#BlackLivesMatter

Prompted by the murder of George Floyd by a White police officer in Minneapolis and the protests against White supremacy and systemic racism during the summer of 2020, APC intensified its learning, reflection, and action.

Although we began by considering what we should say, we’ve quickly realized that, as people who seek to follow Jesus, we are called to action. We agree that we are grappling — grappling with the power we have, how we got that power and what we are called to do with that power. We agree to look into our history and struggle with where we are and how we got here. We agree that much of our power at this time is our money. We agree that our dismantling work needs to center around Black stories and voices, not our White experience. We agree we are called to grapple together, as a faith community.

While nothing about the systems that have supported these injustices is new, George Floyd’s murder and the ensuing protests, led by Black people, have knocked those of us who are White out of the fog of complacency that our unearned white privilege affords us. Now we are searching for ways to meaningfully repent, confess how we got it wrong, and try to make right our part in it. We will engage in this process together. It will be hard. And there is no other way.

We do all of this because of our faith, our trust in God, not in spite of it. We center Black voices, we dismantle, because White supremacy is idolatrous. We find our freedom in God through this work. Jesus shared the work with his first followers. He taught them to heal, free, feed, raise the dead. All that work is in us now. This is our work for this time and place. This is neighborly work – this is how we show up and do the work to be neighbors who love and live in the ways of God.

We pledge to pursue dismantling the White supremacy we see within us and around us.