Antiracism Team Purpose, Expectations, and Referral—self and by others

Background/Rationale

Racism is not a problem to be solved. It is an insidious virus part of society’s collective DNA. It is a malicious condition that affects us all. It is in the air we breathe, in the conversations we have, in the thoughts that invade our brains, and in the tilting of our internalized ideas that have been fed to us about ourselves and others.

The Synod of the Covenant is not immune to this shared human struggle and experience.

The Synod’s past, recent, and current history is enmeshed with structural and systemic racism, injustices, and other forms of dehumanization. In response to God’s call to “do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God” (Micah 6:8), “establish justice” (Amos 5:15), and “to do to the least of these, just as you did to Christ” (Matthew 25:41), the Synod is forming an Antiracism Team.

The Matthew 25 initiative invites the body of Christ to join the sacred work of “healing

and restoration of relationships, systems, and societies that reflect God’s justice and love”

(Matthew 25 website). This initiative calls us to the work of “dismantling structural racism”

(Core focus #2, Matthew 25 website), to “acknowledge and address the deep-seated racial

injustices that pervade our society,” and in our congregations, presbyteries, and Synod as

members of society. One of the Synod’s goals as a Matthew 25 organization is “Developing

Anti-Racism Practices and Structures” (SOC website). This goal directs us towards building

healthy interactions, relationships, and communities, and cultivating wholeness in all aspects of human existence and experience. The actualization of this goal seeks to “welcome abundant life, equity, and hope in our shared journey” (Matthew 25 website).

The Team

This team will seek to walk alongside the members of the Synod of the Covenant on the journey to explore healthier versions of ourselves—individually and collectively. Consequently, creating courageous, kind, gracious, and healthier spaces for all, particularly “the least of these” (Matthew 25:41, 45) to live, exist, and be, unbothered, untriggered, untokenized, and whole. As called by the Matthew 25 initiative, this team will “strive to create inclusive, equitable communities by:

• promoting awareness and understanding,

• taking action to eliminate racism in all its forms” (Matthew 25 website),

• building capacity through personal and team awareness,

• building capacity through individual and team assessment,

• receiving and offering training,

• resourcing, and

• responding to the Synod’s needs on matters related to racial equity and human wholeness.

We seek to gather a team of ten individuals from across the Synod who embody, are

working on, or share the following values/characteristics:

• Meet difference and newness with curiosity and courage

• Equity investors – seek to engage the self and systems that are inequitable

• Reflective, have healthy self-awareness

• Learners – openness to deeper understanding, seeking growth

• Peaceful Disruptors – willing to provoke discomfort in self andothers, and have the capacity to hold space for silence, others’ discomfort

• Repairing skills – understand or have the enthusiasm to repair when ruptures happen

• Participators rather than spectators – willingness to share first drafts

• Transparency as a practice for trust building (an allergy to secrecy) –

  individually and collectively

• Accountability that is mutual and continual – shared and individual

• Creativity/Joy/Imagination to see beyond the presenting challenges

• Compassion/Grace/Energy

• Listening/Good Communication– via a diversity of methods and means for

  different communities

• Adaptability/Flexibility – ability to pivot and conserve momentum

• Humble presence, confident and respectful of others'; expressions

• Resistant/Discomforted with too much sameness

• Disciplined to not rush to “fix” impulses

• Emotionally capable/Comfortable or capable with complexity/layered-ness and ambiguity

Expectations and Time Commitment

This team is expected to support, resource, accompany, and serve as an advisory body to the Synod’s Racial Justice office on matters related to racial justice and equity. Participants will have an opportunity to minister hands-on and apply the work done over the course of the year. Additional work will be determined by the needs of the Synod

The team will meet once a month for the first year (August 2026-September 2027) virtually. We will allocate 90 minutes each month and return any unused time. The idea is that no additional unscheduled time will be assigned.

The goal is for the team’s first meeting to be held in August 2026.

If you are interested or would like to recommend someone, please complete the following Google form by July 30,

Register or Nominate Someone HERE