Liz Walker, author, pastor, and former Channel 4 TV news anchor, captivated an audience of 85 at the Acton Senior Center on Tuesday, May 6 as she explained her journey from News Anchor to author of No One Left Alone. Dressed in deep purple with a spring green cardigan, Walker was relaxed and engaged, and explained that when she arrived in Boston early in the 1980’s, she thought that she would be in journalism for her entire career.
However, the violence of the civil war she witnessed during a trip to Sudan in 2001 gripped her. Listening to her heart, Walker embarked on a new phase, which included becoming a pastor and building a girls school in Sudan over the course of 11 years. She had thought that the fact that her father was a minister was reason enough for her to stay clear of this field, but realized that she was called to it, and when asked to step in as minister at Roxbury Presbyterian Church, found that she had fallen in love with the parishioners as much as they had fallen for her.
She was dismayed to learn that shootings in the area had become almost normalized and that as a journalist, she could only scratch the surface of what happened. She realized that as a pastor, there was an opportunity to really make a difference, and not only to hear people, but to turn that listening into healing.
When Cory Johnson, the son of a parishioner, was killed, Walker knew she needed to act. Without knowing how many people would attend, Walker created a meeting for people to talk about their trauma together. People would come in, share a meal, be treated to dance, music or some art form before an open mic forum would begin. All were welcome, invited, and loved. No one needed to register in advance. She wanted as few barriers as possible for people to attend. The formula she was banking on was that people willing to listen=love. She could not have predicted that 75 people would show up for this opportunity to talk about pain, anger and trauma…