CROSSROADS

A Path Toward Forgiveness
and Healing Communities
Reverend Dr. Eric S. C. Manning and the Outreach Team for the Mother Emanuel Memorial Foundation
I’m Interested in Taking the Class Visit Emanuel Nine
AcknowledgmentReconciliationForgivenessEmpowerment
The story behind the book

Mother Emanuel & the Emanuel Nine

For more than two centuries, Mother Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, South Carolina, has been a place of Black worship, resistance, institution-building, and civic leadership.

On the evening of June 17, 2015, nine worshipers were murdered during Wednesday night Bible study in an act of racist violence. In the days that followed, some of their relatives spoke publicly of forgiveness, and the world took notice.

Crossroads was born from that story, and from the conviction that forgiveness must be understood with care. It honors those public expressions of forgiveness without turning them into an expectation for every person who has been harmed. The course holds grief, memory, justice, and grace together, and asks what each of us can do next.

Rev. Dr. Eric S. C. Manning has served as pastor of Mother Emanuel since 2016, guiding the congregation in the years after the tragedy. Crossroads carries that work beyond the church walls into classrooms, congregations, and communities.

Why this book

Four connected practices

Crossroads is reflective and practical. Participants examine history, relationships, assumptions, and choices, then turn what they learn into real steps they can take with others.

Acknowledgment

What truth needs to be seen and named?

Reconciliation

What helps people move from rupture toward right relationship?

Forgiveness

How can healing release resentment without erasing truth or boundaries?

Empowerment

How can healing become agency, access, shared power, and sustainable action?

Find your place

Walk the path with us

Whether you are coming to learn or coming to lead, there is a place for you at the crossroads.

For students

Take the Class

Join a guided Crossroads experience. Through reflection, discussion, and action planning, you will explore what acknowledgment, reconciliation, forgiveness, and empowerment can mean in your own life and community.

  • Private journaling and reflection
  • Real practices for listening and repair
  • A personal 90-day action plan
I’m Interested in Taking the Class Student Booklet
For facilitators

Lead the Work

Bring Crossroads to your congregation, school, or organization. The Facilitator's Guide gives you session plans, discussion tools, and trauma-informed guidance for holding these conversations with care.

  • Complete session-by-session curriculum
  • Facilitation notes and tips
  • Recommended resources for each practice
Become a Facilitator Get the Guide
Coming soon

Stay connected

Classes, the student booklet, and facilitator training are being prepared now. Share your information and we will let you know personally as soon as they are available.

Leadership

Our leaders

Rev. Dr. Eric S. C. Manning, Senior Pastor of Mother Emanuel AME Church, Charleston, South Carolina
Senior Pastor · Mother Emanuel AME Church
Rev. Dr. Eric S. C. Manning

Rev. Dr. Eric S. C. Manning has served as pastor of Mother Emanuel AME Church in Charleston since 2016, arriving one year after the tragedy and leading the congregation through grief, remembrance, and healing.

He co-chairs the board of the Emanuel Nine Memorial Foundation, which is creating a memorial to honor the nine lives lost and the survivors, and he leads Crossroads alongside the Foundation's outreach team.

“The world already knows the result of hate, but do they know the result of God’s love?”
Rev. Dr. Caroles Shedrick Taylor, Pastor of Morris Street Baptist Church, Charleston, South Carolina
Pastor · Morris Street Baptist Church
Rev. Dr. Caroles Shedrick Taylor

Rev. Dr. Caroles Shedrick Taylor is the eighth pastor of Morris Street Baptist Church in downtown Charleston, a congregation with more than 160 years of service to its community.

A pastor since the 1980s, he holds a Doctor of Ministry from United Theological Seminary, has led congregations in Missouri and South Carolina, and is the author of Church Membership.

Rev. Dr. Marshall Blalock, Pastor of First Baptist Church of Charleston, South Carolina
Pastor · First Baptist Church of Charleston
Rev. Dr. Marshall Blalock

Rev. Dr. Marshall Blalock has pastored First Baptist Church of Charleston, one of the oldest Baptist congregations in the South, since 1997.

A former president of the South Carolina Baptist Convention, he serves on the steering council of Unify, a racial reconciliation initiative. He holds degrees from Furman University, Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, and North Greenville University.