Dear North Park Theological Seminary Community,
We join you in grief and anger over the ongoing racism in our country generally and the recent killings of Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, and George Floyd specifically. We reaffirm our statement concerning racism and the criminal justice system (2015) and pastoral letter to our students (2017) naming the sins of racism and structural injustice and recommit to the ongoing , collective work against racial violence in our nation, cities, our institution, and ourselves.
We also affirm and amplify the Evangelical Covenant Church’s unequivocal opposition to racism; the Covenant Ministerium Executive Board’s powerful Statement of Solidarity; the Covenant Ministerium’s Resolution on Antiracism (English, Spanish); and the offerings of righteous anger and lament by our colleagues Dr. Dennis Edwards and Dr. Soong-Chan Rah.
The faculty and staff are organizing collective donations to the Central Conference (channeling funds to affected congregations) and the NAACP Legal Defense Fund. If you are looking to engage individually or communally in response to the killing of George Floyd, civil unrest, and anti-black racism, Rev. Dominique Gilliard has created a number of ways through Love Mercy Do Justice’s link “Engage and Respond.” Additionally Kingdom Covenant Church will be organizing neighborhood cleaning once looting is under control in Chicago’s Roseland neighborhood, under Pastor David Washington’s leadership.
We know people are experiencing trauma and grieving in various ways. Deans Auger, Clifton-Soderstrom, and Kersten are available in this time, and health resources are available to you through Counseling Support Services.
We will host another time of prayer for renewal and courage to engage the work ahead. If you are available, please join us on Friday morning (6/5) on zoom at 8am or feel free to send specific prayer requests.
On behalf of the Seminary,
Michelle Clifton-Soderstrom