I’m very excited about the progress we are making toward calling an Associate Executive for Racial Justice to help the Synod live into our desire and our call to fight racism in our structures and in society. This position reflects our values, which parallel the scriptural commitments the PC(USA) has highlighted in the Belhar Confession (coming from Reformed Christians in South African during apartheid) and the Confession of 1967 (first written to speak to the racial upheaval, among other crises, occurring in the United States in the 1960s).
At its June meeting, the Synod’s Leadership Committee approved this job description (click here). Lindsey Anderson, our former Organizer for Synod Communities of Color, worked with Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) leaders as well as the Synod’s Human Resource Committee to develop the job description. As you can see, the position is many-faceted and focuses on building relationships among churches and leaders of color, developing resources and programming to support these leaders, and developing anti-racist practices in our structures and churches.
Our by-laws require that the Synod Nominating Committee find seven diverse leaders from throughout our presbyteries to compose the Associate Executive Nominating Committee (AENC). The work to constitute the committee began last month. Once the committee begins to meet, they will work on soliciting applications. Our hope is for a new associate to begin work before the end of 2024. (If you know of someone who might be interested in this position, please contact me until the AENC begins their work.)
This position is crucial to help us meeting one of our ministry focus areas for 2025-28: to develop anti-racist practices and structures. We aspire to circulate resources, best practices, and opportunities to fight bigotry and structural racism, and we commit to modeling inclusion and focusing on learning from and supporting BIPOC and other marginalized communities and leaders. (To see the list of ministry focus areas, visit e1e8df_bfd171fafcbf42a49dabb2de52c11e80.pdf (synodofthecovenant.org)
Please join the Synod’s leadership in praying that the Holy Spirit will bring us just the right person to lead all of us into the future God is designing for us.
Your partner in ministry,
Chip
PS I am writing this before beginning my General Assembly commitments tomorrow on 6/25/24. I’ll reflect on General Assembly in next month’s column.
Rev. Charles B Hardwick, PhD
Executive
309-530-4578