Further Reflections by Jim Bullock on his return to Second Presbyterian Church after fifty years:

The event at Second was very moving to me. It was strange being back in the sanctuary of Second. I had been inside before I came to the doors on March 23, 1964. As a college student I visited the church many times as well as Idlewild Presbyterian. I visited Idlewild more.

When I was asked to speak I had thought about what I was going to say a lot. I did have tears when they asked us back. It did give me an opportunity to talk about where I came to know reconciliation. It was truly in my home. I  had been brought up in a home like the home in the movie "Help."  But a home that was ever learning how to be open to all God's people. Reconciliation is a journey. We are ever being asked to break down the walls that separate us from others. 

When I looked at the web site of Second and Independent Church it really scared me at first. White male leadership everywhere. They have walls that need to be broken down beyond racism. We all have many walls. The journey of faith is getting in touch with the ground of our being that calls us to reach out beyond ourselves. Ourselves may be the greatest wall of our time.

Reconciliation has to do with ever being reformed by the grace of God. We all have our racism, our classism, etc.God leads us to go beyond the walls. Reconciliation has to with a calling, a calling to go beyond the walls. I was led to go beyond my walls, and the calling became a passion.

To be in a group looking at how people come to reconciliation in our time is pretty exciting to me. I hope to get new ideas, but also a push to do more reconciliation myself, more reconciliation in my community in St. Augustine. Memorial Presbyterian Church in St. Augustine is going to sit down on May 8th with St. Paul Methodist (a predominantly back congregation} to see what things we can do together. 

I have been working on being a volunteer mentor coordinator in St. Augustine, getting folks in faith communities to mentor kids  who are poor, black, "cracker," Hispanic, etc in school, in a group home, in a juvenile justice lock up facility, etc. as a way of getting us out of our white affluent ghettos, out of just taking care of ourselves and our own. It has been life changing for me. I think it can be life changing for all of us.