Clergy from several local churches gather at 8 a.m. on the fourth Thursday of every month to eat breakfast and discuss racial relations within the church in the group Mission Mississippi.

A group of seven local pastors used the March meeting at Highland Baptist Church to make plans for Mission Mississippi’s Day of Dialog on April 30. The Day of Dialog is from 8:30 a.m. to noon at  Vicksburg Junior High School, 1533 Baldwin Ferry Road, and it is open to the public. This is the group’s third year to host the event.

“It’ll be a guided talk,” Highland Baptist Church pastor Brian Ivey said.

In the past, he said, the format has been for people of different race and gender to sit together at tables where they discuss multiple societal and personal issues having to do with race.

“We want people not just sitting with their comfort group,” Ivey said.

The state executive director of Mission Mississippi Neddie Winters will moderate the dialog, and he will provide special questions for each table to discuss.

“We will talk about racial harmony issues,” Linda Sweezer, pastor of The House of Peace Worship Church International, said. “We won’t know the questions until that day.”

After each table has a conversation, the entire room will come together and tell everyone what was discussed. The Day of Dialog is supposed to make people feel more comfortable with other races and to foster empathy.

“The questions are designed to get us talking about racial issues,” Ivey said. “It’s just to try to promote an understanding of each other.”

Water, coffee, doughnuts and other snacks will be available to those who participate in the Day of Dialog and are provided by the local pastors, along with their churches, who are affiliated with Mission Mississippi. The pastors hope to see at least 100 people participate.

Once planning for the Day of Dialog concluded, the group launched into a political discussion with many of those present sharing their thoughts on each of the possible party nominees for president. The discussion stayed polite and was born out of curiosity and interest instead of friction. The local group of pastors continually joked with each other throughout the gathering. Mission Mississippi has chapters across the state, and the group’s goal is to build relationships on the common ground of Christianity through racial and gender barriers. The local group’s next meeting will be at 8 a.m. Thursday, April 28, at Cracker Barrel with host pastor Richard Johnson of Shady Grove M.B. Church.