Hi everybody,

We are just 5 days away from our new book, Faith Unleavened by Tamice Spencer-Helms, shipping out to inboxes and mailboxes everywhere! It is available for preorder as an e-book RIGHT NOW! Both the e-book and paperback will come out on Tuesday. Since we’re doing a lot of work related to that launch, there won’t be a newsletter next week, but you will still hear from us. Stay tuned for some exciting stuff!

Suzie is off this week. But here are Jonathan’s and Sy’s highlights as we seek to leave colonized faith for the kingdom of God!

Jonathan’s recommendations:

·       New York City has opened a Gate of the Exonerated at an entrance to Central Park. In December 2002, a court vacated the wrongful convictions of five Black and Latino minors for the brutal murder of a jogger in the park. Ten years earlier, politicians, the media, the legal system, and the culture of criminalization that exists for young Black and Brown boys conspired to strip them of their identities and steel years of their lives. The Harlem community was involved in the creation of the gate. The purpose of it is to resist the stigma that still exists for young boys who go into Central Park, and to welcome them into this public space. Park designers created “Gates,” as the entrances to the park are known, to be open and inclusive of all people who live in New York City. This gate, named for those who were continually excluded, is a proclamation that young boys from Harlem can take up this public space too. The community hopes that this is another step towards healing and reconciliation, and we join them in that prayer.