NEW HAVEN >> The leaves are blazing on the trees, and love is in the air. It’s time for the sixth annual Community Healing Day, says Enola Aird, founder and president of the Community Healing Network, a national nonprofit organization that aims to uplift the black community and aid in its recovery from enslavement and racism.
Healing in the Name of Love will take place from 4-6 p.m. on Saturday at St. Luke’s Episcopal Church at 111 Whalley Ave. The first such healing day was held there in 2008.
Linda Mose Meadows, chair of St. Luke’s Community Healing Day committee, says she’s excited about the day and invites everyone to come and participate.
“This is a day to help people change their minds and hearts about the things that perplex us and hurt us,” she says. “It’s a time for the community to come together and look at the issues we’re bombarded with, the things that make us feel inadequate and unworthy — and then to see that we have great hope, we have each other, we have resilience, and God is with us.”
Meadows, who is the wife of Richard Meadows Jr., the rector of St. Luke’s, recently moved with her husband to New Haven from Florida. “I love this community,” she says, “and I just believe that God wants us to create an evening where people can reflect through song and prose and poetry and music and see just how beautiful they are.”
People will be reading poetry and singing songs, and the atmosphere will be one of rejoicing and community, she says. “I thought about Desmond Tutu and his battle with apartheid, and how he helped those who were broken-hearted. When we come together in truth and in love, we can empower people and begin to enter a spiritual journey together.”
The celebration (which is free of charge) comes just as the October edition of the journal Social Science & Medicine releases an international study finding that children “experience poor mental health, depression, and anxiety” as a result of racism. The lead researcher, Dr. Naomi Priest, says the study shows,“that there are strong and consistent relationships between racial discrimination and a range of detrimental health outcomes such as low self-esteem, reduced resilience, increased behavior problems and lower levels of well being.”Meadows points out that those effects aren’t limited to children. “They also affect adults,” she says. “We live in a cultural climate that consistently diminishes our self-worth and denies our reality. We must take time to heal, and the time for healing is now.” The program will introduce participants to the movement for emotional emancipation, to Ubuntu, an African-inspired way of building community, and Emotional Emancipation Circles, support groups through which attendees can share stories, learn more about the impact of historical forces on emotions and relationships, and practice essential emotional wellness skills.” Jill Snyder, CHN Board member, said that “internalized racism contributes to many problems facing the black community today: broken families, violence, mass incarceration, to name a few. But it doesn’t have to be this way. We can heal.”
Participants are asked to wear the color sky blue as a sign, Aird said, “of our collective determination to move beyond the pain of the blues to the sky blue of unlimited possibilities.” More at 203-295-4394.
Healing in the Name of Love will take place from 4-6 p.m. on Saturday at St. Luke’s Episcopal Church at 111 Whalley Ave. The first such healing day was held there in 2008.
Linda Mose Meadows, chair of St. Luke’s Community Healing Day committee, says she’s excited about the day and invites everyone to come and participate.
“This is a day to help people change their minds and hearts about the things that perplex us and hurt us,” she says. “It’s a time for the community to come together and look at the issues we’re bombarded with, the things that make us feel inadequate and unworthy — and then to see that we have great hope, we have each other, we have resilience, and God is with us.”
Meadows, who is the wife of Richard Meadows Jr., the rector of St. Luke’s, recently moved with her husband to New Haven from Florida. “I love this community,” she says, “and I just believe that God wants us to create an evening where people can reflect through song and prose and poetry and music and see just how beautiful they are.”
People will be reading poetry and singing songs, and the atmosphere will be one of rejoicing and community, she says. “I thought about Desmond Tutu and his battle with apartheid, and how he helped those who were broken-hearted. When we come together in truth and in love, we can empower people and begin to enter a spiritual journey together.”
The celebration (which is free of charge) comes just as the October edition of the journal Social Science & Medicine releases an international study finding that children “experience poor mental health, depression, and anxiety” as a result of racism. The lead researcher, Dr. Naomi Priest, says the study shows,“that there are strong and consistent relationships between racial discrimination and a range of detrimental health outcomes such as low self-esteem, reduced resilience, increased behavior problems and lower levels of well being.”Meadows points out that those effects aren’t limited to children. “They also affect adults,” she says. “We live in a cultural climate that consistently diminishes our self-worth and denies our reality. We must take time to heal, and the time for healing is now.” The program will introduce participants to the movement for emotional emancipation, to Ubuntu, an African-inspired way of building community, and Emotional Emancipation Circles, support groups through which attendees can share stories, learn more about the impact of historical forces on emotions and relationships, and practice essential emotional wellness skills.” Jill Snyder, CHN Board member, said that “internalized racism contributes to many problems facing the black community today: broken families, violence, mass incarceration, to name a few. But it doesn’t have to be this way. We can heal.”
Participants are asked to wear the color sky blue as a sign, Aird said, “of our collective determination to move beyond the pain of the blues to the sky blue of unlimited possibilities.” More at 203-295-4394.
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