It was a year ago exactly that a small group of people from the Shenandoah Valley gathered together in Corhaven’s Woodshop to have an exploratory conversation about how to honor the slaves that lay buried in the ground at Corhaven.  The conversation that took place that day had really started long before 2015, and, in truth, long before Corhaven even existed.  But since that conversation a year ago, much has happened through many hands, and we are ready to dedicate “The Corhaven Graveyard” later this spring.

We remember the life and legacy of Martin Luther King Jr. this weekend.  In his celebrated I Have a Dream speech, Dr. King encouraged a nation of downtrodden spirits, feeling the weight of great wrongs committed broadly and unrepentantly, saying, “Now is the time to lift our nation from the quicksands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood. Now is the time to make justice a reality for all of God’s children.” When he spoke those words, he was speaking to a crowd of more than 250,000. The group gathered in the Woodshop one year ago was less than 20, but no matter the scale of action, the goal remains the same.

Dr. King also said in that speech to his black brothers and sisters in attendance, “You have been the veterans of creative suffering. Continue to work with the faith that unearned suffering is redemptive.” In this small corner of rural Virginia, through this work of The Corhaven Graveyard, our hope is to recognize the honor and dignity of those who are buried in this ground, and those they represent, which they never saw in their time on earth. This injustice, borne in pain and in relative silence for generations, is coming to the surface in real and very unexpected ways at The Corhaven Graveyard (you can read about two powerful illustrations of that here and here.  Bill tells the story here). On Saturday April 30 from 2-4pm at Corhaven, we are holding a dedication ceremony for this hallowed ground. As we are given a day of remembrance this Monday for a man our nation will rightfully never forget, who helped America see an area of its own blindness, consider taking April 30 to remember some long-forgotten souls to whom many also turned a blind eye.  Please join us in remembrance–this weekend right now, again later on April 30, through 2016, through the years, and throughout this whole long journey towards justice, reconciliation, and healing.  As Jesus prayed, “Thy Kingdom come…on earth as it is heaven”.