Following the tragic shootings of Dexter Reed in Chicago and Sonya Massey in Springfield, CRS is organizing our “We Won’t Bury the Slain” Day of Action in partnership with Urban Village Church.
During this day, the following CRS member congregations will hold a collective prayer vigil to honor the countless victims of excessive force:
Please register to join us at the prayer vigil as CRS demands police accountability, commemorates the lives lost to police brutality, and calls the faith community to hold officers accountable. Together, we can elevate Black, Brown, white, and LGBTQIA+ solidarity in our collective pursuit of police accountability.
Read about the event speakers.
Urban Village Church, Wicker Park
Juan Pablo Herrera (he/him) is the pastor at Urban Village Church in Wicker Park, an LGBTQIA+ affirming congregation. He is a second-generation immigrant who was born and raised in Chicago. He has been a life-long community organizer around education, gentrification, and immigration in the Logan Square and Humboldt Park neighborhoods. He spends most of his free time working on his garden, but on weekends you can catch him country dancing at Charlie’s Chicago as part of Second City Country Dance Association, a queer group of folks that perform all over the city.
Urban Village Church, West
Rev. Abby Holcombe (she/her) was born and raised near Birmingham, Alabama where she fell in love with southern food and the outdoors. You can usually catch her on a walk, Face Timing her nieces and nephew, or exploring the Chicagoland area with her partner Kristina. She has a deep commitment to expansive understandings of God and all of creation. She has discerned her call to be part of God’s healing work in the Church and world by building bridges of reconciliation. She has facilitated difficult conversations between groups, particularly around political divisions, race, and sexuality, in hopes of finding some common ground for the sake of God’s Beloved Community.
Urban Village Church, Edgewater
Rev. Jonathan Grace (he/him) serves as the Lead Pastor of Urban Village Church (UVC) in Chicago and Site Pastor of the Edgewater campus of UVC. He is an ordained Elder in the United Methodist Church with a Master of Divinity from Perkins School of Theology at Southern Methodist University and a Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy from the University of North Texas. He served alongside those experiencing homelessness in Dallas for over a decade with most of that time spent working for the non-profit CitySquare. He is passionate about ending homelessness, LGBTQIA+ rights, and racial justice. He enjoys reading philosophy, horror, and fantasy novels, trying new recipes on his smoker, listening to heavy metal, and celebrating life with his wife Rachel, his daughter Elora, and his son Thomas. The Grace family recently moved to Chicago and is having a wonderful time exploring the city, trying all the incredible food, and getting to know and love their neighbors. He is happy to have hours long discussions on how Game of Thrones should have ended.
Urban Village Church, Hyde Park & Woodlawn
Rev. Dr. Pamela Lightsey (she/her) serves as Vice President for Academic Affairs at Meadville Lombard Theological School and Associate Professor of Constructive Theology. She is a womanist theologian who lectured at schools within and outside the continental U.S. and has several publications. She is an honorably discharged veteran of the U.S. Army. As an activist, she worked within the LGBTQIA+ community to end the Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell military policy and to ensure marriage equality. She served as a member of former Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot and now Mayor Brandon Johnson’s LGBTQIA+ Advisory Council. She was on the ground protesting against excessive police force during the first 21 days of unrest in Ferguson, collaborating with colleagues in the movement for the liberation of Black lives and to address violence against Black transwomen and institutional racism on college campuses. She was the first out queer lesbian African American ordained elder in full connection with the denomination. She is the mother of two adult children, one grandson, and one adult goddaughter, and her children. They are her central sources of joy and hope.
CRS is a leader in several coalitions, including Empowering Communities for Public Safety and Free2Move, that desire to win greater oversight of the Chicago Police Department, and we want our member congregations to lead in action with us! We encourage education around ineffective and discriminatory policing practices such as pretextual traffic stops. Check out the flyer below to learn more. Join us in our work to end pretextual stops by signing up using the QR code.
