Team Members:

​

• Rev. Aimee Appell
  Peace Lutheran Church
  Washington, MO

• Rev. Josh Brecht
  Good Shepherd Lutheran Church
  Manchester, MO

• Jill Duis, SAM
  Good Shepherd Lutheran ChurchWashington, KS

• Sheri Ellwood

• Andover Lutheran Church
  Windom, KS

• Michelle Horter
  Reformation Lutheran ChurchWichita, KS

• Rev. Meagan McLaughlin
  Christ Lutheran Church
  Webster Groves, MO

• Dave Mareske, Deacon
  Hollis Renewal Center
  Kansas City, KS

• Rev. Melissa Woeppel
  Lutheran Church of the Living ChristFlorissant, MO

• Sharon Yelton
  Atonement Lutheran ChurchOverland Park

• Leroy Zimmerman
  Atonement Lutheran ChurchOverland Park, KS

Documents:

• Acting Against Racism, Conversation Guide

• Talking About Race Pt 1 -PowerPoint Presentation

• Dismantling Racism Booklet

• Construction of Race and Racism

• Dismantling Racism Resource Book (Western States Center)

• Shame Hermeneutic

• Preaching to Interrupt White Culture

 

Sermon:

• Pastor Aimée Appell

​Purpose:

• To encourage and provide resources for conversations in our congregations and ministry settings that educate members regarding:  

  • the connection between faith and racial justice work

  • the history of racism, its systemic realities, and its continued harmful and destructive impact

• To call and challenge our faith communities to be places of radical welcome and inclusion 

  • Why are we the whitest mainline denomination?

  • The need for both repentance and conversion

•  To advocate for justice for those who encounter racial inequalities through means of government, education, economic injustice, police brutality, and the acts of active/silence racism.

​

Conversations and Study about Racism. preparation for synod assembly

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Justice Matters, June 8, 2020 - Bishop Candea's Remarks

​Synod Council Statement, June 2020

Declaration of the ELCA

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Resources to help talk about racial justice:This is by no means an exhaustive list of resources on racial justice. Only our attempt to gather resources that might start a discussion. If you have items that have helped you and your faith community have good conversations about racial justice that you feel need to be on this list, please contact a member of the CSS Racial Justice Team, or send them to communications@css-elca.org.

Video Resources:

 

YouTube:

• Race: The Power of an Illusion

• The House We Live In

• A Look At Race Relations Through A Child’s Eyes (10 minutes)

• Doll Test

• Deconstructing White Privilege with Dr. Robin DiAngelo (20 minutes)

• A Healing Moment at the Movied with Ms. Joy Angela DeGruy

• Dr. Tony Evans, What is Systemic Racism?

• Emmanuel Acho, Uncomfortable Conversations with a Black Man

• Dr. Peggy McIntosh, Explained: White Privilege, Systemic Racism and Implicit Bias|NBC 10 Philadelphia

Film

• Twelve Years a Slave

• I Am Not Your Negro

• The Uncomfortable Truth

• 13th

• Just Mercy

• Selma

• BlacKkKlansman

• Black Panther

• Judas and the Black Messiah

• Becoming

• The Butler

Vimeo​

• Ouch! That Stereotype Hurts

 

TED Talks

• Megan Ming, We need to address the real roots of racial violence

• Heather McGhee, Racism Has a Cost for Everyone

 

PBS

• The Black Church (2 Episode-4 hour series)

• Driving While Black – Race, Space and Mobility in America

Other Online Resources:

• National Council of Churches: Anti-Racism Resources

• Racial Justice Ministries of the ELCA

• European Descent Lutheran Association for Racial Justice

• Books for children and young adults

• EyeSeeMe Children's Bookstore

​

Printed Material (Introduction Level Material)

​

Fiction

• Kindred – Octavia Butler

• Anything by Toni Morrison

• The Underground Railroad – Colson Whitehead

• Children’s Books

• Missing Daddy, Mariame Kaba

• We Are Water Protectors, Carole Lindstrom

• Brown Girl Dreaming, Jacqueline Woodson

• This Book is Anti-Racist: 20 Lessons on How to Wake Up, Take Action and Do the Work, Tiffany Jewell

• Clap When You Land, Elizabeth Acevedo

• Me and White Supremacy: Combat Racism, Change the World, and Become a Good Ancestor, Layla F. Saad

Non-Fiction

• Waking Up White, Debby Irving

• I’m Still Here: Black Dignity in a World Made for Whiteness, Austin Channing Brown

• Just Mercy, Bryan Stevenson

• Between the World and Me, Ta-Nehisi Coates

• Dear White People: A Guide to Inter-Racial Harmony in “Post-Racial” America, Justin Simien

Theology

• Dear Church: A Love Letter from a Black Preacher in the Whitest Denomination in the US, Lenny Duncan

• Who Lynched Willie Earle?: Preaching to Confront Racism, Will Willimon

• America’s Original Sin, Jim Wallis

• Tears We Cannot Stop: A Sermon to White America, Michael Eric Dyson

• Luther’s Small Catechism with African Descent Reflections, Augsburg Fortress

​​

Printed Material (Deeper Level)

​

Fiction

• Americanah, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

• The Broken Earth series, N.K. Jesimin (Science Fiction)

• Homegoing, Yaa Gyasi

• Invisible Man, Ralph Ellison

Non-Fiction

• White Fragility, Robin DiAngelo

• Dear Ijeawele, or A Feminist Manifesto in Fifteen Suggestions, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

• Me and White Supremacy, Layla Saad

• The Fire Next Time, James Baldwin

• How to be an Anti-Racist, Ibram X Kendi

Theology

• Dear White Christians: For Those Still Longing for Reconciliation, Jennifer Harvey

• Preaching about Racism: A Guide for Faith Leaders, Carolyn Helsel

• Jesus and the Disinherited, Howard Thurman

• Black Theology and Black Power, James Cone

History

• The Warmth of Other Suns, Isabella Wilkerson

• Caste, Isabella Wilkerson

• Stamped from the Beginning, Ibram X Kendi

• White Too Long: The Legacy of White Supremacy in American Christianity, Robert P Jones