Rev. Kwame Pitts, pastor to Crossroads Lutheran Church in Amherst, New York, reflects on the Emanuel 9, five years later.
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We are a nation in distress. We are a church in distress. The coronavirus has killed 103,000 of us. The virus of racism has taken hundreds of thousands more throughout our history. Now these two deadly viruses converge. Under this distress the veneer of equality has cracked and we see the pain, anger and frustration of those who have been denied the rights and dignity so many of us expect and often take for granted.
I have heard it said that slavery ended with the Civil War. Why don't people of color "just get over it." Here is the question we need to ask, "How do you get over something that isn't over?"
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Bishop Eaton’s weekly video: It is so clear that life is not equal in this country. But we believe in and serve a God who brings about good even out of evil, who brings healing out of pain, and brings life out of death. This is a call to repentance, dear church, and also to action based in the hope of the reconciliation we have already experienced in Jesus Christ.
Remember to reserve June 17, 2020 as a day to commemorate the Emanuel 9.
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These are daunting moments.
To be honest, I don’t know where to start. I can’t find adequate words to address the deep anger, anxiety, anguish, and grief spreading through our world today, growing from a mix of COVID-19 deaths, political turmoil, and repeated episodes of racial injustice.
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On June 17, 2015, a white man named Dylann Roof entered a historic Black church in Charleston during a prayer meeting and opened fire, killing 9 people and wounding 3 more. He overtly and explictly espoused white supremacist beliefs and targeted the people of Mother Emanuel Church because of their race and commitment to civil rights. I felt my stomach sink when I found out that Roof was raised in an ELCA church.
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What does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God? (Micah 6:8).
In a statement signed by many bishops of The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, including Bishop Hutterer, the ELCA reaffirms its commitment to combating racism and white supremacy following the recent murders of Black Americans. Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, Dreasjon (Sean) Reed, and George Floyd were our neighbors.
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Today, we, the Jewish People, have finished counting and fulfilling seven weeks of seven days, forty-nine days since Pesakh and the liberation from slavery in Egypt-Mitzrayim. As the Torah records, we were freed from slavery in the sight of all the world.
Every human being is created in the Tselem Elokhim, the Image of God. And into every human being has God breathed the breath of life. As we remember the last words of George Floyd, “Please, I can’t breathe!”
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I have been encouraged to respond to what I believe is an ill-advised statement to “open houses of worship,” given all the evidence that the coronavirus is still spreading. This week, the COVID-19 death toll across our country reached 100,000 souls. To date, infections number over 17,000 in Arizona and over 8,000 in both Nevada and Utah. Over 1,300 people have died in the three states.
Such statistics testify this is not the time to gather in-person. I would sum up guidance to churches in one, simple phrase: “Just because you can gather for worship, doesn’t mean you should.”
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The ELCA recognizes June, 17 as day of Commemoration of the Emanuel 9 and a Day of Repentance of Racism. This post by Kelly France is featured as part of a series to call the ELCA to address white supremacy and racism. To find additional worship materials for June 17, please visit elca.org/EmanuelNine.
I love living and serving as a pastor in rural communities on the Great Plains. I have spent most of my life in this environment, and my family has been part of this landscape for generations. My identity is tied to this place, and that comes with complex realities and shameful truths.
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Rev. Jacqui Pagel, Bishop’s Associate for Candidacy and Faith Formation with the Grand Canyon Synod, brings greetings, the Gospel, and a sermon for the seventh Sunday of Easter. The Gospel, John 17:1-11, can be found at the beginning of the video. The greetings and sermon start at 2:00.
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Presiding Bishop Elizabeth Eaton gives her weekly message during the COVID-19 pandemic, focusing on the gift of God’s creation.
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Daudi Msseemmaa, the ELCA’s regional representative in East Africa, writes: “During a severe drought in 2008-2009, I spent time in dusty villages where the carcasses of livestock littered the ground and hungry children fainted in class. There was a lot of suffering. But I did not encounter hopelessness, even among malnourished mothers whose couldn’t provide enough breast milk for their infants. They had a saying – God is far, but he is very near.”
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Pastor Ben Bergren with Community, Las Vegas shares his writings: “As I write this one of our church members is dying of COVID-19.”
“Most likely by the time you read this, they will have passed. The thought of this both saddens and exhausts me because it reminds me of the selfishness and brokenness of humanity. This is not a political issue at all. This is a condition of the heart.” Read the full article »
Pastor Bergren also shares an article this week entitled “Rehoboam’s Folly.”
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A thriving church is one so convinced of the resurrection that we’re free to give our lives in service to others. Presiding Bishop Elizabeth Eaton shares how the ELCA continues to thrive in country churches, cityscapes and places with no walls in this message for 2020 Synod Assemblies. Watch in our blog post, YouTube or Facebook.
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In a time of physical distancing due to the coronavirus, ELCA Presiding Bishop Elizabeth Eaton reminds us that we aren’t islands—we are united in baptism.
In her May column, she writes: “We don’t have to go it alone. In fact, we cannot, because, in Christ, we are knit into one body. And just as surely as Father, Son and Holy Spirit are one—this wildly mysterious community of the Trinity—so are we one.” Read her column in English at https://bit.ly/2Wh5fjr and in Spanish at https://bit.ly/2yAdqxW.
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Colter Murphy, Director of Youth and Service at Faith Lutheran Church in Chico, CA, writes: “The North Fork of the Flathead River is the most beautiful river on earth. This, of course, is a personal opinion, but anyone who has spent time on the river would likely agree. The splendor of the North Fork makes it a natural place to talk about the Creator.”
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Rev. Paul S. Tché writes: “I am confident COVID-19 will bring radical changes to our lives. But the difference after COVID-19 would not be as dramatic if we were to colonize Mars . . . or would it?”
“It may be helpful for us—especially many religious folks like me who lack imagination because of our long tradition—to simulate religious practice on Mars to stimulate our creativity and inspire more unique adaptations of post-COVID-19 faith life.”
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Wayne Gallipo, a pastor serving St. Dysmas Of South Dakota, an ELCA congregation inside the walls of the South Dakota State Penitentiary in Sioux Falls, SD, writes: “The men in my congregation come from a wide variety of backgrounds. South Dakota is approximately 87% white and 9% native but the statistics in prison do not even come close to reflecting that ratio.”
“One interesting thing about serving a congregation inside the walls of prison–is that the men that worship at St. Dysmas come from many different religious backgrounds.”
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Peter Severson, Director, Lutheran Advocacy Ministry-Colorado, writes: “It seems almost trite to point out the deep and intense division in our modern political landscape in the United States.”
“It feels easier to just take it as a given, rather than to ask how it might be reconciled. It is a very tough environment in which to be a church premised on God’s reconciliation and love.”
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