RACIAL JUSTICE CIRCLE
In 2006, CCC adopted a Covenant on Becoming an Anti-Racist Church which acknowledged CCC’s “heritage of engagement in addressing racism in our society over the years” and re-committed the church “to dismantle racism … and work for a society in which the words of the Gospel are realized among us.” The Racial Justice Circle is one of the instruments of the church that tries to carry out this mission.
The Racial Justice Circle
- sponsors study groups and adult-youth dialogue on such books as The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander, Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehesi Coates, and The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas
- leads the congregation in advocacy efforts at the local and state levels in cooperation with such coalitions as the Maryland Alliance For Justice Reform and the Silver Spring Justice Coalition
- sponsors “Lunch and Learn” sessions for the congregation on issues such as solitary confinement, the county’s criminal justice system,
police-community relations, and youth incarceration - works closely with our Senior Pastor on Black Lives Matter and related initiatives
- joins with neighbors in sorrow and protest when events like the killing of Robert White by a Montgomery County police officer occur
- organizes events in recognition of Black History Month.
Recent Notable Events
June 2021: Members of the Racial Justice Circle, Silver Spring Justice Coalition and local community hosted a prayer commemoration and demonstration in honor of those who have been killed by MCPD over the past four years.
May 2021: Racial Justice Circle members advocated for new Maryland public safety laws (pdf).
October 2019: CCC’s Racial Justice Circle wrote a detailed account of recent events in Montgomery County and provided insight into improving policing in the area (Policing Reform in Montgomery County: Facing a Challenge, Responding to a Call, pdf).
May 2019: The Senior Minister, Pastor Matt Braddock wrote A Response To Over-Policing, Racial Profiling, & Civil Rights Violations (pdf).
April 2019: Silver Spring, MD Community Responds to Police Report on the Police Killing of Resident Robert White.
View more information about the community response. Watch the video on the right for footage of the calls for reform from the community (NBC 4 News).
January to mid-April 2017: Assisted with Maryland Alliance for Justice Reform (MAJR) efforts to work for reform of monetary bail in Maryland. Church members were invaluable in contacting their officials on this issue. Result was the prevention of a damaging measure that would have enshrined bail bondsman’s interests.
November 2016: Our church’s “Black Lives Matter” banner was vandalized three times. The Racial Justice Circle supported the pastor’s leadership on continuing to display the banner. After third vandalization, on election night 2016, the pastor held a press conference that week about the vandalism, attended by both local and national officials.
Watch the video on the right for press coverage of the vandalism on election night (ABC 7 News).
January to mid-April 2016: Assisted with MAJR efforts to get a comprehensive criminal justice bill passed in Annapolis, with success (Justice Reinvestment Act). This act derived from the 2015 state study of Maryland incarceration practices and the state report on same. Church members were very supportive in contacting their officials on this issue.
October 2015: Christ Congregational Church became a member of the Maryland Alliance for Justice Reform (MAJR), a bipartisan statewide coalition that educates and advocates on issues of criminal justice reform and works to change the over-incarceration of persons of color.