Invitation to Community Calls

The Justice Summit 2020 Austin Leadership Planning Team was so disappointed when the April 2020 summit had to be canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Not wanting to lose the opportunity for the Movement to meet at the Alma De Mujer Retreat Center (which is a project of the Indigenous Women’s Network in Austin), the team negotiated the weekend of Oct 30 – Nov 1, 2020 with the Retreat Center for our summit.

October seemed a long way off and so the leadership planning team decided to arrange for several community calls in anticipation and preparation for the summit. The pause that we are all experiencing can be used as a time for reawakening. The community calls will use the themes of the summit – Renewal, Discernment, and Vision – as the context for these conversations.

The first of these calls will be on Wed., May 13, 2020 from 7:00 – 8:30 EDT and Sat., May 16, 2020 from 3:00 – 4:30 EDT with the hope that everyone will be available for one of these two dates. We will use both Zoom and phone connections.

Renewal will be the focus of our May conversations. Given the quarantine that we have all been experiencing these past weeks, the need for connection with one another is deeper than ever. These calls will give us the opportunity to renew our trust and support for one another and for the Movement itself.

Isn’t it interesting that Church Within a Church has modeled how people can birth a Movement; create an anti-racist, justice-oriented organization; and practice shared leadership, while growing in trust and care for one another, without having to be physically present with each other, save for once or twice a year? The experiences of leaning in and sharing struggles, sorrow, and joy that we hold together in common have built relationships from a distance from the founding of the Movement. Let’s celebrate and renew who we are for each other and for the world!

As you anticipate participating in this first conversation in May, consider how we can listen to each other and what we can offer each other for renewal. For many, COVID-19 has been a time of fear and loneliness, worry and grief. The changes involved in this time of transition for the Movement may have raised excitement as well as many questions and may have brought a sense of worry to some CWAC members. How have these events affected you? How can we care for one another, offering ourselves as gifts of renewal to each other and to the Movement?

We hope that you will be able to be on one of the calls. Let us cherish this opportunity for a “group hug” from a physical distance.

Yours on the journey,
Susan Morrison, Marshaé Sylvester, Vernice Thorn, Vicki Woods, J Zirbel
The Austin Justice Summit Leadership Planning Team