indianapolis

Last week, I had the chance to accompany Rev. Harold Good during public presentations about his life's work.   He is a Methodist leader from Northern Ireland who was a key figure in that country's peace process. During the late 1960's he lived in Indianapolis studying at Christian Theological Seminary and pastoring at Riverside Methodist.   Preaching to an all-Black congregation the Sunday after Dr. Martin Luther King was assassinated, he said he felt inadequate to address the audience but they convinced him otherwise through their encouragement and gentle spirits. It changed his life.   When he left Indy for Northern Ireland to pastor in inner-city Belfast, he was amazed by the hateful speech between Protestants and Catholics, and recognized similar patterns in American racial strife. He quickly realized sectarianism and racism are on either side of the same coin.   Being back in Indianapolis more than 40 years later, Rev. Good noticed an improvement in race relations in our city. He is impressed by the racial representation on our television newscasts and by how calm and easily interracial conversations take place.   Meaningful relationships between races and cultures are essential to our city's growth and survival. We must talk to each other and learn each other's narratives to learn how to work together to address our many issues. We are fortunate to have formal and informal structures in Indianapolis that work on these issues.   Since 1965, the Greater Indianapolis