On October 1, 2022 the Kinship Activity collaborated with Universal Worship to offer a community celebration Attuning to Race, Place and Space at the UW Convocation in Richmond, VA. Dozens attended the event held at the Episcopal Roslyn Retreat Center on land had been cleared and trenched by the enslaved community.
Jabriel Hasan led the service centered around a Ceremonial Pouring of Water and Earth to cleanse the land and honor the enslaved who had labored on that land. We lifted up the names of siblings in Virginia’s social transformation who inspire us to continue to work toward justice and equity with love.
Civil rights leaders from the Richmond community including Rev. Ben Campbell, Dr. Lauranett Lee, and Rev. Donte McCutcheon joined the celebration offering poetry, song, and words of wisdom as we continued the journey toward justice. Pir Zia spoke of the life of Omar ibn Said, an enslaved African who was born in Senegal around 1770, kidnapped in the early 1800s, and brought to America to be enslaved. Ibn Said was a Sufi scholar. After escaping his first brutal enslaver, ibn Said wrote about Islam and shared mystical Sufi teachings with white Americans, all the while remaining enslaved.
During the litany in the service, we prayed for transformation of systems of injustice, and healing of the legacy of persecution and racism. We closed with a prayer that the heart of society be purified and shine forth the light of Divine wisdom, harmony, and truth.
At the conclusion of the service, the Inayatiyya committed to conduct research into the history of the Astana in Richmond, now headquarters of our North American Inayatiyya movement. Josh Octaviani and Arhama Cathleen Reynolds are leading this research. From the information they gather, the Inayatiyya intends to develop a brochure that acknowledges and honors those who built the Astana.