On the first evening of the Red Letter Revival – Philadelphia, believers will gather at The Historic African Episcopal Church of St. Thomas to reflect on the chaos of injustice and ignite our spirits in preparation to birth a more just world with Christ’s love at its core. In this divisive election season, we’ll explore how to strategize and mobilize to put love at the center of our policies on racial justice, gun violence, housing, poverty, voter engagement, and war and how to uproot Christian nationalism which distorts our faith and threatens the neighbors we are called to love.
Welcome & Introduction:
The Very Rev. Canon Martini Shaw, Seventeenth Rector of the Historic African Episcopal Church of St. Thomas
The Rev. Charles (Chaz) Lattimore Howard, PhD, University Chaplain and Vice President for Social Equity & Community, University of Pennsylvania
Lisa Sharon Harper, Founder & President, Freedom Road LLC & Board Member, RLC
Shane Claiborne, Co-founder, Red Letter Christians
Preacher:
Rev. Traci deVon Blackmon
Rev. Traci Blackmon lives by the mantra: Faith hears, Love heals, and Hope builds. She is the Founder & Lead Consultant of HopeBuilds, LLC, a newly launched social impact firm that accompanies communities, corporations, and congregations eager to build the just and equitable worlds they imagine. HopeBuilds envisions a world where our greatest differences become invitations to shape collective narratives that serve as building blocks of hope, empowering communities to thrive.
From 2016 through 2023, Rev. Blackmon served as Associate General Minister & Vice-President of the United Church of Christ, a Christian denomination of approximately 750,000 members dispersed among 5,000 churches within the United States. In that role, she led the Justice and Local Church Ministries. From 2009 through 2020, Rev. Blackmon pastored Christ The King United Church of Christ, a congregation anchored in Florissant, MO, in St. Louis County. Under her leadership, Christ The King served as a sanctuary for community engagement, and the denomination launched several anchor initiatives focused on congregational education, engagement, and social action. Following the police killing of Michael Brown, Jr. in nearby Ferguson, the church hosted the first city-wide community engagement meeting and remained a gathering site for faith-based organizing efforts.
Prior to 2009, Rev. Blackmon served as a pastor of Simpson Chapel African Methodist Episcopal Church and worked as a licensed registered nurse, healthcare administrator, and community organizer for several healthcare delivery systems. She was appointed chair of the Criminal Justice Reform Task Force of the Ferguson Commission, which released the ‘Forward Through Ferguson: A Path Toward Racial Equity’ report in 2015, calling for sweeping changes in policing, the courts, child well-being, and economic mobility. In 2012, she was appointed to the President’s Advisory Council on Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships by Barack Obama.
Rev. Blackmon currently serves on the boards of the Parliament of World Religions, the Samuel DeWitt Proctor Conference, and Americans United for Separation of Church and State. She is an Auburn Senior Fellow and theologian in residence for Eden Theological Seminary. Rev. Blackmon earned a bachelor’s degree in nursing from Birmingham-Southern College, a Master of Divinity from Eden Theological Seminary, and an honorary Doctor of Divinity from Eden as well. Traci is a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc., and is the mother of three adult children.
Featuring the Gospel Choir of The Historic African Episcopal Church of St. Thomas.