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We are not an organization. We are entirely volunteers. The website and the technology involved in the petition are entirely the volunteer work of Suzannah Porter, and on her dime. Your contribution will go toward the expenses of this site, maintaining the petition, getting the signatures to churchwide voters, and other resolution organizing.

In order of importance, the following needs will be met:

1. Upgrading the hosting of the epistles.faith domain so that it can be faster, handle higher volumes, and have automated back up systems that currently are maintained manually on volunteer work.

2. Pay for advertisements on social media and search to boost awareness of the resolution.

3. Pay for costs at the Churchwide Assembly in terms of paying for the printing of the petitions to give to Churchwide Assembly voters, and any other documentation or flyers that they need.

4. Get Suzannah to the conference so she can help with technology on site.

“I am tired of waiting for the ELCA as a collective body to take meaningful actions on race. Our congregations need to do more. We need to do more. The sin of white supremacy must be called out and dismantled at every opportunity.”

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The ELCA passed its resolution “Freed in Christ: Race, Ethnicity, and Culture when I was a child. Since then, the church has continued to struggle with deeply ingrained racism on an institutional level and within the individual congregations whose members continue to foster stereotypes and support policies that actively hurt people of color. We can see this most clearly in the actions of the self-proclaimed white supremacist who committed murder at Emanuel AME church on June 17, 2015. The shooter was a baptized Christian and a member of a Lutheran Church in Columbia, Virginia. As fellow Lutherans, we are guilty in fostering a culture that allowed seeds of white supremacy to take root in this man, and we have an obligation to our brothers and sisters in Christ in the AME church to atone for our collective sins.

I am now in my 30s, and I am tired of waiting for the ELCA as a collective body to take meaningful actions on race. Our congregations need to do more. We need to do more. The sin of white supremacy must be called out and dismantled at every opportunity.

R.M. Rochester NY, Upstate New York Synod

“As a pastor I try to use this event for calling attention to my racism and the racism inherent in our society. A formal day would give me further reason to continue to lift up our sin, and repentance.”

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As a classmate of Rev. Clem Pinckney, this tragedy continues to disturb and afflict me. As a pastor I try to use this event for calling attention to my racism and the racism inherent in our society. A formal day would give me further reason to continue to lift up our sin, and repentance.

K.B. Aberdeen, SD, South Dakota Synod