Working Against Racism

ELCA Churchwide Assembly Action CA03.06.22

Resolved
To receive with appreciation the memorials of the Texas-Louisiana Gulf Coast Synod and the Caribbean Synod related to working against racism and striving to be a multicultural antiracist church, and to express the gratitude of the 2003 Churchwide Assembly to the Alaska Synod, Central States Synod, Metropolitan Chicago Synod, and Southeastern Iowa Synod for the intent of their memorials calling upon the churchwide organization to assist this church in the continuation of antiracism education and in its movement toward becoming a more multicultural church;

To express thanks for the antiracism work of ELCA members, congregations, synods, agencies and institutions, and the Churchwide organization, and to commend the use of the antiracism modules available for use by synods and congregations;

To reaffirm this church’s commitment to the values and goals articulated in the 1993 social statement “Freed in Christ: Race, Ethnicity, and Culture”; and

To encourage members, congregations, synods, and agencies and institutions to join the churchwide organization in its commitment as described in “Faithful Yet Changing:The Plan for Mission in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America” to:

• Confront the scandalous realities of racial, ethnic, cultural, religious, age, gender, familial, sexual, physical, personal, and class barriers that often manifest themselves in exclusion, poverty, hunger, and violence; and
• Pursue ardently the ELCA’s commitment to becoming more diverse, multicultural, and multigenerational in an everchanging and increasingly pluralistic context, with special focus on full inclusion in this church of youth, young adults, and people of color and people whose primary language is other than English.