February 2023 Newsletter
Visiting George Floyd Square
by Amy Kelly
For more photos, click here.
“Never forget that justice is what love looks like in public.” -Cornel West
In January I had the opportunity to visit George Floyd Square. My friend and I jumped out of our Uber, and were immediately confronted by the story of 38th and Chicago streets in Minneapolis. We were greeted by a local tourist “interrupter” and George Floyd’s aunt. As the “interrupter” explained and showed us around the square, he also created the opportunity for a mind shift.
I quickly learned that this wasn’t a place to visit, this was a community with an open wound, that no one quite knew how to fix. A community that dealt with months of crime and lawlessness while the streets were barricaded (the Police were not allowed in, so many people hid in the square). A community that so loved people they formed their own nonviolent group to protect those in the square. A community suffering with poverty, empty storefronts, and historical redlining while watching their surrounding communities be invested in and built up. A community that celebrates and mourns with their neighbors. A community that was more than a memorial, but a home crying out for love and justice from the wider world.
Our guide asked us if we had visited the spaces in our communities where someone had been murdered by the police, which we realized we had not. He asked when we planned this trip to the square, did we think about what businesses we would visit, where we would eat, or where we would invest in the community. We once again realized we had not. While looking at a heart shaped snow sculpture on the spot where George Floyd was murdered, I realized how much further I needed to go to pursue justice.
Talks at the Desk videos
The African Descent Ministries of the ELCA is celebrating Black History Month with season two of Talks at the Desk, a video series that explores diverse expressions of the church. Hear youth, young adults, rostered leaders, elders and friends of our communities share their own sacred stories. A new video will premiere each Wednesday in February at 7:30pm Central time. Watch them live on YouTube or Click here to watch now.
Lent materials
Synod Lenten Challenge: This year's Lenten Challenge will center the voices of the disability community within our synod and highlight the disability rights movement. Look for links to these materials soon on the ADJ page of the synod website.
Lenten Devotion highlighting Native and Indigenous voices: Downloadable and digital copies of With Creation: A Native and Indigenous Lenten Devotion will be available on February 19. This devotion has been compiled by Unbound, a ministry of the Presbyterian Church, USA.
The Legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Join us at Berkeley Hills Lutheran Church on Sunday, March 26 at 4pm for a worship service and program around the theme "A Home for ALL in the Beloved Community: Equitable Development and Housing in Pittsburgh".
Our preacher for the 4pm worship service is the Rev. Dr. Asa Lee, President of Pittsburgh Theological Seminary. Bishop Kurt Kusserow and Bishop Abraham Allende will preside.
Following worship, a dinner of loaded nachos will be provided by the Little Free Food Truck, a ministry of House of Prayer Lutheran Church, Aliquippa.
After dinner, join a series of panelists from local, state, and national organizations for a discussion on Equitable Development and Housing in Pittsburgh & small group conversation with housing experts in Pittsburgh.
Find more information about this event here.
Building the Beloved Community
by Martin Rafanan
“The intentional use of the phrase “The Beloved Community” was first coined by philosopher-theologian Josiah Royce and then popularized by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Dr. King’s beloved community philosophy centered on the belief that racism, bigotry and prejudices will one day be replaced ‘by an all-inclusive spirit of sisterhood and brotherhood’ and that ‘poverty, hunger and homelessness will not be tolerated because international standards of human decency will not allow it.’”
Over the last decade and as a pastor in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, it was my privilege to stand alongside low wage workers in the fast food, retail and homecare industries. With the help of labor unions, faith leaders and community activists, these workers have fought for better wages and the right to collectively bargain. Their demand, first voiced in a New York Strike in 2012, is "15 and a union." Because of their non-violent movement in the United States and in other parts of the world, close to 80% of low wage workers in the United States are now on a path to $15 an hour. Their fight for dignity and a voice in the workplace continues.
The struggle to build the “Beloved Community” is demonstrated in the commitment of these workers and their allies. To achieve the “Beloved Community,” people of faith need to join with others in our communities to provide all people with what they need to live full and productive lives.
We should take our cue from Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Jr., Leymah Gbowee, Dorothy Day and other peace activists and warriors, everyday men and women who refuse to be silent and courageously stand up, speak out, and demand what is right and good not only for themselves but for their neighbors, their communities and our society as a whole. Their focus is always on those in need, those who have been targeted by oppression and injustice, the most vulnerable in our midst. They raise the voices of all to collaborate, unite, and find their power together in a nonviolent movement for justice and peace.
Our church encourages us to be on the front lines for worker justice, climate justice, economic justice, racial justice, justice for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, Intersex, and a-gender people, reproductive health justice, immigration justice and protecting the integrity of our democracy.
These efforts connect us to our interfaith and ecumenical partners as well as others in communities whose voices join with ours and ripple throughout our nation.
When Michael Brown was killed in the streets of Ferguson, Missouri, the young black and brown workers who were fighting for a better wage and a union and who were already skilled in speaking truth to giant corporations, turned their hard won "street wisdom" to the organization of the non-violent fight back that was an origin point for the Black Lives Matter Movement.
Early in this millenium, Leymah Gbowee, a Lutheran Christian in Liberia, had had enough of the civil war in her country. She had had enough of men and boys killed and murdered, women and daughters raped and abused. She had to do something to stop the violence and ongoing slaughter.
She knew that women were the key. She called women together to tell their stories, to find strength in their mutual conversation and consolation, and to unite courageously and nonviolently in the work for peace. Starting with a few women, the movement grew to over 20,000 women, Christian, Muslim, indigenous, rich, poor. These were "the women dressed in white."
They brought down the Taylor regime, ended the Civil War, and built a new political reality in which the first woman President of a nation in Africa was elected.
Today, more than ever, we know that Democracy is not a given. Making sure that all voices are heard and recognized is a responsibility that requires our engagement, our resilience, our constant attention, and the gifts of our humanity. As Gandhi, King and Gbowee have taught us, we must stand up, speak out, join together, and build our movement for peace. Such is the cost of the “Beloved Community,” not just on one day but on all days.
Even in the smallest acts of love and compassion, we can see a path to building the “Beloved Community.” We have had many courageous leaders show the way. Now is the time for OUR creativity, OUR dream, OUR willingness to step in and lean in, OUR commitment to build upon the nonviolent legacy of so many men and women who have gone before us.
We remember these brothers and sisters who have responded to the call of Jesus to build the “Beloved Community.” May we commit ourselves to this work in Southwestern Pennsylvania to strengthen our communities, build a just and united nation, and transform our world through a movement of nonviolence and peace.