Race relations up for discussion at Florence breakfast

More than 40 church leaders and community members attended the Helping Florence Flourish Pastors’ Breakfast on Wednesday to network with fellow church members and discuss race relations in Florence.

The Pastors’ Breakfast was held at St. John’s Church on S. Dargan St. in Florence starting at 7:30 a.m. The event is one of a series of breakfasts that the Racial Bridging Focus Group has held since January.

The Racial Bridging Focus Group is one of four focus groups within the Helping Florence Flourish initiative, including homelessness, education and family strengthening. Frances Swink, a team member within Helping Florence Flourish, said the idea from the Pastors’ Breakfast came from within the focus group as a way of bringing people together and rebuilding connections in the Florence community.

“Our relationships are broken and so we as a focus group said that we need to sit down and to have tough and honest conversations with each other and build up those relationships,” Swink said. “We thought that this would be great for pastors and church leaders to do also.”

On Wednesday morning, the first half of the Pastors’ Breakfast featured a hearty meal, entertainment from the Sensational Brown Brothers and a speech from Pastor Ralph Canty of Savannah Grove Baptist Church.

During the second half of the event, attendees gathered in round-table discussions, talking about the problems with race relations in Florence and ways church leaders could help solve them. Members of the Racial Bridging Focus Group sat at each table to act as moderators for the conversation.

Moderators would lead the dialogue around two questions: (1) how would you describe the overall state of race relations in our community? And (2) what are some of the underlying conditions affecting race relations in our community? Swink encouraged the crowd to answer the hard questions honestly and really get to know one another.

“We talk about really tough issues,” Swink said. “Ask tough questions, have honest dialogue. That’s what we are working toward.”

Chris Handley, a team leader with Helping Florence Flourish said Wednesday’s attendance was the largest turnout for any Pastors’ Breakfast so far, and that in itself shows promise for racial bridging in Florence.

“You see different types of folks in the room, and so it’s happening,” Handley said. “As we build our relationships together as pastors, hopefully we’ll be able to address the issues of the city better.”

For more information about Helping Florence Flourish, their focus groups or upcoming events, visit helpingflorenceflourish.org.