Putting on a Coat of Colours: Recent Episodes
Thomas Riggs
This is the podcast Putting on a Coat of Colours. This podcast is a Community Storytelling project of Coat of Colours, a council of Cathedral of Hope, United Church of Christ, in Dallas, TX. Our hope is that this podcast will make room for persons of color and their white allies, who are both gay and straight…•To tell of their joys and frustrations•To tell of their sense of belonging and their sense of exclusion•To celebrate our uniqueness to the larger community and celebrate our commonalities•To invite members of the larger community to join in this purpose
In the third installment of the conversation between Darnell and Thomas, Darnell talks about the welcoming nature of Coat of Colours and how seeking “to decrease the cultural divide and increase a multicultural presence” is defining the group. They also talk about how the white gay members of the community have a real sense of what it means to be marginalized, but often worry about their own space and don’t go any deeper.
In part two of the conversation between Darnell and the podcast producer Thomas, we discover why it is that Thomas and Kasandra wanted to be a part of a predominately LGBTQIA+ church and how they got to Cathedral of Hope. They talk about how Tom came to be not only a participant in Coat of Colours, but was also given the opportunity to contribute in meaningful ways.
In part one of this conversation, we turn the microphone around on the producer of the podcast. Coat of Colours member Darnell sits down with Thomas to ask about what he’s seen and heard from the interviews so far and what he sees as a straight, white ally who is in an interracial marriage. And how being noticed as a marginalized person, even when the comment is meant as a compliment, is still awkward and maybe means more to the one who is doing the noticing.
We also want to apologize for how badly Tom’s office chair needs a spray of WD-40. His squeaky chair is a bit noisy.
To open this edition of Putting on a Coat of Colours, we wanted to let you know that we are in the process of producing new content and we hope to drop new episodes beginning next week. But in the meantime, we wanted to offer this piece of audio. Last Sunday on Juneteenth 2022, the Rev. Andria Davis, Executive Pastor of Digital Experience and Worship at Cathedral of Hope, preached about the messages: the message Jesus’ spoke when he began his public ministry, the message declared on June 19th, 1865 in Galveston, TX, and how those messages still need to go out today.
You can see this sermon delivered by Rev. Andria on the Cathedral of Hope YouTube Channel and on their Facebook page as well. Have a listen…
Join us for an interactive and immersive experience to celebrate Juneteenth. Attendees will be guided through displays which present different events in the Juneteenth history timeline. The information on the displays will then be used in interactive activities, connecting Juneteenth history to contemporary social justice actions.
Come and learn the story of Juneteenth and reflect on the implications for today. Lunch will be served at this family-friendly event. Please RSVP by June 13th via the REALM registration link.
Please join facilitators Kassie Riggs and Pat Saxon this summer to engage in reflection and discussion of This Here Flesh, a stunning book by Cole Arthur Riley, writer and creator of the website Black Liturgies. The group will meet on zoom for 5 weeks from June 28 through July 26, from 6:45-8:15.
If you would like to participate in this deeply engaging journey, please secure a book or audio version (narrated by the author) and reply to Pat at spiritsister26@aol.com.
We look forward to seeing you!
For this third episode with Pam, Pat, and Roger, we hear them discuss how being a part of Coat of Colours has given them a nearer understanding of the day-to-day and system issues that their Black siblings experience. Even as they start to participate in more, they discover that they need to continue to learn how to de-center whiteness. They find deeper lessons in proximity that they couldn’t learn from a book. They find that empowerment leads to service and action.
Beautifully, this group of white allies see that Coat of Colours is a bright light, that is perhaps hidden under a bushel, and they themselves as the ones that are responsible for sharing Coat of Colours with their white siblings in the church and the community
In this second part of the white ally round table with Pam, Pat, and Roger, they talk about the value of being a part of Coat of Colours. For these three, belonging was initially an exercise of “being in the background” and “being more of a listener than a contributor” and “being a worker bee and not a leader imposing their own agenda”.
They also express that they had some fear of saying or doing the wrong thing that might not be very endearing. And in some ways, they saw their self-imposed disempowerment as a means of creating an understanding of their siblings.
This is the first section of a podcast conversation between Pam, Pat, and Roger, three white allies who have been long time members of Coat of Colours. Their journeys to Cathedral of Hope came from different directions. There’s common themes of seeking a place where they could belong, needing a community steeped in activism, looking for genuine expressions of faith, and finding that CoH is unlike any place they had been.
On this 5th anniversary of Coat of Colours, each one also talks about how they came to participate in a group that they initially believed might be a space for Black people only. Each one came to realize that it was in proximity where relationship can be built.
In our fourth segment of the podcast conversation with Julie and Kasandra, they share the importance of civic engagement and voting when it comes to women’s reproductive justice, the curtailment of voting rights, and issues around race and gay rights. In the midst of the uncertainty and strife, Kasandra speaks of a longing for home and invites Julie to come with her to a predominately black church.
Finally, Kasandra shares the difficulty she had in getting a book study started at Cathedral of Hope, meeting with passivity and indifference. When Julie asks about black persons in representation of leadership at Cathedral of Hope, Kasandra compares it to corporate representation, being good “on paper”.
In the third part of the podcast conversation between Julie and Kasandra, Julie asks Kasandra what she thinks it means to be a LGBTQIA+ ally. Kasandra talks about her non-binary stepchild, being a straight ally in a predominately gay church, and how she can be useful in her church community, applying some her same learnings about race. In Kasandra asking Julie what it means to her to be an ally to black people, Julie talks about the intersectionality of being black and transgender. Finally, they talk about importance of extending grace and intentionality when having conversations about race, gender, sexual orientation and all the letters.
In this second part of the podcast conversation between Julie and Kasandra, Julie shares some of her takeaways from their book study about the book I’m Still Here: Black Dignity in a World Made for Whiteness by Austin Channing Brown and conversation that ensued. Julie gets a little closer look into the life of her friend Kasandra and when “book knowledge” became more real for her.
Also note there are three other participants in the podcast, specifically two dogs named Harry and Luna and one cat named Oreo. So, you’re gonna hear the tinkling of the dogs’ name tags when they shake their heads, their panting while being petted, and the cat meowing in protest when being picked up. Everyone is invited to this podcast.
In the first section of this podcast conversation between Julie and Kasandra, we learn how each one of them first came to Cathedral of Hope and how they met and became friends in a Small Group at Cathedral. It was because of that friendship that Kasandra, a straight black woman felt comfortable in inviting her lesbian white friend Julie to a non-sanctioned book study about the book I’m Still Here: Black Dignity in a World Made for Whiteness by Austin Channing Brown.
Also note there are three other participants in the podcast, specifically two dogs named Harry and Luna and one cat named Oreo. So, you’re gonna hear the tinkling of the dogs’ name tags when they shake their heads, their panting while being petted, and the cat meowing in protest when being picked up. Everyone is invited to this podcast.
In this third part of the conversation between Stella and Johann, mother and child talk about how families come to terms with finding out their child is gay. For Johann’s parents, they came to love and accept gay persons long before he was born. For some families that come to CoH, the church is the place where the family is able to come together.
Finally, in the closing, Stella and Johann talk about how they wish they could be seen as persons of color in a predominantly white space.
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The second part of the conversation between Stella and Johann, Johann digs deeper into how intimidating it can be for a young black gay man to integrate to a mostly middle age white community of gay men and women, many of whom had to endure the prejudices of being gay years ago. Stella talks about how difficult it is to be the only black person in the group or in the room and a painful exclusion where help is obviously needed.
Comments/feedback/ideas for new episodes?
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In this first part of the conversation between Stella and Johann, we find out how a mother’s desire to find a church home was motivated by her concern that she could find a place where her gay son would feel accepted. Her chance conversation with a gay friend led her to take Johann to church that just happened to be up the road and just happened to have a pastor from England.
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In the book I’m Still Here: Black Dignity in a World Made for Whiteness, Austin Channing Brown begins the book with the words “White people can be exhausting”.
In the fourth part of the conversation, Neil and Darnell share together how difficult it can be for persons of color to not want to travel to yet another “white space” on their only day off to attend services at Cathedral and the different layers that gay persons, persons of color, women, and disabled people have to navigate.
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In this first part of the conversation, we hear from Darnell, a leader in the Coat of Colours council and Neil, Senior Pastor of Cathedral of Hope. Darnell tells the story of what first brought him to Cathedral and the longing of needing a church connection that brought him back. Neil and Darnell talk about the differences in the church of Darnell’s younger life and what he experiences on Sundays at Cathedral. And how those differences are now something he has grown to appreciate.
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In part three of the conversation between Darnell and Neil, Neil tells the story of how he came from Bournemouth, England and the Metropolitan Community Church to Dallas, Texas and the United Church of Christ. Neil talks about how he uses his own privilege and how his leadership in the interfaith group Faith Forward is stretching boundaries in Dallas.
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The second part of the conversation between Darnell and Neil, they dig deep about the goals and purposes of Coat of Colours and the representation of people of color in all aspects of the life of the church. They address the issues of avoiding tokenism vs. consistent involvement and what it means to be an active vs. a passive participant. Both share it’s in honest conversations that white-dominated spaces can learn to work harmoniously with communities of color.
Perhaps it’s the work to be done and the honest conversations to be spoken that keep people of color coming back.
Comments/feedback/ideas for new episodes?
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