We are called to be anti-racist

The Women’s Ordination Conference denounces white supremacy and the systemic violence of racism. We stand unequivocally with those who are marginalized, silenced, or discriminated against, and work to transform oppressive structures of domination, inequality, imperialism, and racism. We denounce police violence. We grieve and mourn alongside the families and communities – especially the black community –  who witness their loved ones murdered in the streets of America. 

At this time in our history, those words need to be said. Repeated. Shouted. But we also need to do the work.  

At the Women’s Ordination Conference, we are accustomed to seeing ourselves as a part of the solution to inequality — and rightly so. But we also need to proactively ensure that our words are not just words, are not just another statement or graphic on Instagram, are not just noise. We must wholeheartedly embody our calls to justice. We must listen, educate, donate, and act. 

We re-commit to continuing to confront with urgency the issue of white supremacy, violence, and oppression in our Church, our organization, our communities, and ourselves. 

We re-commit to the work of reckoning with our own role and history in perpetuating privilege, bias, and systems of domination that not only undermine our mission for equality, but harm communities of color – black communities in particular. 

We re-commit to the truth-telling work of intersectional feminism that exposes the failures and violence of white feminism and refuse to perpetuate it.  We commit to centering the experiences, voices, rituals, images, and theologies of black women and women of color. 

We re-commit to providing our anti-oppression committee sufficient resources for them to work effectively. We commit to sharing their work regularly with our members and supporters.  

We follow Christ, who was not afraid of overturning the tables in the Temple. We are imbued by the Holy Spirit, who renews the face of the earth in wind and flame. We believe in a God who delivers oppressed people into liberation. We lament, we repent, and we will act.