Seeking Social Justice

At its meeting on September 17, the Sojourners Church Council voted to send the following letter to John O. Wynne, University Rector and chair of the search committee for the new president of the University of Virginia.

This letter grew out of the work of a group then called the University Community Racial Reconciliation Project, now renamed the University Community Action for Racial Equity.  This group had written a letter to Mr. Wynne asking for issues of racial justice to be part of the discussion in the search for a new president.  They welcomed signers from the community at large.  Sojourners, however, decided to write its own letter, which was approved by and sent on behalf of our church council.

Dear Mr. Wynne,

We are aware that the University of Virginia is beginning a search process for the person who will succeed John Casteen as president of the university.  We write not as members of the university community but of the larger community of which the university is a part.  We believe the university and the community live in a relationship of mutuality.  The health of each depends on the other.

We write particularly as the church council of Sojourners United Church of Christ, a faith community that is concerned about matters of racial equity in the Charlottesville region and committed to working for racial justice.  We want to affirm the enormous benefits the University of Virginia brings to the surrounding community.  We further affirm the positive steps the university has taken In acknowledging its role in past injustices as well as the resources it brings to helping improve the lives of Charlottesville residents. 

However, we are also acutely aware of how much remains to be done.  For all its positive contributions to the community, the university has also been deeply involved in a history of discrimination and racism.  Acknowledgment and apology will need to be accompanied by consistent and dedicated efforts to repair the past and build a different future.  This time of transition offers the university an excellent opportunity to demonstrate that it is serious about working toward racial justice both in its own institutional life and in the surrounding community.

We know that the university will be looking for financial and academic leadership.  We urge that it also consider moral leadership in relationship to racial justice to be of utmost importance.  We are aware of the questions put forward by the University Community Racial Reconciliation Project and have taken the liberty of attaching them for easy reference.  We believe they are good questions for discussion with candidates for the presidency of the University.  Indeed the issues raised are important points of discussion for all of us as we move forward.

Yours truly, 

Krissy Lasagna             Rebecca Garrity               Jim Bundy
Co-moderator              Co-moderator                Pastor (more…)

All Sojourners Social Justice Groups are invited to meet after worship July 12.  If you’re new to the church and would like to learn more, or just haven’t had a chance to attend any meetings yet, please see the Sojourners News board for group descriptions and the facilitators’ contact information or contact the church office. Everyone is welcome.

For those who missed the recent symposium on race and the criminal justice system at the Carter G. Woodson Institute, here is a link to a podcast for some of what took place including the roundtable on Virginia featuring local leaders.  This link requires i-tunes, which can be downloaded for free: https://deimos.apple.com/WebObjects/Core.woa/BrowsePrivately/virginia-public.2058928044.02058928051.2063283313?i=1951354405