Love Community Action (LCA) came together initially in response to a call by Dr. J LanYe’ for the Buffalo Friends take a collective, public action against racism. We were asked to wear a pin that said “One Nation … Where Black Lives Matter too.” After making and wearing the badges, members of LCA experienced what it meant to commit to Corporate Witness and support one another in a sustained project. The impact of the action was both what it meant to our community and how it helped us learn and grow as we took a stand. Corporate Witness kept us accountable to ourselves and one another, and supported learning within our group about ourselves and the issue of racism. After our initial project, members of LCA expressed interest in continuing to explore how we can develop relationships within the community as a collective, and continue to take action to support unity in our community.
To date, LCA has been primarily focused on Corporate Witness against racism in our local community. Because racism has been a particularly painful and damaging issue in our community, we are primarily focused on projects that will increase unity and love across groups that have been separated by racism. We recognize that racism hurts all people, including ourselves. Any action we take is in the spirit of mutual respect and mutual aid.
Recently LCA had a meeting with Ministry and Council where we proposed the Buffalo Friends make a commitment to Corporate Witness to stand for Racial Justice in our community. Corporate Witness is important because it supports us developing and maintaining projects together, it supports learning across the meeting, and can support a more unified and robust presence and impact in our community. Corporate Witness can also bring the awareness and support of the Buffalo Friends meeting behind individual efforts of individual friends who have followed leadings.
LCA is still in the process of defining the scope if it’s activities. For now, we are focused on Racial Justice in our community. This Witness is developing through relationships with other groups in our community who share our values with regard to this work: Christ is the Answer and Lincoln Memorial United Methodist Church. We imagine how we Witness racial justice may take a variety of forms and may develop into shared projects, and we hope that our efforts may also support structural change. We also would be happy to support and season other social justice projects brought to the attention of Buffalo Friends Meeting. LCA appreciates the support of the Buffalo Friends Meeting. We look forward to reporting back more on our progress.