Since 2014, the PRLC Race and Equity Team has sought to provide anti-racist learning and action opportunities for ending conscious and unconscious patterns of white supremacy in our church, denomination, and country.
Staff Contact: Minister of Outreach Patrick Meagher
Team Members: Jenn Boelter, Alice Gregory, Thaddaeus Gregory, Patty Maier, Tiffany Megargee, Barbara Mockett, Signe Roscoe, Chris Shultz, and Erica Shutes-David
Won’t you take our survey?
We seek your input. As a team, we constantly deliberate how best lead the church in anti-racist action and education. You've shown how an engaged church body can grow in understanding of a complicated issue, and make real sacrifices to create change. We want to do more, we need to do more, and we desire to reach people who haven't yet joined the effort for whatever reason.
This is where all of you come in!
Regardless of your level of engagement in PRLC's racial justice activity, we ask you to please fill out the survey linked below. We greatly value your feedback to let us know what has been helpful, unhelpful, and what might be helpful down the road. The survey should take around 10 minutes, and while there's an option to include your name, it's ok to fill it out anonymously as well.
Following is our church’s statement of anti-racism. It reflects months of careful consideration by the Race & Equity Team, Pastoral Staff, and input from many others. As with all declarations, it is only as good as the follow through. We invite you to join us in the work that will put the flesh of real love on the bones of the words of this statement.
Phinney Ridge Lutheran Church Statement of Anti-Racism
Acknowledgment and Lamentation
We, the people of God gathered at Phinney Ridge Lutheran Church (PRLC), are called daily to confess the sin of racism and condemn the ideology of white supremacy. We lament our passive and active acceptance of systems that have allowed such harms to continue unabated in the Church and in the world. We ask God to expose our greed which has resulted in exploitative practices, racist policies, and oppressive systems.
Repentance
We repent the ongoing harm to those hurt by colonization, slavery, and genocide. We have perpetuated pain and injustice through our distrust and exclusion of people with whom we have not built deep, loving, and authentic relationships. We plead with God to transform our hearts, minds, and behaviors.
Response
PRLC commits to the work of racial justice, socioeconomic equity, and racial reconciliation. We affirm our identity as an anti-racist congregation. With God’s guidance, we pledge to the ongoing work of becoming a more loving, accepting, and equitable community. We commit to the ongoing practices of listening and learning.
With the Holy Spirit’s help, we vow that our anti-racism commitment will be reflected in the life and culture of PRLC through our policies and ministries, even as we continue to learn. We will advocate for, support, and work toward practices that dismantle systemic racism and ethnic oppression within all aspects of our faith family, community, and society.