Anti-Racism Ministry

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STATEMENT OF CURRENT PERSPECTIVES

 

 

 

 
(Adopted by the Annual Meeting of First Congregational Church – Amherst, UCC,
February 2010.)

We commit ourselves both personally and collectively to helping to eliminate both personal and systemic/institutional racism through such steps as:

  • Learning about race, racism, whiteness, white privilege, and anti-racism
  • Building relationships with people of both similar and different racial backgrounds to our own
  • Examining our institutional practices and changing them, where indicated
  • Public and interpersonal witness for racial justice
  • Healing ourselves and others from the hurts/effects of racism
  • Taking other action as instruments of God’s love and justice, always seeking to be guided by the Spirit
  • all on an ongoing basis.

We believe that all human beings are children of God.   We value the diversity of the human family and we affirm the oneness and equality of all humanity.  We believe that we are called to be instruments of justice and love, removing the walls that divide us and the structures of oppression.

We recognize that there are both systemic/institutional and personal aspects to racism as it exists in our society and in us today.  We recognize that benefits, access and privileges are systematically conferred on white people and denied to people of color; that people of color are systematically disadvantaged, discriminated against and oppressed; that all of us are conditioned to false ideas and to attitudes and feelings that obscure our inherent goodness and unity; and that all of us are dehumanized and separated by the blight of racism.  We all need to heal from these hurts.  While we are not to blame for the history of racial injustice, we are responsible for helping to dismantle institutional/systemic racism and white privilege.

We affirm our debt and gratitude to all those who have gone before us, including many in our own denomination and congregation, who have left us a legacy of courage, faithfulness, determination, and insight in pursuing racial justice. 

We approach this humbly, knowing that we have a great deal to learn.  We seek to be actively welcoming to all people, and in particular, to people of all racial backgrounds. We seek a prayerful openness to the truth, even when that truth may be unclear or uncomfortable.  We will endeavor to act on this commitment with hope, mutual respect, patience, love, and a willingness to change. 

We seek to work together to be actively anti-racist in all aspects of the life and culture of the congregation: in our worship and spiritual practices; in our adult and children’s transformative learning opportunities; in our mission giving; in our purchases, investment and business practices; and in our ministries of outreach and action.   We seek to learn how to more effectively and more publicly bear witness to God’s love and the call for racial justice, both collectively as a congregation and as individuals.    We seek to expand our relationships to include a greater diversity of God’s children, and to care for each other as we learn to create, and practice living in, a society of diversity and inclusiveness.

We know that the call for justice is a call to heal ourselves, to support the healing of others, and to repair the world, and that this is made possible through the love of God.

(Adopted by consensus at the Annual Meeting, February 2010.)