A Journey Towards Reconciliation, Community-Building, and Self-Discovery: Womanist Spiritual Formation, Re/Membering, and Healing in a Racialized Christian Context

Abstract

This project examines how histories of racial trauma shape the spiritual imagination of communities, particularly Black congregations. I focus on the impact repeated experiences with racialized trauma have on expectations of the Holy Spirit. Grounded in pastoral ministry at Mount Sinai African Methodist Episcopal Church in Pittsboro, North Carolina, and community organizing with Community Organizing for Racial Equity (CORE) in Chatham County, I demonstrate how repeated experiences with racialized injustice produce communities formed to prioritize endurance over transformation. I name the resulting formation survival pneumatology — a theological posture that trusts the Spirit for sustenance while limiting the imagination of the Spirit as an agent of justice and communal change. I draw on womanist practical theology, pastoral autoethnography, and formation theory to introduce trap-ology as a framework for naming how systems shape belief and constrain imagination. I then propose re/membering as a Spirit-led, communal practice that restores dignity, heals memory, and renews theological imagination. I invite communities to move from survival-oriented faith toward Spirit-empowered witness and communal transformation through storytelling, lament, and justice-oriented action.