Indigenous People's Day Flag Raising at Philadelphia City Hall

Trinity Norwood was one of the speakers during the Indigenous People's Day Flag Raising Event at Philadelphia City Hall on October 7, 2021.  Her comments, and those she shared from her father, are below... 

Columbus Day: A Celebration of Genocide, Colonialism, and Fake News

by Trinity Norwood (Op-Ed from the Philadelphia Inquirer, October 9, 2020)https://www.inquirer.com/opinion/commentary/columbus-day-philadelphia-indigenous-peoples-day-parade-20201009.html  

Columbus Day idealizes a murderer who was lost and minimizes the negative effects of colonialism on America’s Indigenous Peoples. In the same way Germany does not have a national holiday or statues to memorialize Hitler because of his deplorable actions against humanity; Christopher Columbus should not be celebrated either. The actions of Columbus and the colonizers who followed him sparked the two greatest crimes in the history of the Americas: The Trans-Atlantic slave trade, and the systematic genocide of Indigenous Peoples. 

Re-Thinking the Meaning of Christopher Columbus

 This audio recording* is from the American Myths Symposium held at the Arch Street United Methodist Church in Philadelphia, PA on October 7, 2015. The moderator and second speaker is Dr. David M. Krueger who invited Dr. John Norwood to also speak at the event.  Why are so many in the U.S. preoccupied with the notion that America was discovered? Columbus’s exploration of the Caribbean is often understand as discovering a “New World.”

What God Requires - Doing Justice, Loving Kindness, Walking Humbly with God

What God Requires - Doing Justice, Loving Kindness, Walking Humbly with God

Dr. J.R. Norwood 

Preached on June 7, 2020 - Ujima Village Christian Church

12th Online Sermon during Coronavirus Pandemic Lock-down

The Prophet Micah lays out a charge against the sinful hearts and actions of his people…  He tells them that God himself has indicted them… Micah 6:2 (ESV); “2  Hear, you mountains, the indictment of the LORD, and you enduring foundations of the earth, for the LORD has an indictment against his people, and he will contend with Israel.”

 

Micah not only lists the charges against his people, but also proclaims the will of the Lord.  He not only condemns their sin, but also summons them to faithfulness… In the dog-eat-dog days of the privileged elite ignoring the plight of the oppressed downtrodden… when people of every station point out the faults of others but justify their own fault… when we shout about the sins of others but don’t repent of our own sin, the words of our text ring out… Micah 6:8 (ESV); “8  He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the LORD require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?”

I Can't Breathe

by Dr. J.R. Norwood

"I can't breathe!" These words have been said by both Eric Garner and George Floyd while they were being restrained by police in a manner that caused these panicked utterances to be some of their last. The murder of George Floyd happened during the same week that Christopher Cooper was able to avert what could have been a similar situation perpetrated against him as he simply asked that a white woman obey the laws of the park they both were enjoying and keep her dog on a leash. Her response was to use her privilege to threaten him and then call for the police with the lying claim that she was being attacked by an African-American man. Thank God that Mr. Cooper was video recording the event and that he kept his cool throughout. 

Sadly, these are not rare occurrences. Many people of color, perhaps most, have experienced injustice at the hands of both authority figures and by our white brothers and sisters acting out of a sense of superiority and privilege that is based in the entanglements of the backdrop of racism that permeates so much of our society.

Get Right With God

A sermon by Dr. J.R. Norwood delivered at the 2019 Nanticoke Lenni-Lenape Pow-Wow Sunday Morning Worship Service held on June 9, 2019…

Grace Makes the Difference

A sermon by Dr. J.R. Norwood delivered at the 2018 Nanticoke Lenni-Lenape Pow-Wow Sunday Morning Worship Service held on June 10, 2018…