Race, Church & Healing

by Claire Cox-Woodlief, Owner CCW Transformation Ministries and
Bryana Clover, Owner Bryana Clover LLC

Our Individual Strengths

Claire Cox-Woodlief

Owner and CEO of CCW Transformation Ministries LLC
  • Over 17 years experience working with clergy and laity in churches and faith-based institutions
  • Over 5 years experience in leadership in a variety of anti-racism initiatives in local church, district and conference in the NC Conference of the UMC
  • After completion of a 12-month intensive study and passing vetting exam, certified as a Sacred Conversations to End Racism Facilitator through United Church of Christ. Currently in a Train-the-Trainer program.
  • Equipped and skilled Conflict Transformation Minister, Spiritual Director and Retreat Leader.
  • Living out a call to be involved in work that leads to racial healing and the fruition of the Beloved Community.

Bryana Clover

Owner and CEO of
Bryana Clover LLC
  • Over 35 years lived experience worshipping (and eventually working) in predominately white spaces as a bi-racial/Black cis-gender female.
  • Over 12 years of Corporate Leadership experience (in Agribusiness)
  • Familiar and connected with the UMC (grew up in the UMC church, and currently serve UMC clients in anti-racism work).
  • Passionate about racial justice, and the unlearning and introspection required for the life-long journey of anti-racism.
  • Completed UNC Charlotte’s Masters Certificate program: Anti-racism in Urban Education.

Our Collective Strengths

  • A combination of 61 years of membership and/or working in the United Methodist Church. 
  • We bring to our facilitation the perspectives and experiences of a white woman and a Black woman, who grew up very differently, but have grown equally passionate and focused on equipping churches and other organizations to do the hard and necessary work of anti-racism.

Our Why

As facilitators of brave conversations to end racism, “we seek to restore humanity, correct myths, eliminate stereotypes, decenter whiteness as a social construct, celebrate all cultures, and engage in deep truth-telling about the fabricated hierarchies of skin colors that became the basis for identifying humans into races.”

Our Offerings

Knowledge

Workshop Package
  • Engaging Constructively in Brave Conversations about Race
  • The Myth of Race & Deconstructing the Myth of Whiteness
  • Race & Christianity (Decolonizing Christianity)
  • The Psychology of Racism: Understanding Privilege, Implicit Bias, White Fragility and Microaggressions
  • Exploring Intersectionality
  • Putting it all Together + Restorative Healing & Self-Care

While the above courses cover the main topics required for increasing one’s race-consciousness, we do offer workshops that are personalized to the needs of the organization. We recommend starting with IDI and REDI assessments (see below), which help determine the potential organizational blindspots and training needs.

Introspection

Assessments
  • The Intercultural Development Inventory® (IDI®) assesses intercultural competence—the capability to shift cultural perspective and appropriately adapt behavior to cultural differences and commonalities.
    • This assessment provides valuable information about your mindset and helps you gain valuable insights about how you engage cultural differences by reflecting on both past and current cross-cultural events or situations you have been or are involved in. Your IDI profile results can help you increase your own cultural self-and other-understanding around such differences and commonalities. 
  • The Racial Equity Assessment (REDI) is a tool to evaluate racial/D&I biases in the workplace environment, and will offer an understanding of the organizational level of awareness and knowledge on racial equity culture.
    • Designed by an experienced PhD researcher skilled in literature reviews, scientific writing and program development/evaluation, the assessment is adapted from several surveys measuring proxies of race-based discrimination, diversity and inclusion and equity in work settings. Results are reported in a REDI continuum-format, with suggested areas to target/develop based on a final REDI score. This assessment can be used as a baseline and taken multiple times to measure progress of racial equity goals. (For organizations over 20 people)

Action

Facilitation and Consultation
  • Certified to guide individuals and organizational leaders to build and live into an anti-racist and culturally competency development plan.
  • Equipping Conference, District and other assemblies of faith Dismantling Racism Teams.
  • Facilitating events, movie and documentary screenings, book studies and advocacy opportunities for local churches or other organizations.
North Carolina Institute for Spiritual Direction and Formation
  • The NCISDF is a Christocentric organization that honors people of all faiths and creeds. Our community is unified in recognizing that each human being is created in the image of God, and by the desire to deepen our relationship with God through the instruction of the Holy Spirit. As disciples of Jesus, we are committed to gracious soul hospitality and to the development of “Beloved Community”- a place where all are welcome to wrestle with faith and dare greatly on their journey of human becoming and spiritual transformation. We take seriously the commandment of Jesus to love one another as he first loved us. As such, we are committed to fostering an environment that offers humble listening, non-judgmental conversations, and compassionate engagement. We celebrate God’s gift of diversity and value the wholeness made possible in loving community. We welcome and affirm all people. 

Claire is the Co-Director for the North Carolina Institute for Spiritual Direction and Formation, and Bryana is part of their leadership team. Claire and Bryana believe that as people of faith grow closer to God through spiritually formative and contemplative practices, we become aware of our call to become repairers of the breach, confronting barriers that divide us.

“Your ancient ruins shall be rebuilt; you shall raise up the foundations of many generations; you shall be called the repairer of the breach, the restorer of streets to live in.”

(Isaiah 58:12)

Examples of Our Work

Community Events

  • Racial Taboo
  • Wilmington on Fire
  • Gerrymandering
  • International Civil Rights Museum

Assessments

  • Local UMC w/ four campuses
  • NC Council of Churches
  • Board of Ordained Ministry-2 different UMC Conferences
  • Leadership Fellows, Center for Leadership Excellence, NCCUMC
  • NC Institute for Spiritual Direction and Formation

Book Studies

  • White Fragility
  • The Racial Healing Handbook
  • America’s Original Sin
  • The New Jim Crow

Facilitation and Training

  • Local UMC w/ four campuses
  • Race, Racism and America Presentations to Corporate audiences
  • Race Equity in Leadership Presentations to Non-profit audiences
I have participated in several workshops and retreats led by Claire.  This has given me the opportunity to evaluate her capacity and efficiency as a leader, a teacher, and her gift to help people addressing different areas of their journey.  One of the areas I personally benefited from Claire’s abilities was when we reviewed my Individual Profile Report from the Intercultural Development Inventory.  During this time, she covered my results without judgment or shaming.  She provided a clear sense of understanding regarding my report in a mindful and gentle way.   Claire also reviewed our Group Debriefing from Intercultural Development Inventory with the same demeanor and care as given in the Individual Profile Report.   Claire consistently is mindful of her words and actions to do no harm
Sandi Velez
Executive Director
Bridges Puentes Prison Ministry
Claire trained in the  inaugural class of Conflict Transformation (CT) Ministers in the NC Conference in 2015.  She has been one of our most motivated, reliable, faithful and effective CT Ministers.  She has developed considerable skill and expertise in facilitating transformation in the local church.  She deeply loves Jesus and she loves the Church with all of her heart.  I heartily endorse her ministry.
Rev. Molly Shivers
Director, Conflict Transformation Ministries
NC Conference of the United Methodist Church
My experience with Claire was one filled with grace. Through her gentle way of speaking the truth, she inspired me to want to make changes in myself. I am grateful for her guidance and have since begun a journey of self-discovery and change.
Rev. Gloria G. Hughes
Appalachian District Church Vitality Associate
Western North Carolina Conference of the United Methodist Church
I’ve known Claire through her many forms of service throughout our denomination. When I saw that she was a trained New Consecration Sunday leader, I knew she would bring all her wisdom and ability to our stewardship campaign. She did! We are grateful for how she navigated our team through our church’s stewardship campaign in the middle of a pandemic.
Rev. Taylor Mills
Ann Street UMC, Beaufort, NC
I’d always heard terms like systemic racism but never understood the concept; I don’t see racism on a daily basis so how can it exist? The White Fragility book study completely opened my eyes to not only understand what systemic racism is but to have language to talk about it and understand how it impacts me, and others. Bryana did an amazing job ‘calling us in’ to the discussion in a way that challenged my views while creating a respectful place to ask questions and debrief what we were learning while reading the book. The study was high impact in and of itself, but perhaps the highest impact was helping me see that understanding someone else’s experience and working to dismantle racism is a journey, not a destination.
Janette Barnard
Managing Principal, Rock Road Consulting
Prior to my study with Bryana, the conversation of Race is not one that I intentionally broached. Her encouragement to start coupled with a promise of a safe space to ask questions, engage with others and learn has provided the opportunity for me to tackle my own feelings on this polarizing topic. She facilitated a group dialogue that not only was engaging but fruitful with personal insight. Thank you Bryana for the opportunity to be brave!
Kerryann Kocher
Principal, Rock Road Consulting
“Our CCW Transformation Ministries leaders created provocative dialogues that pressed me to think more deeply about sensitive racial and equity issues that I had been struggling with for over 5 decades. In an earlier time, there were national laws and Supreme Court decisions that could be used as levers and hammers. Today, we are compelled to look inside our hearts and minds and lead based on moral imperatives. That’s requires new and stronger courage.”
Dr. Michael D. Priddy
“Thank you, Claire, for the great workshops!  We recognize the effort you and Bry make to present a lot of material and to keep all of us engaged.  As one who is usually ready to leave a zoom screen 15 minutes into an event, I am amazed at how time flies in the workshops! 
The pre-work invites us to dive deeper into a matter that we may only touch on in the workshop.  We are reminded that even the depth of the presentation still is only scratching the surface of the issues we are discussing. Participants continue to register, having heard about the series from another participant.  There is no better indicator of success. Thank you, Claire and Bry, for challenging us and encouraging us to pray and work for the Beloved Community.“
Rev. Carol Goehring (retired)
member of Racial Unity Group at Wrightsville UMC