Resolves of the Executive Council

Resolved, That the Executive Council, meeting from June 8-11, 2020, recalling the learnings of the day of pilgrimage of the Executive Council to The Legacy Museum and the National Memorial for Peace and Justice during its meeting in October, 2019 which highlighted for us our history of African Americans terrorized by lynching, humiliated by racial segregation and Jim Crow, burdened with contemporary presumptions of guilt and police violence; the Council remembers Ahmaud Arbery, the victim of violent racial vigilantism on February 23rd of this year in Glynn County, Georgia, and condemns the failure of local police and prosecutors responsible for a troubling delay in engaging an appropriate and timely process to achieve impartial justice in Ahmaud’s case; and be it further

Resolved, The clergy and laity of this Church offer a prophetic response to Ahmaud Arbery’s death, a modern embodiment of racial terror that has no place in any community, and which cannot be tolerated by those who walk The Way of Love; and be it further

Resolved, While deploring any and all efforts that have occurred, or may yet occur to silence voices calling for justice in Ahmaud’s case, the Council praises the prompt response of the Episcopal people and churches in the Dioceses of Georgia and Atlanta to publicly call for justice in response to this heinous crime, and who have called for and offered prayers for Ahmaud, for his family and friends in their grieving, for his enemies, his abusers and his killers; and be it further

Resolved, That The Episcopal Church build on the framework of Becoming Beloved Community created in response to General Convention Resolution 2015-C019 Establish Response to Systemic Racial Injustice to enhance the capacity of The Episcopal Church to work in communities to organize; advocate; and dismantle systems, policies and practices that reinforce racialized violence and vigilante acts and perpetuate the sin of racism.