Bishop Ward and the Conference Connectional Table will be sharing suggested reading this conference year on the topic of anti-racism. The first recommendation is “Waking Up White” by Debby Irving.
* The conference has been granted permission to share this study guide prepared by Linda Hodges, lay leader, First United Methodist Church, Cary, to aid you and your group in discussions about this book.
Grace and peace to you in the name of Jesus Christ.
For your summer reading, I recommend on behalf of the Connectional Table, the first of a number of books that we will be recommending across this Conference year. These books are recommended so that we might learn and grow in our anti-racism ministry.
The book by Debby Irving is called “Waking Up White.” This book is an excellent read. Debby tells her own life experience as a white person waking up to the story of the impact of race upon her own life. Waking up to become an advocate for the unity and community of all people. The chapters are brief and at the end of every chapter there is a prompt that is useful for reflection or for small group discussion. I hope you will read this book this summer. I hope you will use it in your classes, your groups, your book clubs, your communities, and your dinner table so that you, with me, might grow in our capacity to be all that God has created us to be. The North Carolina Conference is deeply committed to anti-racism.
We’ll be recommending other books in the months to come. Enjoy reading “Waking Up White.”