A Word from Session: Anti-racism letter

Dear Western Church,

See below for the text of our Letter from the Session on anti-racism, with new language in the last paragraph to reflect the plans we discussed tonight:

This past Tuesday, your Session met to consider the work and decisions facing Western. Chief among them was: how will we meet the call to dismantle systemic racism? What does it mean as a community of faith to, as Micah requires, do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with God? As Martin Luther King, Jr. said, “The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards justice.” We are now witnessing the bending of that curve. The trajectory is still evolving, but it’s already clear that there’s no going back.

Western has taken steps to examine our own racial biases in the past, and we benefit from the faithful work of our anti-racism and intercultural ministry teams, who are helping to shape our plan going forward. Yet we know there is more that we can do - that we are called to do - to be a courageous community living into God’s love and justice.

We want to move forward as a congregation to do our part in helping to create real change. We do not have all the answers, but know we must act and that this will be a journey. We may not get it 100% right on the first try. We will meet discomfort and unfamiliarity with courage and compassion and the knowledge that we are all children of God. We pledge to give space to all the voices in the church and honor the diversity in our church family as we move forward together into transformation. We will pray to God, follow Jesus, and be moved by the Holy Spirit in all that we must do to create the Kingdom of Heaven on this earth where love and justice reign.

This work will take all of us, and we are working on a process to help us clarify where and how God is calling us to act. This month, members from our anti-racism, intercultural, and mission ministry groups will come together with some of our deacons and elders to make plans for how we will build anti-racism into programming, our organizational structure and norms, and our work and relationships with the wider community. We look forward to sharing next steps with you, and moving forward together.