Panel: RACE, CLASS, GENDER AND BEYOND. CHANGEMAKING IN INTERSECTIONAL SOLIDARITY



369.9 - COMMUNITY ORGANISING: IS IT AN EFFECTIVE TOOL TO BUILD INTERSECTIONAL SOLIDARITY?

AUTHORS:
Walker J. (Centre for Theology and Community ~ London ~ United Kingdom) , Bacon D. (St George-in-the-East Church ~ London ~ United Kingdom)
Text:
Community organising is a methodology used to engage civic institutions in their local communities to build power to challenge injustice. With support, marginalised individuals develop into leaders who share and listen to stories, identify issues, and take action. In this way, organising can be used internally within religious institutions or externally in the wider community. In an increasingly atomised Western context, we need radical, active, intersectional solidarity more than ever. Using case studies, primarily from East London churches, this paper will demonstrate how community organising can effectively build intersectional solidarity. Organising builds relational cultures within religious institutions by prioritising 'people before programme'. When an institution's diverse membership has deep theological understanding of injustice rooted in experience, institutions become places of solidarity, equipped to make change. However, this paper will also explore the limitations of organising when building intersectional solidarity due to its flexible and pragmatic framework. Faith-based organising is only as intersectional as the institution's dominant theology, and this is particularly seen when coming into contact with theologies that reject queer bodies. This paper will suggest community organising builds truly intersectional solidarity when paired with broad theologies, but also that these more expansive theologies can emerge within institutions through organising.