Solidarity Building Initiative receives award from Presbyterians for Abolition

1-01-2023

Learning about McCormick’s Solidarity Building Initiative wasn’t enough for Presbyterians for Abolition. The coalition wanted to get in the game and held a fundraiser to support SBI and two other organizations that are working to make a difference in the lives of individuals and communities impacted by the nation’s current carceral system.

Just two years into its development, Presbyterians for Abolition, PFA, heard about the efforts of McCormick’s Solidarity Building Initiative, SBI. “It was in the wake of the police murders of Breonna Taylor and George Floyd,” says Lucy Waechter Webb, manager of communications and digital organizing for the Presbyterian Peace Fellowship, PPF. “Several members of PPF put on pause some of the work they were doing to learn more about a growing call to defund the police. Once they learned, the inevitable question was, ‘what’s next?’”

The answer for the newly formed PFA was finding and moving financial resources toward organizations that are directly working with communities impacted by the nation’s carceral system. “Ongoing learning is always important,” says Waechter Webb, “but we can’t get stuck in learning; we need to figure out how to take action together.” 

Waechter Webb’s sentiments echo those of Rev. Nannette Dixon, McCormick’s vice president, Office for Community Engagement and Alumni Relations. “The classroom and the community are collaborators,” says Rev. Dixon, “our work supports the passions, the hopes, the visions of our students, and is conscious of the passions of community partners as well. Our work here stretches far beyond our building to anywhere we have alums or news about McCormick lands.”

Over the past two years, Rev. Dixon has seen increased engagement with the seminary coming from potential students, alums, and community organizations and leaders via McCormick’s public programming and social media platforms. “Our marketing communications efforts have been greatly enhanced through a more robust website and a consistent and real-time presence on social media platforms,” says Rev. Dixon. “People who feel strongly about social justice issues, such as mass incarceration or want to support efforts that help marginalized populations, are learning that McCormick is actively involved in their passion…in the work they are doing or want to do. These kinds of collaborations increase our capacity and maximize the social impact we can make together in our world.”

PFA’s support for SBI was realized through a Zoom event that showcased artwork from people directly impacted by incarceration, a song written by a formerly incarcerated person, and speakers from the three organizations, SBI, Voices of Jubilee and Hagar’s Community Church, that were honored and shared the more than $10,000 raised.

“This work can’t be done alone,” says Jia Johnson, SBI director, who accepted the award on behalf of the seminary. “All of us at McCormick feel a deep sense of gratitude when others come alongside us, supporting and valuing our mission of utilizing higher education in prison to mitigate some of the barriers people with the experience of incarceration face.”

The work of abolitionists, notes Waechter Webb, is not so much about tearing down as it is about building out the vision of the world we long for and stepping into the experiences and practices of that world. “We wanted to lift up the resiliency of people who survived the current conditions and dream about what is possible,” she says of the online event. “The work of abolition means no longer investing in systems of punishment that have failed us, but to care for people and make choices that take people out of places of desperation.”

Such choices, adds Johnson, create flourishing relationships that are founded on mutual care, accountability, courageous conversations, and they require imagination. “This is a process of imagining what are the life-giving systems that can replace the systems that harm us,” says Johnson. “As I learn more and more about the theology of abolition, I’m learning that this is a spiritual practice…a movement toward wholeness that will benefit all of society.”

Rev. Nannette Dixon
Office for Community Engagement and Alumni Relations

Jia Johnson
Solidarity Building Initiative

Lucy Waechter Webb
Presbyterian Peace Fellowship, PPF