Five of us from the Transform Network leadership team were at the Sojourners Summit when we heard about the killing of 9 people at Emmanuel AME Church in Charleston, SC. I happened to run intotwo people that next Wednesday morning in the lobby of the Summit that I had only met online and via phone, Lindsay Andreolli-Comstock from the Beatitudes Society and Jacqui Lewis from Middle Collegiate Church. We said our hellos and as they headed off to what looked to be a meeting, I was invited to join. Steve Knight, Robyn Henderson-Espinoza, and Micky Scott Bey Jones were with me there as well, and we decided to check out the meeting.
We sat down just before noon and realized that this meeting was about creating some kind of organized response to the killings in Charleston. At noon there was an invitation to pray with others around the nation and so we joined hands letting our tears and our prayers flow. AME pastor Melinda Weekes led us in a powerful prayer that I hardly have words to describe.
The prayers and tears gave way to organizing. We went around the table sharing the resources, contacts, and capacity we each had to lend to the effort. Jacqui asked for a show of hands of people willing to go to Charleston. My hand flew into the air though my mind was just barely beginning to slug through all that would take logistically. Sharon Groves spoke beautifully to the need to listen to what the community and organizers in Charleston and the kind of support they were calling for.
Fast forward through next few hours, and five of us we were on the road in a rental SUV. The phone calls, texts, and emails were flying as our thinking evolved and we communicated with the Auburn team and the Transform team who were organizing the online tools. We knew that we wanted an online tool where people could report back on and collectivize their individual efforts to grieve and to make sense of the tragedy. We wanted a place online where the immense love and support we knew was out there could be seen in chorus.