the world we live in, which will ultimately allow all people to truly understand the full implications of the words in our Baptismal Covenant when we promise to respect the dignity of every human being. That "respect" is not a benign action. It is active, and it is difficult. I will be the first to say that I have failed in fulfilling that promise, and that I am still failing in it. My hope is not to fix the world and all that's wrong with it, but that maybe through our efforts we can make it a little bit better.

To paraphrase the words of the the Archbishop Desmond Tutu: Jesus said, 'When I be lifted up, I will draw all peoples to myself.' The key word there is "all." All all all all all, black, white, rich, poor, beautiful, not so beautiful. All all all all, gay, bi, so-called straight. We are all meant to be held in this incredible embrace that will not let us go. All.

God's peace,
~J York

True thoughts

I really feel emotionally shaken by this whole experience of Freedom Ride. My experiences have really forever changed me and really opened my heart to the wonderful bunch of youth, whom i love dearly.From the deep conversations to the light, this is a break through in courage and acceptance of all people.


Ben Padilla

Blood Done Sign My Name

One of the most moving experiences of this trip thus far has been the play Blood Done Sign My Name. It was incredible seeing how well the actor interacted with the audience. At one point, he had us all join hands and sing, "We Shall Overcome," and it was at that moment that I realized the power of Freedom Ride. This pilgrimage has definitely put several issues involving race into perspective for me. The conversation we had afterward with Tim Tyson strengthened my understanding of current racial issues, and I truly feel like we are making a difference here.

Rebecca G.

Freedom Ride 2010, July 14

There are so many things that I wish I could say right now. As a white teenage male, I am in no way a minority, or "target group" as we say, but this experience has truly touched my heart. As I walked around sites like Fort Fisher, Somerset Place, and Edenton, I came to realize how inhuman my race has been towards people. It is a story we're told in school as children, but it is a rare experience to LIVE where former enslaved people were, see the condition of their housing, and attempt to see what they may have seen. The world in North Carolina seems a little less bright after seeing all these tragic events and places first hand, but in my heart I have hope. I can look around at our group of people, see the different races, see the different genders, see the different backgrounds, but at the end of the day we are one community. The laughter and stories that I have shared with the other guys in our group are so uplifting I think we forget that our skin color is any different from one anothers. I do miss my mom and my dad a lot as well as my goofy little brother and silly big sister, but I feel blessed to be a part of this group.

This experience has already taught me so much, but I know I'm not done learning yet. I know the other youth are with me when I say we think about our families often and will be glad to see them when we get back. But now I gotta go, it's dinner time!!

Erich Hoffmann

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