In response to the events of August 11 and 12, 2017, the Charlottesville to Jamestown pilgrimage, sponsored by the Charlottesville Clergy Collective, provided a constructive opportunity for us to take the next step in addressing racism in America and its attending systemic injustices. During our journey, we heard stories and untold histories, we built relationships, and we identified common concerns that need to be transformed in order to bring about racial equity.

Our journey began on Saturday, October 6, 2018, from central Charlottesville. Our first leg took us past Emancipation Park (Market Street Park) and the proposed site for a marker to remember the July 12, 1898 lynching of John Henry James -- an African American man from Charlottesville. We walked on the Saunders-Monticello Trail, and ended up at Monticello for an education and reflection experience at the African American Burial Grounds, and the reading of the name of three hundred and sixty enslaved at Monticello.

During the week of October 8 to 11, we hosted educational and cultural activities in Charlottesville.

We heard Dr. Karenne Wood present the 18,000 year history of the Monacan people here in Virginia.

Mark Charles, a Navajo Christian, presented the untold history of Christianity's role in constructing white supremacy, and the United States' role in perpetrating not only the enslavement of Africans, but also the genocide of native peoples in America.  

On October 12, we traveled to Richmond where we went on a Slave Walk guided by the Elegba Folklore Society, followed by a time of group reflection and discussion at St. Paul's Episcopal Church, Richmond.

On October 13, we took a pilgrimage by bus to Historic Jamestowne as we traveled back through history with Mark Summers of Preservation Virginia to learn about the pursuit of commercial ventures and economic profit that led to the enslavement and oppression of Africans and native peoples. We visited Point Comfort, where Dr. Cassandra Newby-Alexander gave a history of the site where the first ships carrying enslaved Africans landed in 1619. We ended our pilgrimage at Fort Monroe, the Union fort where escaped slaves went to seek asylum during the Civil War. There, we held a final ceremony, and re-read the three hundred and sixty names of the enslaved at Monticello.


The Pilgrimage is sponsored by Charlottesville Clergy Collective, a nonprofit, interfaith organization committed to addressing racism. We have fifty members representing over twelve Christian denominations and four other faith traditions.
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The Pilgrimage was funded by the generous support of BAMA Works Fund of Dave Matthews Band at the Charlottesville Area Community Foundation, the Virginia United Methodist Foundation, the New Baptist Covenant, twelve different local faith congregations, and several individual donors. The Baptist Center for Ethics and Monticello provided in-kind services.

​Many thanks to EthicsDaily.com for producing this video.

These "historical markers" were posted on the walls of The Haven during our Interfaith Service as part of our attempt to acknowledge the history of racism and white supremacy in Charlottesville. Many thanks to Rev. Albert Connette of Olivet Presbyterian Church for researching this history and displaying it in such an artistic manner.

Picture credit: Michael Cheuk

Download the worship bulletin for this service.

​To: Ms. Diantha McKeel, the Albemarle County Jail Board, and Colonel Martin Kumer, Regional Jail Superintendent 
From: Members of the Charlottesville Clergy Collective  
Re: ACRJ Notifications to ICE 
 
As  members of the Charlottesville Clergy Collective, we have followed with concern the ongoing community discussion of the Albemarle Charlottesville Regional Jail (ACRJ) decision to continue voluntary notifications to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) regarding release dates of detained members of our community. While we understand that the ACRJ is required to notify ICE when an undocumented person enters the facility, notifying ICE of their release is a choice, not a requirement. 
  
Having received and reviewed a copy of your July 1, 2018 “Concerned Citizen” letter justifying the continuation of this policy, we   strongly encourage the Jail Board to reconsider its decision regarding the matter. 
 
Through ongoing notifications to ICE, the ACRJ Board is effectively facilitating extrajudicial incarcerations based on citizenship status, rather than on a serious criminal offense. The position that the ACRJ Board has taken in notifying ICE aboutpeople who have been cleared to be released has the potential to separate families, hinder undocumented persons from seeking legal means to remain in this country, and create an unjust and even inhumane situation that leads to additional racial profiling of vulnerable community  members.    
 
Since we also understand that attempting to develop a methodology for deciding individual cases would create  undue difficulty, we implore you, the ACRJ Board, to end these ICE notifications altogether. 
 
Sincerely,  

Rev. Phil Woodson, First United Methodist Church 
Rev. Isaac Collins, Wesley Memorial United Methodist Church  
Rabbi Rachel Schmelkin, Congregation Beth Israel  
Rev. Liz Hulme Adam, Tabor Presbyterian Church 
Gail Hyder Wiley, elder, Westminster Presbyterian Church 
Rev. Bill Bray, Elim Korean International Church, Charlottesville 
Rev. Sandra Wisco, ELCA 
Rev. Brittany Caine‑Conley, Congregate Charlottesville  
Rev. Dr. Jill Duffield, Cove Presbyterian Church 
Rev. Jillian Andrzejewski, Mooreland Baptist Church 
Rev. Dr. Eugene T. Locke, Parish Associate Westminster Presbyterian 
Rev. Liz Forney, First Presbyterian Church 
Elizabeth Shillue, Charlottesville Friends Meeting 
Rev. Rabia Povich, Inayati Order 
Rev. Deborah Lewis, Wesley Foundation at UVA 
Rev. Susan A. Minasian, Sojourners United Church of Christ 
Rev. Marilu J. Thomas, Associate Rector Christ Episcopal Church 
Rev. Carol Carruthers Sims, Episcopal Priest, Retired 
Rev. Robert Lewis, Hinton Avenue United Methodist Church 
Rev. Emily Rowell Brown, St. John the Baptist Episcopal Church 
Rev. Dr. Michael Cheuk, Charlottesville Clergy Collective 
Ann Marie Smith Insight Meditation Community of Charlottesville  
Rev. Maren Hange, Charlottesville Mennonite Church 
Rev. Dr. Martha Dixon Kearse, Peakland Baptist Church, Lynchburg
Jim Bundy, Retired Minister, United Church of Christ 
Rev. Tracy Howe Wispelwey, United Church of Christ 
Rev. Dr. Elizabeth Emrey, Co‑Pastor, New Beginnings Christian Community  
Jan Rivero, United Methodist Clergy, retired 
Cynthia Power, Charlottesville Friends Meeting 
Rev. Nicholas Deere, Charlottesville, VA 
Rev. Brenda Brown‑Grooms, Co‑Pastor, New Beginnings Christian Community  
Rabbi Tom Gutherz, Congregation Beth Israel 
Rev. Alvin Edwards, PhD, Senior Pastor, Mt. Zion First African Baptist Church 
Sharon Beckman‑Brindley, Insight Meditation Community of Charlottesville 
Rev. Cass Bailey, Trinity Episcopal Church  
Sheikha Latifa Till, Sufi Ruhaniat International 
Rev. Don Lansky, Unity of Charlottesville 
Adam Slate, President, Thomas Jefferson Memorial Church, Unitarian Universalist 

We, the Charlottesville Clergy Collective, a God-centered faith community of prayer, solidarity, and impact within the Charlottesville-Albemarle Region of Central Virginia, who are called to eliminate prejudice and discrimination by establishing, developing, and promoting racial unity are appalled by the criminal charges that are being brought against Donald Blakney, DeAndre Harris, and Corey Long.
 
As first-hand witnesses to the violent invasion of white supremacists and white nationalists during the summer of 2017, the resulting arrests, hearings, and now impending trials of these three men of color is untenable. In light of the information that has been presented in Tim Heaphy’s Independent Review of the 2017 Protest Events in Charlottesville, Virginia, the continued persecution of our city’s most vulnerable and oppressed citizens is not to be interpreted as an act of justice, but as an act of malice.
 
As part of our continued efforts to highlight issues of racial and social justice in our community, support marginalized and historically under-served populations, and to partner with other community leaders and promote cooperation between law enforcement, city government, and the faith leadership of this region we do hereby implore Joe Platania, the Charlottesville Commonwealth's Attorney, to drop all charges related to these three men.
 
Signed,

Alvin Edwards, PhD, Senior Pastor, Mt. Zion First African Baptist Church
Rev. Rabia Povich, Charlottesville Inayati Order
Rev. Dr. Michael Cheuk, Peakland Baptist Church
Rev. Sandra J. Wisco, Peace Lutheran Church (ELCA member)
Rev. Dr. Eugene T. Locke, Parish Associate, Westminster Presbyterian Church
Rev. Robert D. Lewis, Hinton Ave United Methodist Church
Rev. Carol Carruthers Sims, Grace Episcopal Church
Gail Hyder Wiley, Elder, Westminster Presbyterian Church
Rev. Erik Walker Wikstrom, Thomas Jefferson Memorial Church Unitarian Universalist
Dr. Jan Rivero, Wesley Memorial United Methodist Church
Rev. David K. Garth, Parish Assoc., Westminster Presbyterian Church
Allison Jackson, Chaplain
Rev. Phil Woodson, First United Methodist Church
Rev. Seth Wispelwey, Restoration Village Arts
Rabbi Rachel Schmelkin, Congregation Beth Israel
Rev. Brittany Caine-Conley, Congregate Charlottesville
Pastor Brenda Brown-Grooms, New Beginnings Christian Community
Sharon Beckman-Brindley, Insight Meditation Community of Charlottesville
Rev. Dr. Susan A. Minasian, Sojourners United Church of Christ
Rabbi Tom Gutherz, Congregation Beth Israel
Rev. Dr. Elizabeth Emrey, New Beginnings Christian Community
Rev. Liz Forney, First Presbyterian Church
Adam Slate, President, Thomas Jefferson Memorial Church Unitarian Universalist
Rev. Tracy Howe Wispelwey, National Minister, Justice and Local Church Ministries, United Church of Christ
Apostle Sarah A. Kelley, Faith, Hope and Love International Healing and Deliverance Center
Rev. Diana Brawley, Parish Associate, Westminster Presbyterian Church
Maren Hange, Charlottesville Mennonite Church
Cynthia Power, Charlottesville Friends Meeting
Elizabeth Shillue, Beloved Community Cville & Friends Meeting
Rev. Dr. Jeanita Richardson, Congregate Charlottesville
Rev. Alvin J. Horton, First United Methodist Church
Latifa Till, Sheikha, Sufi Ruhaniat International
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Note: this is part of a series of profiles of Charlottesville Clergy Collective members.
The Rev. Jan Rivero is pastor of Wesley Memorial United Methodist Church in Charlottesville. 

She is the force behind the Charlottesville to Jamestown (Cville2Jtown.com) Pilgrimage scheduled for October 6 to 20, 2018.

She speaks to Michael Cheuk about how the Cville2Jtown pilgrimage vision was birthed, what it is about, and how people can join and participate.