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Below is the text of the petition. The majority of the petition is the text of the resolution itself. If you would like your own commentary to be delivered along with your signature, don’t forget to add your testimony in the “comments” form of the petition box.

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Petition Text

To Establish June 17th as Emanuel 9 Feast Day of Repentance
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To: Churchwide Assembly Voters
From: [Your Name]
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I sign this petition to affirm my support and to publicly cry out for the passage of the following resolution during the 2019 Churchwide Assembly of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.
Resolution: To establish June 17th as Emanuel 9 feast day of repentance

Submitted by

WHEREAS the Lord teaches us “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick; I have come to call not the righteous but sinners to repentance.”(Luke 5:31-32); and

WHEREAS, the Emanuel 9 (Rev. Clementa C. Pinckney, Cynthia Marie Graham Hurd, Susie Jackson, Ethel Lee Lance, Depayne Middleton-Doctor, Tywanza Sanders, Rev. Daniel L. Simmons, Sharonda Coleman-Singleton, and Myra Thompson) on June 17th 2015, while in prayer and bible study at the historic African-American church, Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church in Charleston, South Carolina were murdered by a self-professed white supremacist adult who was raised and formed in the ELCA; and

WHEREAS, that self-professed white supremacist espoused racist rhetoric and epithets before and after committing these murders; and

WHEREAS, two of his victims, Rev. Daniel Lee Simmons Sr., and Rev. Clementa Pickney, were graduates of the Lutheran Theology Southern Seminary, one of 8 ELCA seminaries.; and

WHEREAS, the deep sin of white supremacy and racism continues to be a plague and hindrance in the life of the ELCA as a church called to proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ;

THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America reaffirm its commitment to repentance from racism by:

1. Venerating June 17th as a feast day of repentance in the ELCA for the martyrdom of the Emanuel 9; and

2. Having the names of the Emanuel 9 (Clementa C. Pinckney, Cynthia Marie Graham Hurd, Susie Jackson, Ethel Lee Lance, Depayne Middleton-Doctor, Tywanza Sanders, Daniel L. Simmons, Sharonda Coleman-Singleton, and Myra Thompson) added to future ELCA publications to venerate their martyrdom and lead us to repentance because of the white supremacy and racism in our church; and

3. Calling for this feast day be grounded in prayer as the Emanuel 9 were murdered while in prayer at the end of the bible study; and

4. Directing the Division on Worship to help develop future worship prayers and litanies around repentance from racism; and

5. Giving both prayer and financial support the memorial to be built in remembrance of the Emanuel 9 (https://www.emanuelnine.org/); and

6. Be in deeper conversations with the AME church on ways of reconciliation and repentance on the matters of white supremacy and racism.

Authored 18 June 2019 by: Rev. Michael Vinson, Rev. Kenneth Wheeler, Rev. Kwame Pitts, Rev. Angela Khabeb, Rev. Anglea Shannon, Ms. Suzannah Porter, Francisco Herrera, M.Div., Yvette NewberryWhite


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To Establish June 17th as Emanuel 9 Feast Day of Repentance

Target: Churchwide Assembly Voters

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