Pastor Reflection

All Souls community, this has been a wild and tragic week for our country and all its people and we want to take a moment to connect and reflect on this week with you all. Let us first say, if for any reason you are in need of pastoral care or simply a listening ear, we are here to support you and one another. We need each other in moments like this as we are called to journey together and not in isolation.

The attack on the capitol this week reveals so much deep disease in our society. As we reflect on what we witnessed we are compelled to name the long and deep foundation of white racial power supporting these extremists. As it so often has, it drove crowds to violence. Because we are committed to God’s vision of a just and peaceful community of belonging and because we’ve clearly stated a goal to embrace, develop, and sustain anti-oppression we must speak out. White racial power has long relied on the support of white Christians to further its goals. We must actively work together to sever those ties.

If you are a white person this is a time to examine your relationship to white power. Today is a day to ruthlessly face the privilege that we have because of the color of our skin and today is a day to press ourself and on how we wield that privilege. We must face that white power feeds on injustice and violates the just and equal way of God. We must lament that the Church has been a part of this destructive disease.

We may not have been in that crowd but the privilege and power white people in our community enjoy is tied to the privilege and power that was on display at the capitol. We cannot simply shake our heads at, “those people.” We are invited to a deeper journey and we can do the work to recognize our connection, and examine how white power has effected our lives and community. To disentangle ourselves from white power is part of our discipleship to Christ. It is where we learn to let go of the power we’ve grasped, relax our compulsion to control and define reality, and are more free to love like God loves.

We encourage you to take sometime today to pray, reflect with others, to name and lament white power- how we’ve used it, how it has diminished us and how it opposes the good news of Christ. And again if you are looking to take a journey of examination, please know we are here to walk together.

If you haven’t already, start humbly listening to faith leaders of color who are faithfully and prophetically calling us all towards the coming kin-dom of God.There are lots of amazing organizations leading in this work if you’re looking for a place to support. Here are two of them https://freedomroad.us/ and https://bethebridge.com/

Remember All Souls are a people on a journey together, we are not called to engage in the work of anti-oppression alone, this is an invitation to collective liberation. So wherever you are in this internal and external journey, may this be another opportunity to actively engage in humble learning, honest relationships, and deeper discipleship to Christ. As pilgrims of peace-seeking may we lament, pray, examine, seek God, and act for love of our neighbors and God’s collective and sacred community.

Grace and Peace,
Adam and Will