STAND TOGETHER FELLOWSHIP
Stand Together Fellowship was CPJI’s first initiative. It began in the wake of the tragic, racially motivated massacre in another historic southern city—Charleston, S.C.
After the racially motivated shootings at Mother Emanuel AME Church in Charleston in 2015, several churches in Maury County gathered for memorial and unity service at Columbia’s historic St. Paul AME Church. One pastor, Trent Ogilvie, however, challenged the group to continue meeting in that same spirit, and they formed the Stand Together Fellowship.
The objectives of Stand Together Fellowship are to:
Promote unity and understanding and encourage inclusiveness among races in the community
Create discussion and discovery regarding racial equality
Encourage listening, learning and loving one another
Encourage education and awareness among citizens in our community
Stand Together meets on the first Friday of every other month, bringing together local pastors, civic leaders and other residents to discuss a range of local and national issues. Conversations have centered around diversity, equity and inclusion within the Columbia community, police relationships with Black and other minority communities, the distribution of KKK hate flyers in the Columbia community, and challenges and concerns of minority high school students.
The meetings give participants the opportunity to learn, discuss, grieve and think through current events together—and leave with a different perspective to share with the broader Maury County community.
Stand Together meetings are open to any member of the community and meet at the Columbia Police Department. For updates on meeting times and topics, join the Stand Together Fellowship Facebook Group.
In addition to these regular meetings, Stand Together Fellowship has also hosted World Cafe discussion groups, Stand Together Police Academy, a screening of the film Just Mercy followed by a panel discussion with officials of Maury County criminal justice system, and a commemoration of the the 70th and 75th anniversaries of the 1946 Columbia Race Riot.
“It is providing a forum for comfortable conversations about tough topics. Every time we want to speak about something that was horrendous in our history of Columbia/Maury County, we get asked, ‘why are you talking about this? Aren’t you over it yet?’ So it’s giving a forum of leading the community and saying, ‘it’s okay to talk about this.’ It’s a safe space.”
Have a topic you’d like to discuss at a Stand Together meeting? Email our team.
For updates and ongoing conversation, be sure to follow Stand Together Fellowship on Facebook.
READ MORE ABOUT STAND TOGETHER FELLOWSHIP
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