The NC Council of Churches is proud to publish a brand new e-book collection of testimonies from Moral Mondays. With 32 short vignettes from North Carolinians across the state, Voices of Moral Mondays tells the story of everyday folks being motivated to speak out on account of their faith. Many, though not all, of the accounts describe what it was like to engage in civil disobedience and be arrested by the authorities. Click here to download the free e-book.
By Rev. W. Gaye Brown, Galloway Memorial Episcopal Church, Elkin, NC
I am the vicar of a small Episcopal congregation in Elkin. When I first heard about Moral Mondays, I yearned to participate, but time was short and Raleigh was almost three hours away. As I reflected on this, I realized that one didn’t have to go to Raleigh to participate — that we could have our own Moral Monday in Elkin. So I sent an email to the congregation and another to the local ministerial association inviting folks to join me and our senior warden on a street corner in Elkin on the following Monday, June 10, at 5:00.
A group of ten to twenty folks have met on the corner every Monday since that time — to pray, to hold signs, to wave to those who pass by, to answer questions, to stand in solidarity with our brothers and sisters in Raleigh. In the process we’ve made some new friends and worked together ecumenically to express our concerns about legislation that unfairly affects the most vulnerable among us.
Now that the demonstrations in Raleigh have ended, we have begun looking at and planning for the future, including sponsoring a town hall meeting to which we will invite the community, our legislators, folks who are being impacted adversely by some of the bills that have been passed, social service providers, teachers, etc., for dialogue, conversation, education and action. We are excited to be working together ecumenically to address issues created by the passage of very hurtful legislation.
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