The 2015 Midwest Faith and Resistance Retreat: A Catholic Worker Anti-Racism Workshop

Thursday March 19th at 6pm – Sunday March 22nd 12pm

St. Louis University High School:  4970 Oakland Avenue, St. Louis, MO 63110

Who is Invited?

Folks who identify as Catholic Workers (both those who live in CW houses and those “house-less” Catholic Workers who are consider themselves committed to the movement), AND friends from other similar intentional communities

Details

In hopes of addressing our own blind-spots, we will be bringing an outside anti-racist group to collaborate in planning this workshop.

We are so excited to be hosting, and participating in, this workshop. We’re hoping to better understand the ways in which the CW (despite its radical values) unwittingly replicates the patterns, structures, and other effects from residing in a white-supremacist society. We hope to push each other to learn more about how the Catholic Worker can move forward with more anti-racist values.

Because of the nature of this work,  it is vital to seek outside training, and we feel that this is an opportunity to put our resources and creative thought toward this important issue.  The outside group that will help facilitate our weekend is Crossroads.   We expect the overall cost of the workshop (which will include the Crossroads Fee, along with the cost to house and feed up to 100 people for 3 days) to be $4500. We hope to get help with fundraising, and we are also asking that all who take part contribute. To break even, we need about $60/per person. We have drafted a fundraising letter that we would be happy to along to aid in your fundraising efforts!

We would like to make child care available to those who need it. If you expect to bring children, please contact us so we can come up with a plan!

So that everyone can participate fully, we are hoping to cut down on time in the kitchen. In order to do so, we will have specific requests of you regarding food! Please register online ASAP so that we can discuss this with you.

Tentative Schedule

Thursday

6 Dinner

7:00 Welcome, Connecting anti-racism work with CW values

Friday: Crossroads Material (Framework and Analysis)

  • Culture – definitions, cultural dominance, intersectionality
  • Definitions of racism, power, etc
  • Continuum on Becoming an Anti-Racism Community
  • Anti-Racist Organizing Principles

Saturday: CW Material

  • Strengths and weaknesses in the CW through an anti-racism lens – looking at our history, how we operate our communities, etc.
  • Breakout Sessions: Common CW issues that come up when talking about racism
    • Organizing and activism (Looking at what issues we work on, how we work on them, what actions we do, etc.)
    • Hospitality (What are the challenges of doing CW-style hospitality in an anti-racist way?)
    • Anti-racism in a rural setting (How do we implement AR principles in geographically white-dominated areas?)
    • Voluntary Poverty and Simple Living through an Anti-Racist Lens
    • Pacifism and Nonviolence through an Anti-Racist Lens
    • Faith and Racism
  • Community Wrap Ups

Sunday

  • Breakfast and Liturgy

Registration