Damascus Road Racial Justice Team

Damascus Road is an anti-racism educating and organizing network that provides training, resources, and consultation to Anabaptist institutions throughout its base in the Mennonite Central Committee U.S.

Following Jesus, Damascus Road understands the call of God to work against all forms of oppression and is called to dismantle racism within the context of the community of faith. Damascus Road has created a training model that reveals the crisis of racism in our country and, using both prophetic challenge and pastoral support, they walk with groups through the crisis that racism creates. While holding that both people and institutions need to change, Damascus Road's primary organizing work is, through anti-racist education, to prepare teams (like ours) to act as change agents in their own institutions (like our church).

The name of the ministry was taken from the story where Saul was blinded on the road to Damascus. His encounter with Jesus radically changed his direction and outlook on life, even his name. Similarly, this ministry seeks to open our eyes to the realities of racism, to change us, and to give us the tools to walk differently through life, opposing these realities.

>>Learn more about the Damascus Road Anti-Racism Process

The WCF Damascus Road Team 2020 Vision Statement:
Empowered by the Holy Spirit and in the spirit of Revelation 7:9, Washington Community Fellowship embraces anti-racism as an integral part of its Christian identity, reflecting the racial/cultural diversity of Washington, DC and incorporating all peoples into the life of the church.

>>See our team's strategic framework

WCF Damascus Road Team Members:

Daryl Byler
Eleanor Gease
Jennifer Merrill
Jesse Johnson
Joyce Grimes
Robert Gease
Shawn Meysenberg
Sue Hahn
Tara West

WCF Damascus Road Introductory Workshops

Washington Community Fellowship's Damascus Road Racial Justice Team regularly presents an Introductory Workshop on Anti-Racism at WCF. The purpose of the workshop is to introduce attendees to Damascus Road's analytical foundation for the long-term work of dismantling institutional racism. Participants will leave the workshop with:

• a basic shared vocabulary to analyze systemic racism
• the beginnings of a framework for applying this analysis to a specific institution (WCF or another)

"Damascus Road" refers to the transformation process that Saul experienced (Acts 9:1-31) on the road to Damascus. This workshop is designed to equip participants with the theological and educational skills to begin the process of transformation in their own institutions. Anti-racism analysis is the core of the Damascus Road process.

This workshop will help participants articulate the call to anti-racist action and establish a common language for talking about institutional racism while providing Biblical principles to guide the work of dismantling it. The inspiration for the Damascus Road Anti-Racism Process came in March of 1995, when 250 Mennonites and Brethren in Christ met in Chicago to challenge racism in the Anabaptist Community. Damascus Road now trains teams to go back to their institutions with this process, helping institutions, especially faith communities, to become anti-racist.

Workshops are FREE, space is limited, and full time participation is required.

To find out when the next workshop will be held, please contact Eleanor Gease at 202-338-1663.