Members particiapte in Mission Mississippi at a Baptist church in Greenville earlier this year. Photo by Logan Kirkland
An established ministry in Mississippi is reaching out in Lafayette County to be a resource for Christian racial reconciliation.
Mission Mississippi is a ministry dedicated to sponsoring opportunities for Mississippians of different denominations and races to gather together to serve God by routine gatherings around the state, according to one of its founders, Lee Paris.
“Mission Mississippi started 21 years ago in Jackson and has recently started in Lafayette County,” Paris said. “We’re particularly excited about what’s happening in Oxford.”
Last week, Mission Mississippi held its first citywide luncheon in Oxford last Thursday at the Oxford Conference Center. Special guests included Chancellor Dan Jones, Mayor Pat Patterson, the Oxford Board of Alderman and the Oxford Board of Supervisors.
Mission Mississippi started in November 1992 when Lee Paris and Victor Smith, both businessmen at the time, gathered more than 200 local leaders, two-thirds clergy and one-third business leaders, at Primos Northgate in Jackson.
According to the ministry’s website, this gathering made it apparent that a crusade should be organized “with an overt commitment to broach the social and ecclesiastical segregation that had kept the church so racially divided on Sunday mornings.”
“Mission Mississippi provides a place and time for people to come together, get to know each other and to build relationships and heal wounds,” Paris said.
In order to define what Mission Mississippi is, the website gives three distinctions to its overall identity.
“First, within the context of our Kingdom Mandate, Mission Mississippi is committed to facilitating reconciliation, primarily between the predominant races in Mississippi. Second, Mission Mississippi is a Christian-valued movement. That is, our reconciliation is attained within the context of relationship with Christ. Third, Mission Mississippi believes that healing occurs within genuine, heart to heart relationships.”
The co-chairs of Mission Mississippi in Lafayette County are Eric Hankins, senior pastor of First Baptist Church Oxford, and Christopher C. Diggs, senior pastor of Burns United Methodist Church in Oxford.
Mission Mississippi’s next prayer breakfast will be Tuesday, Dec. 2, at the Orchard located at 295 HWY 7 North.
