The following article is written by Rev. Tim Waltonen and Rev. Aaron Fuller, members of the Virginia Synod All Inclusive Team, in response to the Aug 6 ELCA Confronting Racism Webcast.

ELCA Confronting Racism, the webcast of 8/6, featuring Presiding Bishop Elizabeth Eaton and Churchwide Council member William Horne II, is now available at www.ELCA.org/webcast.

The conversation between Presiding Bishop Elizabeth Eaton and Churchwide Council member William Horne II on Aug. 6 covered significant ground: the ELCA Social Statement on Race which labels racism as sin; the “disquiet in our country;” and the Pew Research Survey which found the ELCA next to last on their list of the least diverse denominations in the country.

“We live parallel lives,” Bishop Eaton stated. The “color line” (DuBois, 1905) is still with us. We must transgress that division.

“We have structural problems to deal with,” Mr. Horne added.

The Virginia Synod Inclusive Outreach Team over the last decade plus, has been putting these issues before the Synod and will continue to advocate this mission. The Church must thrust itself into the unsettling, reforming work of the Holy Spirit (Fuller blog). We must resist all that ruins life for the children of God, for Jesus came that we all might have life, life in all its fullness (John 10:10). It’s what Pastor Aaron Fuller knows, as he says in his blog, “I belong because in Christ, a place has been made for me” (Fuller Blog).

We know that baptism creates one body, a new creation in the midst of the world’s scandalous divisions. How appropriate then is Bishop Eaton’s inspiration, the Revelation image of the Holy City with people of every land, race, tongue-the multi culture that is heaven! No parallel lives in God’s will, but one people.

With Bishop Eaton and Mr. Horne, the AIOT wants our congregations to see their context, come to know their neighborhoods and the people there, and be allies in community efforts to improve life for all. Mr. Horne said it this way: “Think in terms of We not merely I.” These realities are on every congregation’s agenda and in the social conscience and commitment of each member.
Here are several ways that you can work to confront racism in our Synod:

(1) Join the Synod’s All Inclusive Outreach Team. We are seeking liaisons to each Conference to help carry out this confronting of racism. Can each Conference choose a person (clergy or lay) to represent their territory? We have been keeping a schedule of quarterly meetings with assignments or visits or consultations in between. We will of course try to be fair in distance factors in meeting sites.

(2) Use resource materials prepared by the All Inclusive Outreach Team in your congregations and conferences. Sometimes the resources are team members themselves, invited to Synod council, conference events or congregation outreach committees or councils. We were pleased with the responses we received at Synod assembly regarding some of our materials available at the Team display; a number of people stayed and talked with Team volunteers–Thanks!

(3) Read the news. The Washington Post , for example, has news items about events along the “color line”–witness the coverage of the massacre in Charleston, or just this past Sunday(8/9) , a front page report on the 24 unarmed black victims of police shootings in 2015. On Aug. 5, there was a section A column about falling poll numbers regarding race relations.

(4) Dig deeper. Aaron Fuller has recommended, for example, God’s Long Summer by UVA’s Charles Marsh which explores a crucial period in civil rights history; Michelle Alexander’s best-seller The New Jim Crow; and Tim is reading Ta-Nehisi Coates’s Between the World and Me, a personal narrative which Nobel Prize winner Toni Morrison has called “required reading.”

(5) Let us know how we can help you and your congregations confront racism. Share some your stories with us about how it is happening in your setting.

(6) Watch for our reports and announcements. We will keep them coming as we, as a synod, keep at this profound mission.

The call goes forth; let us hear what the Spirit is saying to this Church.

For the Inclusive Outreach Team,

Tim Waltonen, interim chair

[twaltone@umw.edu ] and Aaron Fuller [pastor.adfuller@gmail.com]