In March 2015 the Clerks of Baltimore Yearly Meeting and of BYM Interim Meeting announced that the Yearly Meeting had accepted a grant of $250,000 from the Shoemaker Fund to address, in part, “…how can our Meetings at all levels be more inclusive and welcoming to all and build multi-cultural community?” They explained, “What we are contemplating is no less than a profound culture change that will permeate all we do and change us forever.”

The BYM Group on Racism is looking forward to helping all of us in the Yearly Meeting discern how to live up to these commitments. One guide that can be helpful is a chart entitled “Continuum on Becoming an Anti-Racist Multicultural Organization” and developed by the Crossroads Ministry of Chicago, Illinois, https://www.churchpublishing.org/media/5205/ContinuumAnti-Racist.pdf.

That chart describes what an organization looks like at each of six points along that continuum. The chart does not tell us how to move along that continuum. We all must discern that together. It does, however, help us understand where we are now and the changes needed to move us to the next point on the continuum.

A beginning query: where would you place your Monthly Meeting now along this continuum?

This column is prepared by the BYM Working Group on Racism (WGR) and sent to the designated liaisons at each Monthly and Preparative Meeting for publication in their newsletter or other means of dissemination. The WGR meets most months on the third Saturday from 10:00 am to 1:00 pm, usually at Bethesda Friends Meeting or Friends Meeting of Washington. In May and June 2015, however, it will meet at Adelphi Friends Meeting. If you would like to attend, on a regular or a drop-in basis, contact clerk David Etheridge, david.etheridge@verizon.net.