As we consider the role of the Interfaith Alliance in resolving tensions between the African American and White communities in Portland, it may be helpful to review excerpts from
REFLECTIONS ON THE WAY FORWARD
By Pastor Don Frazier, Oct 2020
If we are going to understand each other, we have to be intentional about reaching out because people who have lived through the hard things are going to be distrustful of surface connections.
During this recent time, I have become hopeful. I see that people are beginning to understand what our community has lived through. I see a turnout of all races and of people understanding what racism has done to others.
In 1968, I was a sophomore at Lincoln High. I was an angry young man, but I have mellowed. Now, I look for solutions. But I have buried many young men involved in gang activity. I have brought ministers together to work on that issue.
When people are degraded and devalued, and made to feel inferior, it is hard to trust.
I believe in working for solutions in our community and have felt that sometimes I am juggling two glass globes. I have a commitment to my community, having worked in many capacities and with Promise Keepers for two years until that stopped. Sometimes, when you work with two communities, you wonder where you fit.
But I have come to Interfaith Alliance meetings whenever I could, and some of the things I have learned about poverty have been a revelation to me. These are things that need to be shared in my community as well, but the distrust will make that have to be an intentional sharing, back and forth.
I thank you for your advocacy and commitment. Thank God for all of you. Don Frazier
Pastor Frazier received his Master’s in Specialized Ministry in 1983. The first few years of his ministry Pastor Frazier was bi-vocational, working as a manager at the State of Oregon Children Services Division. In that role, he developed culturally sensitive training for employees to ensure that culturally competent programs were developed for ethnic clients. He states that his “twelve years with CSD deeply burdened my heart for ministry to young people, family, and racial reconciliation.”
He has also been a leader with Promise Keepers while pastoring at Mt. Sinai and began the Bridge Ministries Program, designed as an outreach program aimed at reaching gang affected youth and their families. High risk and at-risk youth were referred to the program by the State of Oregon, Juvenile court, local high schools, and the community. In addition to working with the youth, his work included a component of racial reconciliation to promote cross-racial understanding within churches.