Taking part in the Synod Conventions provides an opportunity to see how in our various regions we are listening to God’s call to serve as neighbour to those in our immediate community and to people in need around the world.
Here are a few of the moments that encouraged and challenged me:
Rev. Dr. Karin Achtelstetter, executive director of Canadian Lutheran World Relief (CLWR) reported on the way ELCIC members have come together to welcome refugees in Canada and the way CLWR is working with The Lutheran World Federation Department for World Service to alleviate the needs of some of the 68.5 million refugees and internally displaced persons.
At the Saskatchewan Synod Convention, Melanie Delva, reconciliation animator for the Anglican Church of Canada introduced herself as a recovering racist before she described the work of reconciliation
as liberation from the oppression of self-interest and fear.
At the Synod of Alberta and the Territories Convention, Dr. Anna Madsen invited us to have hope for the future combined with commitment to justice today.
In the Eastern Synod Assembly, in a presentation focusing on racial justice and white privilege, Dr. Mary Philip (Joy), assistant professor of Lutheran global theology and mission at Martin Luther University College, Waterloo, Ont., focused on the role of the unnamed slave girl, challenging us to think about who it is that we ignore or don’t even notice. And on the same evening, Rev. Chun Zhang shared his experiences of racism in our church and shared the telling statement “when they’re harming you, they don’t even know.”
To be a truly inclusive and welcoming church, we in the ELCIC need to look at the white privilege that the vast majority of our church enjoys. We need to make commitments to educate ourselves and to listen more carefully to the brave and committed people of colour who have continued to be members of our church. We need to learn about our blind spots from them. We need to learn how our systems have kept us being such a predominantly white church. We need to open ourselves to a posture of listening more and speaking less.
One resource I recommend is Cracking Open White Identity Towards Transformation: White Identity, Power and Privilege, councilof- churches.ca/product/cracking-open-white-identity-towards-transformation-white-identity-power-and-privilege/.
Being Liberated by God’s Grace challenges us to work hard at being a good neighbour, at being the ones who show mercy. At the conclusion of the Eastern Synod Assembly’s session on racial justice and white privilege, participants spontaneously joined hands and formed a big circle while singing:
Hold my hand, while I run this race.
Hold my hand, while I run this race.
Hold my hand, while I run this race, for I don’t want to run this race in vain, race in vain.
(From Guide my Feet; Sing the Circle Wide: Songs of Faith from Around the World, p 22.)
The race that is before us now is to work to identify and end racism of any form in our church and in our communities. This is a very important way of how we can be good neighbours.
National Bishop Susan Johnson
Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada
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