Voices of Color – Christians United (VOCCU)
Voices of Color is NO LONGER a chapter OR AFFILIATE of CBE International. We're currently updating all content. Please bear with us! Thank you!
"When we imagine the early followers of Jesus, we must imagine them beyond an ethnic binary of Jew/Greek and beyond a sexual binary of male/female. God’s people has always been diverse, before, during, and after the days of Jesus, and God’s people continues to be diverse today." -Haley Gabrielle
"Being an ally means the actual practice of "mourning with those who mourn" and "rejoicing with those who rejoice." In order to mourn with those who mourn, you must go to the house of mourning! [Even Jesus did that!]" -Rev. Oghene'tega Swann
"When women open their voices to cry out in labor that new, liberated life be allowed to come forth from places of oppression, women are engaging in motherhood." -Rev. Oghene'tega Swann
"The Shunamite woman stands in the canon and reminds us of both the age-old struggle to suppress Black women and other women of color and the righteous resistance such women must put forth: dark am I, and lovely. Our blackness is not an apology. It is a declaration that we are made in God's image." -Rev. Tega Swann
"...the question of what it really means and how much it truly matters for the woman behind the facade to live free, redeemed, and empowered in her calling within and outside the Church." -Elizabeth Quashie
"When a man clergy sleeps with women in the church and steals money from the church coffers, he’s transferred and the issue is covered. But when a woman clergy raises her voice over justice issues, she’s negatively labeled and ostracized in ministry. And the punishment for such women clergy is heavy. " -The Very Rev. Muture
"It is important to know that we attend seminary for a reason. Not just to grow in our respective fields of study but to be practitioners of justice." -Stephen L Robertson
"That’s God’s special ingredient for girls and women. You don’t like it? We didn’t write the recipe, we just followed God’s directions. You sound pretty ungrateful; you get to eat amazing pie! If you have complaints, take them up with God. He wrote the recipe." -Julie Taylor
"So, I can say that I am dark, yet lovely without going out of my way to imitate a style of beauty that is not indigenous to me." -Farikanyani
"But I’ve been served communion many times by men whose wives came to church with black eyes. As a teenager, I heard several pre-communion devotions from young men who harassed, coerced, and assaulted girls in the congregation. At least one girl told of being groped and forcibly kissed at church, but nothing was done. The perpetrator was later asked to speak during Sunday morning services again and again while that girl, no girl or woman ever was." -Dr. Tara M. Tuttle
