Dear friends,
While I have been “off” this week, I (like many of you) have been closely watching the news reports coming out of Minneapolis, Washington DC, New York, Los Angeles, and other cities throughout our country — reports of both protests and criminal charges in the wake of George Floyd’s death. We are a nation in crisis, a nation in grief, a nation grappling with the pervasive communal sin of systemic racism.
For my part, I am grateful for opportunities for conversations with colleagues — particularly colleagues of color — regarding experiences and understandings of systemic racism. Their continued honesty, transparency, and accountability has been a blessing to me. This week, my colleagues in the Bethlehem Interfaith Group (BIG) convened to author and publish a faith-based statement in response to what we are experiencing as a nation, and I now share that statement with you.
Be in prayer, friends: for the Floyd family, for our fellow citizens, and for a nation in pain. Be aware: aware of the ways in which we each participate in and perpetuate systems of racism in this society. And be at work: the work of advocacy, of justice, and of peacemaking.
May we know justice, friends, and may we know peace.
Blessings,
Pastor Candy
