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Cohorts meet for four hours, usually split between two 2-hour sessions. The upcoming dates and times on this event page are placeholders until we have 6+ registered people (open to all faith leaders, both rostered and lay). The next cohort will be scheduled among the facilitators and registered participants. (The dates and times on this event page are merely placeholders.)

In response to the need for open, honest, and spiritually-grounded conversations about race, ELCA's Coaching Ministry has begun a group process to address this: A 4-week series (one hour each) on Race Relations conversations facilitated by ELCA Coach and Deacon Tammy Devine (Coordinator for Generosity Ministries of the ELCA), Rev. Brenda Smith (former ELCA Program Director for Faith Practices), and Rev. Gwendolyn Snell (ELCA Coach and Race Relations Advocate).

Together in community, we develop skills of holy listening, have guided conversation, wrestle with powerful questions, listen to scripture, and pray together. The format is a series of conversations and is designed for a small group setting, ideally racially mixed.

The resource used for this process, Conversations: Race Relations, The Journey to Right Relationship – a Christian Response, was created for the ELCA in 2017 by Rev. Robin McCullough-Bade, after Alton Sterling, an African American, was killed by police outside a convenience store in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, on July 5, 2016.

The hope of the facilitators is that participants in these Race Conversations Cohort Groups will use their leadership skills to replicate this race conversation ministry in their context. A copy of the resource used for this vital ministry can be found at elca.org/racerelations.

If you are interested in joining, please register by emailing tdevine59@gmail.com. There is currently NO COST to participate, and we welcome donations toward ELCA Coaching's intentional equity and justice work: https://tithe.ly/give?c=1807940 (please designate Race Relations in the Note / Memo space)