GOD of GRACE and GOD of GLORY, on Your PEOPLE POUR YOUR POWER.... ELEVENTH EPISCOPAL DISTRICT African Methodist Episcopal Church 101 East Union Street, --- Jacksonville, Florida 32202 December 9, 2014 Reference: Wear Black this Sunday #blacklivesmatter Dear Co-Laborers of the Eleventh Episcopal District: This coming Sunday marks the Third Sunday of Advent. It continues the Season of Preparation for the Coming of our Lord, Jesus. While this annual four-Sunday observance comes at the end of our calendar year, it is the beginning of the Christian year and the liturgical calendar. In the middle of this regularly scheduled program, in the great prophetic tradition, I am called to announce a Word from our Sponsor: Black Lives Matter! The current volatile circumstances dictate theological reflection beyond the norm. God speaks in this peculiar moment in time. Under the banner of African Methodism, we are called to stand in solidarity with the national movement to affirm that Black Lives Matter! While many congregations in the Eleventh District have laudably sponsored Law Enforcement Sundays, we have done so with the awareness of the historically strained relationship between much of the Black Community and the police. The relationship between African Americans and their local police departments vary widely from place to place. Its been a perennial challenge. The recent spate of deaths of young African American men (along with a young woman and a boy) at the hands of the police (and of others who have taken matters into their own hands) has only accelerated the need for the long-overdue conversation about race and of a reaffirmation of the value of our own humanity. Our own Senior Bishop, John Richard Bryant, has invited the church into the protest. It is one way to express solidarity related to the string of recent police-related killings of African Americans. Thus, I am also asking the pastors and component leaders of the Eleventh Episcopal District to encourage your members, spreading the word through your usual networking methods, to wear black this coming Sunday. It will serve as a symbolic gesture that Black Lives Matter. Yours in His Service, A. J. Richardson Adam J. Richardson, Jr. Bishop
Posted on: Sat, 13 Dec 2014 13:58:08 +0000
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