ABOUT 
JOURNEY FOR 
CHANGE

About JFC

Several members of St. Edward Catholic Church recently formed a 501c nonprofit corporation, “Journey For Change'', to facilitate the filming of a walk on the Richmond Slave Trail. The film project was born out of our work as a Just Faith group studying racial justice. 

A quote from “Open Wide Our Hearts” (2018, U.S. Council of Catholic Bishops) is a guiding principle. 

"As Christians, we are called to listen and know the stories of our brothers and sisters. We must create opportunities to hear, with open hearts, the tragic stories that are deeply imprinted on the lives of our brothers and sisters, if we are to be moved with empathy to promote justice.”

The film project began in the summer of 2021 with Deacon Charles Williams (deceased) leading us. He said the film was an answer to prayer and spoke about using it when he went to schools and for people who could not walk the trail. 

Our Just Faith group decided to continue the project in Deacon Charles’ honor after he passed away in January of 2022. Deacon Frank Nelson of Holy Rosary Catholic Church now leads the walk for the film. A professional, Emmy winning, Richmond based filmmaker and sound engineer are leading our film crew: Chris Jones who is a member of St. Edward and his colleague Ruben Rios who is the Producer/Director.

The title for the film, “The Richmond Slave Trail: A Journey Towards Understanding", was chosen by Deacon Charles because understanding is the goal of the walk.  It will be in the form of an educational docu-drama, to make the difficult subject matter engaging for viewers.  The film will help Richmonders better understand our mutual history of enslavement. Understanding is the first step towards healing and change.

Journey For Change was formed to make the movie and promote healing from the wounds of enslavement in the metropolitan Richmond area. We recognize the common humanity of all Richmonders and aim to build relationships and connections. 

As Jesus said “Who is my mother or brother or sister?” Instead of diminishing his biological family, Jesus is elevating all of humanity to the position of divine sister and brotherhood. The goal is for us to build a community where we are sisters and brothers working together for what is best for us as a whole. 

Journey For Change works together, and forms a Beloved Community as we work, which is a pattern for the work of reckoning, reconciliation, and healing in metropolitan Richmond.