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
"If one is constantly presented with a negative image of a community and that image is fed with hateful rhetoric, it eventually normalizes any violence done to that community." -
"If we are becoming truly human like Jesus, this must be characterized by a boldness and courage to love one another, despite the history between our various people groups or even one another." -Rev. Oghene'tega Swann
"As I began to learn more about racism and the systems of oppression, it was like I was discovering a whole other world that I had previously not known existed. I had been able to live in my white bubble, unaware of the experiences of POC all around me." -Jenn Lynn
"... although not all Black churches typically ordain women as ‘pastors,’ they nevertheless respected me as ‘a pastor,’ addressed me as such, and gave me the full accord with their male ministers, and outside of my denomination male ministers, they have been the most accepting of me, my call, and my leadership." -Rev. Oghene'tega Swann
"As the black community grapples with the effects of incarceration on generations of black men, we now have to grapple with the incarceration of black women and the fact that colorism and the disdain for blackness is a contributing factor to who enters prison and how long they stay there." -Onlielove Alston
"If true love means fighting fair and honestly, while maintaining value and regard for one another, then neither me, nor people of color need to reduce ourselves and our voices in order to get along with Caucasians. Neither do we need to compromise our worth or hide our pain at our boundaries being breached in order to belong in the community of God." -Rev. Oghene'tega Swann
"Just when I was about to give up hope of the possibility of reconciliation and a relationship with my sister, He was there!" -Zanetta Holley
"Mutuality is about being 'seen' and 'affirmed' as inherently worthy and equally equipped and imbued by God with knowledge, integrity, honor, skills, worthiness, etc., and being 'brought into' the space where one exists and functions with others in that paradigm of equality." -Rev. Oghene'tega Swann
"As I continue in my research, I remember that although the imported Christ infiltrated Cuba, the indigenous Jesus can be still be found beating in the hearts of 'los humildes'—the truth and the beauty of this Jesus somehow still penetrated the island of my ancestors, my family." -Kat Arma
