A Common,
Sacred Place to Begin Again
For more than 30 years, RCND has worked to
prevent and rectify
the unjust, inequitable violence
that segregates our community and diminishes our humanity.
We continue to walk alongside neighbors on every side of violent harm.
Over 1,100 times in those 33 years, we have measured this
pursuit of boundless belonging
against a Durham where one of our own kills another of our own.
Living in that tension, we are mindful of how easy it can be to look past,
shut out, and talk over this chasm in our common life.
Facing generations of communal trauma laid bare, fight, flight, and freezing are intuitive responses.
When a Durham neighbor is shot most every day
—someone killed most every week--
compassionate attention can feel costly.
We offer the following as intentional practices for
renewing our sacred attention.
To bear witness to the immeasurable worth of every life.
Pathways of response to overwhelming tragedy.
Things every one of us could do.
We offer these practices not as a place to end,
but as a common, sacred space to begin,
and begin again, and again, and again.
Vigil Meditation Videos
Durham Vigil Meditations began as a pandemic response.
They have become a meaningful annual practice.
Each video offers a lasting echo of our Annual Vigil,
where we gather to call aloud each name taken violently the prior year.
We invite you to join us in
sacred attention
to the ever-present absence of these named loved ones.
As you watch each video, devote time for intentional reflection
on a shared geography of violence - hiding in plain sight.
They have become a meaningful annual practice.
Each video offers a lasting echo of our Annual Vigil,
where we gather to call aloud each name taken violently the prior year.
We invite you to join us in
sacred attention
to the ever-present absence of these named loved ones.
As you watch each video, devote time for intentional reflection
on a shared geography of violence - hiding in plain sight.
Micro Vigil
We invite you to extend this Vigil Meditation practice into your own life.
You can do this through simple everyday acts of vigil in places where our collective violence breaks forth.
By locating our own stories and bodies amidst Durham’s violence,
we nurture the humility and imagination that undergird all nonviolent response.
Where might you
—guided by Spirit and your own traditions--
foster meaningful intersections with these stories
of grief, place, and sacred life so present in the community we share?
As a resource to your practice,
we lift up Bull City Homicide’s online resource mapping Durham homicides (2010 to present),
and the following prayerful reflections.
We welcome inquiries and suggestions ([email protected])
from neighbors in search of community in this work.
You can do this through simple everyday acts of vigil in places where our collective violence breaks forth.
By locating our own stories and bodies amidst Durham’s violence,
we nurture the humility and imagination that undergird all nonviolent response.
Where might you
—guided by Spirit and your own traditions--
foster meaningful intersections with these stories
of grief, place, and sacred life so present in the community we share?
As a resource to your practice,
we lift up Bull City Homicide’s online resource mapping Durham homicides (2010 to present),
and the following prayerful reflections.
We welcome inquiries and suggestions ([email protected])
from neighbors in search of community in this work.
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A Prayer for Sites of Sorrow [God of the land,] We honor this ground, this space and its stories. We take this moment, because this place holds memory and meaning. We breathe in: the memories and the silences, the seasons and the sacred. May we move in tandem with the stories of this space. May we walk humbly in the the light and dark of this land. [In the name of all that is holy, amen.] |
A Prayer in Times of Violence God of all humanity, in times of violence we see how inhuman we can be. We pray for those who, today, are weighed down by grief. We pray for those who, yesterday, were weighed down by grief. And the day before, and all the days before the day before. We remember especially our [sibling/neighbor, ...], whose life and death, beauty and blood, have marked life in this space in ways beyond our knowing. We pray too, for those who turn us toward justice and peace. Turn us all toward justice and peace. Because we need it. Amen. by Padraig O’Tuama, in Daily Prayer with the Corrymeela Community (The Corrymeela Community is Northern Ireland’s oldest peace and reconciliation organization.) |
Why One Life Witness?
To affirm that “Durham’s vitality is built upon the health of our residents
and the capacity of our community to foster and enhance the wellbeing of every citizen.”
Because every one of us knows the lovely, fragile thing it is to have a body,
and the precious gift it is to be known, named, and called by name.
Out of a ragged, hopeful understanding that, as James Baldwin said:
“Not everything that is faced can be changed. But nothing can be changed until it is faced.”
In the firm belief that compassion is inseparable from prevention,
and our response to violence mirrors the violence we are willing to accept and allow.
and the capacity of our community to foster and enhance the wellbeing of every citizen.”
Because every one of us knows the lovely, fragile thing it is to have a body,
and the precious gift it is to be known, named, and called by name.
Out of a ragged, hopeful understanding that, as James Baldwin said:
“Not everything that is faced can be changed. But nothing can be changed until it is faced.”
In the firm belief that compassion is inseparable from prevention,
and our response to violence mirrors the violence we are willing to accept and allow.